Small Group Material for Winter/Spring, 2012

Friday • December 23, 2011 • by

Material for our Small Group ministry is now available online. You can download the material that is available for this year’s study below. Check this page periodically as the rest of the material will be posted as it becomes available.

For a compressed folder of all the material in one .zip file, click here.

(Right click on the link below and choose “Save Target As…” and choose “Desktop” to save the files right to the desktop of your computer.)

We are studying the book of 1 Timothy. You can download the study schedule by clicking here.

Here are two files that give you the NIV text of Philippians in a format that you can mark up during your study:

Here is the material based on the study schedule:

Key Dates for the Spring of 2012:

  • January 11, 2012: Wednesday evening ministries return after the Christmas/New Year break.
  • April 4: Spring Break
  • May 16: Last Day of Small Groups
  • May 23: AWANA Awards Night

Here is a helpful Bible study article: Christ-Centered Bible Study.pdf

Small Group Material for Fall, 2011

Friday • September 9, 2011 • by

Material for our Small Group ministry is now available online. You can download the material for this year’s study below.

For a compressed folder of all the material in one .zip file, click here.

(Right click on the link below and choose “Save Target As…” and choose “Desktop” to save the files right to the desktop of your computer.)

This year we are studying the books of Philippians and 1 Timothy. You can download the study schedule by clicking here.

Here are two files that give you the NIV text of Philippians in a format that you can mark up during your study:

Here is the material based on the study schedule:

Key Dates for the Spring of 2012:

  • January 11, 2012: Wednesday evening ministries return after the Christmas/New Year break.
  • April 4: Spring Break
  • May 16: Last Day of Small Groups
  • May 23: AWANA Awards Night

Here is a helpful Bible study article: Christ-Centered Bible Study.pdf

Grace and Truth Chapel

Monday • January 17, 2011 • by

Wesley Rowe, Calvary’s founder and Senior Pastor until 2009, has founded a new church in the Columbus, Ohio area. The name of his new church is Grace and Truth Chapel. We thank God for the opportunity to be part of this new church by helping to support Pastor Rowe as his new church grows.

FiveStone Churches

Monday • January 17, 2011 • by

FiveStone ChurchesWe at Calvary believe in church planting and the value of sharing knowledge, encouragement and relationships with leaders of other local churches that share our doctrine and practice. Because of these beliefs, our elders have chosen to partner with FiveStone Churches as part of Calvary’s missions strategy.

FiveStone Churches strengthens, renews and plants local churches. Partner churches in the FiveStone network share a strong commitment to biblical doctrine and local church autonomy. FiveStone emphasizes persistent prayer, passionate Bible preaching, contemporary worship, bold evangelism and faithful discipleship. Like Calvary, churches in the network desire to plant new churches like ours and strengthen existing churches that share our commitments. FiveStone Churches seeks to Edify, Protect, Encourage and Support church leaders.

About the Core Four

Wednesday • December 22, 2010 • by

Calvary Bible Church offers many ministries, but there are four sets of ministries that are central to our church. We call these “the Core Four.” These four core ministries are:

These ministries are core to our church in two ways:

  1. They minister to everybody. We have an appropriate ministry for every age group.
  2. They contribute in different ways to your spiritual growth. In other words, we don’t offer the same type of ministry 3 times a week. Instead, each of these ministries is targeted toward helping your Christian growth in one particular way.

Click on these links to learn more about each of the Core Four ministries of Calvary Bible Church:

Sunday School

Wednesday • December 22, 2010 • by

The Mission of Calvary Bible Church is “to Call the people of Washtenaw County to worship the Lord Jesus Christ and Connect them together to serve Him.” Our Sunday school program fits with the “connect them together to serve Him” portion of our mission. It is about “connecting” people with a teacher (teacher/disciple relationship) who can instruct them in the Bible.

This ministry meets 45 Sundays a year from 10:30 to 11:15 a.m. (in between our two Sunday Worship services).

Adult Sunday School

The purpose of adult Sunday School is to provide adults at Calvary with all the resources they need to grow in their knowledge of and obedience to Christ and the Christian life. Although our Sunday worship services are designed to teach God’s Word to our people, Sunday school classes allow us time to explore all the areas of biblical truth that believers need to know as well as provide more detail and depth.

Our Goals for Adult Sunday School:

  1. To provide through our local church the kind of systematic instruction usually available only in a Christian college.
  2. To stop the spread of Biblical ignorance among Christians.
  3. To provide our community, which is rich with secular learning opportunities, with a place where people can learn about the Christian faith in a way that is both accessible to everyone and challenging to those who are well-educated.
  4. To develop the teaching gifts of godly, gifted adults in our church and give them many opportunities to use their gifts and abilities to build up our church by teaching other Christian adults.

In many churches, Sunday School is a rigidly scheduled ministry which never pauses, despite the fact that there are known Sundays when many regular attenders are likely to be out of town. Here at Calvary, we have attempted to develop a schedule of classes that allow us plenty of time for numerous classes while also allowing us to schedule flexibility into our ministry. This flexibility allows us some scheduled breaks in our class schedule on Sundays when attendance may be reduced due to holidays or to allow special events like missionary speakers. Scheduled days off will usually include:

  • 1 Sunday before Labor Day (September)
  • 1 Sunday around Thanksgiving
  • 2 Sundays around Christmas
  • 1 Sunday around New Year’s Day
  • 1 Sunday for Easter (Easter Sunday)
  • 1 Sunday for Memorial Day (May)

In many churches, Sunday School is more about fellowship than it is about teaching. Most churches organize their Sunday School around age and affinity groups such as singles, young marrieds, mid-life, older adult, and retired adults. This gives people the opportunity to form friendships with others in the church who are in a similar stage of life.

There are two negative consequences of the traditional organization of adult Sunday school:

  1. No opportunity to meet and develop relationships with others who are older or younger than you are. Because of this, the church loses the “older to younger” instruction that the Scriptures commend in Titus 2Open Link in New Window.
  2. No systematic instruction. Because the class is organized around age/affinity group, the teacher sets the agenda. Since the teacher chooses what to teach without any overarching plan or guidance, there are likely to be major areas of the Christian life that go unaddressed.

Because of these two disadvantages, Calvary has decided to develop adult Sunday school around a systematic/subject model. It is our goal to give every adult believer in our church access to the kind of teaching and training that a good Christian college gives to its students. We offer three 15 week blocks of classes each year and within each block there is a variety of classes covering such things as: a book of the Bible, a doctrine of the Bible, a survey of the Old or New Testament, a life skill that Christians should have, how to understand and address a common human problem biblically, and other topics. For information about current classes, see the news section of our website.

Children’s Sunday School

Like adult Sunday School, this ministry meets from 10:30 to 11:15 a.m. and usually follows the same schedule of 45 Sundays each year and 7 scheduled breaks. Our children’s Sunday School offers classes based on the child’s age, such as:

  • Toddlers (2-3 years old)
  • Pre-School (4-5 years old)
  • Grades 1-2
  • Grades 3-4
  • Grades 5-6
  • Grades 7-8
  • Grades 9-12

We also have a well-staffed, well-trained nursery for children under age 2.

Wednesday Evening Ministries

Thursday • October 28, 2010 • by

On Wednesday nights during the school year, we offer ministries for the whole family from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. These ministries are:

    • Nursery: Our nursery is open for children from birth to age 3.
    • AWANA: This is our children’s ministry for kids ages three through sixth grade. Click here to read more about our AWANA ministry.
    • Teen Group: Seventh graders through Seniors meet together for fun, food, and Bible teaching and discussion.
    • Adult Small Groups: Our Wednesday night adult ministry consists of small groups. These groups are designed to serve you in two ways:
      1. To help you study the Bible for spiritual growth on your own by providing you with structure, accountability, and feedback for your daily Bible study.
      2. To help you form loving Christian friendships in our church around the Word of God.

The groups encourage all the adults in our church to be actively studying God’s Word using the Inductive Bible Study methods we teach and practice. For more information about our Wednesday Night Inductive Bible Study groups, click here.

The Fellowship Feast

Thursday • October 28, 2010 • by

Our mission at Calvary is “to Call the people of Washtenaw County to worship the Lord Jesus Christ and Connect them together to serve Him.” The Fellowship Feast is a ministry we created to accomplish the “connect them together” part of our mission statement.

The Fellowship Feast is a monthly gathering on the fourth Sunday night of each month (except December) at 5 p.m. This gathering has four parts:

  1. Dinner
  2. The Lord’s Supper
  3. Prayer
  4. Fellowship

The purpose of the Fellowship Feast is to promote fellowship within our church. The dinner provides an opportunity to sit and talk with other people in our church in a way that our other ministries can’t provide. In addition to the dinner and communion portions of the Fellowship Feast, we try to inject some variety into each month’s Feast with guest speakers, videos, mixer games, contests, game nights, and other fun activities. We also try to have variety in the meal and the prayer focus of this monthly event. Joining us for the Fellowship Feast is a great way to make new friends and get to know the people of Calvary Bible Church.

Adult Bible Study Material 2010-2011

Tuesday • October 26, 2010 • by

Material for our Adult Bible Study Groups is now available online. You can download the material for this year’s study below.

(Right click on the link below and choose “Save Target As…” and choose “Desktop” to save the files right to the desktop of your computer.)

This year we are studying the books of Philemon and Colossians. You can download the study schedule by clicking here.

Here are two files that give you the NIV text of Colossians in a format that you can mark up during your study:

Here is a helpful Bible study article: Christ-Centered Bible Study.pdf

Here is the material based on the study schedule:

Introducing AWANA

Thursday • August 27, 2009 • by

AWANA is a fun way for kids to learn about God through the Bible. Our AWANA group meets on Wednesday night from 6:30 to 8:30, September through May.

AWANA is for children from age 3 to 6th grade. Each age group has its own age-appropriate AWANA club:

  • Ages 3-4 (Cubbies)
  • K-2 (Sparks)
  • 3rd & 4th Grade Girls (Chums)
  • 3rd & 4th Grade Boys (Pals)
  • 5th & 6th Grade Girls (Guards)
  • 5th & 6th Grade Boys (Pioneers)

(During AWANA, we offer a worship & teaching time for teens and Bible study groups for adults. Wednesday nights are designed to serve the whole family. Also, nursery is available for kids under age 3.)

What Is Awana?

The name Awana is an acronym that stands for approved workmen are not ashamed . It is taken from the Bible in II Timothy 2:15Open Link in New Window which reads, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” (KJV) As one of the fastest growing youth organizations, Awana provides a local church-sponsored program for boys and girls of all ages. Our hope is that all club members will develop faith in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, and then build on that foundation to become obedient servants of God.

Awana at Calvary Bible Church is staffed with volunteer leaders who are church members. Each is chosen for their commitment to Jesus Christ and their love for children. These men and women are concerned about each young person and spend many hours training and preparation for this ministry.

Why Do Children Enjoy Awana?

Awana clubs are loaded with exciting activities! Three segments (game time, handbook time and council time) provide start-to-finish adventure. And there is a purpose in each.

Game Time
Every Awana club meeting has a game time, which includes age appropriate team and individual competition. Dozens of organized games allow everyone to participate in teach teamwork and sportsmanship.

Handbook Time
Using achievement-oriented learning segments (sections), Awana training emphasizes the importance of God’s word for sound living. Clubbers progress through graded handbooks, working individually and together with their leader.

Council Time
This is a general session for everyone. It is a time for group Bible study, followed by awards and recognition for individual handbook progress and for points scored in team play.

Special Events
Awana activities extend beyond weekly meetings. Special events include Scholarship Camp, Olympics, Bible Quizzing and Grand Prix just to name a few of the year-round exciting activities.