I took my boys and my niece and nephew out to the Tampa Bay Bucs Training Camp at Disney yesterday. We had a great time. R.T. from the church was with us. We were able to see a lot of the players. The kids got a few autographs and this picture with Ike Hilliard.
Easter at Calvary South Orlando was absolutely awesome. We had great crowds in both service, 2nd service was packed. There was so much that came together leading up to Easter with some landscaping we had done, new awnings outside and some new stuff in the Jahva Cafe.
The worship and special music were great. My message was from Matthew 18 on forgiving those who have wronged you. I finished up with talking about how everyone there needed to be forgiven.
Phillip came up after I called people to make a decision for Christ, and he sang "True Love" by Phil Wickham. It was powerful.
There was just a great Spirit there, an annointing. We had many 1st time commitments to Christ and those who recommitted their lives to Christ. Praise God!
By: Charles Nestor II
I have a question. Will either of the presidential front-runners who are both self-proclaimed "Christians" be in church on Easter Sunday morning? I just read an article on Obama's plans. Looks like he'll be flying to St. Thomas on Sunday morning. I don't know what McCain will be doing.
However, I think this is a good question. Why? Because I believe that most "committed" followers of Christ will attend an Easter celebration service this weekend. This Sunday will be my 39 Easter Sunday. I didn't miss an Easter service as a child, and I haven't missed one in my adult life.
Maybe it's just me, but I believe that if you are a committed believer that there is no other place you want to be than with the family of God on Easter weekend. I think it is telling if you can't make it to church on Easter weekend, but I guess this is just my opinion!
By: Charles Nestor II
On Wednesday night, a leader in my church (Victor Perea) and I headed down to Miami Lakes for a Seminar led by Pastor Bob Franquiz of Calvary Fellowship in Miami Lakes. Those guys are really doing some great things down there in Miami Lakes. Right now Bob is doing a great series on Love and Sex. It is called Stripped. He is teaching through the book of Song of Solomon.
I was wondering where we were going to stay. We ended up staying at Don Shula's Hotel right there in Miami Lakes. This was the hotel where the seminar was being held. Our room ended up being about 30 yards from the room where the Seminar was. It was great.
We woke up in the morning and went down to this French bakery. We got a danish and a cup of coffee and sat out at these tables right on the street. We were doing the Miami thing. The only thing that was missing was we didn't have any dominoes. We had a good time with Pastor Dan Plourde from Calvary Jupiter who joined us there on the streets of Miami Lakes.
The seminar was fantastic. It was a seminar that focused on how in the church we should treat 1st and 2nd time guests to our church. We need to realize that these guests are a gift from God. A great quote that was quoted at the Seminar was from Andy Stanley, "The church should be like a family expecting guests." We want to do everything we can to make those who are guests at our church in Orlando feel as comfortable as possible so that God can really speak to them through the teaching of His Word.
After the Seminar, I was able to chat a little with Bob Franquiz. Then from there Victor and I headed over to Miami Beach where we had a Cuban sandwhich in this great little Cuban restaurant right across the street from the Beach, there on Collins Ave. It was a great 36 hour trip to Miami. Again, the only thing that was missing were the dominoes.
By: Charles Nestor II
We are in the process of introducing Growth Groups at Calvary South Orlando. We want to be an Orlando Church that is great place for people to become devoted followers of Christ. We believe that these Growth Groups are a big part of that.
We have introduced Growth Groups in the following subjects: Marriage, Finance, Spiritual Habits, Foundations of Faith, and Women's Discipleship. We have been talking about the groups for a little over a week now to the church and the response as been fantastic. Each group is well over half full. My group on Developing Spiritual Habits is already full.
If you haven't already, get signed up for a Group and watch your life begin to grow.
By: Charles Nestor II
I am sitting here watching the NFL Pro Bowl and I am missing Hawaii. They are showing all of these shots during the game of various places around Honolulu. So I am reminiscing about our trip to Hawaii a couple of years ago.
Here is a picture of me taken after I caught some waves on the famous North Shore of Oahu. This picture was taken at Sunset Beach. I am sporting some Calvary South Orlando Surf Gear with the classic Calvary logo.
The North SHore was a place that was so beautiful, I just wanted to stay there. Anyways, it tough watching this Pro Bowl. It makes you just want to be there.
This Sunday we will welcome guest speaker Mark Gabriel at Calvary South Orlando. Mark grew up in Cairo, Egypt as a muslim. He memorized the Koran by age 12. He went on to get a PhD in Isalmic History at Al Azaar University in Cairo, which is the top Islamic university in the world.
Later Mark became a professor at the university. It was during this time that Mark began to question Islam. God used a Christian Pharmacist in Cairo to give Mark a copy of the bible. He began to read in it and was blown away by the words of Christ, especially those in Matthew 5 concerning "Loving you enemies". Mark left Islam was taken into custody tortured. His own father tried to murder him by shooting at him several times with a gun.
Mark escaped to South Africa where he ended up on a YWAM base in Johannasburg.
I first met Mark about 5 or 6 years ago. He has spoken at the Church twice before and it was powerful both times.
Mark has authored 5 books, 3 of which I have read. They are excellent. One of them is called Jesus and Mohammed. It is a comparative of the two, and provides powerful and insightful information.
Currently, Mark is involved with a weekly live call-in tv program that his broadcast throughout the Islamic world via satellite. God is using this program to bring many Muslims to Christ. The program is called "Daring Questions". Mark will be speaking in both of the morning services this weekend. We are looking forward to what he has to say.
By: Charles Nestor II
I have acheived the Charismatic balance! I do believe I have. In the last few weeks, two families have left church fellowship here at Calvary South Orlando. Both of these families are people that I love and respect. Both of them are educated, successful and great people.
One of the families said that we weren't charismatic enough. The other family told us that we were too charismatic.
Striking a charismatic balance is hard to do. But that is exactly what the Calvary Chapel movement has sought to do. If someone were to ask me to put the Calvary Chapel movement in the simplest of terms, this is how I would do it.
1. We teach the whole Bible verse by verse in context.
2. We have a balanced theology on the Person, work and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
What gets me is that some people actually don't understand that our theology on the Holy Spirit is one of the biggest distinctives of Calvary Chapel. Some people that have come into our fellowship from other Calvary Chapel's have never had any experience at all with spiritual gifts. And so when you do almost a line by line teaching on the gifts and baptism of the Holy Spirit from Pastor Chuck Smith, they are shocked and a little bit uncomfortable.
The last time I checked, Calvary Chapel's symbol is the descending dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. I feel that we are classic Calvary Chapel when it comes to the spiritual gifts in the services. We don't have tongues and interpretation in our services. We look for words of wisdom and knowledge from the "prophetic" verse by verse teaching, whereas the Holy Spirit speaks to each individual present through the teaching.
We do have passionate worship. Now this to me should neither be charismatic or non-charismatic, pentecostal or non-pentecostal. As far as I'm concerned this is Biblical. For crying out loud, read the Psalms! Let's face it people, correct me where I'm wrong here but the "Passion" movement was birthed out of a Baptist church (Andy Stanley - Louie Giglio). Are they actually more passionate in worship, than a supposedly charismatic movement such as Calvary Chapel?
Anyway, I would love to hear comments and perspectives on this.
By: Charles Nestor II
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