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!

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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—

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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…

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.

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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?”

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Still Glowing

November 1, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

I’m so proud of our team from Calvary Assembly of God who helped Light The Night last night in downtown Cedar Springs. In fact, they lit it up so bright, I’m still glowing!

Here are just a couple of pictures to give you a little feel for the festivities (more pictures are on Flickr here). We had a huge inflatable slide, some great games with prizes, and lots and lots of yummy treats—candy, fresh-made popcorn, cotton candy, donut holes, apple cider, and more candy!

God gave us such favor with our location on Main Street right across the street from City Hall, and He gave us great weather too. Prayerfully a whole bunch of people in Cedar Springs saw that we know how to have a good time.

We were the light of Jesus in our community last night. May we continue to shine just as brightly for the next 365 nights, as we’ve already been invited to be back next Halloween. Yea, God!

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No Bad Candy

October 30, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Tomorrow night we will be shining the light of Jesus as we Light The Night in downtown Cedar Springs. If you’re available to help, c’mon down and join us.

The city of Cedar Springs has an annual Spooktacular event. We want to be a part of our community, but we also want to focus on the brighter side of things (I blogged about this earlier here).

So we have taken on the expense to bring in a HUGE inflatable slide … we’ve designed and built some fun carnival games … we’ll be giving away prizes at those games … we will have cider and donuts for the parents … fresh popcorn for everyone … and a big bag of candy for every kid … did I mention it’s a BIG bad of candy!

And it’s good candy too! Not any of that “bad candy” that Tim Hawkins rails on…

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Less Giving = Less Good News

October 25, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

We just finished talking about what the Bible says about tithes and offerings at Calvary Assembly of God. Right on the heels of this, I noticed this article in the Grand Rapids Press: “Study reveals church giving at lowest point since Great Depression.”

Here are some of the sad findings:

  • Regular church attendees aren’t even tithing. The average giving is only 2.4% of the attendees’ income.
  • While giving to churches is down, giving to other faith-based organizations is up.
  • The study’s authors noted a “long-term turning inward of congregations.” In other words, of the money that is given to churches, less and less of it is going to needs outside of the church’s walls.
  • Church’s spending on benevolence has dropped 47% since 1968, and now stands at just 0.35% of attendees’ income.
  • “Fewer people are seeing churches as the primary conduit for meeting the larger (charitable and evangelistic) need.”

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about the overflowing joy of giving to help the needs of others. He commended those with rich generosity, and encouraged the church to excel in this grace of giving.

Here’s the sad fact: The less we give, the less the Good News about God’s love is shared.

God wants us to give because we want to give. Paul even said I am not commanding you to give, but instead…

Each of you must make up your own mind about how much to give. But don’t feel sorry that you must give and don’t feel that you are forced to give. God loves people who love to give. (2 Corinthians 9:7)

Let’s change this around. Let’s buck the nationwide trend. Remember…

MORE GIVING = MORE GOOD NEWS

!

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A Life Well Lived

October 6, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Early yesterday morning, a saint went home to be with Jesus. She was known to all of us at Calvary Assembly of God simply as Grandma. And she was the hippest Grandma we ever knew!

So full of Jesus, and radiating love through her smile. She loved to laugh, she loved to live, she loved to love. But as full of life as we thought she was here on this earth, it’s nothing compared to the life she is experiencing now in the presence of her Savior! She’s home now, and more alive than ever.

We will be celebrating her life for a long time, but we will especially focus on the blessing she was to us this week (the details are here). Please be a part of the visitation time and the homegoing celebration service at the end of this week.

We love you, Grandma! Thanks for showing us how to live so well.

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Blessed Man

September 27, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

My church family surprised me yesterday for pastor appreciation Sunday. I got a yummy cake, and a new iPod to replace the one that was stolen.

I absolutely ♥ my church family! Even if I wasn’t the pastor, this is still the church I would attend. Hey, if you live in the Cedar Springs area, stop by and see what makes this such a great group.

I’m a blessed man!

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United In Worship

August 15, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

I love it when people from different denominations come together for one purpose: to exalt the name of Jesus. The Cedar Springs Ministerial Association is bringing all of our churches together for an outdoor community worship service. We’ll be gathering in Morely Park at 10:30am.

Bring a lawn chair, and an attitude of worship, and let’s make Cedar Springs ring with our united praise! And following the service, stick around for the lunch that will be provided for everyone in attendance, and there will be some fun games for the kids.

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