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Greetings in the name of our Wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ. We are the
Olsen family, missionaries called by God to minister to the U.S.
military and their families stationed at Aviano Air Base Italy.
Matthew Olsen grew up in a military home. He heard the Gospel for the
first time during a Neighborhood Bible Time the summer of 1980 at the
age of nineteen. Later that week he trusted Jesus as his Savior. The
following year he went to NBT again and surrendered his life fully to
Christ and was baptized.
Diane was from a broken home and rode the church bus. The Lord burdened
her heart for missions and she surrendered in 1984. Diane struggled with
assurance of salvation during that and on April 21, 1985, at the age of
twenty she realized her need of salvation and settled the matter. She
was baptized the following week.
In 1986 Matthew joined the U.S. Navy and became a Naval Flight Officer.
While stationed at NAS Jacksonville, FL they attended a Pastors’
conference. At the close of the conference they surrendered to be used
of God in missions.
A year later they were transferred to Misawa, Japan, and became actively
involved in a military church. Matthew answered the call to preach the
Gospel. After serving eight years in the Navy, Matthew separated from
active duty to study at Temple Baptist Seminary. He graduated in 1998
with a Master of Ministry Degree. They joined Baptist International
Missions Inc as military missionaries with a burden to reach their own
people – military families.
Pastor Olsen and his family have been ministering through Calvary
Baptist Church since February 2001.
STATEMENT OF FAITH:
Section 1: THE SCRIPTURES
We believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration; the inerrancy; and the
authority of the Scriptures, consisting of the sixty-six books of the
Old and New Testaments. We believe that the Bible reveals God, the fall
of man, the way of salvation, and God's plan and purpose in the ages. We
believe that the Bible is the only rule of faith and practice for a
local church.
Section 2: THE GODHEAD
We believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as
the Trinity and as one God. We believe God to be eternally
self-existent; absolutely holy; omniscient; omnipotent; and omnipresent.
We believe that each Person of the Godhead has precisely the same
nature, attributes and perfections as the others.
Section 3: THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
We believe in the deity; virgin birth; sinless life; substitutionary
death; and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. We believe in His
present ministry of intercession in Heaven and His imminent return to
this earth.
Section 4: THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the Holy Spirit as the third Person of the Godhead,
co-equal with the Father and the Son. We believe His present ministry in
the world is to convict men of sin, righteousness, and judgment; to
regenerate, indwell, and sanctify the believer in Jesus Christ; and to
keep, empower, teach guide and comfort the believer in his daily life.
Section 5: MAN
We believe the Genesis account of creation is a literal, historical
account of the direct, immediate creative acts of God without any
evolutionary process. We believe that man, material and immaterial was
created by a direct work of God and not from previously existing forms
of life. We believe that man was created innocent and pure and as a free
moral agent. We believe that the entire race springs from one man, Adam.
We further believe that Adam deliberately, of a free choice, disobeyed
God and thereby brought the entire race under the condemnation of sin
and death. We believe that because of Adam's sin all men are born
sinners and are in need of redemption.
Section 6: SALVATION
We believe that Jesus Christ provided complete and free salvation from
the eternal punishment of sin for all men by shedding His blood in death
on the cross; by His burial; and by His bodily resurrection from the
grave. We believe that salvation is by grace, plus nothing and minus
nothing. We believe that in order for a man to be saved he must repent
of sin and by an act of his own will place his trust in Jesus Christ as
the only Saviour. We believe that men are justified by faith alone and
are accounted righteous before God only through the merit of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We believe that salvation is eternal once it is received
as a free gift and that all who trust Christ are eternally secure in Him
and cannot loose their salvation.
Section 7: THE CHURCH
1. Organization
We believe that Jesus Christ organized, commissioned, and empowered a
local, visible assembly called the church for the purpose of spreading
His message of salvation to the entire world. We believe that the local
church is composed of regenerated, baptized believers, voluntarily
united together for worship, edification, fellowship and evangelization.
2. Government
We further believe that the local church has the absolute right of
self-government which makes it free from interferences of any hierarchy
of individuals or organizations on the outside. We further believe that
on all matters of membership, policy, government, or benevolence the
will of the local church is final. We believe that Jesus Christ is the
Head of each local assembly and that through the Holy Spirit He seeks to
administrate all the affairs of that assembly. We believe that Jesus
Christ appoints an under-shepherd for each assembly called a pastor, and
raises up men for the office of deacon to care for the temporal matters
of the church.
3. Ordinances
We further believe that Jesus Christ left two and only two ordinances
for His church to observe. Those two ordinances are Baptism by immersion
in water and the Lord's Supper. We believe that both ordinances are to
be administered only under the authority of a local New Testament
Church. We believe that baptism is only for those who have already
trusted Jesus Christ as Saviour and is a public testimony to that fact
and is not a part of salvation. We believe that the Lord's Supper is
only for those who are saved and have obeyed the Lord in baptism, and
who are currently in obedience to His divine will.
Section 8: SEPARATION
We believe that it is the duty and responsibility of each believer in
Jesus Christ to separate himself from the sinful practices of this
world. We believe that this is necessary in order to present a testimony
to unbelievers of the power of Jesus Christ in our lives so that they
may also want to trust Him as Saviour.
Section 9: SATAN
We believe that Satan, who was once a holy angel named Lucifer, by his
own will became the archenemy of God and all of God's children. We
believe that Satan is a spirit being more intelligent and more powerful
than man, and that he is intent on leading men into sin and away from
God. We believe that the Holy Spirit in us is of far greater power than
Satan. We believe that Satan has been defeated by Jesus Christ and will
one day be cast into the lake of fire along with all who follow him.
Section 10: THE FUTURE
We believe in the visible, personal, and premillennial return of Jesus
Christ. We believe in the pre-tribulational rapture of all believers in
Jesus Christ. We believe that He will come for His saints in the rapture
and that He will come back to the earth with His saints after the
tribulation period to set up His kingdom. We believe that He will then
rule the earth for one thousand years. We believe in the everlasting
conscious blessedness of the saved in Heaven and the everlasting
conscious punishment of the lost in Hell.
Section 11: MISSIONS
We believe that the primary mission of the church and the individual
responsibility of each believer is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ
to all men everywhere. We believe that to do this we must be witnesses
to those around us and, at the same time, help send missionaries of like
faith and practice through prayer and financial support to those whom we
cannot personally reach.
HISTORY
Under the direction of Baptist International Missions Inc. missionaries
John and LeeEtta Hornbeck moved to Aviano, Italy. In July of 1989
Calvary Baptist Church was organized as an Independent Baptist Church.
CBC was founded for the purpose “to obey God's command to assemble
together in an orderly and organized manner for public worship and
fellowship; and further to unite our efforts to evangelize the lost in
our community as well as around the world; and further to provide
Biblical instruction to its members and guests and to observe the
divinely instituted ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; and
further to present a corporate testimony to the power of the Gospel in
its constituency recognizing and accepting Jesus Christ as the only
Saviour and Lord and taking His Word, the Bible, as the only sufficient
rule of faith and practice for its operation.” (selection from the
church constitution and bylaws)
Calvary Baptist Church is located near Aviano Air Base. Since the
founding of CBC the U. S. military families and other English speaking
people have had a local church where the Bible is the final authority
for faith and practice.
Several different missionaries have ministered at CBC throughout its
history. Gary Tingen and Michael Hearrell are former pastors of Calvary.
Currently missionaries Matthew and Diane Olsen are serving the Lord at
CBC. You can learn more about them and their ministry by clicking on the
button MEET THE MISIONARIES. |
