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SO LOVED HE THE WORLD
At the twelfth annual session of the Surry Baptist Association, August 13-16, 1914, the Reverend Haynes in "his report of Mission Work," summed up Calvary's first year.
We began work at Cross Roads one wile west of Mount Airy, Sept. 1, 1914 (sic). We have 51 members at this place. Church organized December, 1913. Church called Calvary Baptist Church. This church will come into the Association this session. They need some help this year and next year. We expect these....to grow very fast. We have a new house of worship at this place.
"Calvary came forward and was received" into membership of the Association on August 13, 1914.
According to the 1914 Surry Association minutes, the Reverend Haynes was helping to organize Mt. Zion Church at the same time he was helping Calvary get started as a church. The Reverend Haynes was paid $32.00 by the Surry Association for mission work in 1913-1914. Presumably this was, in part, for the tent revival at Crossroads, one of at least four such meetings he conducted in 1913.
The activities of the early Calvary Baptist Church were different in many ways from the way our church is operated today. The church met only once a month since the pastors usually served several churches at a time. The monthly meetings from 1913 up through the 1940's would begin with the "testing of the fellowship." Services would not proceed until the Church was found "in peace." Evidently it was always found so. For lack of an indoor baptistry, baptizing were usually conducted in Stewarts Creek, either at the bluff about one mile west of the church or near White Plains.
The early Church took seriously the example set by its members in public life. Frequently, the Church would "withdraw fellowship" from members for "not attending service," for "not living a Christian life," for "living a disorderly life," for "violating prohibition laws," and for other reasons. This withdrawing of the fellowship was carried out only after a committee of church members had visited the "backsliding" brother or sister in an effort to help them return to the Christian path. Here is early evidence of the care that Calvary Baptists have for the members of their church. This fellowship would be restored at a later date if the straying members of the church came before the congregation to rededicated their lives.
Other differences can be seen in a variety of areas of church life. No ladies were called on to pray in church, according to the minutes of the church, until Mrs. W. K. Stover was asked to pray in the November 5, 1939 meeting. The financial needs of the church were more difficult to meet in those early years, especially during the 1930's. On April 14, 1934, in the middle of the Great Depression, there was a balance of 17 cents in the church treasury. Some of the members recall that a birthday bank was kept in the old church building. Every member, on his birthday, would place a penny in this bank for every year of life being celebrated that year. Our modern-day comforts were not known in those early days. For example, the 1914 church building was heated by a single stove near the front of the sanctuary. After Sunday School, the younger members especially would rush to get a seat nearest the stove. So in those early days, at least during the winter months, there were few "back row Baptists" at Calvary.
