Love it! Home for a few decades.

The preaching is good and I had no issues with the messages that came from the pulpit. I really appreciated when the pastor addressed racism head on in a couple of sermons. The kid's ministry is great as well, we always felt that our children were safe and well cared for while we attended the sermon. However, we had three issues that caused us to leave the church after attending every week for two years. The first issue is that the church is huge, so big in fact that after being there weekly for two years people still asked if we were new on a regular basis. This is personal preference, but we didn't like being lost in an anonymous crowd. The other issues point to deeper issues. We learned late in going to the church that they're a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. In fact, they joined in the 2010's, well after the issues of racism, bigotry, and anti-LGBT hate from the SBC exploded into the public awareness. We were told that they joined the SBC for financial reasons as there were more funding opportunities available, but it really put a stain on the anti-racism messages we heard. Either tackling racism wasn't that big of deal, or they were willing to ignore the issues with the SBC for money. Neither option is great. The last issue occurred when my wife was looking for a therapist. At churches we attended in Arkansas and Maryland, either the pastor counseled the church members directly or the church had a therapist/counselor on staff who was available to members free of charge. When she asked about a therapist/counselor at Calvary, multiple members pointed her to a therapist who worked for the church. "Great!" we thought, a situation similar to what we'd experienced before. All communications from the therapist was done through her church email address and the first therapy session was next door to the church. The therapist never brought up cost in multiple emails before the first session. It wasn't until my wife arrived for the first session that we learned the therapist charged $100 per hour and didn't accept any type of insurance, so it would have to be paid out of pocked. When my wife told her our assumptions that the session would be free due to her affiliation with the church and we couldn't afford the cost so had to cancel the session, the therapist tried to guilt her into staying and paying anyhow. The whole situation felt extremely predatory.

Definitely family oriented, and they help each other in so many ways like assistance, giving food to families that a local restaurant was giving out, planning outings, youth ministries, fall festival, and even allowing people to explore the grounds which are immense. Their prayer cabin is serene, and the swimming pond is fun.