Campus Adoption – Calvary First Baptist, Lancaster, SC

Campus Adoption: Merger/dissolution of an at-risk church yielding all assets to a start a new ministry venue with a strong church.

Calvary is located in a mill village town with about 900 neighbors within a ten-minute walk of the worship center. Pastor Jimmy was preparing for retirement at the same time church leaders were seeking a better way to reach their changing community. This once Anglo, middle-class, mill worker community had started to transition years ago when the textile company closed, and residents moved to other jobs. Now many of the homes are occupied by renters with lower household incomes representing a greater ethnic diversity than ever before. These changes, and the church’s inability to adapt to the changes over time, resulted in a small, but faithful membership asking God for help.

As a result of a series of consultations, Calvary was adopted to become a campus of Second Baptist Church, Lancaster. This parent church is only a short distance away from Calvary, but Pastor Brian Saxon saw an opportunity to shepherd a remaining flock and launch a new work at the same time. The resulting adoption brought Calvary under the guidance and care of Second Baptist as they launched a new worship service in Spanish, relocating their Hispanic ministry to the Calvary Campus. Second Baptist recently hired Pastor Argenis Taveras, who is bilingual in Spanish and English to serve as pastor. Now Segunda Iglesia Bautista Worship gathers at 9:30am and Calvary worships at 11am – two services, two languages to reach the diversity of their community.

To support this adoption, Second Baptist provides additional resources and oversight of this new unique campus in Lancaster, SC. Children’s ministry, Sunday school, worship team, facility care, and whatever else is needed is now navigated by this newly united family as a result of a church adoption.

• Vision and leadership are provided by parental church
• Assets are entrusted and managed by parental church
• Membership combined into one
• Existing members may have the opportunity to continue to participate and serve as needed under the direction of new pastoral leadership
• Local pastoral leadership with local ministries