“Calvary Baptist Church” was founded by members from Southside Baptist Church and Faith Temple, calling Faith Temple’s pastor, Rev. Warren Walker, as their first pastor. While the new church began meeting in San Marco’s Little Theater, fourteen acres were purchased on State Road 13 (now, Hendricks Avenue) for the new church. The church began with 48 members. That November, ground was broken on the first building, a gymnasium. The new church began with a commitment to their neighbors and their children: the young congregation recognized that they could worship in a gymnasium, but their neighbors’ children could not play in a sanctuary.

Dr. Coalson resigned to become Superintendent of City Missions for Jacksonville. Rev. O.E. Burton, from Central Baptist in Decatur AL, was called as pastor, but he lasted only a year. In July, 1953, Rev. Clyde Lipscomb was called as pastor and began that October. He would pastor HAB for several decades, until his retirement in 1979.

With help from HAB, its members, and other Baptists in the area, Baptist Memorial Hospital—now Baptist Medical Center—opened as the first hospital on the southside of the St. John’s River. HAB members were also essential to the founding of Jacksonville’s Baptist Home for Children and the Baptist Towers senior living facility (now known as The Towers of Jacksonville).

Work began on the HAB sports fields, funded by a gift from W.K. Hatcher, of R.C. Cola fame. By the end of 1958, football, basketball, and tennis facilities were opened, and the baseball program opened in April, 1959. With its three fields, the baseball program continues to this day, helping to nurture hundreds of children every spring and fall.

In partnership with a former missionary to Cuba, Christine Garrett, HAB begins offering English language classes for Hispanic immigrants and refugees. At one point, these classes included members from twenty-seven different countries. Today, ESOL and citizenship classes continue on HAB’s campus in partnership with other area organizations, such as Catholic Charities.

After Rev. Lipscomb’s retirement the year before, HAB calls Dr. Jack Snell to be its pastor. Dr. Snell would serve until 2000, when he retired from HAB in order for him and his wife, Anita, to work in Global Field Ministries for CBF out of Singapore. He would eventually become Director. Snell’s doctorate was focused on worship, and his heart was for intercultural dialogue, so his leadership continued the pattern of HAB’s life that was established by Rev. Lipscomb.

When asked to describe the character of HAB, Dr. Snell would answer, “Grace and not guilt. People have enough guilt.”

Dr. Snell joined For Heaven’s Sake, a local, weekly TV discussion panel on WJXT comprised of  him, a Rabbi, and a Catholic priest.

Irene Albritton, a hospital chaplain, is the first female minister who is ordained at HAB. In the decades since, numerous other women have been ordained to the ministry at HAB.

In reaction to the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention during the 1980s, HAB became a founding member of the new, moderate-leaning Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which it remains an active member of today. (www.cbf.net)

The original “Welcoming Christ” stained-glass window is installed in the church’s sanctuary, as a visible witness to HAB’s commitment to being “a place of grace.”

Dr. Kyle Reese is called as pastor of HAB. At his installation, letters of friendship and encouragement are shared from such local communities as the local Episcopal diocese, The Islamic Center of Northeast Florida, and Congregation Ahavath Chesed, Jacksonville’s Reformed Synagogue. Dr. Reese will remain at HAB until 2020, when he will become the CEO of OneJax, a position he will hold until 2023 when he will become the pastor of FBC, Savannah, GA. OneJax is an area nonprofit founded “to foster mutual respect and build bridges of understanding among people of all beliefs, faiths, and backgrounds – in a spirit of shared humanity.” (onejax.org)

Due to the generosity of the congregation and the grit of its leadership, HAB dedicates its new (current) sanctuary. Prayers, support, and financial gifts also came in from the wider Jacksonville community, including some of HAB’s interfaith partners, for the rebuilding of the sanctuary.

The new sanctuary was turned 90-degrees, to face Hendricks Avenue, so that its “Welcoming Christ” stained-glass window could witness to people travelling in both directions. HAB takes pride in this window as an act of public theology: making sure its neighbors know the character of this church and its Lord.

The new sanctuary’s pipe organ—with 60 ranks, nearly 4,000 pipes, and an antiphonal design—is widely considered one of the finest in northeast Florida.

Having begun years before as a “mothers’ morning out” program, Little Friends Preschool is incorporated as its own non-profit, growing from six to over sixty children in just a few years.

(https://www.littlefriendsathab.com)

HAB begins its partnership with Undue Medical Debt (https://unduemedicaldebt.org/) to buy its neighbors’ medical debt on the secondary market in order to forgive it. That first year, HAB was able to erase medical debt for over 2,500 families in our area, totaling over $3,400,000. Thankfully, that number has gone up every year since!