Pastor Ryan was joined by Dorothy Wood and they opened up today’s message with the point that this Building Bridges series was inspired by the opportunity to help people see Jesus, the Christian faith, and His followers in a new way. Pastor Ryan said he has spent a lot of time helping people who have damaged views and misconceptions of the church, both valid, but both needing to be addressed. If we are careful to be wise around non-Christians…

In this series so far we’ve learned how important it is to build bridges. This week Pastor Ryan started to break down how we build bridges and even shared a powerful video testimony to show us a method we can use. Between last week’s story in John 4 and today’s scripture, we see Jesus was successful at building bridges by doing the following:

Pastor Ryan unpacked portions of John 4 showing us the intentionality and the purposeful love Jesus had for the people of Samaria. We learned that historical and cultural barriers can be broken down if were willing to stop avoiding and start embracing people different than us. Jesus shocked the Samaritan woman and his own disciples through this encounter at the local well in Samaria. Jesus built a bridge by going through Samaria and caring for one woman.

Pastor Ryan starting building further into the series by showing us how we are called to build bridges too. We learned from John 1 that God uses people to build bridges or point and show the way to Jesus. Last week we learned Jesus is the bridge to God, this week we learned we are like bridges to Jesus. Some of us may not feel all that worthy...

Pastor Ryan did a soft launch to our new series today as we celebrated lives who have crossed over from death to life. Pastor Ryan showed us the heart of God for sinner’s in Luke 15 and how much He loves when we repent and the lost is found. We learned that Jesus is the way to God, He is the bridge.

Pastor Ryan wrapped up our Together series taking us through a journey of the early church going into the world to make disciples (devoted followers) of Jesus. We discovered that we are not alone because the Holy Spirit goes with us and that there is strength in numbers.

Pastor Ryan took our together series to the next focus of fellowship that encourages spiritual growth. We learned that we are to grow and go deeper in Christ, together. Jesus is the goal of our growth, He’s the blueprint for who we are becoming, the inspiration for building up another.

Being together is more than about coffee and donuts because real-life issues that need our care and attention are going to come up. It’s often those real-life issues that are moments of growth for everyone in the fellowship. You grow, we all grow, when we apply scripture to care and carry one another’s burdens.

This past Sunday Pastor Ryan began a new series entitled TOGETHER. We heard Pastor Ryan’s heart come out and really the Word of God as he showed us in scripture that we belong together, therefore we are not alone.

The beauty of the family of God is how diverse and different we are, but what unites us is Jesus Christ. We all have our unique personality and identity, but when it comes down to it the way Jesus thinks and loves is also the way the church should too. Pastor Ryan challenged the church to be united in a world that is divided. His main point was

Pastor Ryan poured out and communicated a burden God put on his heart for the church in America. In a nutshell, we’ve been blessed with freedom from sin and death through Jesus’ sacrifice and we’ve been blessed to exercise our faith freely in our great nation. Pastor Ryan was challenged by God that we’ve taken those freedoms for granted and the time to steward them well is now.

Pastor Ryan wrapped up The Essentials series with the importance of being ready at all times for Jesus to return. Maybe you’ve heard the comments or have said them yourself recently… “It feels like Jesus could come back at any moment now.” Pastor Ryan unpacked the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids (Virgins). Most scholars drive home two major points

Pastor Ryan continued to cover essentials to the Christian faith and things we need to carry on into life as it reopens. COVID 19 sparked a renewal in prayer at Calvary and in our personal lives. Pastor Ryan said we’ve had more time to pray and more things to pray about. It doesn’t mean we all grew in our prayer life, but it definitely rose to greater importance in the church, as a whole.

Pastor Ryan shared the powerful statement that Jesus gave his disciples in a troubling time, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus was clear, the way to the Father, to God, was through faith in Him. The chaos, confusion, and uncertainty of our nation have us overwhelmed and frustrated. The certainty of Jesus in just one sentence gives us comfort, strength, and clarity in our current world.

Two weeks ago, George Floyd’s death sent shockwaves through our nation and the world. The video of Floyd’s tragic death left everyone in disturbed and angry. No one could believe what they saw occur in Minneapolis. Our nation is hurting and peaceful protests turned to riots. What has bubbled to the surface is in the past few weeks is racism, a sin that needs to be confronted head-on.