The cry went up in the small town of Embarrass in the winter of 1926: “Jim’s got religion! He’s invited the whole town! He’s crazy!”
Nobody in Embarrass would have expected something like this from James “Jim” Peterson. Jim was an outgoing man who enjoyed smoking, having an occasional drink and shooting pool at the local tavern. This wasn’t like him. What had changed?
Weeks earlier, Jim’s wife Marie had been reading her Bible as she often did, consoling herself at night while Jim was out dancing and carousing. She read about baptism in Jesus’ name to wash away her sins and decided she wanted that for herself. She spoke to her father, who recommended a trip to revival services held by Brother Sass in Auroraville, sixty miles away.
A cold Sunday in November of 1926 found Jim and Marie, along with their two children, Leona and John, rumbling down the gravel road in their Model T on their way to the revival at a small Pentecostal church. At the revival, Marie found what she was looking for: baptism by immersion in the name of Jesus Christ (see Acts 2:38). Marie was baptized, and she’d never felt better in her life. “I feel like a fairy,” she said.
Jim had been watching. He saw the change in his wife. And he didn’t like what he saw.
“Now you’re an angel and I’m the devil,” he told Marie as they drove home that night. He gripped the steering wheel and swerved wildly from side to side.
“Don’t, Daddy!” his daughter Leona cried.
Jim stopped, and he didn’t say another word... but he was thinking. He’d seen the change in Marie, the freedom, the lightness in her spirit. Things he didn’t have. And while Marie continued in her joy in the coming days, Jim sank into depression.
Three weeks later he found himself speaking to Brother Sass at the church, unable to shake the hopelessness he felt. “I’m like this altar,” he said, pounding his fist on the solid wood in frustration. “Hard!”
Brother Sass looked at him with compassion. “God makes us soft.”
Is it possible? Jim wondered. He was a strong man, a hard man, certainly successful in many things… but lacking the peace and joy that Marie felt, and wondering what else he was missing. Was there more waiting for him, if only he would turn to God with his whole heart? There was only one way to find out.
Jim Peterson repented of his sins, asking God to forgive him, and was baptized by immersion in Jesus’ name. When he came out of the water with the understanding that now his sins were washed away, just like Marie’s, he laughed and jumped for joy. His sins were gone. The depression was gone. And his life would never be the same.
Jim rented a church in Embarrass where Bro. Sass held a week-long revival. The church was packed as word spread: “Jim Peterson’s got religion!” Marie received the baptism of the Holy Ghost the first night of the revival, with evidence of speaking in tongues. Three weeks later Jim had the same experience at home. The married couple gave their lives completely to God, and even praised the Lord while milking their cows. The change in him was real, and if God could do that for him, he reasoned, God could do it for everyone else.
In 1927, Jim was officially ordained a pastor. He started holding services in his home one year later. In 1930, the Petersons relocated to Auroraville.
Three years later they returned to Clintonville and rented the Germania Hall on 6th and Bennett streets, an arrangement that lasted for ten years, and established the “Full Gospel Mission.” The public still referred to it as “Jim Peterson’s religion.” Approximately thirty different traveling ministers came through during the heart of the Great Depression to help the small church grow, and over time attendance bloomed to eighty.
Brother Peterson rented the former Christus Lutheran Church on 5th Street. At this time, Brother Peterson decided to step down after thirteen years in ministry and after reaching eighty-eight souls for the Lord. He offered his pastoral position to Brother Ellis, trusting his firmly established church to other hands, and Brother Ellis took over in 1941.
Brother Ellis purchased the building he was renting in 1943 and called it Clintonville Tabernacle. In 1952 the church was debt-free, and the name was changed again to Clintonville Apostolic Tabernacle. A parsonage was purchased on the corner of Franklin and Garfield Streets.
Over the decades that followed, the church building saw many changes in appearance. Nine different pastors presided over the congregation between Brother Ellis and Pastor John Soto, who, during his ministry, oversaw the construction of a new and larger facility. This facility was located on the corner of McKinley Street and Highway 156 and was named Calvary Apostolic Church. Calvary Apostolic Church held its first service on Easter Sunday of 1997, and is now under the care of Pastor Patrick Kloehn.
The work that Jim Peterson began in his home in 1928 still continues today, carrying on what is not only “Jim Peterson’s religion,” but the doctrine presented by Peter and the apostles on the day of Pentecost, when the church was born. Repentance. Baptism. The infilling of the Holy Ghost with evidence of speaking in tongues. Things that change lives like Jim and Marie Peterson’s. Things that still change lives today.
Calvary Apostolic is still reaching out to the community with the Biblical message of salvation. All are welcome to experience what Jim and Marie Peterson did so many years ago. God changed their lives, and Calvary Apostolic stands as proof that God continues to change lives. What God did for them, He can just as easily do for you.