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Bibles for Everyone Celebration

7/2/23 | The Weekly | by Eric Wakeling

    Dear Calvary Family,

    First, this Sunday is going to be a special Bibles for Everyone celebration service at 9:00am and I really want you to be here…in person. We will not be live streaming the second half of the service due to international security concerns as we hear from our global partners reaching into a creative access nation.

    So, join us at Calvary to hear inspiring stories and take part in celebrating the culmination of a New Testament Bible translation for a language group of 8 million people that has never had the Bible before! What an incredible task that has been accomplished through the power of God by some of our long-time Calvary missionaries. It's going to be a historic day in the life of our church as we gather to worship Jesus, celebrate this wondrous event, and pray for the Gospel to go forth to all the nations.

    We will also have this Sunday's service available in over 100 languages! We plan to demo a new system that provides AI translation subtitles for those attending in-person on your smartphone or tablet. You can even listen during the service in any of the available languages if you bring your own headphones (and there will be some headsets available to pick up in the Lobby for those who speak Spanish.) We will also have the sermon by Pastor Matt Doan from Psalm 119 in the first half of the service available to watch later on-demand in any of the available languages!

    If you speak another language, we would love for you to try it out either in person or watching online and share your experience with us afterward. Email us at letting us know how it worked for you and any input you can share on accuracy of the translation.

    Second, I want to invite you to join the Summer Book Club. This is going to be fun! I really hope you heard the sermon from last Sunday because I talked a lot about a renewed focus on relational discipleship here at Calvary Church and how prayer is THE central way to prepare for the WHO and HOW of helping others follow Jesus. I think it’s vitally important for us to be on the same page, so if you haven’t please check out the message "Pray First" on Luke 6:12-19 at CalvaryLife.org/Message.

    Part of learning to love like Jesus by giving away what we have received is to just have spiritual conversations with the people in our lives. So that’s why we started the Summer Book Club! This is an opportunity for you to read some of this book and ask someone to meet up and talk about it. It’s truly that simple.

    The book is called “What if Jesus was Serious?” by Skye Jethani. It’s all about the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s a fun and easy read with some great images and drawings as well. It’s light reading with some serious content. I think you’ll love it, but like all books written by humans there might be some things you agree with and some things you don’t. We sold out of 100 copies last Sunday incredibly quickly so we have ordered some more and they will be available on Sunday, July 9. We are selling the book for a discounted price of $10 or whatever you can pay. If that’s $5 or $0, no problem. Seriously. We just want you to read the book and talk about it with someone in your life.

    We also have created some opportunities to talk about it here at Calvary with either me or Matt Doan. These could be helpful times to have a spiritual conversation with us and then go have one with someone else. That’s how discipleship works - give away what you have received! Meet up with me on Sundays July 9, 16 or 23 at 11:00am on the Calvary Patio or meet up with Matt Doan on Wednesdays August 2 or 16 at 7:00pm at our Corner Bookstore.

    But again, the whole point is to start having spiritual conversations with friends or anyone you would want to invite to chat with you about the words of Jesus. I think this could be great for you to talk with Christians or people who are still far from God. Pray about who you would want to engage with you in the Summer Book Club. And even if you don’t want to read the book, just talk with someone about what Jesus taught in Matthew 5-7 and Luke 6.

    Let’s begin together to realize that we are all called to make disciples and love like Jesus by giving away what we have received from God and others. We are better together.

    May the Lord bless you and keep you,
    Eric