A great church that preaches expositionally and concentrates on discipleship and fellowship with its members. There are lots of kids ages less than 16 years old so I can't wait to see how these kids grow up when they become adults. I can def see lots of leaders growing up through the way they nurture the body of believers.
What I have noticed is that the church is young and small (recently turned 2 years old). It's a church plant by Calvary Chapel Houston.
Some of the members are young in their understanding of Scripture and one or two are erroneous due to their legalism (they are young in their walk -- legalism is usually due to fear of going back to a sin or infancy in their walk) but that's easily corrected by teaching Scripture well with fear and trembling by the pastor, so I can't wait to see how they develop in their exposition and hermeneutics; this is a great opportunity for the pastor to shepherd the flock towards Biblical truths. I have yet to meet anyone who know greek except for the pastor and one 29 yr old who self-taught himself. There are one or two church open-handed beliefs that I don't necessarily agree with but since those are secondary, it's not a deal breaker since I am firm in my closed-handed beliefs of faith (doctrine).
I am also curious as to how they interpret the Scripture through the experiences of the first churches during the Patristic period, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, the Didache (The Twelve), Era of the Apostolic Fathers (earliest leaders after the apostles), and Polycarp of Smyrna.
Now the greatest challenge would be to have this young church understand how the early church defended the Gospels against heresies --- through the Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Carthage, Ephesus and Chalcedon. And to finally go through the Reformation and the post-modern eras.
Otherwise, an awesome church with lots of potential.
I was part of a church in the east coast that started off with about 15 people, which exploded to more than 1,500 per Sunday in 5 years. It was all due to the pastoral-leadership team coming together and depending and praying to God to make them into a church that professed Biblical truths, not watering it down to make it "relevant" and "attractive."
My church from the east coast was missional minded; to equip men and women to know their Bibles AND to live it out in their communities. We also had plurality of elders (not random men that were appointed to do tasks) that were selected with great fear and trembling under the guidance of Scripture and the Spirit in order to do the different tasks of shepherding a large church while the senior pastor concentrated in preaching the Word.
Calvary Baytown is small, but who knows, it will grow with God's providence. Keep this church in prayer; this town needs a people to change the apathy that is rampant in the community. read more
