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A lot happened in 1985:

• “New Coke” was unveiled – and the new recipe was immediately unpopular.
• The Kansas City Royals win their first World Series.
• Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.
• Southside Simpsonville has its first services on February 10 on Curtis Street.

Perhaps that last one doesn’t seem as world-changing as the others, but on that day, God began a journey with a group of people in a small South Carolina town that would lead to souls saved, families grown, and God’s glory proclaimed.

In 1987, as Southside Simpsonville decided to detach from the mother church and become a separate church, the members of the church had a competition over what to call themselves. Eventually, a name was selected – Calvary Baptist Church of Simpsonville. The people of Calvary wanted it to be a place that drew people toward the cross of Calvary and the forgiveness, restoration, and healing found in Christ there.

Thirty five years later, that continues to be our driving passion. We invite you to join us on a walk down memory lane with Pastor Guy Altizer, the founding pastor of the church.

Q: Pastor Guy, how did the idea for Calvary Baptist Church come about?

During a coffee break with Jan Milton, the computer tech for Southside Baptist Church, we discussed Jan writing a program to track visitation efforts. Two weeks later, Jan came back to me with a program that will track visitation from door to door.

At the time of the writing of the program, Jan had three small boys at home and lived in a heavily-populated housing area call Westwood in Simpsonville. Westwood at one time had the reputation of being the largest housing area in the Southeast U.S.! Jan discussed how that he and his boys were going to check out this program.

He met with great success and began to find people that did not have a church home. In some cases, they were able to lead the individuals to Christ, but as we tried to encourage people to travel to our church on Augusta Road which was 15 miles away, we were not very successful.

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We had a staff meeting where we were discussing the visitation and Simpsonville’s need. Bill Fricke, the finance manager, said, “It’s always bothered me that we have a church in Simpsonville that is locked up.” Southside had bought an old church on Curtis Street years before, and it had been used by a church for a time that later moved to the property where QT sits at the intersection of 385 and Harrison Bridge.

Well, at that moment I prayed that the Lord would give me an opportunity to pastor a church plant in Simpsonville. I gave no facial cues and thought, “I’m not going to tell a living soul – God, You have Pastor Handford come to me if it’s your will.”

Thirty minutes later, Pastor Handford asked me to come to his office. He asked me, “What do you think of that church in Simpsonville?”

I said, “Pastor, we’ve already discussed this. Thinking about the whole plan of putting churches all around Greenville, I think the church in Simpsonville is a good idea.”

He responded, “I’m not thinking of it as an idea – I’m thinking of you starting the church in Simpsonville.”

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Opening Day

In early spring of 1984, we began the planning for opening the church in Simpsonville in the fall. Plans were progressing normally until our son, Chuck, was killed in a car wreck on October 10, 1984. That put a stop to all of our work for the new church.

We finally got started again and were able to open the church on Sunday, February 10, 1985.

Q: What was that first Sunday like?

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We had 156 people in the first service and the church has never gone below that number all of these 35 years – even on a snow day! God blessed in a wonderful way and we saw great growth in those first years. My first youth pastor was Jan Milton. He stayed with me almost a year and was then promoted up to the big church on a Augusta Road. I then hired Tom Craig to be our youth pastor, and Tom was with me for 15 years.

Q: What a good memory of those early days?

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Packed out! I remember they had a cry room in the back left of the auditorium. That was where the first nursery was. That didn’t last long. We went in there on a work day on Saturday and a bunch of men tore that out and moved the pews closer. The normal spacing between pews is 36-42 inches for comfort. We moved them to 30 inches! The seating was so tight that when the people on the front row stood up, their hymnals were almost in the flower arrangement in front of the pulpit! The old pews were so ratty (two of them are in the lobby of Altizer Hall today) that we used to have to regularly check them and put duct tape o because the splinters would catch the ladies’ dresses!

Q: So you started looking for a new space, a new piece or property?

So I went to Pastor Handford of Southside a year or so later and I said, “Pastor, we have to have some building money.” At that time, all the money that came in at Simpsonville went to the mother church. They paid the bills and my salary. I was still on staff doing visitation and discipleship and follow-up of new believers and so on. And so I told him, “Well, pastor, we’re busting at the seams!”

He said, “Guy, I don’t know how long we’re going to be able to keep these churches together.”

That was a seed thought that started the separation of the church. We were running 200-250 almost immediately. The separation happened July 26, 1987. Pastor Handford came and accepted my resignation from Southside and officiated the call for me to become the pastor. We officially became Calvary Baptist Church but we didn’t have any money.

I researched every place I could get any glimpse of hope of property in and around Simpsonville.

Calvary at Harrison Bridge & Fairview?

The property I had picked out in my heart and mind was the field down at the intersection of Harrison Bridge and Fairview Road – the field where TJ Maxx is now. It had a beautiful rise to it in the middle. It was fairly clean of trees. I could just see a church building out in the middle of it.

So I went to Sheriff Martin in his house on the corner (where Publix is now). I sat in his living room, and I talked to him about that property. He said, “No, I’m not really interested in selling any of my property. I know a piece of land that is available now. I recommend that you go talk to the people.”

Calvary at Hudders Creek?

So I went down Davenport Road to a house on the right, and I sat in the lady’s living room and negotiated a contract and signed it and made an offer on the property. She said, “I’ll have to check this contract with the family members and the attorneys and see if everything is in order. And I’ll give you a call.”

She called me back in two or three days and said the property was already sold to a developer with a better offer than mine. That developer built the houses in Hudders Creek neighborhood.

Cheap Dirt

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So the next week, Pastor Handford told me to call Walt Brashier’s office downtown. I called his office, and he said, “Can you come to my office this afternoon?” So I went to his office. He laid out a plat for Calvary’s current property. Where the parking lot is now was already drawn in for a subdivision with a sewer line run to it – 8 acres. The total plat was 14 acres, a 6 acre piece or 8 acre piece. He said, “If you take one or the other, I’ll take $25,000/acre. If you take all 14 acres, I’ll take $20,000 an acre.”

I took the plat to the deacons. One deacon stood up and said, “Ain’t no dirt worth $20,000 an acre!”

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Another stood up and said, “God ain’t making no more dirt and it’ll never be as cheap as it is now. I make a motion to buy the whole thing!” There was an immediate second. The vote was unanimous except one. The guy came back to me six weeks later and said, “Pastor, I am so glad that you didn’t listen to me because that was a dumbest comment a man could ever make.”

So we bought the property – 14 acres. 

Church in the Wildwoods?

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The original was all covered in trees. The guy from the engineering company that we had hired to engineer the property met me over on the property and said, “You have one of two ways – we either got to terrace the property, dropping it down in 4 foot increments, take it level to the road. Otherwise you’ve got to put a probably a 15 or 20-foot retaining wall across the back.”

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And I said, “No way! I have a vision of building the little church in the wildwoods. I want to put it back amongst these trees.”

He said, “Do you want to build a church on this property? Decide one way or another. The trees have got to go.”

The Rest Is History

We hope you enjoyed this little dive into Calvary’s history. We can’t wait to celebrate together and hope you can join us!