March 24, 1999
Young church starts 21 missions
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___CORPUS CHRISTI--Calvario Baptist Church in Corpus Christi is in the planting business, but March 7 was a day of harvest.
___Pastor Pete Castro leads a young congregation--the church began three years ago as a mission sponsored by Central Baptist Church in Robbstown--and its youthful optimism and vitality are readily evident.
___Two months after the church began with 16 people, it had grown to the degree that it needed to rent a place to meet. Six months later,they bought the building. The same day the church was constituted, it started six missions. Calvario now is a "key church" with 11 missions and 10 others that are meeting in homes, but awaiting pastors.
CALVARIO BAPTIST CHURCH in Corpus Christi not only celebrated its 21 mission congregations March 7 but also ordained five men to the ministry: Cesar Alaniz, Ruben Benavides, Domingo Velasco, Armando Alaniz and Raul Elizondo.
___Calvario is meeting that need as well. It has begun the Corpus Christi School of Church Planting to train new pastors for its missions. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has an agreement with the school and gives the pastors credit for the hours they meet each Thursday.
___The church has been multiplying by dividing, but it finally was time for a little addition, Castro said. That happened at the March 7 celebration.
___"Our church gets up to 200 and then we go back to 100, because we start new works. We felt we needed to get them all together so they could see what God has been doing here," Castro said.
___When Calvario and its 21 mission congregations got together, the crowd was greater than the mother church could handle, so Morgan Avenue Baptist Church in Corpus Christi allowed them to use their facilities for the gathering.
___"We had a victory," Castro said in summing up the day.
___Total attendance was 810, and 40 people were baptized, five men ordained to the ministry and another four licensed to preach. All from a church which averages just over 100 in Sunday school.
___On hand for the day were Lynn Eckeberger of the Baptist General Convention of Texas; David Guel, a consultant with the BGCT church starting center; and Harvey Kneisel, director of missions for Corpus Christi Baptist Association.
___"The work is hard, but the laborers are ready to work hard," Castro said of his congregation. "We are blessed with workers who believe in the Great Commission. We believe that when you go through the doors of your church, there is your mission field."
___Seeing how God has blessed gives encouragement to do even more, Castro said. "In my church, you can't convince them that we can't win Corpus Christi for Christ."
___The church has many community programs other than its missions, including latchkey programs, a drug rehabilitation facility and a halfway house for those leaving incarceration.
___"We're trying to meet the needs of the people. We're trying to be faithful to God, and he has been faithful to us. The more we spend, the more God sends," Castro said.
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