Our Church History

Calvary Baptist Church officially became a church on Wednesday night, May 8, 1935. A meeting was held at the Tupelo High School, Emma Edmonds Auditorium, with 103 persons in attendance. The following were elected as church officers: M. E. Leake, Moderator; W. R. Hunt, Church Clerk; P. S. Weaver, Treasurer; Medford Leake, Sunday School Superintendent. At subsequent meetings, appropriate committees were formed to secure a pastor and to begin a search for a building site.   On July 24, 1935, the church called the Reverend Silas B. Cooper to be its first pastor. The membership at this time was 190. It was significant that at the first business meeting the congregation voted to send twenty-five percent of all its receipts to the Cooperative Program.

 

On December 15, 1935, the lot on the corner of Main and Church was purchased from J. R. Strain for $10,000.00. The cornerstone of a new structure was laid on January 19, 1936. Included in its contents was a list of the names of the 280 members of the church.     On April 5, 1936, a tornado destroyed the church sanctuary. Insurance covered the loss, and work to rebuild was started immediately. The congregation met in the High School Auditorium until the sanctuary was completed.

Reverend Cooper remained as pastor until 1941. His ministry was a fruitful one, and he was an able leader during those early years. The Reverend and Mrs. Cooper were the parents of Betty Cooper Merritt. She and her husband Dewey were missionaries to Nigeria for many years. Calvary Baptist Church had the privilege of paying part of Mrs. Merritt’s annual salary. Dr. F. M. Powell was the next pastor. His scholarly approach to the pulpit aided Calvary in its rise to maturity. Dr. Powell was pastor until 1948. Mr. Joe Skinner, a local young man, ably filled Calvary’s pulpit as interim pastor from August 1948 to January 1949.

February 1949, the church called Reverend W. L. Day as pastor. His ministry lasted until June 1965. Under his direction Calvary called its first full time Minister of Education, and its first full-time Minister of Music. It was under Mr. Day’s ministry that Calvary started the Spring Street mission. This mission has since developed into the West Jackson Street Baptist Church.

June 1965 until January 1966 Dr. L. Gordon Sansing served as interim pastor. January 1966 Dr. John Traylor was called as pastor. He resigned in February 1969.Reverend Charles Shipman served as interim pastor, after which Calvary Baptist Church called Dr. Bob N. Ramsay as its pastor in June 1969.Dr. Ramsay served faithfully as pastor from June 1969 until he retired in June of 1978. Membership increased from 103 members in 1935 to 1,384 in 1978. During the tenure of Dr. Ramsay, the first full-time Minister of Youth position was established.

Dr. Clifton Perkins, of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, served as interim pastor after Dr. Ramsay’s retirement until April 1979. Dr. John G. Armistead, who was serving the Home Mission Board as a pastor in Kailua, Hawaii, was called on April 8, 1979 as pastor of Calvary. The budget planning process was emphasized and giving was enhanced through the stewardship campaign instituted by Dr. Armistead. The budget his first year at Calvary was $363,042. The stewardship of Calvary members has increased each year since that time. The budget for 1988 was set by the membership at $807,700 and the membership in 1988 was 1,673, compared to 1,392 when he came in April 1979.

In the early morning hours of December 21, 1992, Calvary’s sanctuary was destroyed by fire. That same day Dr. Armistead led the deacons and staff in a time of prayer and thanksgiving, earnestly seeking God’s guidance for the immediate, as well as the long range future of the church. Meeting in temporary quarters throughout the winter and spring of 1993, Calvary continued to minister effectively and aggressively to the Tupelo community. By June 1, 1993, the smoke-damaged educational space was cleaned and renovated, and all groups were able to resume meeting on Calvary property. By June of 1995 the congregation was able to move into the new sanctuary building, which included much-needed additional educational space for adults.

Dr. John Armistead left Calvary’s pastorate in December 1994, to begin serving as Religion Editor of The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. Dr. Robert H. Hamblin, of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, served as Interim Pastor throughout 1995.

On January 14, 1996, Dr. Robert Bryant Barnes, Jr., preached for the first time as pastor of Calvary. Dr. Barnes had served as pastor of the College Place Baptist Church in Monroe, Louisiana, for seven years prior to becoming Calvary’s pastor. He resigned in March of 2007 to become pastor of First Baptist Church, Columbia, Mississippi.

Dr. Kermit D. McGregor served as Transitional Pastor from July 2007 until May 2008.

 

 

Dr. David Eldridge began serving as Calvary’s pastor on May 28, 2008. David and his wife, Danielle, have two sons, Hayden and Luke.Under the leadership of Dr. Eldridge, Calvary’s ministerial staff includes full time ministers of education, music, students, a director of childhood ministries and a church administrator. Additional staff members continue to be added as part of Calvary’s prayerful plan to Reach Up, Reach In, and Reach Out to the Tupelo and Northeast Mississippi area as well as globally.