I just want to talk through a few of the things I am excited about on the path of the new year ahead of us, as we try to serve and love one another and love Jesus a little more deeply. We will hit some of the highlights of the calendar tonight, go through some of the main big events of the year, and look at how God might show us the path of life: “God, what do You want for us?” The very first slide is the little note talking about the baptisms at the bottom of that page. I was looking at the church and talking about it this morning, just thinking, “Man, we are just doing the simple work of the Great Commission,” which is seeing people saved, baptized, and growing in the Scriptures. We have people in discipleship right now. Joey and Eli just started on Tuesday, and Caesar is going to start with my dad on Wednesday nights pretty soon. I am so excited about that. There were recent baptisms, a lot of young people coming through the church this past year. So the past year has been another year of trying to get closer to Jesus Christ.
Looking Back at 2025
On the next slide, and the next page in your booklet, are some of the new resources we launched last year: the new Scripture Helps book, which we are now putting in our guest bags, and the Joy devotional my wife did a couple of years ago; the 2024 devotions were put into book form this past year. The next slide is the Christmas booklets we just launched on some of the Christmas carols, and the website refresh that puts together all the different resources, not just the ones launched this past year but those from all the previous years. So you can check out the newly refreshed Calvary Baptist Publications website. All of it is in the interest of bringing the Bible home. We want to make sure the Scriptures are not just a weekend event, that it is not just “come to church, get some Bible, go home, and do not continue with it,” but that there is often something in your hand to help you continue with the Scriptures throughout the week.
The next pages in your booklet go with the next slides, and we covered several things; these are just the highlights from last year. The Philippines missions trip; we had a whole service afterward dedicated to it. Brother Davison came and preached for us. There was a ladies’ Bible study. Next was teen camp, and that was a wonderful year. I am so thankful for the many decisions at camp, and for the missions revival, committing $110,000 to missions this year. I am so thankful for our church’s heart for worldwide missions. And the fall festival was our first time doing anything like that. What a great success it was, to see so many souls saved and many, many guests at the church, some continuing with us since then. Then there were different church fellowships. The next slide shows the summer interns, and what a significant part of our services they were; our whole church body was affected by our summer interns this past year. Then the Christmas party and the missionaries who visited. It was exciting to think through this past year and list some of those highlights. The next slide is the videos we put out into the world. The public square today is not like a village square; many times the public square is online nowadays. So we wanted to have a presence online, to put content out there so you can bring the Bible home and continue with it throughout the week, putting thoughts out there on YouTube. We have an excellent streaming service when our internet is working. We are trying to get Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet installed here; that is in the works to take care of some of the livestream issues we have had. But I am so thankful for our livestream ministry. Then the YouTube Shorts: we made 140 of those this past year, most of them focused on the gospel, trying to get little snippets into people’s feeds so that as they are scrolling they hear the gospel. And sixty-eight more videos, and 180 new subscribers. We talked last year about renovating the staff house, and we did that early in the year. We had the welcome class for those new to CBC. We had our Deeper in the Word Bible Institute classes, and we are going to give certificates to those who completed this last semester very soon, not tonight, but in another service. Then we launched our CBC Weekly page, where the information from the bulletin is spread out through the week on social media. And that page also lists the various sermon series we have been through this year.
The 2026 Calendar
The next slide is the calendar, the full spread inside with the 2026 events. I say this every year: I just ask you to take this page home and transfer it to your personal calendar. Take the dates on here, and do not get caught off guard by any of the church events and say, “I did not know.” I will go, “Well, were you here on vision night? Did you get that booklet?” We want to make sure our church is involved in spiritual things. Plenty of things will call for your attention, and we want you to plan specifically and intentionally to be involved in spiritual things this year, to give yourself to something that will last for eternity and give priority to the right areas. The Great Commission is the right area to give your devotion to. So we will have the fall festival, Easter outreach events, and different times throughout the calendar when we are trying to take the Great Commission seriously. Mark down those outreach events and those missions events. We are not going to spring anything on you; not much happens last-minute around here. So in return, we just ask that you diligently take all these dates and transfer them to your own family calendar, however you do that.
A couple of the highlights. The first is our January 28th administration meeting, where we will talk through the budget. We have printed budgets if you want to see them; see any of the deacons. I have some extra prints, deacons, if you have given yours out already. So please ask your questions over the next couple of weeks. The deacon nominations are happening between now and then. One thing my sister-in-law’s church in Indiana does is incorporate some younger men as deacons, to be mentored by some of the older deacons, so that it is not a big turnover every few years; every so often they try to work in some of the younger men. With that in mind, I would love to hear your nominations, maybe even of some young men in whom you have seen a Spirit-filled nature and a servant’s heart. They have to be tested, of course; those are the scriptural qualifications. But I would love to see some nominations if there is a young man you think would be good to start mentoring, who could potentially be a deacon this year or in the next couple of years, one to keep an eye on. So be thinking about that. Our administration meeting will vote on those deacons.
Next, on February 14th, we are bringing back our preaching rally. It has been several years since we hosted this youth event, with three preaching services focused on one encouraging theme. It is on Valentine’s Day, with a dating theme, trying to save future marriages by encouraging these teens to give themselves to purity and to the right path. That one will take a lot of church help. Then we have Brother McCracken coming March 1st through 4th for our multi-night revival meetings. This will be the spring meeting, and the missions revival in the fall will be the other multi-night meeting. I am so excited to have Brother Dave McCracken back. April 5th is Easter this year. We need to start inviting folks to that already; people are always looking for churches around that time, so start trickling out the information. May 3rd is a date to highlight in May. That will be our debt-free offering. We want to use our thirty-ninth anniversary as a one-time push. We are not going to do any kind of ongoing commitments or campaigns for becoming debt-free; we are just building up to the Be Debt-Free offering on our anniversary, May 3rd. I will talk more about that in a little bit. Another one to highlight is June 1st, the regional church planters conference I mentioned. If you want to plan now to be in Phoenix June 1st and 2nd, it is just an overnight stay with good preaching: an evening session highlighting a field, morning sessions the next day until noon, a little break in the afternoon, and another evening session that night. So it is a two-day conference of preaching and giving to church planters. If you cannot make it to the Oklahoma meeting, I think this Phoenix meeting will give you a little taste of what a church planters conference is like, and we get to help host some of it, representing the California church planters, as I get to run that part of the service. So if you would like to be part of that, mark your calendar. Then July is teen camp, with Brother Jason Jett preaching, a phenomenal preacher. I am really looking forward to that, and he will be at our church the following Sunday. Then September 13th through 16th, mark that down for the missions revival. That is a heavy vacation time, so I would hate for you to be double-booked; try to mark it on your calendars nice and early, right now, so you can plan to be part of the missions revival. And then, of course, the fall festival. That was such a wonderful event last year, and we want to do it again. Brother Bruce Hebert, another fellow white-handlebar-mustached man, is going to be here with us. He and my dad are longtime buddies. He is a wonderful preacher who loves souls, and he will be a great preacher for us this year. You can see the rest on the printed events page; take that booklet home and mark all those dates.
New Staff
On the next page, “Coming in 2026,” we have new staff. I am so excited about our summer intern from last year and from 2023, Brother Alex Delid, who is returning not just as a summer intern this time but as a staff intern. He has committed to a year. He just graduated from Bible college, and he is committed to being here for a year to work with our current youth staff and the teens. It is an unpaid internship; he is working in exchange for some housing, and we might cover some of his medical if needed. After a year, we will reassess with him, and he with us, whether we would like to see him added to permanent staff, and if God changes either of our minds in the process, that is okay. I just sensed a good spirit in him and appreciated his heart for teens. He has a calling to youth ministry, and you can see it. At summer camp he was all involved with the teens, and they like him already. I just love Brother Alex. He is one of those guys where it is like, “Man, I cannot pay you. I wish I could do more. I do not have a big salary package like some of these Texas pastors with all that oil money in Texas. I cannot offer you much, but if you love California and you love working with teens and you want to do it for free, then come on out to California.” And he said, “I will do it. Yeah, that is fine.” He is just a crazy man, and I love that about him. He is flying out here in February and driving with us to El Paso for the GIBF meeting. He almost flew out here for the fall festival. He just wants to be here. He loves being around our church; he loves our church dearly. So I am so excited to have him back. I love his spirit, and I want to do anything I can to get him here. I am so thankful he is committed to being with us, and after graduation in May he will be making his way out here for that one-year staff internship, and hopefully long-term.
In that process, our staff was talking about this a couple of weeks ago. I realize he is young, and Brother Zach is still in his twenties. I believe Timothy in Scripture was younger than I am, and yet Paul trusted him and threw him into a daunting task. Jesus started His public ministry at thirty years old, though that is not necessarily the standard. The Levite priests started their ministries at twenty and served until fifty, and from fifty they switched to a mentorship role. The young men did the work of the ministry, the older men did the mentoring, and they were respected for their work. Again, I realize it is a young staff, and if you are older than somebody on staff, you might think, “They are just kids. Kids are playing church here.” You have to banish that mentality. This is the Lord’s church, and God uses so many different vessels. The Scriptures speak to that, in 1 Timothy 4:12: “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” You do not want familiarity to make you dismissive, to despise his youth. You do not want to allow that spirit to creep in. Even Jesus was rejected in His hometown, so we have to guard against that and be careful not to treat somebody as if, because of their age, we do not have to respect them. I appreciated Brother Stan so much. He would call me Pastor; Brother Welsh would. I was over at their house for sleepovers, best friends with the Welshes’ son Ryan, and yet, although he had known me since 1988, I think, when they first came to the church, he still just calls me Pastor. Brother Tory Rick, as a deacon, is just as careful with his words and wants to show respect, not because I have asked for it or they have asked for it. I get it; sometimes there is some jockeying for respect and position, and you do not know whom you can call by first name and all that. It is kind of a new process to go through. I was with Marcel when we were talking about this. There can be a familiarity battle, and first-name familiarity can sometimes be an act of disrespect in our culture. I am just taking that from the public schools; as I have said before, teachers are called Mr. and Mrs. as a sign of respect. To the older generation, anybody younger than you is a kid. And yet, again, I go back to Brother Stan. Everybody was a kid to Brother Stan, and yet he was so humble about it and did not hold it over anybody. So I would encourage the fathers in this room, especially regarding the youth staff, to show the leadership of your home by exemplifying this as clearly as possible, encouraging your kids by showing your own submission to authority, and that actually strengthens your leadership in your home. When it comes to the youth staff, I still think that if the public schools require it of their students, then at the very least the direct spiritual leaders of our teens ought to be called Brother Zach, Miss Shay, Brother Alex, Miss Da, not a first-name basis. Brother Zach is not their pastor; I am the pastor. But they are still the direct spiritual leaders of the teens in the youth group, and he is called by God to be in that place. I would encourage you dads to set that tone in your homes. And I would encourage you teens not to just say, “Well, he does not care.” No, it is about the respect you want to show, not what you think they have earned or what they are asking for. So just be careful about that, especially as Brother Alex comes in. The older ones might think, “He has been here since 2023 the first time. He is barely older than me. Why should I do that?” Our young people understand this when they go to Ironwood, where their counselors are sometimes seventeen or eighteen years old, and they still have to call them Mr. and Miss and all of that. I would like us to do that in our church. All that to say, Brother Alex is going to be joining our staff, and I am excited about that. I am aware of his youth. I started there too. I was married at twenty-one, and we jumped right into youth ministry, and one of the seniors we were working with was nineteen years old. We were two years older than him, so that is close in age, I realize. But still, we are excited for Brother Alex to come.
Bible Institute, Outreach, and Trips
The next page is the Deeper in the Word Bible Institute. There are a few new classes. There is the King James Version class, a deeper study of why we use the King James Version, which Dad is going to teach. I am going to teach the Bible survey class on Wednesday afternoons; I believe it will be just an Old Testament survey class. And Brother Sai is going to teach Revelation on Saturday mornings. That is an exciting lineup of classes this coming semester, and several have already signed up; you can see the sign-up sheet back at the resource desk. On the next page, the outreach page, you will see in the middle of the page our visitation refresh. We are going to go out on Saturdays. It will be more behind the scenes, and we are going to start small until some men are trained up to go out on their own. I just want to take some men with me, go out and do some visits, schedule those things out, train along the way, and get a growing group of people committed to visiting for our church, visiting guests and following up with absentees and all of that on Saturdays. I think that will be a real help to our church, and I am hoping to see it grow. The fall festival on the next page is going to be our biggest outreach event in the fall. Easter will be the biggest one in the spring, and the fall festival in the fall.
The next page is our Egypt, Israel, and Petra trip, and some have already expressed interest in going. Our church is not organizing a bit of it, and by “our church” I mean my wife; she is not organizing anything on this, so she is really relieved. That is the best part of the gift, that she does not have to organize it. She is so excited about that. Another church is organizing the entire trip. If you would like to be part of it, we will at least put out the dates or the church information and try to get that contact information to you, and then you will be at the mercy of this other church that is organizing it. But we are so excited to go. As I understand it, we are leaving on Thanksgiving Day for a ten- to twelve-day trip. That is on the left-hand side. And when our missionaries were here, I hinted at it, for those who were here that Wednesday night: I am so excited to go on the Patagonia missions trip. It is coming up in 2027, but we put it on this calendar year because all the planning goes into it this year: all the sign-ups, all the… not visas, what is the word I am looking for… passport preparations, all the financing, all of that needs to be planned this year. So the Patagonia missions trip is coming up in fall 2027, and I am very, very thrilled about it. I just cannot wait to go see the Sheridans. They were such a blessing when they were here, just passing through on a Wednesday night, but we actually get to go see them on their home turf and see some beautiful sights along the way. I picked this picture. I am not sure we are going to see this exact mountain, but he was talking about driving an hour to the other church they are starting, and he said, “The whole drive, as I am driving an hour, I am looking at stuff like this.” It is Patagonia, so anywhere you turn it is going to be beautiful. So I am really excited to see some of the sights out there and the churches the Sheridans have started.
Be Debt-Free Sunday
I will end with this last page, our Be Debt-Free Sunday. By the end of last year, we had just around $200,000 left on our goal. That whole thermometer represents about $2.4 million we took out in 2006, and we have been paying and paying and paying on it. The first several years we were only paying the bank; it was all interest and almost no principal, and that thermometer was not moving a bit. Now that we are at the end of it, we are closing in on the final little bitty white part at the top. And yet still, even at this stage, when we are paying mostly principal, about $12,000 a year is budgeted just for taxes and interest fees. I am going, “Man, that is $800 or $1,000 a month going to the banks and not to ministry.” I just want to pay this thing off and be done with it, and I believe God can provide. We are going to give continuously through our normal giving, but I am asking God to provide an additional $100,000 on top of the $100,000 we normally give every year, and I believe He can do it. In my first year of pastoring, $150,000 worth of issues popped up, and God took care of it all: a new elevator, a new soundboard, water mains breaking, all of it in the first year. God took care of all of it, through miraculous means. So I am asking God to do the same thing here with this final debt, so that on our thirty-ninth anniversary we can make a big chunk, wipe that thing out by the end of the year, perhaps using some of our reserves to finally pay it off, and go into our fortieth year completely debt-free. Would that not be wonderful? Just to be out from under it would mean $9,000 a month no longer going to the banks but going to ministry. As it says there, we would be able to increase our staff. As I said, Brother Alex has agreed to work for free; he is going to have to get a side job and finance himself, and we will cover his housing. Paying off the debt would let us bring him on and increase Brother Zach and Miss Shay to a living wage for our region, which I think would be very, very good. I mentioned on Wednesday that they are making under $30,000. Somebody thought I said $130,000 and was going, “I want to be an associate pastor. That would be pretty good.” And then I said, “I think he needs a raise,” and everyone was going, “$130,000, and he needs a raise? Man!” So I think that would be a good help for them as well. And souls: any increase, of course, would go toward reaching souls. Something like our fall festival was a wonderful outreach, but if you are just buying meat, that will cost you a couple thousand bucks right there; the whole event was about $3,500 or so. If we want to do events like that and reach people for Christ, it just costs money, and paying off the mortgage early would allow that whole mortgage payment to go toward outreach endeavors. And stability: the more our buildings age, the more problems show up. I walk up here, and there are frayed carpets and paint that needs to happen, and there are still those tree roots pushing up the concrete out there; we just ground them down to smooth out the tripping hazards. There are aging facilities and trees that need to be removed and all kinds of things like that. We are real careful with it and try to keep it as clean as possible, but you do not want to go blind; the longer you are somewhere, the more you go blind to the problems. We want to keep our eyes open to the problems, because that is what guests see. And we want the finances to be there when an AC unit goes out so we can replace it, or if a major water problem happens again, or whatever, so we can just cover it. Having some reserves, because the debt is paid off, would be a wonderful stabilizing factor for our church. I think that would be a good goal for us. We are going to say more about this Be Debt-Free Sunday, and I have a different booklet that will line out some of these things. If all we do is pay off the debt, that is wonderful. If more comes in, I have dreams that go up to $500,000, $700,000, a million, and all of that. It just depends on what God wants to bring in. We are ready for it, and I am excited to see what God may want to do.
