Calvary Chapel North Phoenix

Greetings Calvary Family,

We are coming up to August, the back side of summer. Many families are gearing up to get their kids ready for the new school year. A few of our families are heading out to enjoy a short time for vacation. And there are some of our families still looking for work, and the utility bills are the highest they have been all year. We have been able to help out many families so far this year, not only with food boxes, but with some finances as well.

In the midst of all the challenges individually, as a family and as a church body, we all must remember what the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

We have secured a venue for our upcoming Married’s Retreat. The theme for this retreat is REFRESH!. On Fri., Aug. 27 – Sat. Aug. 28 we will be meeting at the Embassy Suites Resort south of Paradise Valley Mall. This will be our only Married’s Retreat this year.  It begins at 7 pm on Friday night and goes through Saturday at 3 pm.

The cost is $150 per couple which includes your suite for the night, full breakfast and lunch and three sessions: TRUE SOUL MATES; TRUE COMPANIONSHIP; TRUE COMMITMENT; these will be taught by myself and Pastor Jesse. Friday night dinner will be your responsibility. There are many restaurants nearby the resort.

I would like to suggest a project for you as a couple: put together a yard sale and see how much of this cost you can come up with so it doesn’t tax your budget. If you have a little to start with, go ahead, sign up and put it down as a deposit. We have secured 20 rooms so far, so we quickly need to get an estimate of how many couples would like to be a part of this retreat. If you cannot go but would like to offset the costs for another couple who may be having financial difficulties, let the person at the sign up table know.

On another note, I want to thank you all for your continued support and attendance during the Sundays I have been gone, helping other pastors throughout AZ and in Oregon. Pastor Jesse has done a wonderful job of feeding the sheep here at Calvary in my absence. Pastor Jesse will continue teaching the Wednesday night SANCTUS worship service. I am also going to be leading the worship team at least two Wednesday nights a month here at Calvary.

Please be in prayer over our children’s ministry. We are in need of teachers, helpers and coordinators to serve the many children of our congregation. The previous teachers and helpers are doing a great job, but we want to give them the opportunity to take a break. We offer training and materials for those of you who would like to step up to this opportunity; all that is needed is a heart to love them and teach them at their age level. The new quarter begins in September. We ask for a 13 week commitment and do require background checks for the safety and security of our children. Call Pastor Chris at the church office for more information: 602.992.6922

Looking forward to all that Jesus wants to do in us, through us and around us in the coming months, should He tarry.

Pastor Bob Claycamp

Greetings in Jesus!

****** HOT OFF THE PRESS! ******

1.)  GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE:

We are going to have a GOOD FRIDAY service on Friday night, April 2 at 6:30 pm. It will be a time to have your children with you in the sanctuary and remember what Christ Jesus has done for us on the cross. The service will last an hour and we will have nursery care up to 3 years old. If any of you would be willing to help in the nursery that evening we could use your one-time help. We will also need ushers and greeters for that night.

2.)  We are going to have a SUNRISE SERVICE EASTER MORNING!

This special Resurrection Day service will be held outside in front of the sanctuary at 6:30 AM. We will have coffee and water available (maybe some snacks as well). The service will last an hour. We WILL NOT be having any childcare for the sunrise service. If you would like to be on the set up team to put out the chairs and the portable sound system, please contact PASTOR JESSE at the church office. We will still have both of our regular services at 9:00 AM and 10:45 AM.

3.)  WEDNESDAY NIGHT BBQ’S STARTING AGAIN MARCH 24TH!

We are starting up our weekly spring BBQ’s before the Wednesday night service. The time will be 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm. Sign up in the foyer to let us know how many hamburgers and/or hot dogs you will be wanting for dinner. There will be other food items as well. Remember it is offered on a donation basis per person. If you would like to be on the serving team, the clean up team or the cooking team, put that down on the sign up sheet and/or contact PASTOR JESSE at the church office.

***** AND NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM *****

There are several new families that have begun to make our church their home church. It is important for all of us to remember what it was like for us when we first came here. Don’t be shy about asking if someone unfamiliar to you is new to Calvary. That is the only way to know how to best minister to one another. Just go for it!

With these two new services around Resurrection Day celebration, it opens up a great opportunity to invite coworkers, neighbors and friends to attend. Offer to pick them up and bring them to church if you can. This might be the open door God uses to begin new life in Christ to them!

I want to personally thank all of you who have been praying for God’s grace in my going out more often to minister to different congregations around Arizona. It seems from the feedback of those pastors that God is really using it. This is part of your fruit. Pastor Jesse has been doing a great job feeding you from the Word on Wednesday nights and on the occasional Sunday mornings. Please continue to keep this new venture of outreach in your prayers.

The Wednesday night series I did last fall entitled WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? has finally been put into manuscript form. We are going through some editing of the book and giving it the title of TRUE LOVE BEGINS WITH GOD. This is an in-depth look at 1 Cor. 13. Lord willing, it will be done and published by the end of summer.

Thanks for your prayers concerning the paving of our parking lot. We received a special bid (below $3000) that blew away the previous bids ($7000). We had the money in savings and went for it. They did a great job!

Remember that April 3rd, Saturday morning, is our next church work day to clean up the campus. This will be especially important since the next day is Resurrection Sunday and there will be many more visitors on the campus. The sign up sheet will be available on the counter in the foyer.

Let’s keep the main thing the main thing! The main thing is JESUS!

Pastor Bob Claycamp

Every day is an opportunity to give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and mercy toward us. Sometimes we can take for granted so many things in our life. We get used to them. We even put demands on the Lord that our comforts should be protected and not allowed to be removed.

Yet His promise to us is to be WITH us, to take CARE of us, to meet every NEED as we seek first His kingdom and righteousness. May the Lord work in us to be more grateful for the little things. The sacrifice of thanksgiving is precious to Him and needful for us.

God has shown His great love toward us by sending His only begotten Son into the world. He did this so that forgiveness might be offered to those who believe on the name of His Son, Jesus. Have you received His gift of love?

Pastor Bob

As an update to my previous note, we are NOT going to cancel the LIVE feed of our services on Sunday morning and Wednesday nights. We discovered that we were still under contract with Qwest for those T1 lines for a couple of years. The cost of cancelation was not worth it at this time. So we will just continue with what’s already set up. If you have a Mac computer, you cannot view the live service even on Flip4Mac program unless you go to our website through a side Windows OS [those of you with Mac computers understand most of this ]

Pastor Bob Claycamp