On Sunday afternoon, March 30, 1883, seven people met in the First Baptist Church of Fargo and organized the First Scandinavian Baptist Church of Fargo. They then proceeded to build a building on the back property of First Baptist.
In 1891, the fourteen Swedish members of First Baptist Church organized the First Swedish Baptist Church, and then built a building on the corner of 3rd Avenue North and 4th Street North. Meanwhile, the First Scandinavian Baptist Church changed their name to the Norwegian Baptist Church and built a building on the corner of 2nd Avenue North and 4th Street North. In 1922 the Norwegian Baptist Church changed their worship services to English and their name to Immanuel Baptist Church.
In 1925 these two churches merged and became Calvary Baptist Church. At the time, their combined membership was 198. Also at that time they joined the Northern Baptist Convention (later known as the American Baptist Convention).
On December 11, 1938, Calvary held its first service in its new building at 802 Broadway. At that point the entire church was what would later become the basement.
In 1949, Calvary left the Northern Baptist Convention and joined the newly formed Conservative Baptists of America. The Conservative Baptists were a missions focused group who were also concerned about the theological direction of the American Baptists.
In 1950 under the leadership of Pastor John Snapp, Calvary built their auditorium. In 1968, under the leadership of Pastor Walter Dingfield, Calvary completed its facility by building a gym and educational wing.
When Oliver Cromwell had his portrait painted, he told the artist to paint him warts and all. And tragically like most churches, Calvary has had a few warts over the years. In 1976, Calvary was averaging 420 people per Sunday. But in 1977, Calvary split and Community Baptist was formed. Thankfully, Calvary and Community have long since healed the wounds from that era.
In 1983 Calvary celebrated it’s 100th Anniversary under the leadership of Pastor Loren Eastman, who served Calvary from 1978 to 1996. Dr. Hank Pharis served as Pastor from 1997 until 2013.
During his tenure, Calvary purchased land on Village Green Blvd in south Moorhead in 2003. In 2006, Calvary voted to change it’s name to Calvary Church at Village Green.
In April of 2014, Ben Killerlain became the Pastor of Calvary and has been serving here since.
Throughout our history. God has been tremendously faithful to Calvary and used this church to impact its community and the world! We look forward with great anticipation to see how will continue to use us for His purposes!