About Us

Calvary Baptist Church desires to be a flourishing community of Christ’s disciples; devoted to growing in God’s grace and truth, serving one another in love and developing godly influence in every area of our lives while reaching our neighbors and the nations.

BAPTISTS?!

The evangelical landscape today has churches of different flavors with various ways of identifying themselves: Location (Beachside, Mariners); Purpose (Refuge); Location with purpose (ShoreLIfe, Beach Cities); Historic belief system they embrace (Methodist, EV Free, Vineyard, Calvary Chapel, etc.); When they arrived in the community (First Presbyterian, Second Baptist).

The label ‘Baptist’ began to be used during the reformation (1500’s) as a way to communicate what they believed in several areas; what we refer to today as the Baptist Distinctives. Here they are with an abbreviated description of each.

• The Bible- The Scriptures are the sole authority for faith and practice. When there is conflict between a particular churches dogma, historic creed or confession the Bible is taken to be more authoritative.

• Autonomy of the Local Church- Each local church is directly under the authority of Christ and responsible to Christ. While each local church is to function interdependently with likeminded churches, there is no humanly established authority over them.

• Regenerate Membership- Individuals become a part of The Church when they are ‘born again’ or ‘regenerated’ and it is at this point they are to become an active part (member) of a local church.

• Two Ordinances- Believers baptism and the Lord’s Supper are acts of worshipful obedience which God has commanded for those who are saved rather than a means of saving grace.

• Priesthood of the Believers- Each believer comes to God the Father through the one High Priest, Jesus Christ. They do not need a priest, saint, pastor, or anyone else to intercede for them. Therefore all believers have equal access to God, and are in equal relationship with God. Priesthood also communicates they worship God and serve the world in relationship with each other.

• Individual Soul Liberty- Every man and woman is entirely responsible before God for his or herr relationship with God. No person or organization has the authority to persecute or coerce another person to believe. We share the gospel and God the Spirit does the convincing.

• Separation of Church & State- The state should not exercise control over theology and administration or ministries of the church and the church should not exercise control over the government (theocracy).

As one can see, many churches that do not have ‘Baptist’ in their name are baptistic in their belief and practice. We have chosen to keep Baptist in our name to put ‘out front’ what makes us distinctive.