hanging with the pastors of the city church

One of the pivotal pieces in Team Sublett landing in Happy Valley was a 5 minute conversation with Dan Nold. It was a Saturday, he didn’t know we were coming to town to scope out the situation, and I don’t think he had this prepped. I asked what I needed to know about Calvary. He answered:
1. We’re committed to being a church driven by the Biblical principles of Acts 2.
2. We believe that God wants to transform our city through prayer.
3. We are going to be part of the church of the city.

Wow, 3 for 3. I was hooked from that point on. I didn’t even care what they were paying; I wanted to be part of this thang.

Fast forward 14 years. Those same statements could be said today. To back up #3, several of the pastors of Calvary spent Mon-Wed with a bunch of pastors from other congregations in State College. We hunkered down at Krislund Camp & Conference Center, where there is extremely limited cell service, and internet access is next to impossible. The up-side is that we spent 3 days hashing out preferences & differences, getting on the same page, developing a set of playing rules that should let us work together for some good things for the kingdom & our town.

We can be a diverse bunch, but we’ve learned the value of unity, especially in light of what God says about unity in John 17 and Psalm 133. Simply put, the kingdom breaks out when unity is happening. That’s how important unity is.

I’m not real big on meetings, and I felt like I’m already fully on board with the “let’s do things together” movement, but it was a good few days of getting to know some new guys, hearing their stories, letting them share their hearts, hopes, and hesitations (yeah, pastors alliterate) with us.

We’ve got some momentum, some direction, and some solid men praying together…this could be a fun ride!