Speaking @ New Mt. Calvary

I spoke last night at the Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Fairfield, CA. The church is celebrating Dr. Claybon Lea Jr's 8th pastoral anniversary. The celebration will conclude this coming Sunday. Dr. William Curtis of the Mt. Ararat Baptist Church in Pittsburgh will bring the messages. Lea and I have mutual friends who have encouraged us to know each other. In fact, last summer a brother pastor took me by the Mt. Calvary campus to meet Dr. Lea. He was not present. But his staff was very kind. They even gave me and my family a tour of the facilities and shared some ministry resources with us. I received a book that Dr. Lea had recently published on the cross. I really appreciated it. Anyway, it was a real joy to be at Mt Calvary last night. The worship and fellowship were warm and uplifting. And it is a great preaching station, as the congregation is both attentive and receptive toward biblical preaching. I hope the congregation was as blessed in hearing the message as I was in preaching it to them.

The personal time I was able to spend with Dr. Lea was refreshing and encouraging. He is both kind and humble. And as he shared with me the story of his pastorate and all that God is doing in and through Mt. Calvary, my heart rejoiced. Mt. Calvary is one church in two locations. Several years ago, they purchased and remodeled a large office complex. Today, it is a fully resourced church campus. And after being in the new facility for several months, the Lord led the church to return to its old church facility and continue their work there, as well. And the Lord has smiled on Claybon Lea and the Mt. Calvary Church as they have striven to walk in faith and obedience. Presently, the leaders of MSMBC are prayerfully considering relocation. Our ministry space is pretty limited, with little room for growth. We severly lack both Christian education space and parking that we need. We have had these and other space problems for some time. But now it seems like the Lord is pressing us to aggressively pursue relocation. So seeing what God has done at Mt. Calvary and having Dr. Lea share the story of the church with me were timely blessings from the Lord. I am going home this morning with greater faith in the goodness, wisdom, power, and faithfulness of God to provide what is needed to grow his church.