

Rhythms: In Step with Jesus
July - September 2025
This summer at Calvary, we’re taking a fresh look at the spiritual rhythms that formed the first Christians. These weren’t religious routines or programs; they were patterns of grace that naturally flowed from knowing Jesus – habits like prayer, community, generosity, worship, and mission. Whether you’re in the midst of family life or learning to walk through a quieter season, these rhythms can help deepen your walk with Jesus. They’re not about doing more, but about living more fully…rooted in God’s story of redemption, and in step with Jesus in your everyday life.
What makes Christian community truly different?
In Acts 20, Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders shows us that community is more than fellowship, it’s sharing life with other believers as we follow Jesus together. In this message, Carlos Velez unpacks the rhythm of community and explains how community includes humble leadership that serves like Jesus and guards the truth from distortion. While living in community, the church will experience God’s embrace and have God’s love revealed through his people.
What happens when God’s people pay attention to the needs around them?
In Acts 6:1–7, the early church faced division and real need, and their Spirit-led awareness led to action that brought restoration and protected the witness of the gospel. In this message, Carlos Velez unpacks the rhythm of awareness, paying attention to others, our own responses, and what God is doing.
We all long to be encouraged, but even more, God calls us to be encouragers who strengthen others in their walk with Jesus. In Acts 11, we see how God’s grace was at work in the early church, turning persecution into growth, building up new believers, and sending out generosity that fueled mission far beyond their city. In this message, Brad McKerley unpacks what biblical encouragement looks like. True encouragement comes from being changed by God’s grace, pointing out his fingerprints in the lives of others, speaking words that strengthen, and living generously so the gospel continues to spread. Discover how you can see grace, share grace, and spread grace this week in your home, church, and community.
Accountability isn’t about control, it’s about community and commitment. It’s how we walk together in grace, truth, and humility. Honest community creates space for restoration, support, and growth. In this message, Steve Sauers unpacks the rhythm of accountability as part of God’s design for discipleship. It restores us when we fall, helps carry one another’s burdens, and keeps us humble before God. When we live in honest, grace-filled relationships rather than hiding and shame, we not only grow stronger in Jesus, but we show the watching world the beauty of the gospel.
Blessed to Bless (Acts 3)
What happens when God’s blessings don’t stop with us, but flow through us to others? In Acts 3, a crippled man is healed and leaps for joy – a vivid picture of how the gospel changes lives. The gospel brings blessing in many forms – healing, hope, joy, forgiveness, restoration – and God invites us to be conduits of that blessing. In our everyday lives, we can bless others with our words, our presence, our resources, and our witness to Jesus
In this message, Charles Zimmerman unpacks a powerful truth: worship isn’t a song or a moment, it’s a whole-life response to who God is and what he’s done. Through stories across Scripture, he challenges common misconceptions and offers a biblical definition: seeing God accurately and responding appropriately.
Are you tired from the relentless pace of life, burdened by responsibilities that never seem to let up? In this message, Brad McKerley shares the comforting invitation of Jesus in Matthew 11, an invitation to step into the rhythm of rest.
This kind of rest goes deeper than a nap or a vacation. It’s the soul-level peace that comes from coming to Jesus with our weariness, exchanging our heavy burdens for his light yoke, and learning to walk in step with him. In the book of Acts, we see the early church live out this rhythm, even in chaos and suffering, because they trusted the one who leads.
The rhythm of rest is part of our Three Relationships Discipleship model, how we grow in relationship with God by pausing regularly to declare that he, not productivity, rules our lives. Jesus offers more than a pause, he offers a person, a path, and a peace that changes everything.
In the book of Acts there is an ever present setting of prayer in the early church. Prayer was the way that normal, imperfect people connected with an almighty, powerful God. Prayer was the starting point for when decisions had to be made, for when hardships were faced and for every other part of the church’s everyday life.
In this sermon we continue to look at the rhythms of Three Relationships Discipleship as we take a look at prayer. Prayer is talking, listening and responding to God. We will take a look at how the early church was a praying church. And in this examination we will learn that the church today needs to be a praying church as well. Join us as we learn about how we can live out the rhythm of prayer together as a church.
In Acts 16, we see how one Spirit-led moment of engagement helped launch the church in Europe. God opened Lydia’s heart, and in turn, her hospitality created space for the gospel to take root in the lives of others. In this message, Carlos Velez unpacks the rhythm of engagement: welcoming others into your life and intentionally participating in theirs. It’s not about having the perfect words or a polished plan. It’s about being present, living with intention, and trusting God to do what only he can. Three Relationships is our discipleship model at Calvary Church. It’s centered on growing in relationship with God, the church, and the world. It’s not a to-do list. It’s about living in step with Jesus through real love, trust, and purpose. The rhythm of engagement is one way we live out our relationship with the world. One invitation, one conversation, one step of obedience at a time.
What does it really mean to invest in the church and the mission of Jesus?
In this message from Acts 4–6, we discover how the early church’s Spirit-filled generosity turned their time, talents, and treasure into a gospel movement. Charles Zimmerman unpacks the difference between stewardship & ownership and how fear, hypocrisy, and self-interest can sabotage a gospel-centered community. With grace as the foundation and mission as the focus, we’re invited to examine our hearts and follow the Spirit into deeper investment. Because before we give anything; God gave us everything!"
Sharing your faith doesn’t require a stage, just a willing heart. Whether it’s a moment like KidFest, where over 1,000 kids heard the gospel, or a quiet conversation in your everyday life, the rhythm of sharing invites us to live and speak in ways that point others to Jesus.
In Acts 8, Philip responds without hesitation, reveals the truth about Jesus, and repeats the mission wherever he goes. If your life has been changed by Jesus, you already have everything you need to help someone else meet him, too.
The Rhythm of Scripture: My life is shaped by the full story of the Bible.
What if the Bible isn’t just a book of rules or stories, but the story that makes sense of your life?