Many Christian churches focus on their services and sermons without trying to engage people in other ways. Calvary Church of Pacific Palisades is a church, that while interested in their services and sermons, puts a high value on those other ways to connect with people for the message of Christ. Their offer a wide variety of other ways to get connected for people from all different age groups and backgrounds. They have an entire section on their website dedicated just to keeping people connected.
The first thing that this Santa Monica church has to offer is Awana. Awana is a program for children of different ages. They start off the program with a prayer and games to get kids in the mood for learning and to help them focus. As most people know, allowing kids to get out a lot of their excess energy is the first way to prepping their mind for the learning that is to follow. This is the main reason that we have recess and physical education in the majority of public school elementary. They then break the kids up into groups of their differing ages and have them go over Bible verses and the like. Then they bring everyone back together for prayer. They understand the importance of taking a light approach to the topic of faith and religion.
The next thing that this church has to offer is their college group. Although the name would lead one to think that this group is only for college students, in reality it is for any young adult that has finished with high school and is trying to take the next step in their life. The goal of this group is to help people with their faith as they work to start their career or earn their degree. Since the church is located in Santa Monica, they have a large number of students that come to this group from Pepperdine and UCLA. They look to engage these young minds in critical discussion of the issues central to their faith and to help guide them along their life’s faith journey. They also offer UNITE for this age group, another fun event that typically involves dinner and continuing to delve into the issues that are most central to the faith of the members.
MOPS is another one of the ways they try to help people stay connected with their faith and with each other. This group is designed for mothers of preschoolers, or parents with young children. Because children take up so much of the time of many of the mothers, it is important for women of this age group to have a time where they can sit down with another, talk about the things going on in their life, and discuss their faith. They also hold a Bible study where they discuss the issues that are important to them.
As you can see, Calvary Church of Pacific Palisades is a church that is determined to reach out and help the lives of every single person that they can.