We have reached out into our community through two ministries: One is My Friend’s Clothing Closet, which offers free clothes for men, women and children to whoever comes when it is open twice per week. Our records indicate that we served at least 220 people in 2015. The other is the Second Thursday Supper, a monthly free meal, prepared at the church, and served to whoever comes for food and fellowship. We had an average attendance of 20 last year.
Our biggest challenge in 2015 was changing the way we are governed. We previously had a number of committees that reported to a Leadership Board. With our declining and aging membership, we were faced with the fact that we no longer had enough able-bodied people to fill all of our elected positions. Our Leadership Board discussed the issue for several months and determined that a one-board governing system would serve our needs best. We were ably assisted by ABCGI staff, especially Jan Goodyear, who showed us how such a system worked in their churches. Jan cautioned us, however, that we needed to mold the system to serve the specific needs of Calvary Baptist Church, and that transition to the system would not happen overnight. As 2016 began, we were in the midst of switching over to the one-board system.