Great church always feel welcomed, sermons are down to earth putting the word with the situation of…read moretoday. Great church family.

The reader should note that I am no longer an official "member" of this or any church, but continue…read moreto attend here and support its ministry because it is a Christian duty. This is a follow-up to the review I wrote ten years ago in 2015. My friend who was pastor then has now taken his repose, and the comments I previously wrote still apply under his replacement--a good family man, highly conscious of his responsibility to maintain biblical teaching and orthodox theology. I am particularly bothered, however, by the inexorable creep of the feminist heresy into the congregation--as is the case in most "Evangelical" churches, who will take no stand against it. Here alterations to Christianity are mainly betokened not so much by the preaching, but a popular hymnal with egalitarian editors who alter traditional hymn wordings to reflect their negative beliefs about men. I am old enough to know what they are doing in every instance, and care, but the elders of this church apparently don't, and won't put a stop to it. The other main feminist incursion is by means of Bibles like Today's New International Version, which is not warned against and is allowed to be read publicly. Taking the necessary steps to correct this situation will be unpopular, but in the meanwhile Calvary joins most of the rest of the Evangelical world in slow descent into the maelstrom.

I'm writing this review more to describe the church, of which I am a member, rather than evaluate…read moreit. It is a Protestant Evangelical congregation of about 500, unaffiliated with a denomination or association, at this writing a hundred years old, and has a fairly full range of the kind of activities and programs one would expect at such a church. The theology is conservative, and one can find echoes of revivalism and dispensationalism here, although none of these is strongly stressed in the preaching and teaching ministries, in which "mere Christianity," better describes its life under the current pastor, who has been at the church for twenty years. The church may be distinguished from others of its type, of which there are a number in this area--the largest being Grace Church and Racine Bible Church--in that it is a kind of throwback to the pre-megachurch days. It still uses a hymnal, minimizes the activities of praise teams and electronic music. It uses piano and (a very fine) organ to accompany worship, and does not use drums or electric guitars. Although I say this guardedly, it operates on a somewhat higher cultural level than most modern Evangelical churches; its worship service is less clamorous and "popular," and more reminiscent of what one would find in a big city Baptist or Presbyterian church in the fifties and sixties. It is reasonably friendly, new people are welcomed but not swarmed. Most of its members are--and in fact have been from the church's beginnings-- ex-Catholics and dropouts (like me) from the long, slow theological and moral collapse of the Protestant mainline. This is a church that places fidelity to the gospel, as traditionally understood by orthodox Christians, ahead of the desire to make changes that threaten to compromise it. This review was written in October of 2015. Churches change. In five years one may find a more typical Evangelical megachurch wannabe here, as Calvary Memorial makes those compromises to survive in the world.

This is a wonderful church with loving members. They are committed to social action. They serve…read morethe community with such things as a food bank, a feeding and tutorual/guidance program for children and their families (Kid's Cafe'), clothing give aways, adoption of a school, involved in issues supporting jobs, information sharing on community issues. I could go on, but if you want involvement, check out Wayman. Biblical application is focus on currency for our lives today.