10/19/2025
A message from the Pastor John Rice
Calvary Tabernacle: Over 16 years ago, a friend of Jonathon, our son, said he had a girl for Jonathon to meet. He said, I think she is Presbyterian. Jonathon in time asked me if I had ever heard of the Heavenly Highway Tabernacle in Middletown. I told him that we had preached there once 10 0r 12 years ago. Come to find out his wife to be had grown up in Bro Wilson’s Church. Kathy and I went to visit on a Saturday night and had no knowledge of how quickly our lives would change. Bro. Wilson was not in good health and for quite a while we went and tried to help on Saturday nights. We tried to fill in and help however possible. In the course of time our role there was increased and for a period of time we served as Bro. Wilson’s pastor. The Church culture is so different from Springfield to Middletown. We met some of the finest Christians that you could meet. And I hope over the past 16 years we have been a blessing in some way to them. From the moment we went to Middletown, the Church had always struggled with finances and we had good cash flow and loved the work of God and we began to invest heavily in the Church. My wife shared that to this point we have put over $600,000.00 into both upkeep and maintenance. The building seats roughly 1400 people. When we started going to help, Saturday nights were down to about 14 people. At our height we were back up to roughly 150 on Sunday. The past few Sundays we have been around 50. We are thankful that in the past few weeks several backsliders have come to the Lord but with a building so large, it still looks empty. My wife and I have been praying and it has been one of the most difficult situations that we have dealt with in our ministry, we came to the conclusion that the bleeding had to stop. Some of the greatest milestones in our ministry have happened at 5990 Michael Rd. Our son Jonathon was healed in the alter of cancer on a Tuesday night. My 7 year old niece was filled with the Holy Ghost in nearly the same spot. On a Wednesday, God brought Sis. Elliott out of a wheel chair and the list goes on an on. At this time we have cancelled services and we are running a bus from Middletown to our Springfield Church. We are building there now and growing. This is the only thing that has made this season of my life bearable. We shared options with the Church Wednesday. The building being too large for our congregation may be just the right size for another. We have considered selling it and eventually buying a property that best suits our congregation. We had what seemed to be a perfect scenario moving the congregation back to its origional location on Finley St. We had new folk from the very first service and thought we had the answer only to find out that the building had some very extensive plumbing issues and would cost roughly $16,000.00 to fix. If our building could be sold or traded it might give us an option in a few months. Pray for us and the wonderful people of Calvary Tabernacle as we seek the will of God.
