Calvary Bible Church began on January 2, 1889, when four Swedish families gathered to form the Swede Christian Tabernacle. August and Caroline Anderson, Charles and Kate Anderson, John and Mathilda Nelson, and Mr. and Mrs. A.O. Anderson had come to Boulder, Colorado in part because of their desire to freely worship the Lord.
Within four months of their first gathering, they had purchased and built our first building, located at 17th and Spruce, for $500. All services were conducted in Swedish. In the early days, regular teaching and preaching was done by traveling pastors or members of the church.
In 1943, we began our association with the Evangelical Free Church of America, although many of our early members were eager that we retain independence from the denomination's influence. In 1979, we completed the Kalmia location.
In 1992, Calvary Bible Church called Tom Shirk to be an associate pastor, and then in 1993, he became our senior pastor. Under Tom’s leadership, we embarked on an important organizational reconfiguration which laid the foundation for our future growth and ministry opportunities. We simplified our church structure and established one united board of Elders to provide spiritual leadership for both campuses.
As ministry reach expanded during the ’90s and 2000s, we welcomed an increasing number of church attendees who lived in east Boulder County. As that part of our community continued to grow, we sensed God’s leading to launch a second campus in Erie, 16 miles east of Boulder. On April 16th, 2006, we celebrated Easter with the launch of our Erie campus, which began meeting at the new Erie High School with 200 Calvary members.
In October of 2007, Calvary’s elders commissioned a team to begin searching for land to someday build a permanent church facility in Erie. In March of 2001, the congregation voted to purchase land on the corner of Countyline Rd. and Evans St., closing on the property in August of that year. In November of 2013, we broke ground on the facility, and in August 2014, we held our inaugural service in the new building.
In June of 2019, we celebrated 130 years of God’s faithfulness to Calvary and announced God’s leading to start a third campus. We asked the congregation to continue to pray for God’s leading (Go3 Initiative) as we did not know where the campus would be. Elders commissioned investigatory teams to scout the best location for the 3rd campus. Through prayer, God's leadership identified Thornton, Colorado to be the location of the new campus. Then, through God’s provision, a facility was provided to Calvary Bible Church by a struggling church in Thornton. We launched our third campus in January of 2021, in Thornton.
Today, we continue to live out our vision to make disciples, empower leaders, and multiple churches as we seek the Lord for the next season of ministry at Calvary Bible Church.
