Calvary's Past

Calvary Community Church - An Historical Time Line

1982
September

Calvary Baptist Church was birthed with support from First Baptist Church, Houston and the Union Baptist Association

	Our original philosophy of ministry was crusade oriented and evangelistically focused
	Calvary met in Francone Elementary School

1984

September

Steve Meeks became the senior pastor, teaming up with founding staff of Eddie Smith, worship leader, and Jeff McGee, student ministries

1985-1986

Calvary began meeting in Loew’s Theaters on West Road

God encounter: The invitation to intimacy

Calvary was baptizing many people in these years but there was little lasting fruit

Burnout began to overtake us

Through a personal encounter with his own burnout, Pastor Steve began to seek God’s intimate presence and to respond to Christ’s invitation:

Matt 11:28-30 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. NIV

Calvary responded corporately to this invitation to intimacy by learning to practice classic spiritual disciplines

Out of a new intimacy with the Lord, Calvary adopted five guiding principles

Growing in spiritual depth and power (Ephesians 3:16-19)

Living biblical lifestyles (James 1:21-25)

Becoming effective in evangelism (John 3:3-6)

Developing meaningful worship (John 4:23-24)

Building spiritual relationships (Colossians 3:12-17)

Calvary also established a new philosophy of ministry

Relational, not just informational

Equipping, not just educating

People-oriented, not program-oriented

God-dependent, not self-dependent

Calvary established new practices of minstry

LIFT Groups were birthed and every member of Calvary became a part of a small group focused on relational discipleship

A deeper, more expressive worship style was established

Classic spiritual disciplines were taught and practiced

Calvary committed a tithe of income to missions regardless of our own financial needs

1987

May

Calvary moved into our first building in our current location

Two guiding purposes were developed

To be a healthy body so Christ can accomplish his work

To be a beautiful bride so Christ can enjoy his people

Summary of 1985-1988

Our primary stewardship was learning to establish people in intimacy with God. Intimacy with God becomes a part of our spiritual DNA

1988-1989

God encounter: The invitation to Kingdom ministry

A sovereign release of prophetic gifts began

Visitations of God’s presence in the congregation manifest through long periods of silence and the corporate awareness of God’s majestic presence

Visitations of God’s presence in the congregation were manifest through unplanned, extended times of worship

Release of spiritual gifts of healing and miracles began

Ministry Team Training was birthed

1990

Kingdom ministry was manifest through the call to corporate intercession for spiritual awakening

Corporate times of intercession for spiritual awakening were multiplied throughout the week

Group prayer and private prayer naturalized throughout Calvary’s membership

Calvary’s prayer life became rich, real, and lasting

1991

Relational Christianity is published, bringing our call to establish people in intimacy with God to many other believers and churches

Resulting from this, translocal ministry, giving away what God has given to us, was now released

Summary of 1990-1996

Calvary begins leading out in prayer for our city, sponsoring city-wide conferences, events, and prayer rallies

Calvary begins working to establish unity among the pastors in the city

Calvary’s primary ministry focus was on extending the Kingdom of God in the earth

Extending the Kingdom becomes a part of our spiritual DNA

The Last Great Revival was published in 1994, bringing our call to extend the Kingdom to other believers and churches

1996

God encounter: The invitation to true Christian Community

Out of a "dark night of the soul" experience Pastor Steve received the revelation of the need for true Christian community

1997

The leaders of Calvary engaged in a retreat to reformulate the vision of our church in light of all God has been doing in us. Our God encounters called us to become established and to steward three specific areas:

Establishing people in intimacy with God

Expressing true Christian community

Extending the Kingdom of God in the earth

To better express our vision, our name was changed to Calvary Community Church

A new vision was developed teaching us that we:

Live out of our intimacy with God

Live in community with one another

Live toward the Kingdom of God and the coming of the Lord Jesus

These three realities led us to three stories we must tell

My story: the personal experience of intimacy with God leads us to significance

Our story: our corporate relationships teach us to live in interdependence

The story: living toward God’s Kingdom enables us to embrace transcendence

In this year, we completed our new worship center, gym, kitchen, and classrooms

Our small group ministry changed from a relational discipleship approach to a gift-based / passion-driven philosophy

This change multiplied the number and types of small groups

This change moved Calvary outward into ministry beyond our four walls

Summary of 1997-2000

Expressing true Christian community becomes a part of our spiritual DNA

2001-2007

The Holy Spirit begins to unfold new themes for us to embrace:

The Trinity (2001)

Incarnational Christianity (2001-2004)

New Creation (2005-2006)

The life of faith (2007)

Incarnational Christianity is published in 2001, giving expression to God’s desire to fill humanity with his Spirit and to flood creation with his glory

Calvary is called to embrace concern for this world, its essential goodness as a gift from God’s love to us

Calvary is called to embrace our humanity as a good gift from God intended to be fully integrated with his Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:19; Colossians 2:9-10)

2005

FreshWater begins as a ministry to touch other pastors and churches with the themes that God has given Calvary to steward

These pastors represent churches with Sunday attendance of over 7,000 believers

2006

God encounter: Divine initiatives revealed to Calvary’s pastoral team to refocus our corporate identity and to become more intentional in disciple-making. God’s word to us on this pastoral team retreat called us to serve some new initiatives:

Establishing of theCove and welcome center

Friends and Family services

Psalm Sunday worship times

2007

Living out the Divine initiatives and bringing into existence the initiatives we received from God in the fall of 2006

The summer was given to exploring and learning to express the life of faith

Our 25 year anniversary will be celebrated throughout the month of September

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