A Mission to Represent the Reign of God
Calvary Baptist Church sits at 1200 28th Street SE on the southeast side of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in Kent County. The congregation describes its purpose in a single sentence: Calvary Baptist Church exists to represent the reign of God as community, servant, and messenger. Four short phrases shape everything the church does: God, God's Story, God's People, and God's World. From the Sunday morning worship service to the in-home Life Groups that scatter across the city during the week, that mission gives the body a shared center of gravity.
Calvary is pastored by Jeff Halsted, who preaches each Sunday morning and oversees the teaching and vision of the church. His son, Jeff Halsted II, serves as Director of Student Ministries, working with students in grades six through twelve. Together with ministry directors, Adult Bible Fellowship leaders, and a deep bench of volunteers, they lead a body that ranges from infants in the nursery to retired seniors meeting for book studies and prayer.
What to Expect on a Sunday Morning
Sunday worship begins at 9:30 AM and typically runs about an hour and fifteen to twenty minutes, blending prayer, congregational singing, and teaching from God's Word. Guests are encouraged to arrive fifteen minutes before the service so the connections team can greet them, answer questions, and walk them to where they need to go. First-time families checking children into the nursery or kids ministry are asked to come twenty minutes early.
Dress is straightforward: come as you are. Jeans and a T-shirt are perfectly normal. The worship service is also livestreamed at 9:30 AM, so anyone who cannot be on campus can join from home.
At 11:00 AM the second hour begins. Adults head to one of six Adult Bible Fellowships scattered across the campus, students in grades six through twelve gather in Bengert Hall, and children ages four through fifth grade move to the kids wing for their own worship and lesson time. The nursery remains open for both hours, fully staffed and available for the youngest children during the 9:30 worship service and the 11:00 Bible study hour.
A Sunday visit usually includes a security-tag check-in for children, a host who walks each family to the right room, and a text or phone call to a parent's number if anything ever comes up during the service. After the service, parents return to the drop-off point and present their matching security number.
Calvary Kids: Birth Through Fifth Grade
Calvary Kids is built around a few simple commitments: safety, age-appropriate teaching, and a steady gospel story. Infants through five-year-olds receive care in the nursery during both the 9:30 and 11:00 hours. Children ages two through six are invited to leave the worship service partway through and head back to the kids wing for engaging Bible teaching designed for their stage.
At 11:00 AM, kids from four years old through fifth grade gather for a kids worship experience that begins with singing and a Bible lesson, then breaks into smaller groups for discussion, activities, and hands-on application. The teaching follows The Gospel Project for Kids, a four-year curriculum that walks children through the entire Bible narrative from creation to consummation. The same material is reinforced through free at-home resources that families are welcome to download.
The church also points families toward three outside tools: the Bible App for Kids, the Jesus Storybook Bible, and a free church-wide account with RightNow Media, which holds more than 20,000 video Bible study resources. Together these give parents a long runway for discipling their children between Sundays.
Calvary Students: Grades Six Through Twelve
Calvary Students is intentionally relational. On Sunday mornings, students join the whole church for worship at 9:30 and then meet as their own group in Bengert Hall at 11:00. Throughout the school year, regular student gatherings feature teaching, games, snacks, and adult mentors. In the summer months, Wednesday nights continue in a slightly more flexible format so that students stay connected through the off-season.
The student ministry also runs two major trips each year. Snow Camp is a winter weekend retreat with tubing, food, games, and a guest speaker. Summer Camp is a week-long Student Life Mission Camp held on a university campus - the upcoming summer is set at UNC Asheville - where middle and high schoolers spend mornings in teaching, afternoons serving local mission sites, and evenings in small groups and worship. A camp scholarship program lets students earn up to $220 toward fees by serving on Sunday mornings, completing approved service projects, finishing a 21-day challenge, or sharing their testimony with an Adult Bible Fellowship.
Adult Bible Fellowships and Life Groups
Adult ministry at Calvary has two expressions. On Sunday mornings at 11:00 AM, the church offers six Adult Bible Fellowships - intergenerational Bible study classes that meet across the campus:
- The Foundations ABF is largely made up of families with children at home and values Bible study, prayer, biblical parenting, and shared meals.
- Generations formed in 2010 when two classes joined together during a leader's health crisis and chose to stay together. Today it mixes singles and couples from their twenties to their seventies.
- The Image Bearers ABF is a community of older adults who focus on finishing well in the Christian life.
- Mosaic draws college-aged adults through retirees who value solid biblical teaching, lively discussion, and gospel partnership.
- One in Christ is a close-knit group of mostly retired seniors who enjoy book studies and prayer.
- The Rooted ABF, meeting in Room 66, is geared toward upper teens to mid-thirties - students, young professionals, singles, newlyweds, and young families. Babies in arms are welcome.
Midweek, Life Groups take the same gospel-centered community off campus and into homes. Life Groups meet once a week for ten to thirteen weeks during the fall and winter/spring semesters, with breaks over the holidays and summer. Most groups begin with a study called Discovering Biblical Community and then move into a topic chosen by the group's leadership. Childcare arrangements are decided group by group, and members or regular attenders of Calvary can join.
Wednesday Nights Around the Table
Wednesdays at Calvary are intentionally casual. The church describes these nights as a time to understand how God calls his people to navigate life through intentional groups, walking with all ages through every season of life - the joyful and the painful. Several groups meet at 6:30 PM during the fall and again in the spring:
- DivorceCare is a thirteen-week support group for people navigating separation or divorce. Sessions cover topics like deep hurt, anger, grief, loneliness, fear, family, finances, conflict, forgiveness, and single living, ending with a Brighter Days session. Children from kindergarten through twelfth grade are cared for in age-appropriate programs during the same hours.
- Single & Parenting is a thirteen-week group offering biblical wisdom, encouragement, and real-life strategies for solo parents. Children's programming runs at the same time so parents can attend without arranging separate childcare.
What the Church Believes
Calvary's Articles of Faith follow the historic Baptist tradition. The church holds to the verbal inspiration and infallibility of Scripture, the Triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - the deity and virgin birth of Christ, his atoning death and bodily resurrection, salvation by grace through faith, the personal existence of Satan, the reality of heaven and hell, the eternal security of the believer, and the bodily return of Christ.
Two ordinances are practiced: baptism of believers by immersion as a public testimony of faith, and the Lord's Supper as a symbolic remembrance of Christ's death, observed by regenerate, obedient believers. The Holy Spirit is confessed as presently active in the church, including the continuation of spiritual gifts, while the more dramatic sign gifts are understood as having been given for the authentication of the apostolic generation. Marriage is defined as a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman. For a fuller confession, the church points newcomers to the New Hampshire Confession.
At the heart of the church's teaching is the gospel itself: God created the world and humanity in his image, humanity rebelled and fell into sin, God responded in love by sending his Son, Jesus lived the perfect life we could not, died for our sins, rose again, and is making all things new. The church invites anyone exploring these claims to consider Christ and to walk through the questions that follow.
Local and Global Missions
Missions are woven into the rhythm of the church. Locally, Calvary defines its circle of accountability as the neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces around its campus and works hard to develop redemptive relationships there. One long-standing partnership is with Hand2Hand, a ministry that provides weekend meals to children at a local elementary school. Calvary members pack the meals on campus and deliver them each week.
Other recurring outreach opportunities include:
- Family Fun Night, a free summer kickoff event that opens the campus to neighbors with games, inflatables, and snow cones.
- Prayer Walks, where small teams cover nearby streets in prayer and invite neighbors to upcoming events.
- Operation Christmas Child, for which the church serves as a regional drop-off location during National Collection Week.
- Teacher Appreciation efforts, including cookie deliveries and a staff lunch for a neighboring elementary school.
- Connections Team, the volunteer group that welcomes every first-time guest and helps them find their way around the building.
Globally, Calvary partners with two well-known Baptist mission agencies, Baptist Mid-Missions and ABWE, sending and supporting missionaries across the world. The church frames global missions as a stewardship calling: a way to use time, possessions, and abilities for the sake of God's kingdom and glory.
Tools and Resources for Growing at Home
Calvary invests heavily in resources that extend discipleship beyond Sunday morning. A church-wide Bible Reading Plan walks the congregation through Scripture together, with a recent month devoted to prayer and passages from Matthew, Luke, Romans, Psalms, Colossians, Hebrews, 1 Peter, Acts, 1 Samuel, and 1 Thessalonians. The plan can be downloaded as a PDF.
Every member and regular attender receives free access to RightNow Media, a streaming library of more than 20,000 Bible study videos for adults, students, and children. The OneChurch app (available on iPhone and Android) ties together events, online giving, sermons, and connect tools in a single phone app. On-demand sermons - including recent series through Hebrews, 1 Peter, an Advent series, an All Things New series, and a Missions Spotlight - remain available for catch-up.
For those new to the church or to faith, a simple Connect Card opens the door to follow-up, a prayer request, or a conversation about what it means to follow Jesus. The church's website also includes a guest guide, a step-by-step walk through the gospel, and sample language for inviting a friend to visit. Online giving is available for those who want to support the ministry financially.
Getting Started
For a first visit, plan to arrive fifteen minutes before the 9:30 service, enter through the main doors, and let the connections team point the way. Children can be checked in at the Calvary Kids station; students in grades six through twelve will be welcomed in Bengert Hall at 11:00; adults can sample any of the six Adult Bible Fellowships at the second hour. Wednesday nights at 6:30 are a relaxed way to get to know others through DivorceCare, Single & Parenting, or a Life Group. Anyone with questions - whether about a first visit or about following Jesus - can reach the church office at info@cbcgr.org or (616) 243-3674.
Calvary's heart is to be a community shaped by God's story, sent as servants, and speaking as messengers of the good news of Jesus Christ, both in southeast Grand Rapids and to the ends of the earth.