Generation to Generation
Last October (2021), Calvary Church of Santa Ana celebrated 90 years of existence! As I write this, by God’s grace, Calvary Church, has endured for over 1,100 months, 33,000 days and 700,000 hours and well you get the point…Calvary Church has been around for several generations!
One of the key ingredients to how Calvary Church has lasted for 90 years is the intentionality of people like Bill and Lois Rowley (Youth Ministry from the 1960’s and beyond) and John and Cathy Norton (Middle School, High School, and College Volunteers in the 1990’s and 2000’s) and Adan and Cecilia Alamilla (Friday Night Hispanic Children’s Ministry Directors over the last few years) who have mentored, modeled and invested into the next generations.
One of the core values we talked about in our We Value sermon series last fall was "We Value Generations" - how together is better and the importance of passing on our faith to the next generation. We wrote, "We want every generation to experience God’s love and grace in Christ. One of the greatest responsibilities we have as a church family is to pass on the torch of a vibrant faith in Jesus Christ from one generation to the next." You can read the full statement, along with each of our 12 values, at CalvaryLife.org/Values.
This coming Sunday, as we continue our summer series in Proverbs on “The Way of Wisdom” we will look at Proverbs 22:6 and discuss this crucial value of “passing the torch of vibrant faith in Jesus to the next generation.”
We will be reminded of the awesome opportunity we have next week to invest in the next generation through our 2022 VBS. You can still sign up to volunteer or register your kids at CalvaryLife.org/VBS. We also need a ton of fruit roll-ups, cans of frosting, and plastic knives for our snacks on Monday morning - help out by bringing them on Sunday!
We will also celebrate what God did in Mexico this week with our College Students and Young Adults, and at Hume Lake last week with our Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers who spent a week up in the mountains growing in their faith and being invested in by leaders who love God and love students.
One of our most faithful volunteers in our high school ministry is Baruch Figueroa. This is what Baruch wrote this week as he reflected back on investing in students as a counselor at Hume Lake, “I seriously love what the Lord allows me to do. If you care about where our generations are headed and want to see young people find their true identity in Christ, then I invite you to have a conversation with a high schooler; listen to what they say, and then model our Heavenly Father’s love and affirmation to them. It’s really not so hard.”
Could not have said it any better myself, thank you Baruch! And thank you to all of our Summer Camp Counselors and upcoming VBS Volunteers. Your investment into the next generation will have an impact not just on the next 90 years but for eternity.
“We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.” – Psalm 78:4
Matt Doan
Reach Pastor