Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia

Came here from Flemington, NJ back when they still in mall down the road in the 90’s. It’s a long drive but the girl that led me to the Lord, who was saved at a CC in Las Vegas, told if you want to learn the Word go to a Calvary Chapel. So I came here. Never regretted that decision because as mid forties guy who left my young Catholic faith became an atheist for thirty years I needed teaching and a lot of it. Came down every Sunday, most Sunday nights and Wednesday evenings and boy I couldn’t get enough of Pastor Joe’s teaching. I became a literate Christian because of him and Calvary Chapel and am eternally thankful for that. Shalom, Joe Kerr

This past Sunday, 8/20/23, my husband and I were visiting our college-age daughter who has just moved to Philly. As we are helping her find a church home, we decided to visit Calvary Chapel. Upon arriving to the 10am service, the singing had already started, but as we were going through the door being held by an usher, we were extremely confused. It seemed that a father and his young son (maybe 7 years old) were being escorted out. The conversation ("I'd need to get a ruling. I'll talk to my supervisor.") was baffling, as the child was just standing in the doorway looking embarrassed, and the dad was questioning the usher as to why his son was not allowed to be in the service. We were confused, but passed through the door and found seats. I spent the first song looking around to see if any children were in the sanctuary. During the second song, which I was familiar with, I started singing, and realized someone was sliding into the pew next to me. I turned to smile and let them know there was plenty of room, but it was an usher. He instructed me that I was not allowed to have coffee in the sanctuary and needed to place it in the lobby. I took my daughter's coffee and mine and started to follow him, but he pointed out that my husband's cup was still with him. Since I can't carry three cups of coffee without spilling it, my husband had to leave the service too. Upon standing in the foyer with my coffee trying to decide how I felt about coffee being so important that one would have a visitor to the service immediately need to exit to get that coffee out of there, I realized there was a sign on every door that had been obscured by the usher removing the child when we entered. Sure enough, no children under age 11, backpacks, food, or drink are allowed in the sanctuary. I'm really fine with the coffee issue. We never would have brought it in if we'd seen the sign. But children? No children? What is going on here? Folks who love this church, I guess you are fine with this, but I've got to tell you: this is really weird. According to the website, which we looked at later to figure out this bizarre policy, the church has an adults-only (well, middle school and up only, if we're being precise) policy for all services because they don't want distractions from worship. No. Children can be a distraction, but so can bad singers. No sleeping infants allowed? No perfectly behaved 7-year-olds? I don't mean to be too dramatic, but I feel like we needed a Jesus moment to the ushers to tell them to let the little children come to Him! What will this child who was removed from the sanctuary remember about church? That he needed to learn about Jesus separated from his dad? Or that they could worship together if they would just go to the overflow room because he's "a distraction" just by existing? How do you know that father and son actually know Jesus and didn't just leave? What if we contraband-coffee-bringers didn't know Jesus? What would be our response to the Gospel? Your church policy is literally to go in and catch any food, drink, and children who might slip in unawares. (Full disclosure: we did leave. The children thing was just too odd.) I'm begging you, rethink this plan. Your carpet might be perfect and your service might be quiet, but at what cost?