Calvary Chapel was originally called Living Waters fellowship. When we set out to incorporate we discovered that this name was already
used by a church in Anderson. We Changed the name to Wellspring Fellowship and held meetings at the American Legion in Jamestown,IN. This place was used as a bar on Saturday night so when we came in on Sunday morning the place reeked of beer and cigarettes. That
was OK, because most of our parishioners were drunk the night before!
The church grew to about
20 struggling people but we never seemed to get "over the hump". Pastor Gary Linton and I went to Ft. Wayne, IN to seek counsel from
Pastor Paino. He suggested that people will drive from a smaller town to a larger town but seldom would they drive from a larger town
to a smaller one so we decided that the church should move to a county seat; either Danville or Lebanon. Since I was raised in Danville,
I lobbied for my hometown. There are a lot of good churches in Danville but none who seemed to be able to reach "our crowd", therefore
we believe God called us here.
The Danville Jaycees owned an old church building that was originally
built by the Christian Missionary Alliance Church in 1942. They wanted $29,000 for the building. That, of course, was an astronomical
sum so we decided to offer them $20,000. Much to our surprise, they accepted the offer! Now the question was; where to get $20,000?
With no money we offered $5,000 down, $5,000 at the end of one year and the remaining $10,000 in two years. God miraculously provided
and we had a building paid for in 2 years! We worshipped and grew for eleven years at 293 N. Indiana St. Making a fresh start in 1984
we decided that making a name change was probably a good idea.
Calvary Chapel was chosen as a
good reflection of who we are. Most of the churches who grew from the "Jesus movement" at Ft. Wayne's Calvary Temple were called Calvary
Chapel. At the time we didn't know how large the Calvary Chapel churches in California were and were becoming but we're proud to be
considered one of them even though we are not directly affiliated. For eleven heavenly and hellish years we "had church" in that building.
Sometimes late at night bats invaded the sanctuary and once I had to kill a bat on a Wednesday afternoon before we could have service
there that night! The basement flooded and the toilets were known to overflow. The furnace was an antique and it cost a lot in window
air conditioners in order to keep the place cool in the summer. Many times the number of children outnumbered the adults. We're glad
the kids didn't realize how powerful they were!
Five years after moving into the building Gary
Linton felt he should plant another church in Columbus, IN. We considered it an outreach of Calvary Chapel and were very excited to
be part of a church plant. In May of 1987 I was hired (if you call $100 a week hired) to work with the youth, be a secretary and occasionally
teach God's word. In 1989 when Gary left for Columbus I didn't feel like I was ready to be "the pastor" but somehow God has sustained
me through many mistakes. How exiting it was to secure the 17 acres east of town in 1987 for $75,000 and after years of saving (usually
about $10 a week) God allowed us to build the building we now occupy in 1995. The make-up of the church changed immediately as many
people came from other traditions. Hymns? Who knew they were that good?! Of course, not everything brought to the body was good and
we faced many challenges as we continued to grow. If I only knew some of the things then, that I know now!
I believe the future is as bright as our willingness to look to Jesus through the eyes of faith. The piece of property we possess
is a gift from God and the resources He has placed on the property (people) are His most valuable tool. The congregation currently
numbers around 150 people and we are looking forward to future expansion.
