Calvary Church Annual Report CalvaryChurchAnnualReport20152016-REV | Page 5

grace beyond Grace Beyond has made an obvi- ous impact on Calvary Church this year. Early in the fiscal year we had to shift our thinking from a sched- ule that had us out of the Sanctu- ary for a six-month period in 2015- 2016 to the current plan of being out of it for eight months, ending at Christmas-time 2016. The end date for the whole project moved out as well. This impacted all of the Grace Beyond Committees, the staff, and the congregation greatly. But we have been able to see that the change in plans was definitely useful in the hands of God in allow- ing us time to prepare for things we had not considered under the earli- er schedule. As the Logistics Committee began to put plans into place for our Calva- ry@Calvin activities, it became ob- vious that we needed hundreds of volunteers to serve in various ways that had been unknown to Calvary Church previously. God moved in the hearts of many in our congre- gation to fill all of the needs, which has resulted in a relatively smooth experience at Calvin College. We added greeters to make people feel welcome in a different place. Then we added guides to help them find their way to their destination. For those who have mobility concerns, we added golf carts and drivers to pick them up and deliver them to a door near their preferred seating area. To increase safety for all of us, we added hall monitors, and the Deacons authorized supplement- ing our internal security team with a commercial security firm. Since the arena we meet in has sporting events as its primary purpose, we added setup and tear-down crews to transform it each week from sports to worship and back again. Then, because we were caring for our children differently than before, we added many volunteers for that as well. Meanwhile, our relationship with people outside the church has been changing. Our facility chal- lenges have caused us to work with Calvin College in ways we nev- er did before. Working with them forced us also to work with Wood- lawn Christian Reformed Church to coordinate parking on the campus. But that has not been sufficient for all needs, so we have also worked with Cornerstone University and Grand Rapids Theological Semi- nary, where a number of smaller events have occurred. All of these organizations and other smaller ones have assisted us and worked with us to make our Calvary@Cal- vin experience a good one for all concerned. As we now begin to set plans in place for our return to our own facil- ity, we anticipate that God will once again use that transition to change us. Our initial months back in our facility will be a little like living in a house that’s under construction. There will be portions of the build- ing we will not be able to enter or use at all, and others that will have to be used for purposes that are temporary. Getting from one end of the building to the other may be a little challenging. All of that will force us to trust God more than ever, and to develop patient endur- ance with one another. Many of the volunteer positions we created for Calvary@Calvin will be retained when we return to our campus. And, we may find some new ones that do not currently exist. But in all cases, we expect that God will con- tinue to change us into the church He wants us to be. John Zimmerman Grace Beyond Steering Committee As Pastor Jim indicated early on, Grace Beyond has and is chang- ing us into a congregation made up of people who are serving one another in various ways that were previously unknown to us. And, it is changing us into a people who are more inviting to those who are vis- iting us for the first time. 5