The Events that Gave Birth to the M Squared Project

Article: Externally Focused Churches
By Eric Swanson / Leadership Community Director

This month's "Best Practice" comes from Calvary Bible Evangelical Free Church (Calvary) in Boulder, Colorado (www.calvaryboulder.org).

For over one hundred years Calvary has been the type of church that is the bedrock of any community--solid Bible teaching, strong worship, sacrificial commitment to missions, growing youth ministry - not unlike thousands of other churches around the country. The people of Calvary have always been the kind of people you'd want as your neighbors--genuine and sincere.

But something began to happen a few years ago that changed the nature of the church from a traditional internally focused church to an emerging leader of externally focused churches.

No longer do they say, "How can we meet the needs out there in our community, when we have so many needs to meet inside the church?" Their inward strength and capacity is growing as they take their strength into the community.

In the late 1990's Lead Pastor Tom Shirk disguised himself as a homeless man and walked into the sanctuary. His beard was scruffy, his clothes were dirty, and there was a smell of alcohol on his clothes.

Imagine the shock when Tom got up to preach that morning on James 2:1-6--"Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in."


At about this same time, Judy Pitt, a successful realtor in the church, began her "On the Corner" ministry to homeless men who stood on the corner hawking the local paper. Judy began taking love to these men in the form of hot coffee, donuts and conversation.

Working with the Youth Group, Judy regularly recruited young men to sell newspapers for these men while Judy took the men to church. The men enjoyed the warmth of the church and the fellowship, and the homeless men began trusting Christ.

In 1999, Calvary received a modest inheritance from a member who had passed away. The leadership proposed to the congregation that $40,000 of this money be used to build a Habitat for Humanity house. After some debate the congregation agreed, and with the labor of 60 volunteers from Calvary, constructed a three bedroom, two bathroom home for a single mom in their community.

In 2000, Boulder's Shelter for the Homeless approached Calvary, asking if they would be willing to house and host up to ten men each Monday night from October to April, and Calvary agreed. The director of the shelter publicly credits Calvary and other host churches for saving countless lives in Boulder during the freezing months of winter. Today a small group of homeless folks call Calvary their home church. They may still be homeless but they have found a "home" and a family at Calvary.

The Spirit of God began to awaken individuals, giving them their own creative ways to be salt and light in the community. One woman "adopted" a group of "lost boys of Sudan", helping them with housing and jobs and bringing them to church.
One group got the idea to partner with Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree Ministry and began hosting Christmas parties and bringing gifts to the families of the incarcerated.

A group of men sponsored free bike tune-up clinics in city parks located in low-income neighborhoods. They also had a large stash of bikes to give away to kids that had no bikes.

In partnership with the local Safe House for battered women, Calvary has taken the responsibility to refurbish four rooms every few months or so. This work is not only satisfying but also redemptive.

One recovering alcoholic man, who had recently come to Christ at Calvary, helped build cabinets for the kitchen in the Safe House where his wife used to take refuge.

In November 2003, seventeen members from Calvary attended Safe House's annual banquet where the year's accomplishments were celebrated. To a standing ovation the members went forward and received an award for their "distinguished contribution to the work of the Safe House in 2003" for the work and contribution they made to the women of Boulder County.

In presenting the award, the Safe House director said of Calvary, "Every time we turned around, you people were doing something else for the Safe House! We would have never imagined a partnership like this a few years ago!"

When the local shelter for runaway youth needed refurbishing, Calvary led the process by providing volunteers twice a week for six months.

In June of 2003, inspired by pastor Denny Belesi of Coast Hills Community Church of Aliso Viejo, California, author of The Kingdom Assignment (Zondervan), Pastor Shirk gave the congregation of nearly a thousand a challenge and an assignment.

After preaching on the parable of the talents, he asked 50 people from each service to come forward for a "kingdom assignment." "For some of you," he said, "this will be the most important thing you have ever done in your entire life."

People streamed forward and Tom handed each of them a hundred-dollar bill (provided by an anonymous businessman).

As they ran out of money, a man in the congregation came forward and thrust a handful of hundred dollar bills into Tom's hand so that everyone who wanted to participate could take part in this assignment.

Then, as in the parable of the talents, Tom told them to "go multiply it for the kingdom." The only stipulations were that it was God's money and they had to multiply it, give it to something that would expand God's Kingdom, and they had to report back how they invested the money three months later.

One family took their hundred dollars and sponsored a dog wash that made $1300 and donated the money to the Safe House.

Another family planted a garden and sold vegetables.

One eleven-year old boy asked for a dollar, made up flyers advertising his willingness to do yard work that summer and raised $273, which he donated to the Sudanese refugees.

In all, Calvary turned the $11,000 into over $50,000 in three months. People were beginning to experience the joy of stewardship and service.

But there was a second Kingdom Assignment. The first assignment pertained to talents. The second kingdom assignment had to do with treasure.

In September 2003, after preaching on the rich young ruler who refused to sell his treasure (Luke 18:18-28), members were again challenged with another kingdom assignment. Two hundred people took the challenge to sell a "treasure" worth at least $100.

In some cases, the treasure might be a hindrance to a more authentic walk with God.
In other cases, the treasure might be something that they had lying around the house. The money was to be collected around Thanksgiving and collectively distributed to three agencies that serve the poor in Boulder County.

The response was incredible. One man sold his Rolex watch; another sold a big screen TV.

One family committed money from a timeshare vacation home that had been on the market for three years along with over twenty other timeshares in the same complex.

Only one had been sold in the previous year, but their timeshare sold.
In all, these two hundred people raised over $83,000, of which over $74,000 was given to three human service agencies in Boulder that serve the poor and needy.


The executive directors of these agencies broke down with tears of gratitude when pastor Tom, accompanied by a couple of staff or elders, presented the checks to them.

They were overwhelmed with the love and grace of God through a local church. Calvary is using the remaining $8,300 of the $83,000 as seed money to start the first Kingdom Assignment in two other churches in Boulder.

On Christmas Day, on the front page of Boulder's newspaper, The Daily Camera, Calvary was featured along with two other churches, as examples of churches that were really making a difference in the community.

"Let your light shine so that men may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." The light is shining a bit brighter in Boulder this year.

Calvary continues to move into the community. Over four hundred people from Calvary have signed up for the third Kingdom Assignment -- to give of their time -- "90 minutes over 90 days" to serve outside the church based on Mark 10:45

("For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give…"). This month Calvary hosted 35 different community service organizations and parachurch ministries that serve the distressed of our community at an Opportunities Fair on Sunday morning.

Church members eagerly met with executive directors and staff of human service agencies trying to discern the best place to get face to face with needs of the community.

Who knows what will happen next? Opportunities have become strategies to make a difference in the community. People at Calvary are experiencing the joy of walking in "the good works which God prepared beforehand" (Ephesians 2:10) for them to do.