Missions is the heartbeat of Calvary!

Calvary Baptist Church believes the purpose of missions is two-fold: to evangelize the lost worldwide and to establish local churches worldwide, with responsibility to edify and equip believers to carry out the Great Commission. The missions ministry of Calvary Baptist Church encompasses foreign missions outside the continental United States and home missions within the continental United States. Mission ministries will include those directly involved in establishing local churches and those that are extensions of local churches. Calvary Baptist Church believes missions begin at home; therefore, the congregation will be challenged to send forth their own members as missionaries, to pray earnestly for missionaries, and to support sacrificially the cause of missions.

Members are encouraged to get involved in missions in three ways: giving, praying, and going. Every Christian can serve the Lord in these capacities. Everyone can give, everyone can pray, and everyone can go to spread the gospel. At Calvary, we practice Faith Promise giving, which is giving above the tithe. Each year the missions budget is planned by money promised by church families. Giving starts in the heart with a giving spirit. Giving money is meaningless unless there is a heart for giving. There are many practical ways to give evidence of a giving spirit. It does not take much money to be a giver. You may choose to give your heart to a missionary family each year. Adopt that family as your special family and keep them always before you in the year to come. Send birthday and anniversary cards. Perhaps you can remember them at Christmas with a small gift. Occasionally get a tape of a service and send it to them. Share with them about your family and share your prayer requests with each other. With modern communications you can even "go" electronically through a telephone call, e-mail, or messaging. From this kind of contact you will see missions in a new light. Once you have given your heart to missions the praying, giving, and even the going will follow. Not all will go to foreign fields, but everyone can go to the field that God has given them.

We use the following criteria in approving missionaries for support:

• A candidates must be appointed by a mission board or sent by a Fundamental, Independent, Baptist Church that concurs with the doctrinal statement of Calvary
• Baptist Church, functions as a mission board, and is in harmony with the mission philosophy of our church.
• A candidate must personally subscribe to this philosophy of missions and abide by the doctrinal statement of this church.
• The preparation and background of each candidate will be evaluated.
• Consideration will be given to the candidate's desire and balance of approach with regard to evangelizing the lost and edifying and equipping the saints for ministry.
• Evaluation will be made of the candidate's attitude toward the ministry that he is entering. His purpose and philosophy of his desired ministry should be in agreement with that of Calvary Baptist Church.
• It must be understood by the candidate that if his sending mission board, or church which is acting as his mission board, begins to compromise its fundamental stand, either here or abroad, the candidate must address this compromise in two steps:

a. Diligently admonish his mission board to hold true to the Biblical principles of separation.
b. If the mission board will not hear the missionary and deal accordingly with their compromise, the missionary must terminate the relationship with the mission board and seek another board that Calvary Baptist Church agrees with in principle and in philosophy. Failure to do so will be grounds for Calvary Baptist Church to terminate financial support. However, due to the difficulty in losing support while on the field, support will not be dropped until the missionary is back home on furlough.


• Missionaries already on the field and desiring a change in field must notify Calvary Baptist Church directly or through their sending board. The pastor and deacons must then approve the field change before support can continue.
• It is the philosophy of Calvary Baptist Church to support missionaries primarily as local church planters. When a newly formed church is financially self-supporting and there has been adequate time to train a national pastor, we believe the missionary should move on to begin a new local church. It is not the philosophy of Calvary Baptist Church to continue the support of missionaries who are currently serving in self-supporting sustaining works. For a missionary to remain in such a church is grounds for his support to be terminated.
• On occasion, missionaries may be supported whose major purpose is not church planting. In these cases, the missionary or candidate must present his purpose as such, before his initial support begins.

It is the express desire of Calvary Baptist Church to participate in the support of as many qualified missionaries as possible. Funds will be disbursed as follows:

• Monthly support of missionary ministries
• Special projects for regular monthly supported missionaries.
• Special offerings for missionary ministries not supported on a regular basis when ministering in our Church.
• Special projects of a missionary nature. Projects of this sort will be determined by the Pastor, Missions Committee, and Deacons, subject to approval by the Church congregation.

Because this is such an important part of our ministry, we have dedicated an entire section of our web site to the ministry of missions.