It’s all about getting it done at home. That’s the philosophy of
Pastor Dave Cannon, who took over in August as the new senior
pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Hollister.
It’s all about getting it done at home.
That’s the philosophy of Pastor Dave Cannon, who took over in August as the new senior pastor at Calvary Baptist Church.
“We want to let the community know that we are here to minister to them,” Cannon said. “We care about the souls in Hollister. We have absolute certainty that God clearly led us here.”
Now that he’s had the chance to get his feet wet after his move from Ohio, Cannon’s hoping to share his goals with the community.
“We really do want to develop friendships with the people of Hollister,” Cannon said. “We want to be available for people and not for them to think they are a burden if they need help.”
The church will be having an instillation day Nov. 2 to formally introduce Pastor Cannon to the community.
“I would emphasize that I would love to meet our neighbors personally and begin getting to know them by name during our special service,” Cannon said.
The 11 a.m. morning service, part of a three-day missions conference, will be followed by an international dinner that everyone is invited to attend.
“The focus has been so often on foreign missions that we’ve excluded the local field,” Cannon said. “As the Bible talks about in Acts 1:8, we’ve gone to the uttermost parts of the world for a long time, but we have forgotten about Jerusalem and Judea. The desire in this missions conference is to restrike the balance. If we don’t do that, there won’t be any foreign missions.”
Pastor Bob Potter, Cannon’s former mentor at his previous church in Ohio, will be speaking during the missions conference.
“He really has a heart for church planning and home missions, which is the focus of the missions conference,” Cannon said. “He is probably one of the most important people in my life, leading me into the ministry. He is like a spirital dad to me.”
The move west has been an eye opener for Cannon, who received his bachelor’s and master’s degree from Bob Jones University in South Carolina, but he says California isn’t as different as people back home may think.
“When we came out here, we found out that its just like anywhere else,” Cannon said. “People go through the same troubles, and people still need Jesus.”
The biggest change was seeing how wide open the area is, a scene Cannon got to appreciate first hand during a recent trip to Fremont Peak.
“In a sense, it’s different here because you don’t have all the towns grouped together,” Cannon said. “In the years that God gives me, may He give me the boldness and grace to minister to Hollister as an entire city. My heart longs after that.”
While Cannon, 50, his wife, Stephanie, and daughter, Allison, are still getting settled in, they hope to be involved in the community for many years to come.
“Whatever retirement I have (I’m not sure what that means for a pastor), I would like to be here throughout that period,” Cannon said. “Hollister is our home. Its 2,500 miles from where we were before. Our plans are to teach the Word of God and to care about the needs of our own folks as well as those that God allows us to bump into in this city. We want to see people get the help they need after they get saved, which is not what I got.”
A major theme Cannon has stressed since becoming pastor is normal Christianity – sharing the gospel, helping people grow and encouraging them with struggles.
“My passion is to combine a warm, approachable shepherding ministry with preaching that is nourishing for the hearer because it is true to the Scriptures and relevantly applied to life on Monday morning,” Cannon said. “I want them to know what to do with what they are hearing–there’s incredible hope in that.”
One of the things he said that drew him and his family to Calvary Baptist was that it was genuinely warm and friendly.
“Our humble prayer is that Calvary will be a safe haven for believers in our community who are seeking a ministry that stands on Biblical absolutes while providing a refuge from the spiritual corrosion of this world and for those who may not know Jesus Christ but wish to know Him in a believing relationship,” Cannon said.
He is currently preaching through Ephesians in the morning (a series entitled “Being the church that God intended”) and in the evening through the book of Nehemiah (“Doing the work of God–again!”).
“I am not as interested in promoting the church as in promoting the Lord Jesus,” Cannon said. “The church will take care of itself. God is going to do that as we keep Him first. We are here first for our church family, but they are not our only priority.”
More info: www.calvaryofhollister.com
