Calvary Chapel equips, evangelizes and encounters

Starting with only three families and a dream, Calvary Chapel Lynchburg has grown to be a flourishing community of fellowship. Senior pastor Troy Warner, the founding pastor of Calvary Chapel, came to Lynchburg to help establish the church over 30 years ago.

In 1994, Warner and a team of six other individuals came from Calvary Chapel Vista in California to plant Calvary Chapel Lynchburg. During the first eight years, Calvary Chapel Lynchburg operated out of small office spaces on Timberlake Road. As the church grew, its members moved into the building that now holds The Hope Co. Church; and three years ago, they moved into their current building on Timberlake Road in Lynchburg.

“As we arrived, … our humble biblical vision was, ‘Let’s love the people that come through the doors, and let’s make sure that we feed them well,’” Warner said. “Nothing’s changed on that front in the last 30 years, except that there’s a lot more people to feed now.”

With an average weekly attendance of 3,000 people, Calvary Chapel Lynchburg continues to grow. 

The mission statement of Calvary Chapel Lynchburg is threefold: to encounter God, equip the saints and evangelize the world. The church keeps its mission alive by working both locally and globally on outreach projects.

“I want to keep on getting people out onto the mission field, raising up people to go out and be kingdom-focused,” Warner said.

Warner likened Calvary Chapel Lynchburg to a river rather than a pond.

“A pond collects and holds on to everything it gets. … A river can allow water to pass through its banks,” Warner said. “We want to focus on the river — where people come through, encounter God, are equipped and can go out to evangelize.” 

Calvary Chapel Lynchburg sends several teams to other countries to serve in areas that are hard to reach. The church has sent three separate teams to Ukraine, as well as one to Israel. Each of the outreach teams have served those in times of crisis by providing food supplies and repairing buildings in the area.   

Locally, the church facilitates a radio station called EquipFM on 91.7 that helps spread the message of Christ over the airwaves. It uses this ministry as a way to connect with other churches as well.

“We try to use this as a tool to announce other church ministry events that are equipping the saints and let people know of the other things that are going on in the town,” Warner said.

Calvary Chapel Lynchburg’s primary goal is to continue planting churches all over Central Virginia. Throughout his experience in pastoring and planting churches, Warner has learned a lot about the ministry.

“What I’ve learned is how important it is to be faithful in the small things even if the small things never get big. There’s no guarantee that anybody who steps into a ministry is going to be a part of a large ministry,” Warner said. “Just to be content with where God has (you) and trust him to grow the ministry (and) expand the borders.”

However, the goal of Calvary Chapel Lynchburg remains the same. 

“(Our mission is) to keep on getting people out onto the mission field and out into each other, raising up people to go to other churches and just to be kingdom-focused,” Warner said. “But our job is just to be faithful, and God is the one that brings us success.”

Calvary Chapel has three services every Sunday at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. Its members also host a Sunday prayer service and a Wednesday midweek service. To learn more about Calvary Chapel Lynchburg, visit cclburg.com.

Graeber is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion