In January of 1983, a small group of people felt led of the Lord to start a new church in Aiken. There was a strong desire to form a fellowship that would follow the example of the early church, as described in the Book of Acts: a church that would worship and praise in Spirit and in truth; a church that would do ministry as prompted by the Holy Spirit; a church that would build one another up in the Lord.

On January 23, 1983, Aiken Bible Church (the original name of the church), held its first worship service. There were 20 families who met that first day. With this core of families, growth began immediately. To ensure that we could build one another up, the house church system was implemented. The church was structured to be governed by elders and deacons.

In May of 1983, the church began to meet at a local social club. The fellowship continued to grow, spiritually, numerically, and especially biologically. We had so many babies that we had to buy a building to use as the nursery. With the growth it became apparent that it was time to build a facility that would hold all the people.

So on May 21, 1985, the Leadership Council agreed to purchase 71/2 acres of land on Croft Mill Road. In January of 1986, the people began a prayer vigil for the money to come in so we could construct the building. In October of 1986, we had our first worship service in the building, that was paid in full, without ever going into debt.

During 1987 & 1988, the church entered into a season of unprecedented spiritual warfare. The powers of darkness were intent upon destroying the fellowship. They tried to do so through the sinful deeds of the flesh of some of the church's leaders. But through prayer, confession, and repentance, the saints, who stayed with the church, through the Lord's help, were able to turn back the enemy.

As the Lord started to rebuild His church, He raised up 2 of its elders to serve as co-pastors. They served the Lord's body in this capacity until the Lord led one of the pastors on to another fellowship. The mantle of feeding and tending the sheep then fell solely on Bob Laube's shoulders. And he has served the body as its pastor since 1999.

So how did Aiken Bible Church become Calvary Chapel? During the late 90's, the council had been in prayer, and discussion about changing the name. And in the spring of 2000, Mike Rapp asked Pastor Bob if he had ever thought about becoming affiliated with Calvary Chapel. Pastor Bob investigated whether this was something that could be done. And upon finding out that it was possible, the council entered into a season of praying & fasting for the Lord's will in the situation. The unanimous decision was, "Yes". So in the spring of 2000, Pastor Bob began the affiliation process. This was completed in the summer, and on October 1, 2000, the church met for the first time as Calvary Chapel of Aiken.

The hardest part about changing the name was swapping the awesome logo one of our members designed for Aiken Bible Church for the Calvary Chapel dove. But the change has been blessed by God.