Calvary Christian High School (Clearwater, Florida)
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Calvary Christian High School is a high school in Clearwater, Florida, in the United States. This private Christian high school was opened in fall 2000 by Calvary Baptist Church. The year began with seven faculty members and 38 students in ninth and tenth grades. The following year the student body was made up of 80 students. Eighteen students were in the first graduating class in 2003.
During the winter recess, 2006, the school relocated to its current campus. Today, students can take college-credit courses and Advanced Placement classes. The school currently has around 240 students. There are many programs and clubs including Film, Conservation etc.
The mascot is the warrior. A movement at the Central Florida school continues to amaze students and faculty alike.
School administrator David Kilgore said the atmosphere at CCHS, since a Sept. 16 chapel service, is “unlike anything I have experienced in 16 years of Christian education.”
“Visitors to the school say they can sense the Spirit of God. Others say they have never seen a happier group of high school students,” he said.
Kilgore said revival among the students began during the summer when Athletic Director David Thiel offered a strength and conditioning program for students every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings—on the condition that they attend a Thursday Bible study. Around 20 boys met at 7 a.m., and around 30 girls, at 9 a.m.
“These students were instrumental in providing leadership in being open to God working in their lives and in the lives of the student body,” Kilgore said.
Meanwhile, a brand new Moms In Touch prayer group started up in September. Each Thursday morning more than 30 mothers pray for their children at CCHS, for other students, and for the faculty. Faculty members also pray for the students in their classes, Kilgore said. Willy Rice, senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, told Florida Baptsit Witness he spoke at the weekly chapel service Sept. 16.
Citing 2 Cor. 13:5, Rice said he preached on “the importance of carefully examining ourselves to make sure our faith in Christ is genuine.” He had preached the same sermon on Labor Day weekend at Calvary Baptist and Kilgore asked him to preach it again to CCHS students.
“I was really hesitant, because I felt like most of our kids had heard pleas for salvation many times,” Rice remembered. “Yet, I taught the message and you could really sense God’s Spirit was present in the room.”
Five students responded to the altar call, and within 30 minutes of the end of the service, one student after another sought out Coach Thiel to ask how to receive salvation.
Kilgore vividly remembered the day.
“As soon as Coach would finish counseling with a student, another would be waiting to speak to him. It continued throughout the day and after school. And on Friday morning, the same scene replayed throughout the day,” Kilgore said. “Since then there have been periods of time when the same thing would start again—students leaving class to speak to a staff member because of their conviction of sin.”
