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Step right up for church tours today

Calvary Baptist's new worship center will open for services Sunday. Members and neighbors can take a look around a day early.

By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published December 17, 2005

CLEARWATER - Although it's not finished to the last detail, Calvary Baptist Church's $23.5-million, 170,000-square-foot worship center at Drew Street and McMullen-Booth Road will be open for self-guided tours from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today.

The church will hold its first service in the new building at 10 a.m. Sunday. The Rev. Willy Rice, the senior pastor, invited all 4,000 church members as well as residents in the surrounding community to visit the new 1,800-seat sanctuary, 9,000-square-foot regulation gymnasium, 300-student preschool and 200-student high school.

The church "reflects a shift in our ministry," Rice said.

"Our focus is getting the message (of Jesus Christ) out to everybody, even people who never come to church," he said. "We said, "Let's make it welcoming for everybody.' "

The official grand opening will be Jan. 15.

The first Baptist church in Pinellas County, Midway Baptist, was founded on March 25, 1866.

The name was changed to Calvary Baptist in March 1923. In 2000, the congregation voted to move from Cleveland Street, where there was no room for parking or expansion, to a wide property at McMullen-Booth Road and Drew Street.

After 82 years, Calvary Baptist held a five-day closeout celebration at the Cleveland Street sanctuary, capped off by an emotional service in the worship center and a gathering in the Rotunda Chapel.

Meanwhile, work was still going on at the new complex, which took a year and a half to build on about 30 acres near the Bayside Bridge.

Calvary is the third megachurch on the busy McMullen-Booth Road corridor, just down the street from Harborside Christian and Countryside Christian churches.

Its lobby is immense and full of light. There are comfortable sofas and a cafe.

And where parking was an issue at its former downtown location, the new campus is surrounded by 1,200 parking spaces.

Rice is especially proud of the preschool, which is decorated with cheerful characters.

"We kind of want to change the church's image," Rice said. "We don't want it to be the dullest hour of the week for kids."

Late last week, workers were putting the finishing touches on the church, which will boast comfortable purple seats, cream-colored tiles and newly planted palm trees in the parking lots.

"I think it's absolutely terrific," said Kenneth Rouch, a member of Calvary for nearly 20 years. "We're just really thrilled with it."

Eileen Schulte can be reached at 727 445-4153 or schulte@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 17, 2005, 01:01:18]