Calvary Baptist Church has met on Cadwalader Avenue in Elkins Park, just outside Philadelphia, since 1979, when a small group of believers led by Pastor Mell Hall purchased the old McKinley Elementary School building and turned its stone classrooms into a sanctuary. The church calls itself "the old-fashioned family church preaching the old-fashioned gospel in the old-fashioned schoolhouse," and the description fits: a conservative, traditional Baptist congregation in a Victorian-era building, now fifty years old and still growing. Calvary draws families, college students, and a notable deaf fellowship from the greater Northeast Philadelphia area, and it remains known for heartfelt preaching, lively traditional music, and ministries that reach every stage of life from the nursery through the seniors.
Sunday Rhythms and Service Times
The church gathers four times each week around the Word of God. On Sunday the doors open for Sunday School for all ages at 9:30 AM, followed by the Morning Worship Service at 10:30 AM. A smaller Evening Family Worship Service is held at 6:00 PM, with Communion observed on the first Sunday evening of every month. Wednesday nights bring the Midweek Bible Study and Prayer Meeting at 7:00 PM. Nursery care and Junior Church are available throughout the morning service, and every regular service is signed for the deaf and hard of hearing.
What to Expect on Sunday Morning
Calvary's worship is described as "traditional in style" but "vibrant and heart-felt in expression," with conservative, God-honoring music that uses hymnody, choir, and a children's choir to lead the congregation. Messages are expository and centered on the Bible, and the preaching alternates between the senior pastor and visiting speakers, with the weekly rhythm of Sunday School, morning worship, evening worship, and the Wednesday Bible study designed for sustained biblical growth. Visitors can expect a friendly, family-friendly atmosphere; men and women tend to dress modestly and Sunday-best. A livestream of each service is broadcast online and an archive is kept through Christian World Media, so those who cannot attend in person can still follow along.
Children at the Heart of the Church
Calvary invests heavily in its youngest members. A fully staffed nursery serves newborns through age two at every regular ministry and is described as a "large, airy, cheerful room" with cribs, playpens, swings, and space for toddlers. Junior Church, for children two to five, is staffed by experienced adults and older teens, and walks the children through songs, prayers, Bible stories, and question-and-answer time, often followed by acting out the story together. Sunday School runs from age two through the oldest adult, with each class working through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation at a level matched to the student. The Sunday School also has a music ministry of its own, training young musicians for offertories, special music, and children's and youth choirs.
Calvary Club (often shortened to "KIDS Club") is the children's outreach arm for kindergarteners through sixth graders, meeting one Saturday morning each month from September through May. Throughout the month the children work on memorizing Scripture, learning the books of the Bible, reciting the plan of salvation, and memorizing the days of creation, with monthly meetings adding games and competitions. Each July, the same children join Camp Calvary, a week-long summer camp in rural Lancaster County that runs Elementary Camp and High School Camp side by side, with separate schedules, chapels, and counselors drawn from the church's own members.
Youth: Activities, Missions, and Camp
The youth ministry aims for at least two activities each month, balancing social fellowship with service and outreach. Every gathering includes hearty singspiration and a message from the Word. Each June the youth travel for a week-long missions trip; since 1989 they have served at an inner-city rescue mission in Richmond, Virginia, where they are known for hard work and have also ministered through music at a local Baptist church. January brings a Winter Retreat at the same Lancaster County facility used in summer, with Bible studies, preaching, and testimony time around the fireplace. Youth Game Nights fill the calendar on Friday evenings, and December features the popular Youth Progressive Dinner.
Adults: Retreats, Prayer Breakfasts, and Bible Institute
Adult ministry centers on retreats, prayer, and Bible study. The Fall Adult Retreat is held each November at Promised Land Camp in the weekend before Thanksgiving, with a guest speaker and unhurried time around the Word. The men have their own programming: a Men's Retreat in March, weekly Tuesday morning Men's Prayer Breakfasts at 6:00 AM followed by breakfast and fellowship, special Saturday Men's Prayer Breakfasts, and a Father/Son and Men's Camping Weekend each September that pairs boys with mentors for a weekend of food, fellowship, singing, and preaching.
The women's side of adult ministry includes an April Ladies' Retreat, a monthly Ladies' Breakfast and Bible Study on the first Thursday from September through May (with nursery and Junior Church so mothers can attend), and Ladies' Fellowships on the second Friday of selected months, including a Christmas banquet and a mother-daughter banquet in May. The Young at Heart group gathers church members over fifty for occasional covered-dish dinners, dinners out, and prayer breakfasts.
For deeper study, Calvary Bible Institute meets on Monday evenings for eight-week fall and spring semesters, with men on the church staff teaching courses that include outside reading, quizzes, and exams. The institute is offered free to those who qualify and is designed for anyone with a hunger to study the Word at a more serious level.
A Ministry to the Deaf Community
Calvary counts its ministry to the deaf and hard of hearing as one of its distinctive callings. All regular worship services are signed, and the church periodically hosts special activities for outreach to the deaf, including an annual deaf weekend with a deaf preacher or evangelist. Calvary is actively raising up a generation of workers competent in ASL through classes and mentorship, with several members already fluent in the language. Retreats and other activities are signed when the need is present, and the church invites deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors to call via TTY.
Music for Every Voice
Music at Calvary is traditional, conservative, and intentionally vibrant, supporting the preaching rather than distracting from it. The Calvary Singers, a youth choir for children of church families, rehearse every Wednesday evening for two semesters each year, learning vocal technique and instruments with the goal of presenting programs at local retirement, nursing, and assisted-living homes, as well as in services. Sunday School music training feeds into the broader music ministry, giving young musicians opportunities through offertories, special music, and children's and youth choirs. Samples of the music ministry can be heard on the church's YouTube channel.
Reaching Out: Missionaries and the Great Commission
The Great Commission shapes everything at Calvary, and a substantial list of missionary families and ministries receive the church's prayer and financial support. Active partners include Bruce Tuttle serving in Georgia and Ukraine; Mark and Ashley Ackeret in Quito, Ecuador; Mark and Nancy Sheppard in Liberia; Bernard and Bernice Dodeler (retired) in Limay, France; Norm and Sharon Monroe in India and Myanmar; Ben and Lauren Childs in Papua New Guinea; Mike and Laury McClary with Good Samaritan Ministries in Richmond, Virginia; Matt and Katie Northcutt in Corner Brook, Newfoundland; Seth and Joana Izer in Oxford, England with The Pente Project for Bible Translation; and Robert and Barb Vallier, retired from church business ministry in Greer, South Carolina. Bibles International Missionaries are also supported. The annual youth missions trip is one practical expression of the same conviction at the local level.
The Old McKinley Schoolhouse
The church's home is a piece of local history. Calvary started in 1976 in a rented building in Rockledge, Pennsylvania, then moved to larger rented accommodations in Cheltenham across from Burholme Park. In 1979 the congregation purchased the McKinley Elementary School building, a stone structure built in 1898 in the McKinley section of Elkins Park, Abington Township, Montgomery County. The building has required constant care and personal sacrifice to maintain, but the congregation has welcomed the work, and the old schoolhouse has been a fitting home for what the church calls its family ministry. Parking is located around back on Osceola Avenue, with the parking lot and auditorium entrance both accessible from Osceola.
What Calvary Believes
Calvary holds a detailed doctrinal statement that places it firmly in the conservative, separatist Baptist tradition. The church teaches that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the plurally, verbally inspired, inerrant, authoritative Word of God and the only supreme and final authority for faith and practice. It affirms one triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - equal in essence and glory, and a doctrine of the Holy Spirit who regenerates and indwells believers at the moment of salvation. The congregation confesses the virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection, ascension, and present high-priestly ministry of Jesus Christ.
Eschatologically, Calvary teaches the personal, visible, pretribulational, premillennial, and imminent return of Christ for His Church, followed by His return to the earth to reign for a millennium from the throne of David. The church holds to the eternal security of the believer, a literal devil, and the conscious eternal state of the saved in glory and the unsaved in judgment. Two ordinances are observed: baptism by immersion of believers only, and the Lord's Supper as a memorial with no saving power; communion is open rather than closed.
Distinctively, the church practices biblical separation in moral, personal, and ecclesiastical matters, taking a public stand against the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Ecumenical Movement, New Evangelicalism, Neo-Orthodoxy, cooperative evangelism with those of differing faith, and the charismatic movement. Church offices of pastor, assistant pastor, and deacon are reserved for men.
The Pastors Who Have Shaped Calvary
Pastor Mell Hall founded Calvary Baptist Church on July 4, 1976, after theological training at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minneapolis and then Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. A Philadelphia native, Hall pastored the church through its early years of rented halls, the purchase of the schoolhouse, and steady growth, retiring in 2008. He still remains active in the ministry.
Pastor Jim Martin joined Calvary in 1981 as a seminary student at Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary, came on staff full time in 1983 after completing his M.Div., and has served in nearly every area of the church's life before becoming senior pastor in 2008. A native of Minneapolis and a graduate of Pillsbury Baptist Bible College, Martin came to faith as a child in an independent Baptist home.
Pastor Donny McMenamin, the assistant pastor, grew up at Calvary, was saved and baptized here as a young person, and went on to study at Ambassador Baptist College, where he gained further ministry experience in Charlotte, North Carolina and in mentorship programs at three other Baptist churches. He returned to intern at Calvary in 2011 and, after a thirteen-month apprenticeship, was voted in as assistant pastor under Martin. He and his wife Mollie serve together across the church's ministries.
Getting Connected
Calvary Baptist Church is located at 241 Cadwalader Avenue in Elkins Park, with the parking lot and auditorium entrance reached by turning onto Osceola Avenue from Cadwalader. Detailed driving directions are available from I-95 and Northeast Philadelphia, from Center City Philadelphia, and from the Fort Washington interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Visitors can reach the church office at 215-886-5743 or info@calvarybaptistep.org. Services are livestreamed through Christian World Media, the weekly church calendar is kept on a public Google Calendar, and devotionals and Bible study materials are offered free through the church's resources pages. Giving is available online through Tithe.ly.