Basic Information
Church Website: https://calvarychapelnewlife.com/
Worship Services: Not Available Online
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/calvarychapelparkcity
Church Location: 210 MAIN STREET, MIDWAY UT 84049
Contact Information: T: 435.315.3791 E: matt@calvarychapelparkcity.com
The Questionnaire
This church declined to answer our questions. The following answers are what we were able to come up with through our own research.
1. What is your church's official position on tithing?
There is nothing on the church’s website to suggest that they preach tithing here, and the giving page makes no Biblical claims that we must give to the church. For now, I think it’s safe to assume that this church does not preach tithing, but without their response, we can’t know this for sure until we do further in-person research for this church.
2. Does your church have a particular set of rules or requirements that members must follow or abide by in order to retain their membership status with the church?
We also see nothing to suggest that this church has any kind of membership requirements, roles, or agreements, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have any. We just don’t see anything to suggest it on the website. Typically with more legalistic churches, we will be able to find hints on the website to whether or not they have membership requirements.
We can’t say for sure either way since they wouldn’t answer our questions.
3. Are you transparent with your church's financial information? How much does your church bring in through donations and tithing, and how is that money distributed?
Well, they weren’t transparent with us, that’s for sure. This doesn’t mean they aren’t transparent with their own congregation, or the public in general, but they chose not to share this information with us, so we can't know for sure either way without more information.
We will do further research into this church to find out more about this as well.
4. Which denomination does your church align with the most, if any?
While Calvary Chapel churches call themselves non-denominational, the Calvary Chapel title has become something of a denomination itself.
5. Is your church's pastor available for other questions or comments regarding the church, its doctrines, etc.?
In the process of trying to get someone at this church to respond to me, I tried finding a way to contact pastor Matt directly as well. While he has a Facebook account, it doesn’t look like he uses it very often at all, and my PM to him has yet to be seen. I also couldn’t find a personal email address for him either.
So while it’s possible that people physically attending this church may be able to walk up and talk to him in person, ask him questions, or discuss concerns regarding the church, I can’t say that this can be done online in any way, shape, or form. At least not when I attempted to.
6. How is your church's doctrinal flexibility and tolerance? If a member has a disagreement with the pastor or leadership on a certain doctrine, how is it handled? Does the church change its position on doctrines fairly often, if at all?
Calvary Chapel churches typically align universally on a list of doctrinal issues, and in my experience with Calvary Chapel, they tend to avoid any debates or arguments when it comes to non-essential or other minor doctrines within Christianity, while the strictness to their own “majors” may vary depending on the pastor at each church.
Again, we won’t know this until we can speak with pastor Matt and he agrees to answer our questions.
7. Does your church require that its members be baptized? What is your church's official position on baptism?
Once again, we see no hints on the website of this. Calvary Chapel churches do not typically believe in baptismal regeneration, and since we see nothing on the website suggesting that they require it for membership, it’s probably safe to assume that they don’t based on what we’ve found with other Calvary Chapels. But once again, we can’t know for sure until we dig deeper.
8. Please describe what a typical service and/or meeting looks like in your church.
As is typically the case for Calvary Chapel churches, their sermons are verse by verse studies through the Bible.
We also found this statement on the church website on their About Us page:
“We believe that the only true basis of Christian fellowship is His agape love. We believe worship of God should be spiritual. Therefore, we remain flexible and yielded to the leading of the Holy Spirit to direct our worship. We believe worship of God should be inspirational. Therefore, we give great place to music in our worship. We believe worship of God should be intelligent. Therefore, our services are designed with great emphasis upon the teaching of the Word of God that He might instruct us how He should be worshiped. We believe worship of God should be fruitful. Therefore, we look for His love in our lives as the supreme manifestation that we have truly been worshiping Him. Please come and join us for our Sunday morning service at 10AM.”
9. How many people do you have on staff at your church, both paid and volunteer?
The website doesn’t give this information, and we won’t know the answer until we can research this church in person.
10. What is the pastor's educational history?
The website doesn’t give this information and from what I can tell, neither does pastor Matt’s Facebook page. Although, we aren’t friends on Facebook, so it’s possible that it does and we just can’t see it.
11. How does the church discipline its members with their sin?
Yet another question that can only be answered if pastor Matt decides to help us out, or if we can get a closer look when we do an in-person check in the future.
12. How is the pastor compensated (income, benefits, bonuses, etc.)?
This church has a very small congregation, so I can’t imagine the pastor has much of an income, and I imagine like a few others we’ve spoken to, he probably has a second job somewhere else to support himself and his family.
We could make a fair estimate based on congregation size, but the amount isn’t important in this situation. Until pastor Matt answers us, we have to assume he is not transparent with this information.
13. What is the size of your church congregation, building, and any other space the church owns for meetings and church services?
This congregation must be fairly small still. The Calvary Chapel Midway Facebook Page has 126 likes and 127 follows as of this writing, as well as 17 check-ins. This means the congregation is certainly less than 100, but to the exact number, we can’t be sure.
Have you attended Calvary Chapel New Life in Midway? Care to share your input? Give us your checks in the comments, or contact us to let us know what you think!