THEN & NOW

In 1949 Youth for Christ was started in Hampstead, Maryland by Earl W. Schultz, Jr. Godly men were brought in to speak who preached "the new birth", "being born again", "the rapture", and other such terms.

A group of folks who attended the Shiloh Methodist Church, near Hampstead, began to show concern that they never heard these vital things preached in their church.  So in 1950 a group, made up largely of several related families, began to meet in the Summer House of one of the families. (Arthur Walsh) 

There was much division within the Shiloh Church over the afore mentioned doctrines and the group finally left the Methodist church and met regularly for Sunday services with laymen teaching the Word each week.

In 1954, they called their first pastor, John Garber.  The group well-filled the Summer House Meeting place by this time and their new pastor suggested finding a different meeting place to be used so that others could be invited to attend.

They rented the Hillsdale Homemakers Club House on Leister's Church Road and there founded the Calvary Bible Church on August 22, 1954.

In 1956 they bought property from John Wike that was situated between Gorsuch Road and Route 482, with frontage along Rt. 482.  Total property was about 3 acres.  On this property, a church building was erected with much of the material and all of the labor being donated by the men of the church. 

Pastor Garber built himself a house on a small plot adjacent to the church property.  He served the church until 1960 when he left to move to Pennsylvania. 

In November 1969, the church was able to fully purchase the house and use it for the church Parsonage.

Two bus routes were started as well as neighborhood children being brought in by adult members.  One hundred people attended Sunday School. 

In the years to come, the church's secretary had a house fire and church pictures and documents were burned. 

During the summer of 2006, the men of the church constructed a much needed addition onto the church building.  The addition included handicap accessible restrooms for our elderly members on the main floor, and also included an extension onto the nursery for the expected babies.  

Currently, we routinely have thirty children attend Sunday school ranging in ages from infant to seventeen. 

Many of the children at church are homeschooled. In 2014 Calvary Bible Church gained permission to provide oversight services for our homeschooling families. Calvary Christian Oversight Group encourages, supervises, and supports these parents as they work to give their children a stable, Christian, home-based education.  We have children in all grades, and rejoiced with our first high school graduate in the spring of 2017. 

Two of the original members are still attending Calvary Bible.  Many descendants of the original land owner as well as descendants from early members still attend and are active. 

The goals of  Calvary Bible Church remain the same, and they are to reach the lost and to teach Believers in the principles of the Spirit-led Christian life.