Calvary Baptist Church Carries Stewardship From Its Sanctuary To Its Members’ Homes

The Rev. Dr. Oscar T. Moses has built much of his ministry around hope. His doctoral dissertation focused on “Preaching That Challenges Congregations to Transform Community Hopelessness to Hope and Beyond,” and since January 2020, he has served as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Salt Lake City. When Utah Clean Energy, a Salt Lake City nonprofit, honored Moses in 2023 for leading the church’s energy work, he described his calling in the same terms: “I strive to help the congregants of Calvary Baptist Church move beyond hopelessness, to hope and beyond.” 

Photo Courtesy Calvary Baptist SLC

Calvary describes itself as “a historic, multi-generational, diverse Christian congregation” in downtown Salt Lake City, committed to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ “through our words, actions, and acts of love and kindness within our community.” The Rev. France Davis, a civil rights leader who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., led the congregation from 1974 until his retirement at the end of 2019. Over those 46 years, The Salt Lake Tribune reported, Davis helped grow a small Black congregation into a thriving multiethnic church with a wide reach of social services. In his autobiography, Davis called himself “first and foremost a pastor of the church, concerned about the spiritual welfare and well-being of people in our community.” 

The energy project took shape in Davis’s final months before he retired as pastor at Calvary Baptist Church. Utah Clean Energy finalized plans with Davis in late 2019, then carried the work forward with Moses, who arrived from Chicago to lead the congregation of about 1,800 members shortly before the pandemic closed the church’s doors. The building underwent an audit first. The church then upgraded half its lighting to LEDs and installed advanced controls on its heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) units. Utah Clean Energy estimates the upgrades save about 158,000 kilowatt-hours a year, cutting roughly $6,700 from the church’s annual electric bills.

Photo Courtesy Utah Clean Energy

A $3,600 grant from the EarthKeepers program of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) helped the church secure an additional $50,000 in rebates through two of Rocky Mountain Power‘s efficiency programs. Utah Clean Energy calls the award an “interfaith EarthKeeper grant,” noting that Methodist congregations, including the nearby Christ United Methodist Church, give to the UMCOR fund behind it. The United Methodists’ regional Mountain Sky Conference describes its UMCOR-funded EarthKeepers grants as a way for churches to “save energy, reduce costs, and live out our call to care for God’s creation.” According to the organization, Jay Vestal, a local EarthKeeper and former Utah Clean Energy board member, planted the seeds of the project. Christ United Methodist had walked this road: in 2010, the church installed 99 solar panels, becoming the county’s first church funded through Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky program. A Methodist gift helped a Baptist congregation care for the building entrusted to it, a concrete picture of the body of Christ working across denominational lines.

Photo Courtesy Mountain Sky Conference of The United Methodist Church

Calvary extended that care to its members’ homes. In January 2021, the church invited members to apply for no-cost home energy upgrades funded by the same UMCOR grant. Between March and May, Energy Experts, the contractor for Dominion Energy’s Thermwise direct-install program, completed work in 15 congregants’ homes across Salt Lake County. Every home received air sealing around window frames, door frames, and plumbing and electrical gaps, reducing air leakage by an average of 20 percent. Ten households received attic insulation, nine received smart thermostats, and 13 received a combined 158 LED bulbs. Utah Clean Energy estimates the upgrades save participating families an average of $224 a year on utility bills, with one household saving an estimated $464.

Calvary’s own solar came through the same Blue Sky program, which turns utility customers’ voluntary contributions into solar for community organizations. Rocky Mountain Power lists Calvary among its 2021 Blue Sky community projects, describing it as “one of the oldest and largest predominantly African American congregations in the State of Utah.” The rooftop array also powers electric vehicle charging stations, the Utah public radio station KUER reported in 2023. The installer, Creative Energies, puts the system at 200.38 kilowatts across 466 panels, with chargers in the east parking lot for up to four vehicles at once. Calvary’s motto for the work, as shared on PBS Utah’s Utah Insight, was “Calvary Baptist Church securing energy for future generations.” John Robertson, who oversees the church’s finances, told the program, “All of this is powered by the solar, and what a savings it is for us.” KUER counted Calvary among several Utah houses of worship that have put solar on their buildings in recent years, alongside Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Centerville, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church near Logan, and Mt. Olympus Presbyterian in Holladay.

Photo Courtesy Rocky Mountain Power

The phrase “future generations” runs through Calvary’s life, from its stated vision of preparing future generations to evangelize the world to the motto it chose for its energy work. That care has taken the shape of light bulbs and thermostats, sealed window frames in members’ homes, and panels catching Utah sunlight on the church roof. “We cannot leave room in our hearts for blame or complacency,” Moses said when Utah Clean Energy recognized him. “We have to work together to safeguard our planet for us and for the next generation.” For a congregation wondering where its own stewardship might begin, Calvary’s path started with an audit of the building it already had.