Celebrating The Resurrection At Calvary

This Sunday is the most important Sunday on our calendar as we passionately pursue Christ and lovingly pursue others for Christ at Calvary. As we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, I want to remind you that you are more likely to get someone to respond positively to an invitation to church on this Sunday than any other day of the year. Researchers say that 4 out of 5 people you invite to church for Easter Sunday will attend. So what will they find when they get here?

You already know about our Easter breakfast served from 10-11:00 a.m. But remember that we also have two services on Easter, one at 9:00 a.m. and the other at 10:30 a.m. Please be in prayer for our Worship Arts team and staff who will do double duty this Sunday.

We will open the service singing Oh What A Day.  This song from Sovereign Grace pastor and song writer Mark Altrogge is a joyful, resurrection themed call to worship. Boldly declaring that Christ has conquered death and risen from the grave, this lively anthem is sure to move our hearts to worship.

The story of that first resurrection morning is told from Peter's perspective in the song He's Alive. I am excited to sing this song on Sunday with some special media elements that you will have to wait until Sunday to see. There are two videos of this song that I am posting today. One is from David Phelps and the Gaither Vocal Band.the other is from Dolly Parton. Both arrangements capture the fear, wonder and joy of this wonderful story song.

One of my favorite songs from Sovereign Grace in recent years is You Have Been Raised. The song begins with a series of questions regarding forgiveness, freedom, heaven and redemption. The answer to all these questions is that Christ has been raised which is all the proof that we need. Click on the link to watch the video from Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD on Easter Sunday 2011.

After the message, we will close the service singing My Savior Lives from New Life Worship and the Desperation Band. The chorus proclaims I know that my Redeemer lives and now I stand on what He did. My Savior, my Savior lives. Every day a brand new chance to say, "Jesus You are the only way." My Savior, my Savior lives.

I know that this will be a very special Sunday at Calvary. Join me in praying that God will move in our midst, drawing people to Himself. Pray that Christ will be glorified in all that we do. Pray that people will respond to an invitation to come to church on Easter Sunday. Finally, pray that through our time together this Easter, we will know God, love God, and obey God more.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Trent

Palm Sunday At Calvary

This week at Calvary is going to be very exciting as we celebrate with eight people who are coming for Believer's Baptism. We will also be continuing the message series from our Journey Through John. Pastor Paul will be finishing chapter 11 of John and looking at the response to the resurrection of Lazarus. The Worship Choir will be singing By Faith which is a great choral anthem based on Romans 5. I am excited to have our choir singing praises to the Lord on Sunday.

We will open our service with the praise song You're Worthy Of My Praise. This song declares our allegiance to Christ who alone is worthy of our praise. We are also singing Forever Reign on Sunday. We introduced this song last Sunday and the bridge has been running through my head ever since. I can't wait to sing this phrase again My heart will sing, no other name Jesus, Jesus! 

We are also singing the old Morris Chapman chorus, Jesus Your Name. This song declares that power, healing and freedom comes in the name in Christ. It has been many years since we used this chorus at Calvary but it was certainly a blessing to our worship team as we prepared on Wednesday.

We are closing the service with the Brenton Brown song, Lord Reign In Me.  The song calls for radical obedience to Christ in every area of life. I am looking forward to worshiping with you this week and am praying that the Lord will move mightily among us.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Trent

This Week At Calvary

One of my goals this year is to train new worship leaders. To accomplish that goal, I have take a few Sundays where I don't lead and allow others the opportunity. Jeremy Banks will be leading us in worship on Sunday and I am excited to see how God is using him. We are going to begin our service on Sunday with Paul Baloche's Our God Saves. This song is an exuberant celebration of hope, rejoicing in salvation found in Christ. The video includes an interview with Paul Baloche. I think you will find it very interesting.

The next song we will sing is based on a prayer from The Valley of Vision. Let Your Kingdom Come from Sovereign Grace is a missional song that prays for God's power and strength to fulfill the Great Commission. The last line of the second verse sums it up with the phrase by grace we'll preach Your gospel till our dying breath.

Jeremy will be teaching us a song that our Souled Out group has been singing for a few months. Forever Reign is from Hillsong. It makes a series declarations about the character of God and declares our dependence and allegiance to Christ. The video is from a live worship recording.

Finally we will sing Mighty To Save which is another song from Hillsong. It begins with a declaration of our needs and then declares that all we need has been fulfilled in Christ. The second verse is a statement of surrender to Christ and the bridge turns our eyes toward the mission we have been given. Here is a video of Hillsong Chapel.

I am praying that the Lord will bless us richly as we gather on Sunday.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Trent

Singing Defiantly

This week has been an exciting week not only in preparing for the upcoming Sunday but also in working diligently planning our services for Easter Sunday and preparing to speak at a Church Ministries Conference this weekend. Before we talk about music for this Sunday, I want to share something I read this week in the book Faithmapping by Daniel Montgomery and Mike Cosper:

We are freed from the guilt and shame of our sins, but not from the presence of sin in our flesh and the daily battle against it. We are already citizens of heaven, but are not yet free from citizenship in whatever political institution holds authority over us. Death has lost its victory, but it still holds a power. Cancer wards remain, as do HIV clinics, mass starvations, famines, plagues, earthquakes, tsunamis, and genocides, but one glorious day all these will end. The hospitals, graves, and prisons will be emptied once and for all. Until then the church watches and waits, crying, "Come, Lord Jesus." And in the midst of its waiting, believers gather, acknowledging in one voice that Jesus is the true King and Lord, that death is defeated, and that one day all this madness will end.

I found this passage to be a deeply moving and glorious thought. A line in the same chapter says We gather and we sing defiantly, refusing to let our hopes be crushed by the darkness around us. I found the phrase sing defiantly particularly inspiring and that is how I want to sing and how I want my congregation to sing.

As I began to plan music for Sunday, I knew that it was going to be set against a message of hope and testimony of praise with a significant portion of our service to include Deanna Howell sharing her testimony. Deanna has been diagnosed with incurable cancer yet God has given her incredible grace in this midst of this trial. The idea of grace through trials very quickly became our theme as I began to put songs together.

We will open the service with the hymn Come Christians Join To Sing. It is a call to worship and wonderful song praising God for His grace and for substitutionary atonement. It ends joyfully with a declaration that the praises of God will never end. We are planning to sing the Kristian Stanfill song Always which defiantly declares that God will come through in every circumstance. This song finds its Scriptural roots in Psalm 121: I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2 ESV) This video was recorded at Passion 2011.

The next song we will sing comes straight out of Psalm 23. Matt Redman's You Never Let Go reminds us that we can count of God. Although the lyrics come from Psalm 23, I am reminded of Romans 8: 35-39:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 8:35-39 ESV)

Here is a video of Matt Redman singing this wonderful song.

Before the testimony and message, we will turn our attention to Christ, the Lamb who is seated on the throne as we sing Revelation Song. As all our hope is in Christ, I felt it important to tie our songs together with a focus on Christ. I know that you will be blessed by this video with Kari Jobe singing.

We will close the service singing the simple hymn It Is Well With My Soul. It is my desire that we will sing defiantly at Calvary even when the darkness seems to close in all around.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Trent