Calvary Bible Church sits on Nursery Road in Lusby, the southern Calvert County community where farmers, fishermen, and loggers once gathered in a Bible class that would grow into a congregation of more than seven decades. The church's roadside sign reads, "We Preach Christ: Crucified, Risen, and Coming Again," and the building behind it is a working campus of sanctuary, classrooms, gym, and fellowship hall used by every generation from preschoolers to senior adults.
A Bible Class Among Farmers and Fishermen
The story of Calvary Bible Church begins in 1947, when a small group of Christians in southern Calvert County began meeting for Bible study and prayer. Under the direction of Mrs. Ethel Sollars, the class organized as a non-denominational Bible church by 1951 and purchased seven wooded acres at White Sands from Russell Duncan. The sanctuary, first known as "Community Church," was dedicated in 1953. During construction, a check for $1,000 arrived in the hands of the church treasurer only minutes before building contractor Alvin Yoe came to collect the same amount owed him.
The congregation later took the name Calvary Bible Church and has been a member of the Independent Fundamental Churches of America (IFCA International) since 1961. By 1999 the church had outgrown its original sanctuary and Sunday school rooms, and a new education wing and gymnasium were added to serve worship, Sunday school, and youth programs. The original vision, the church says, has not changed: proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ to the local community and demonstrating His love to all.
Sunday Morning, Wednesday Night
Sunday morning worship at Calvary Bible Church begins at 10:30 AM. The gathering brings the congregation together to sing, lift their hearts to the Lord, and hear encouragement from His Word. A library of past sermons is available for catch-up listening, and the church keeps a public calendar of upcoming services and events.
On Wednesday evenings at 6:30 PM, the church's Mid-Week Study gathers men and women for Bible study, and the men's ministry keeps the same hour as its weekly Bible study. The midweek hour is a steady rhythm of the week alongside Sunday morning worship.
Awana, Fusion, and the Children's Wing
Children in kindergarten through twelfth grade have a regular place in the Calvary Bible Church calendar. Awana, the church's Bible-based boys and girls club, runs Sunday nights from 5:45 to 7:30 PM, with high school students continuing from 7:30 to 9:00 PM. The Awana year runs September through May, with games, lessons, and Scripture memorization. A child protection policy governs the program, and a printed Awana calendar is published each year.
Teens meet separately as well. Fusion, the teen ministry, gathers in the church gym every Friday night from 7 to 9 PM for games, fellowship, and Bible study. The gym, built with the 1999 expansion, hosts Fusion as well as adult events such as the ladies' exercise class.
Men Around Breakfast Tables and Retreat Cabins
Men's ministry at Calvary Bible Church is built around three habits: Bible study, breakfast, and getting away together. The weekly Bible study meets Wednesday evenings at 6:30 PM. Monthly breakfasts rotate between area restaurants, including IHOP in California, Maryland, and Panera in Prince Frederick, often with a guest speaker from missions or ministry. Each fall the men travel to a retreat at a camp in North East, Maryland, staying in log cabins large enough to host more than a dozen men.
Ladies: Bible Study, Exercise, and a Garden
The ladies' ministry offers a varied weekly schedule for women of all ages. A ladies' Bible study works through the Gospel of Luke using Elizabeth George's "Living with Passion and Purpose: Luke," with workbooks available at cost. Women of Wisdom, a fellowship for women of any age, gathers in the CBC Fellowship Hall on Friday mornings at 10 AM. The Right Weigh... God's Way combines modified Christian exercise with a thirty-minute Bible study on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 PM in the CBC Gym and welcomes teens, tweens, and ladies of every fitness level. A separate garden ministry invites volunteers to help care for the church's grounds.
Young Adults Around the Kitchen Table
Young adults meet on Monday nights at a member's home for a house study that walks through the Gospel Project's Creation and Covenant series. The young adult ministry is a smaller, relational gathering designed to give young people in the Lusby area a place to discuss Scripture together outside the main Sunday service.
What Calvary Bible Church Believes
The church's statement of faith is organized around five biblical foundations. Calvary Bible Church teaches that the God of the Bible is the Creator of all life and has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It holds that all people fell into sin through Adam and now face sin and death, but that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for the sins of the world so that those who believe may be forgiven and have eternal life. The church looks for the promised return of Jesus, when death will be destroyed forever and God's people will live in a renewed creation. Out of that grace, the church says, believers are called to build one another up in love.
That conviction shapes the church's own description of its life: Christ-centered worship, Bible-based teaching, and opportunities for fellowship and service.
On Nursery Road in Lusby
Calvary Bible Church meets at 8300 Nursery Road in Lusby, Maryland. The church office is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM to 4 PM, and a facilities request form is available for groups wanting to use the building. Pastor Mike Blakeley serves as pastor, and a team of men and women serve alongside him in ministry. Calvary Bible Church continues to hold to the same vision its founders carried in 1947: to know the Lord personally through faith in Jesus Christ, to understand His purposes through clear biblical teaching, and to serve a community that, like the church, has changed in many ways over the decades but still gathers around the Word.