Pastor to retire after 49 years of preaching
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STEUBENVILLE -- After nearly 50 years of active ministry and eight years of serving his congregation at Calvary Community Missionary Baptist Church, the Rev. Calvin McLoyd Jr. is finally set to retire.
McLoyd, who has been a pastor at various churches for 45 years and has been preaching for 49 years, founded Calvary in 2015 after withdrawing from a separate, and very brief, retirement. A celebration of McLoyd's retirement and pastoral ministry is scheduled for Saturday at Wintersville Methodist Church's Center for Hope.
"If you knew my story, you would understand my faith," McLoyd said while reflecting on his career. "When it seems like everything has fallen down around me, faith keeps me going."
McLoyd recalled that, at the age of 10, he gave his life to Christ. Growing up in Columbia, Ala., Mcloyd was raised in a religious family that he said had a good family structure but lacked personal knowledge of God.
At 10, McLoyd empathized with the Biblical figure of Moses, who had a stammering problem. McLoyd suffered from a speech problem that caused him to shy away from others. McLoyd was walking in the woods when he heard a voice speaking clearly to him, as intimate as a person-to-person conversation.
"I knew it was the voice of the Lord," McLoyd said, "and I knew that that voice was saying, at that age, that it was time for me to do work for him."
McLoyd said the voice told him that he was meant to preach. McLoyd questioned this, frightened partly because of his speech problem. It was on that day, however, that God cured his speech problem, leaving a few words that -- to this day -- McLoyd is unable to speak out loud and avoids speaking as a reminder of where God lifted him up from.
It took McLoyd another 17 years to make a commitment to preach. He was drafted right out of high school and finished two years of active duty in the Army, later serving 22 years in the Reserves. McLoyd experienced some "life-changing, life-altering" issues in his personal life, until he eventually made the commitment to preach on Aug. 24, 1974, when he was 27.
McLoyd said there was no specific lightbulb moment regarding his commitment, but the light had been "flickering" since he was 10, directing him to ministry. However, he recalled the night of Aug. 24, when he was unable to sleep and felt something to be different, later having an experience with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
"To this day, I can't describe it," McLoyd said. "That was my spiritual contact with the Lord."
McLoyd said an experience at 27 of speaking in tongues, "a language that the Lord put on my spirit," is unforgettable for him and confirms for the truth of "every word" in the Bible.
McLoyd earned an associate's degree from the George C. Wallace Community College and received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from St. Thomas Christian College. He would earn a master of arts degree in counseling from Franciscan University of Steubenville and became a certified Christian counselor.
On Jan. 26, 1975, McLoyd preached his first sermon at St. Mary Baptist Church. The Rev. James A. Smith, then pastor, acted as McLoyd's guidance and counsel
A photo of Smith and McLoyd having a conversation -- which McLoyd still remembers the topic of -- hangs in McLoyd's Calvary office. McLoyd described Smith as "my father in ministry and my father in faith."
After being invited to preach at different churches from January 1975 until July 1978, McLoyd found himself with his first pastoral assignment: Balkum Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Haleburg, Ala. No application was necessary, McLoyd said, because the church had gotten to know him and chose him as the new pastor.
From there, McLoyd said he spent various amounts of years at different churches, creating ministries along the way.
McLoyd's longest tenure was at Second Baptist Church in Steubenville, which he pastored at for 25 years. He retired in 2015 but would soon find himself returning to ministry.
"Something was in my spirit, where I was not ready to fully retire," said McLoyd, adding that months of prayer seeking guidance led to the creation of a new church in Steubenville's LaBelle neighborhood: Calvary.
McLoyd said Calvary became a "blessing from the Lord," because of how God provided for the fledgling church's needs. The early church had been meeting in and paying rent to the Steubenville YWCA and library but had trouble finding a permanent building.
"The Lord said to me, 'Plant a $5,000 seed in the ministry of this church (for rent),'" McLoyd said. "The Lord said, 'Your next movement will be in a place where you don't have to pay.'"
Eventually, McLoyd found the 511 Woodlawn Road building, a former Church of the Nazarene. McLoyd intended to lease the building, but the owners decided to donate it totally free of charge.
McLoyd said that initial $5,000 was a seed and a representation of the Lord saying, "before something leaves my hand, something has to release from your hands."
"I believe that $5,000 spoke so loudly that the Lord said, 'I'll take it and multiply it five times and keep multiplying it.'"
McLoyd emphasized the community aspect of Calvary's character, saying, "We cannot reach the community just sitting here. We have to seek those who are looking and invite them to come here."
That mission is accomplished through several ministries, including a Wednesday women's ministry, Tuesday Bible study and online Facebook ministry.
McLoyd believes the Lord is calling him to pass on the mantle. As another pastor remarked to him at a meeting Wednesday, McLoyd is ending one season and entering the next.
"My retrospective is how the Lord has protected, and how the Lord has provided, and how through 49 years of preaching and 45 years of pastoring, not once has he reneged on anything he promised," McLoyd said. "Not once has there been a need that he didn't meet. Not only did he protect, but he also provided."
McLoyd, who enjoys solitaire and watching the Steelers in his free time, says he hopes to remain a part of Calvary and stay in the area. That plan is dependent on his finding a new one-level home to move into, for the sake of his mobility.
McLoyd said he will finally be able to ask, "Pastor, what do you want me to do?"
He is joined by his wife, Vivian McLoyd, who he calls the "bedrock" of his pastoral ministry and personal life. Together they had two children, Sonya, who died in 2018 at the age of 45, and Jeremy, who died in 2021 at the age of 42.
"Faith, to me, is my life's substance," McLoyd said. "Faith is what sustains me. My faith is so embedded, that there is no power on this earth that can move my faith."