Pastor

​Rev. Riley F. Lynch came to Calvary in August 2024. He was previously Associate Pastor at Bush Baptist Church in Troy, Alabama, where, among other pastoral duties, he led the youth and college ministries. Pastor Lynch earned his Bachelor of Science from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and his Master of Divinity from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Pastor Lynch grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, where his family still resides. God graciously saved him when he was nine years old, and his aspirations for pastoral ministry began in his college years at Winthrop. He and his wife have one child—and a golden retriever.

Pastor Lynch

Elders

Tom

Charlie

David

Steve

Calvary's History

​In 1857, a group from the Baldwin Methodist Church (what later became First Church Baldwin UMC) saw the need for a church to serve their local community and established a congregation in Baldwin Harbor. In 1874, the church was officially incorporated. They built their first building at our present location on land donated by William Soper. Since an organ was beyond the means of the fledgling group, they sang hymns without accompaniment.

​By the mid-1890s the congregation had grown—with 164 attending Sunday school—and a larger building was built, at one point including a state-of-the-art porte cochère to receive horse-drawn carriages on rainy days. (Photo shows the building as it stood facing south on Church Street.)

​​Some years later the parsonage was constructed to the west (also facing south).

In 1923, just after it had been repainted and newly carpeted, the church was destroyed by fire. While the new building was being constructed, the congregation met in Steele School, diagonally across the street. To accommodate the foundation of the church, the parsonage was moved to its present location a few hundred feet to the north, facing west on Park Avenue. Our current church building was completed in October of 1923 and, with its distinctive bell tower, has remained a well known landmark in the community.

​In 1938, with the impending dissolution of the Methodist Protestant Church as a distinct denomination, the congregation chose to become independent. As they continued to grow, so did the building: in the 1950s a gym to the east was added, and in the 1960s a board room and nursery to the north.

​In 1961, Calvary Protestant Church joined the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) and has continued to serve the community and preach Christ from its easily recognizable site at the corner of Park Avenue and Church Street.