Calvary Stories

When the first Christians gathered they worshiped God in song, prayer, the Scriptures, giving and loving each other.
Here at Calvary we want the same.

Calvary Georgetown Divide sprung from the Calvary Chapel movement that began in 1965 with Pastor Chuck Smith and a church of twenty-five people. The tiny Huntington Beach fellowship soon became a key influence in the famous Jesus Movement, reaching out to hippies, drug users and social rebels. As a result, hundreds of thousands gave their lives to Christ. From its small beginning, many others answered the call to plant new churches. Today there are thousands of Calvary’s around the world—one of them is Calvary Georgetown Divide.

Calvary Georgetown Divide began in 1990 as a home fellowship in Cool, California, led by pastor Jay McCarl. The first meeting on the ‘Georgetown Divide’ (a remote ridge in the Sierra foothills) was a home fellowship of twenty-five people—most of whom attended Calvary Auburn, on the opposite side of the treacherous American River canyon. Jay was soon asked to begin Sunday services, and Calvary Georgetown Divide met for the first time in January 1991 with fifty-five people attending. More than thirty years later CGD is thriving with its content-rich Bible studies, global missions, active adult and youth ministries, weekly food give-aways, study tours and more—all to express the loving nature of Jesus.