Elements Recap

Hey Elements. We hope that last night was beneficial for you. It was a great time to hear a message about Jesus and kindness and how it can change the world (well it did already, but we can continue changing the world).

Steve spoke about the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10. If you do not know, Zachhaeus was a tax collector. In those days you were considered a traitor by the Jews and you were just a foot soldier for the Romans. You were a sellout, loser, a no body.

Little Zacchaeus is up in the tree when Jesus extends kindness to him and says ”I must come over for dinner”. Immediately after Jesus extends this offer to him, Zacchaeus declares he is going to give half his possessions to the poor and give 4x more back to the people he ripped off. With this simple gesture of kindness, a man radically changes his ways and realizes what he needs to do. He changed his ways.

Sycamore tree in Jericho taken byKorephotos

What can we do as Christ followers to extend kindness to the people who “don’t deserve it”(in the worlds point of view)? Jesus had a special heart for people on the fringes. There are plenty of people on campus and in SC that are lonely and need to hear the Gospel. We have an opportunity to act like Jesus and change the world through his power!

Big week guys. Jubilee 2012 is less than 5 days away. Read your program book. Research the speakers. Pray. Pack. Pray for this experience to change the campus. We hope these 3 days will make an impact.

Life groups. Prayer groups. Get connected. Questions? Do not be afraid to ask.

Why Jubilee is awesome

Why Should You Go To Jubilee 2012

Here is Faye Poon’s reason why you should come to Jubilee! 1 week and counting.

I’m super excited for it. Maybe you need a reason to go, so I figure this should do it, If God isw willing.

Jubilee excitement–it’s the OMG event in my life (maybe yours too), each time I went I got out with at least 1 major personal theme, and these themes always mark how I’m growing in Christ. Let me share with you a small summary of how Jubilee integrate in my loving Christ every day since I participate in the event.

This is by for the most fruitful faith journey I’ve gone on since 2 years ago, my first Jubilee. Back then I was so confused with who I was, where could I go. Now I found love, hope, Christ, mission, calling, purpose, promises. I explored what is my calling in life, and found it, because somebody in my profession encouraged me to pursue God’s plan in my study and my future. From then, the blessings ripples out of Jubilee conference are more than I can remember. My life would seriously have not been that same without it. For one, I would’ve not stick with engineering and pick up African history. Everytime I go to Jubilee I see God is knitting with life, ensuring his love and power is stronger than the tension of life, and that, is enough of a reason to go to Jubilee.

Jubilee!

Jubilee is right around the corner. If you are still interested in going, please sign up (If you do not know how, contact us).  Here is the Jubilee guide with all the speakers and break out sessions!

http://issuu.com/livingjubilee/docs/jubilee_2012?mode=window&printButtonEnabled=false&shareButtonEnabled=false&searchButtonEnabled=false&backgroundColor=%23222222

 

Elements recap!

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Last night at Elements, we had a really great discussion. It was not necessarily an easy one though. The honorable Steve Lutz spoke about Jesus and loving our enemies. Jesus comes to us in Matthew 5:38-48. This specific passage talks about loving your enemies, turning the other cheek, and how to show grace to even your most fierce enemies.

Steve talked about how this passage is misunderstood many times. People use “an eye for an eye” as a way to get revenge. But orginally, it was meant to limit violence and to help people deal with wrong doings. Jesus turned the world upside down with this idea of loving your enemies.

Matthew 5:41 says “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.” It was common practice for the Roman soldiers to ask citizens to walk with them for a while to carry equipment and lighten their loads. Jesus is saying, when your enemies do this to you, go the extra mile with them. It was quite revolutionary and it still is today.

While this is great, it is very hard to love the people who persecute you. Whether it is a roommate, boss, teacher, or an old friend, we need to love and pray for these people. We can’t do it by ourselves. We need to ask Jesus to give us the strength to do this.

This is a busy week for Elements and Calvary. Life groups are as planned for this week. Friday night we are giving away 1000 soft pretzels. Come out to that this Friday at 1045 at the Schlow Family Library. Saturday is the Beyond the Betrayal seminar sponsored by Beyond the Silence and Calvary. To register, go to www.calvarysc.org/healingseminar .

Feel free to contact us if anyone has questions about the message last night or about any upcoming events! Take care everyone.

Calvary Midtown & Upcoming week

Today was a great day to worship at Calvary Midtown. They switched gears a little bit. Stacy Sublett, the Midtown gathering pastor started the new 11 week sermon series today which will be called “Come Thirsty”. This series is about how we as believers are constantly leaking. We are like a broken cistern. We are in constant need of God’s love and grace to fill us back up. We all have had times in our life where we have felt dry and unable to recharge as we usually do. Pastor Stacy was honest about his own life and how this happens to everyone from the new believer to the ardent worshipper.

Let’s pray this sermon series will help us remember that God is the only fulfilling thing in this world and we are in constant need for his everlasting water.

This is a busy week for Elements. We have our 2nd lab of the semester. This will deal will conflict resolution. Make you RSVP for this event. Then after we have our regular Elements meeting time. There is also all the regularly planned life groups. If you are not connected, check out the info on this site to get connected. Friday we have Free Food Give Away. We will be giving away 1000 philly pretzels. Please come out for this event. Saturday is the Beyond the Silence seminar “Beyond the Betrayal”. Please register at www.calvarysc.org/healingseminar and for more information.

Thanks ya’ll.

Beyond the Betrayal

For all of you who do not know, Beyond the Silence is an organization dedicated to helping survivors of sexual abuse share their stories and connect them to counselors who can help. The website is in the process of being launched at www.beyondthesilence.net with hopes of being live next week. This seminar, Beyond the Betrayal will help shed some light on this topic and help equip you to deal with this problem.

We really would like college students to register for this seminar because it is a very important and relevant topic as well as the fact we either know someone directly effected or will have to deal with this sometime in  our lives. Statistics say 1 out of 4 girls and 1 out of 6 boys have been abused. This may be understimated too. This problem has affected our community and as Christians we are called to help with situations these.  If you are intersted in signing up you can check out www.calvarysc.org/healingseminar and its only $10 for the day. It will be all day Feb 11th.

Please register for this event and tell all your friends about it. God will definitely use this day for his glory!

 

Elements Recap 1/30/12

Hey everyone,

Just a short recap of last night. Elements weekly meeting came and went. We saw some new faces which is always nice. Hopefully people felt welcome! Steve Lutz did a great preaching as usual. This semester we are looking at Jesus, plain and simple. The overarching question is ” Who was the REAL Jesus?” This gives us a chance to look at who Jesus was as a man, GOD, and how the bible says he really lived.

Photo by Chapendra

This sermon particularly on Jesus and relationships. Matthew 12:46-50 says,

While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus was not dishonoring his mother here. He was just expanding our hearts and honoring God! This scene is actually pretty revolutionary and His thinking was profound. Instead of closing a circle around a small group of people we call family, Jesus was making our circle encompass the world’s population.

Lutz also talked about dealing with family relationships here. Some families are easier to get along with and others are much more difficult. These relationships matter and we need to learn how to deal with our families in a way that is pleasing to God.

Sometimes we need to distance ourselves from our families and sometimes we need to do a better job of serving our families. There needs to be a balance, sometimes its harder to do that.

Overall, we need to honor God, first and foremost. We need to extend love to all people. We need to draw our ”family circle”  around the world. We need to especially care for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to get our own roots apart from our families.

If you have any questions about this topic or have prayers, please feel free to contact us!

Have a great week ya’ll

Free Food Give Away & Luncheon

This past Friday, Elements handed out hot dogs are part of their Free Food Give Away program. We were able to make some connections, share some stories, and even got to pray with some people. There were people we met from New Zealand, Australia, and even Sri Lanka (they took pictures of this event). Stay tuned for some God stories. There was some interesting things that happened!

Sunday, Calvary had a college student luncheon that featured some great food and information about Jubilee and other summer opportunities. Clem’s BBQ was delicious and it went great! Thanks for everyone that helped out with that.

This next week we will make sure to get this going more with updates so please stay tuned!

 

 

Elements Promo Video

Weekend Fun

It’s been a slow week on the blog but I wouldn’t forget the fun.

All pics this week. Hope you had fun at the Elements Christmas party. I sure did.

I think this is the last post of the semester. Maybe next week, after I’m done with finals, I’ll write some grandiose farewell.

I should also mention that next semester I (David Shultz) will not be writing the blog for Calvary Elements. I’ve enjoyed it immensely and I think we can all agree that we’ve had some good times doin’ stuff on the interwebz together. I wouldn’t trade the memories for anything, except maybe straight A’s on my finals….or like 2 million dollars….or one million. But hey, those are all really awesome things that I’ll probably never get sooooo consider yourselves valued….and truly, all kidding aside, you are valued by me and the rest of Calvary Elements.

It’s been real.

God Bless.