The CGN Podcast

Pastor Ray Ortlund is the president of Renewal Ministries and serves as a pastor to pastors from his home base at Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee. A friend of Calvary Global Network, Ray spoke at the 2022 CGN International Conference on the topic of building and fostering gospel-centered culture in our churches. In this second bonus episode, and the final episode of Season 3, we have Pastor Ray’s message from the conference, as well as a special interview, in which Pastor Brian Brodersen speaks with Ray about his experience in ministry and why he sees such a need for developing gospel culture in our churches. If you liked what you heard in the bonus episodes this season, then consider attending the next CGN International Conference — which will be held at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa from June 25-28, 2023. We are currently planning the next season of the podcast. Make sure you are subscribed so you will be notified when those new episodes are posted in early 2023. Thanks for listening, and God bless you!

In the New Testament we see how, as the gospel spread, new churches were established as hubs for discipleship and carrying out God’s mission in a local area. But is there still a need for new churches today? In this final episode of Season 3, Nick Cady speaks with the Core Team of the Cultivate Church Planter Training Program, an initiative of CGN which has developed a local-church based program to assess, train, deploy, and care for leaders who will spearhead new church plants around the world. The members of the Cultivate Core Team believe that the world needs more gospel-centered churches, and in this episode they talk about why there is a need for more churches, as well as some common mistakes that church planters and sending churches can make, and some proven methods for helping new church plants succeed. Finally, they discuss how Cultivate works, and how people can get connected. Listen for a clip from Pastor Chuck Smith on the topic of church planting. The Cultivate Core Team is: Nick Cady, Kellen Criswell, Brian Kelly, and Bruce Zachary. More information about Cultivate can be found at cultivatechurchplanting.com Send us your feedback on these episodes at CGN@calvarychapel.com

Expositors Collective is an organization that hosts training events and provides resources to help people grow as Bible teachers and preachers of God’s Word. Recently, Expositors Collective came into formal relationship with CGN. Teaching, according to the Bible, is a Spiritual gift, and it is also a skill which can be developed and improved. What is the relationship between the spiritual gifting of teaching, and the responsibility to steward that gift by doing your best to make sure you are rightly dividing and effectively communicating the "Word of Truth"? As Christians, we all engage with the Bible at some level, so even if someone isn’t preaching sermons on Sunday mornings, they will likely have many opportunities to share Biblical truth and wisdom with others. For this reason, it is important for us to grow in both our private study and our public proclamation of God’s Word. In this episode, Nick Cady speaks with Kellen Criswell and Mike Neglia about the history of Expositors Collective and what are some of the unique elements of it, as well as how Expositors Collective works with CGN in our mission to Proclaim the Gospel, Make Disciples, and Plant Churches. Listen for a clip from Pastor Chuck Smith about sermon preparation and how it works together with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  We’d love to hear feedback from you on these episodes. You can email us at CGN@calvarychapel.com

In Acts 20:26 Paul the Apostle tells the leaders of the Ephesian church that he innocent of their blood because, during his time in Ephesus, he taught them “the whole counsel of God’s Word.” What does it mean to teach the whole counsel of God’s word, and how can we be sure we are doing this in our churches? One of the core values of CGN is biblical literacy. In this episode, Nick Cady speaks with Kellen Criswell to discuss what CGN is doing to promote biblical literacy and to encourage the teaching of “the whole counsel of God’s Word.” As part of this discussion, they talk about biblical theology and Christ-centered hermeneutics, as they discuss the importance of teaching every part of the Bible in relation to the big story that all of the Bible together tells. We’d love to hear feedback from you on these episodes. You can email us at CGN@calvarychapel.com

One of the things CGN exists to do, is to provide care and coaching for those in ministry leadership. How do we help people to avoid burnout? How do we help those who are struggling with very difficult things, either in ministry or on a personal level? This past July, we partnered with Cross Culture Missions to put on a conference specifically for those in our network who have been involved in providing aid and relief on the ground, since the war began in Ukraine.  We have ministry partners both in Ukraine and the surrounding countries who have been helping suffering and displaced people — and yet, many of these leaders are suffering and displaced themselves. Using some of the resources and relationships God has provided us with, we were able to minister to these families at our conference center in Austria. The following conversation is a "Field Report," recorded at that conference, between some CGN leaders and good friends, discussing what was unique about this conference, and sharing and celebrating God’s work through Calvary Chapel in Europe over the past four decades. Donations to the CGN Relief Fund can be made here: https://calvaryglobalnetwork.com/relief/ We’d love to hear feedback from you on these episodes. You can email us at CGN@calvarychapel.com

What does CGN believe about the nature, purpose, and destiny of the church, both locally and globally? What constitutes a church, and what role do churches, and “the church” as a whole, have to play in God’s mission in the world? Furthermore, what models of church government can be found in CGN churches? In this episode, Nick Cady speaks with Kellen Criswell about CGN’s beliefs about ecclesiology. They talk about the “Moses Model” and other forms of church government, as well as questions of contextualization in different cultural settings. We’d love to hear feedback from you on these episodes. You can email us at CGN@calvarychapel.com

One of the phrases you might hear us use to describe who we are and what we’re about as Calvary Global Network, is the phrase: “Gospel-Centered Renewal.” For example, on our website, we describe ourselves as “a family of churches working together for gospel-centered renewal.” But what do we mean by that? What is “renewal” - and what makes “Gospel-centered renewal” unique? In this episode, Nick Cady speaks with Kellen Criswell about the biblical basis of this phrase, what it means — and how it applies to different areas of life and ministry. Listen for a clip from Pastor Chuck Smith, where he expresses his views on this topic as well. We’d love to hear feedback from you on these episodes. You can email us at CGN@calvarychapel.com

How much of an emphasis does Calvary Global Network put on eschatology: the area of theology that deals with studying the end times? What is CGN’s position on end times theology, and how does the network relate to those who do not hold that position? In this episode, Nick Cady speaks with Brian Brodersen and Kellen Criswell about “Premillenialism," which is one of the theological streams to which CGN belongs. We explain what premillennialism is, and why we hold this view. We also discuss the relationship between Premillenialism and “Dispensationalism” — and explain how this distinction works practically out in our network. Brian Brodersen responds to some questions about his own views on End Times theology, and listen for a clip from Pastor Chuck Smith, sharing his heart on these matters. New episodes are being released every two weeks, so make sure you subscribe to the podcast! Episodes will be delivered to your device as soon as they come out. We’d love to hear feedback from you on these episodes. You can email us at CGN@calvarychapel.com

The recent years have presented new challenges for pastors and leaders, and many studies are showing that discouragement is at an all time high. Even apart the unique events of the past few years, pastoring and leading can be difficult. What is CGN doing as a network to provide care and coaching for pastors and leaders? In this episode, Brian Brodersen, Kellen Criswell, and Nick Cady are joined by Rob Salvato, who leads the Leadership Care and Coaching Team for CGN. In our discussion, Rob shares about the ways their team is developing systems and providing resources to help pastors and leaders in practical ways, including providing resources to help them lead, and providing a lifeline for those who are struggling. Together we share about some of the struggles we’ve faced as leaders, and how relationships within our network helped us in those times; as well as how we would like to make that experience available to anyone who needs it. Check out the Leadership Collective Podcast here. The Calvary Chapel / CGN International Conference is coming up soon — it will be from June 26-29 in Costa Mesa, California. For more information and registration, visit conference.calvarychapel.com New episodes are being released every 2 weeks, so make sure you subscribe to the podcast, so those episodes will be delivered to your device as soon as they come out. We’d love to hear feedback from you on these episodes. You can email us at CGN@calvarychapel.com

What is the role of mission and outreach in the life of a church, or in the life of a disciple of Jesus? Is engagement in missions an optional activity, or is it an integral part of what it means to be a Christian? Where exactly is the “mission field”? In this episode, I speak with Kellen Criswell and Mike Neglia about the history of missions and missional engagement in Calvary Chapel, and why this is a core value of CGN as a network. We talk about how Calvary Chapel has been privileged to be part of two great revivals: one in the United States in the 1960’s & 70’s, and another in Europe in the 1990’s. I share some of the history of Calvary Chapel’s mission work in Central & Eastern Europe, and Kellen shares some practical steps for how to live with a missional mindset no matter where you are in the world. The Calvary Chapel / CGN International Conference is June 26-29, 2022 in Costa Mesa, California. For more information and registration, visit conference.calvarychapel.com New episodes are being released every two weeks. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast, so each episode will be delivered to your device as soon as they come out. We’d love to hear feedback from you on these episodes. You can email us at cgn@calvarychapel.com