Calvary Assembly of God | Craig T. Owens

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Rescue The Innocent

January 20, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

As we approach Sanctity of Human Life Sunday on January 23, I want to encourage you again to stand up for life. All life is sacred because all life is created in the image of God. From the moment of conception until the last breath, life is God’s masterpiece.

Especially at this time of year when we reflect on the devastation that abortion has left in its wake, it’s time to pray and to speak up for the innocent who cannot speak up for themselves.

“On this 38^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I urge you in the strongest terms possible: pray. Pray and fast. And then roll up your sleeves and get involved in the effort to rescue these innocent children.”

Join us this Sunday as we celebrate life, and as we let our light shine for life.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: abortion, Calvary Assembly of God, euthanasia, pro-life, Right To Life, sanctity. Leave a Comment »

Light For Life

January 18, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

This week is Sanctity Of Human Life week. I’m passionate about this issue; in fact, it’s one of the main issues in politics in which I really get involved.

We’ll be celebrating Sanctity Of Human Life this Sunday, January 23, at Calvary Assembly of God. We’ll have an update on 38 years of pain since the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, and a presentation from Alpha Family Center, an organization in Cedar Springs that I wholeheartedly support.

This Sunday evening, I’m encouraging everyone to shine a light in support of life. We’ll have some special candle bags to hand out on Sunday, and we’re encouraging everyone to line their driveway or carport or sidewalk with these “I Support Life” bags. Even if you can’t come to Calvary on Sunday, you can put a small candle in a paper lunch bag. Let’s light up the darkness and speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves:

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: abortion, Alpha Family Center, Calvary Assembly of God, euthanasia, pro-life, proverbs, sanctity, sanctity of human life. Leave a Comment »

Signing A Blank Check

January 17, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

In our current series on prayer, we’re using the prayer that Jesus taught as our pattern. Yesterday we looked at this part of the pattern:

Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is all about trust. It’s about acknowledging to God that He is in control and He knows what’s best. It’s not about me coming into His presence and telling Him how things should work. I love the quote from C.S. Lewis:

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God “Thy will be done” and those to whom God says, “All right then, have it your way.”

When we come into God’s presence in prayer, we say, “Before I ask You for what I need, I want You to know that I trust You. No matter what.” In essence, we sign a blank check and trust God to fill in the amount.

And, by the way, the verb for “Your kingdom come” in this model prayer is an imperfect verb. That means that we have to keep on signing those blank checks, as we keep on submitting to His will and His kingdom.

Are you willing to sign a blank check to God?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Calvary Assembly of God, Gospel of Matthew, Jesus Christ, Lord's Prayer, prayer, sermon, submission, trust, trustworthy. 1 Comment »

So, It’s That Easy, Huh?

January 10, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

I’ve been in full-blown praying/planning/dreaming mode for the last couple of weeks. I’m really looking forward to what God has in store for our church in 2011!

Somehow I thought all of this vision “stuff” was going to be a lot of work. But I just discovered a 13-page book that is going to revolutionize my church in just a matter of minutes! I just ordered my copy, and you should too.

(Don’t you wish it really was this easy?)

(Um, for those of you who haven’t figured it out yet: this is a joke. At least the “easy” part is; the “hard-work-and-lots-of-praying” part is for real.)

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Calvary Assembly of God, dreams, funny, planning, prayer, vision. Leave a Comment »

Perfect Praying

January 8, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

We just wrapped up a great week of prayer, and tomorrow we dive into part two of our 2011 inaugural series of the new year: The Perfect Prayer.

I can’t think of a better way to set the pace for the year than to pray!

Hope to see you tomorrow for some great worship and a helpful study on The Perfect Prayer (location, service times, and other details are here).

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Calvary Assembly of God, Lord's Prayer, prayer, sermon. 1 Comment »

The Dangers Of Camels

December 13, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

So glad this didn’t happen in our Living Nativity…

But on a bright note, the Cedar Springs Post had a couple of nice things to say about us (you can read the article here). And if you missed it earlier, the pictures from our Living Nativity are all uploaded here.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Calvary Assembly of God, Christmas, Living Nativity. Leave a Comment »

Living Nativity

December 6, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

I’m so proud of our team for putting on an incredible Living Nativity in Cedar Springs this past weekend!

It was a rush job to begin with (see a previous post where I talked about God moments by clicking here), but then so many people stepped up big time!

You can see all of the pictures Delbridge Langdon Jr took by clicking here.

I want to give some shout-outs to our cast:

The Three Wise Men (or “The Three Wise Jeffs,” as we called them): Jeff Tolar Sr, Jeff Armstrong and Jeff Tolar Jr.
Mary and Joseph: Judy Anderson and Josh Schram.
Our angels: Harrison Owens, Samantha Owens and Brandon Owens (yes, they are angelic children!).
And our shepherdesses: Cindy Karafa and her 4H girls.

I also want to recognize Joe Palmer for his incredible set design, and Claudia Owens (my favorite Mom) for making all of our costumes.

And finally, thanks to the Calvary A/G family for praying for us and talking it up, and thanks to Chris Burns, the Cedar Springs City Manager, for inviting us to present the Living Nativity.

It was a great night, and I hope we can do this again and again for many more years.

Merry CHRISTmas!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Calvary Assembly of God, Cedar Springs, Christmas, Living Nativity. 1 Comment »

Thankful For Difficult People

November 29, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Yesterday we wrapped up our Season Of Thanks series by looking at how God sometimes sends difficult people in our lives to make us better. It’s when difficult people rattle us that we find out what’s really inside of us, so we should be thankful for their involvement in our lives.

With that thought still in my mind, I stumbled across a couple of tweets this morning which are good reminders of this thought—

want more patience? He puts in front of you people that get on your nerves. you can't compete if you never practice.

— Kirk Franklin (@kirkfranklin) November 28, 2010

You are called to love everyone, even your worst enemies. Today, say words with love, in love, because of love. #fb

— Kirk Graham (@kirkisgraham) November 29, 2010

Morning world! Time to put into action everything we talked about yesterday! GO BIG!!

— Chilly Chilton  (@iChilly) November 29, 2010

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Calvary Assembly of God, thanks, thanksgiving. 1 Comment »

Elevate

November 16, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

On Sunday we kicked off a new series A Season Of Thanks looking at this verse:

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

Here’s the deal: If you elevate your thinking to positive things, your life will be more positive. The best place to start is thank-fullness = being full of thanks. Make it a habit in your life to find more things for which you can give thanks.

I searched the Twitterverse for some thoughts about elevated thinking…

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it.

— Give Them Smiles (@givethemsmiles) November 15, 2010

Positive thinking won't let you do anything but it will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.–Zig Ziglar

— Tanya Markhlevych (@mtven2010) November 16, 2010

Feel free to add your own in the comments below. Oh yeah, and come join us next Sunday for A Season Of Thanks part 2.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: attitude, Calvary Assembly of God, Colossians, gratitude, positive thinking, thankfulness, thought life. Leave a Comment »

Lots Of Learning Opportunities

November 4, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

I love learning new things, listening to innovative ideas, and talking with other learners too. This weekend I’ll get to do a whole lot of this.

I’m heading to The Genius Of And Conference at Granger Community Church this morning. I love thinking about both-and when others are stuck on either-or. As an added bonus, I’m traveling and rooming with some innovative young leaders who are campus missionaries at Western Michigan University. I know we’ll have some great discussions around the topics we cover at the conference.

(By the way… for those of you who follow me on Twitter, I’ll be tweeting and blogging during the conference. The hashtag for the conference is #and10.)

Then our youth group is going to the Assembly of God Michigan District’s annual Youth Convention on Friday and Saturday. I love how fired up our youth get when they are worshipping, learning, and praying with their peers. Can’t wait to debrief with them when they return and let some of their passion rub off on me.

On Sunday we have a special guest speaker at Calvary A/G. Brad Leach is a dynamic young church planter. He planted a church in the metro-Detroit area, and just as it was really hitting its stride, he felt God calling him to leave Detroit and plant a new church in Philadelphia. I love that sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s prompting, so I can’t wait to hear what word God has laid on Brad’s heart for our community. If you can, please come and join us this Sunday, November 7, at 10:30am.

I hope you are intentionally looking for opportunities to expand your horizons. As George Washington Carver noted, “How much of God are we missing because we don’t stop to listen to the many voices God uses to speak to us?”