Bishop B. Courtney McBath

Over the last sixteen years, B. Courtney McBath has worked diligently to realize an ever-expanding vision for ministry in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and beyond.

In 1989, he passed through Norfolk International Airport, sensing he was to begin a church in this city. Now he pastors what Outreach Magazine listed as one of the top-100 largest and fastest-growing churches in America. He also produces an international television program reaching more than 100 million U.S. viewers on the Daystar Television Network (DTN). He administrates a highly accredited K-12 school system and oversees hundreds of churches in the U.S. and abroad.

Knowing from a young age that he wanted to pastor a church, McBath acted on his dream with a boldness that since has characterized his ministry. Educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he left a profitable engineering career—turning down a promotion to senior management at Baxter Healthcare Corporation—to move his family to Hampton Roads and establish Calvary Revival Church (CRC).

Almost immediately the ministry experienced unusual growth. Starting out in a hotel conference room with some 21 congregants, McBath and his wife and co-pastor, Janeen, moved locations several times, finally landing at the church’s most recent facility, which serves an estimated 8,000-plus weekly attendees. Now undergoing a major expansion to meet the needs of those filling the sanctuary for three Sunday services.

Just three years after founding the church, McBath started building what is now a $15-million educational facility for the SACS and ACSI accredited Calvary Christian School System. Meanwhile, he has established many other church-supported entities—including a federal credit union—which together with CRC employ more than 185 people.

McBath has played an increasingly prominent role in the wider Hampton Roads community over the years, crossing into business, educational, and cultural arenas. Currently, he is facilitating city transformation in Tidewater through partnerships with citizens, faith community leaders, and ranking civic leaders. His first Discover Life Center, a seven-acre facility for men coming out of incarceration and drug addiction, will open in 2006. He has established CRC church plants in the nearby cities of Chesapeake and Suffolk and plans to continue planting churches throughout the region. He will serve as Vice Chair of the 2007 Franklin Graham Festival scheduled for Norfolk.

In 1998, McBath expanded the scope of his leadership beyond Hampton Roads, founding Calvary Alliance of Churches and Ministries to provide oversight for churches else where. As the organization’s presiding bishop, he now is responsible for churches in the U.S., Europe, Africa, India, China, and the Caribbean. In this role he provides guidance, leadership training, and opportunities for accountability relationships to affiliated ministries.

Along the way McBath earned a Master of Arts degree in Biblical studies from Regent University, where he now serves as an adjunct professor, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Providence Bible College and Theological Seminary. His columns have appeared in Charisma and Ministries Today magazines. Known for his practical, outreach-oriented approach to ministry, McBath considers it his mission to identify needs in the communities he touches, meet those needs, and lead people in the discovery of their gifts and God-given purpose. In the words of his ministries’ vision, he has committed himself to helping others first “Discover Life at Calvary” —and then embrace life, live life, and give life.