Grace and peace to you in the name of God our Father and Jesus Christ the Lord! Welcome to the website of Calvin Sinclair Presbyterian Church (CSPC).
This website, like the church, is a work in progress. That is the way it ought to be. Our Christian tradition says we are “reformed and always reforming.” (For more information see www.pcusa.org/today/believe/past/may04/reformed.htm
Sincerely, I hope that you will spend some time poking around here, and that you will come back often to see what is new.
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I came to CSPC two years ago with the specific task to help this congregation redevelop. Since that time, we have added 26 members to the 63 active members here in 2006. Over that same time, worship attendance has increase from around 35 to over 55 on average. We have also experienced a nearly 18% increase in the offerings and giving to church mission.
For me, those numbers reflect the blessing we receive from God for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ through Spirit filled worship, sincere fellowship, and Spirit-led work in our community, the region and the world.
Most people familiar with the church will see these numbers represent significant growth for a small church. I would like to take a moment to reflect on why such growth happens.
Years and years ago, my grandmother, a devote woman of Baptist roots, taught me to fold my hands together as in prayer but with my index fingers pointing upward and touching, and say, “Here is the church and here is the steeple.” Then opening my palms for examination, say, “But where are the people?” She then had me interlock fingers, knuckles up and fingers down – except for the index fingers pointing upward – and say again, “Here is the church and here is the steeple,” and upon examination, wiggle my fingers and say, “Here’s all the people!”
In that lesson, which I delighted in repeating over and over and over, what grandma taught me is that “the church” is not a building or a property or a program or a style. It is the people.
The church is the people whom God has called to be the body of Christ.
It has been said that, “The body of Christ takes up space … and makes footprints.”
This idea is built up the Apostle Paul telling the church, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it,” (1 Corinthians 12:27). The primary point for saying the body of Christ takes up space is to highlight “Christianity is not a spiritual religion, it is an incarnational religion,” meaning ours is a religion of flesh and blood. God came as one of us, lived among us, and is real flesh and blood in the life of our faith.
There are many religions and philosophies that require no actual space – just thoughts and words. Christianity is different. Ours is the reality of the body of Christ, and we are the flesh and blood that makes our faith real.
When Christians live out our faith, when we engage the world with our faith, Jesus Christ is making footprints. We do this wherever we go and with whomever we meet –
Everywhere we treat others with kindness and generosity and compassion
Everywhere we see the good in others even when we do not have to
There is an ancient hymn that still sings true today,
“Where charity and love prevail,
There God is ever found;
Brought here together by Christ’s love,
By love we thus are bound.”
The love of God is revealed in each of us. Each of us has the potential to reveal God’s love to others. We know, however, that love does not happen because it sounds good and nice. We recognize that we need a more focused and concentrated efforts to make God real around us; we must recognize Christ real with us.
To that end, we celebrate the six marks of a Christian disciple:
PRAY daily …
WORSHIP weekly …
READ the Bible …
SERVE at and Beyond CSPC
Be in RELATIONSHIP to encourage spiritual growth in others
GIVE of my time, talents and resources
(For more, see the work of Michael W. Foss, Power Surge – Six Marks of Discipleship for a Changing World. (Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2000. ISBN 0-8006-3264-8)
Discipleship is the key. I turn to Acts 2:46-47 for the example of the response given to disciples of the crucified, risen, ascended and soon return Jesus Christ:
Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Such shared discipline and relationship are just as necessary and important for the church today as they were in the earliest days of the church. Of course, that is exactly what my grandmother taught me.
I thank you for your interest, and I encourage your response to my perspective.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord be kind and gracious to you.
The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.
