Pastor Chris Lenhart | February 23, 2023
August 1932, in the city of Chicago it is hot. Tommy Dorsey and his wife Nettie are preparing for the birth of their first child. Nettie is in the final month of her pregnancy, but Tommy is needed in St. Louis as one of the featured soloists in an upcoming revival meeting. A highly talented and in-demand jazz artist, Dorsey had made a successful transition into the world of gospel music...read more
Pastor Chris Lenhart | January 26, 2023
Each year, I find a few thoughts to keep at the front of my mind to challenge me in the various roles that God has invited me into. Together, these reflections form my version of New Year’s resolutions. The first goal is always to look more like Jesus in 2023 than in 2022. And how might that happen? The following three big ideas will be on my mind this year as the Spirit continues to shape me into...read more
Pastor Chris Lenhart | February 28, 2022
Pastor Chris Lenhart | January 20, 2022
1. Learn names and birthdays. Write down the names, and possibly birthdates, of your neighbors and keep them close by so that you can pray for them.
2. Pray regularly. Pray regularly, by name, for your neighbors.
3. Make, take, or buy a meal. Consult with your neighbors on the possibility of making them a meal, or buy them a gift card to a local pizza shop or restaurant and anonymously put it in their mail...read more
Pastor Chris Lenhart | October 6, 2021
Life brings seasons of grief, loss, and mourning. If we haven’t endured or experienced them yet, at one point or another, on this side of Heaven, we all will. Our upcoming seminar advances a myriad of opportunities to demonstrate our love for God and one another by growing in our ability to care for ourselves in seasons of grief, or care for a family member, dear friend, or neighbor when...read more
Pastor Chris Lenhart | January 14, 2021
1. Join a home group: Contact Garrett Herdter (gherdter@calvarymonument.org) for more information on how you can participate in this ministry.
2. Volunteer in our children and/or AWANA or student ministries: Contact Kristen Weber (kweber@calvarymonument.org) or Garrett Herdter to inquire about available opportunities to volunteer in our children or youth ministries...read more
Pastor Tom Hubbard | December 16, 2020
2020. Is there anything else to write about? Don’t answer that, it is rhetorical (there, I have always wanted to say that). Some of you may have wondered about my retirement, maybe 3 people. It has been strange. Yes, many important reasons. First, it was strange having Susan go off to work two different part-time jobs, leaving me at home with the wash and...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | December 9, 2020
Probably during the Christmas season we will see a bumper sticker or a plaque somewhere that reads, “Wise men still seek him.” The reference is of course to the wise men of the Christmas story as recorded in Matthew 2:1-12. The group of men that Matthew refers to are the “magi,” a term according to the ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, that was...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | November 4, 2020
In a crowd my mother had a way of getting her message to me without embarrassing me. First, it was the look. Mothers, in my opinion, have mastered this method. For my Mom it was a raised eyebrow and a slight frown line on her forehead. Then it was the secret code – a word, a sentence, or a series of letters that made no sense to anyone else...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | October 7, 2020
The tragedy occurred December 29, 1972, when the macro view was lost by a focus on the micro view. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a scheduled flight from New York JFK to Miami and was on approach to their destination near midnight. The fight had been routine. As they approached their landing and the landing gear was lowered, the cockpit crew noticed the absence of...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | September 2, 2020
In June 2020 a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll reported that “an overwhelming majority, 80%, feel that the country is spiraling out of control.” It is so bad that people describe 2020 as “the worst year ever.” Mary Schmich writes, “When we talk about 2020 as the worst year ever we mean many entangled things: A pandemic. The death and economic destruction caused by the...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | August 5, 2020
Now that sports are slowly starting up in a rather helter-skelter way, it may be good to review a key piece of advice that coaches will be shouting out to their players. It seems the same phrase applies equally well in baseball, tennis, basketball, football, soccer, lacrosse, and any other sport where a ball is involved. The advice coming from coaches, as well as parents and...read more
Pastor Chris Lenhart | July 28, 2020
Becoming aware is not always a comfortable activity. From the beginning of this series, I have acknowledged that these words and sentiments might make some feel a bit unsettled. I have also expressed that it is not my desire to convict, guilt-trip, or shame anyone. This is about awareness leading us towards attitudes of lament, grief, confession, repentance, and...read more
Pastor Chris Lenhart | July 21, 2020
A new command. As it turns out, the systemic and institutionalized oppression of other people are not just realities alive and well in America today. These were realities that were very much alive and well in the near eastern religion of Judaism. The Pharisees in the New Testament Gospels are mirrors. These men reflect towards us our most pervasive desires to rule, control, manipulate...read more
Pastor Chris Lenhart | July 14, 2020
My whole life, at every intersection where I have had the opportunity to educate myself on the race-based chattel slavery of African Americans, systemic racism, institutionalized racism, white privilege, fragility, supremacy, or superiority, I have failed. I have failed because by and large, I have only allowed myself to be educated by people who look just like me...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | July 1, 2020
Oliver Cromwell supposedly told his portrait painter to depict him “warts and all,” rather than in a flattering manner typical of his time. He had a very visible physical wart as well as many political and ethical ones. He was an English general and statesman who led armies against King Charles I in the English Civil War and oversaw brutal military campaigns. He is even charged...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | June 17, 2020
In these Covid-19 days I have been responding to Facebook notifications concerning “friends” birthdays with this statement to the birthday celebrants, “Birthday blessings! Eat an extra slice of birthday cake. It fights off viruses. It must be true. I read it on Facebook.” As you probably surmise, this is a rather tongue in cheek statement. Just in case someone missed the sarcasm...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | June 3, 2020
The car caught my eye on my early morning walk. It was plastered with painted slogans on every window except the windshield. A cardboard poster inside the window read, “Black lives matter.” On the porch by the driveway where the car was parked sat a 30-something man. He was sitting wrapped in a blanket, reclining on a lounge chair, and typing madly on his laptop. He only...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | May 20, 2020
The Apostle Paul quoted the poets and prophets of his day to gain perspective in the realities of his present day (Act 17:28; Titus 1:12). It is a good idea at times to understand how people of our day think and process life. Sometimes a secular song writer, the poets of our day, captures the day in which we live. Bruce Springsteen writes how people think about the “good old days” in...read more
Pastor Chris Lenhart | May 13, 2020
Do you have enough pearly white toilet paper? How about meat? How about haircare/coloring products? Tylenol? Bread? Many of these items have, at one point or another, been difficult to find during COVID-19. A friend of mine, who happens to sell a lot of beef, recently said to me, “I have to ask myself if I’ve been distracted selling beef rather than Jesus. Have I bought enough Jesus?...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | May 6, 2020
Seeing that it is Mother’s Day and we are in the middle of a pandemic, my imagination got ramped up a bit. I began to reflect on how my mother might have responded. I pulled myself back into my childhood memories (yes older people still have them) when I was a boy. I wonder how Mom would have acted or reacted to events we see around us today. Her day was vastly different...read more
Pastor Chris Lenhart | April 29, 2020
Our lives can be transformed in an instant. I want to encourage you to prepare your hearts and minds for when the time comes for us to regather in CMBC’s building. Things will not look the same as they did before COVID-19. There will be many changes. Perhaps it will even feel as if a total transformation has occurred. The space that once occupied so many loved and cherished...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | April 23, 2020
Each summer for many years our family would rent for several weeks an old sea captain’s house along the coast of Boothbay Harbor, ME. There we would relax, read, recreate, and do occasional day trips to various places along mid-coast Maine. One of the things we especially enjoyed was traveling to the Bath Iron Works to see the Navy ships that were under construction. It was...read more
Pastor Chris Lenhart | April 15, 2020
Perhaps this thought first crept into your mind a few weeks ago and you quickly stuffed it back into its dark and discombobulated closet and slammed the door. “Certainly, I can’t like worshiping this way better than our normal Sunday gatherings, can I?” New realities in how church leaders are creating and distributing content, in light of COVID-19, have many asking the question...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | April 9, 2020
“This is so unexpected” “Who could have ever thought?” “What is going on here?” “What does this all mean?” “Where is this all headed?” “Is there any way to explain all this?” “What does this mean for us?” “This is just so hard to process.” These statements and questions are likely ones you are hearing in conversations as people react to the situation in which they find themselves...read more
Pastor Chris Lenhart | April 1, 2020
There is a pattern that has emerged from the consequences of this pandemic. Isolation gives way to fear, fear to loneliness, loneliness to anxiety, anxiety to despair, despair to mourning. We cannot hide from the realities of both physical and material loss that have manifested themselves as this virus has tarried in our towns and communities. Like a desperate climber reaching for a hold...read more
Pastor Bob Reid | March 25, 2020
The enemy is huge. It is unlike anything previously faced. It is threating. It looks unbeatable. The nation’s future, it appears, hangs in the balance. Resources have been evaluated and have come up short to address the adversary. People are scared and feel hopeless. Fear has gripped hearts. A type of emotional paralysis has gripped the nation and has been translated into...read more
