A Brief History

Calvary Chapel began in 1965 at Costa Mesa California, as a small non-denominational church of 25 people pastored by Chuck Smith. Today the number of people that consider Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa their home church is over 35,000 believers. Out of the ten largest Protestant churches in California it is number one. Out of this ministry there have developed over 1,000 Calvary Chapel Fellowships world wide. Out of the twenty largest churches in the United States 12 are Calvary Chapels. The Word for Today publishes Bible study books and tapes all over the world, KWVE broadcasts God's Word to all of Southern California, and the Calvary Satellite Network broadcasts all across the United States. Calvary Chapel's Bible College provides Bible education to thousands at its home campus in Murietta, California and at over 30 extension campuses world wide.

In the book of Acts chapter 2, we are told that when the church was born the believers continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. These are the four distinctives that marked the early church and these are the distinctives that mark the Calvary Chapels. These are the things that are emphasized, sought after, and practiced, and just as the book of Acts tells us, we have learned - as in the early church - the Lord adds to our numbers daily. "To God be the glory, great things He has done."

Here in the South the denominational lines are drawn deep in the soil of the culture. Fundamentalists are on one side and the Pentecostals are on the other. They choose to remain segregated for the most part one from the other. The South is knee deep in the carnage of legalism and divisive doctrines of men.

Fundamentalism is that portion of Protestantism which holds to the literal interpretation of the Scriptures, believing that they are divinely inspired and innerrant. Hence, the "fundamentals" of the faith are emphasized. Although the modem news media and the liberal church scorn fundamentalists as backwards and ignorant, the truth is that fundamentalism has preserved the integrity of God's Word and held on to the essential doctrines of the orthodox faith.

Pentecostalism as a modern movement grew out of the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles at the turn of the 20th century, and spawned denominations that emphasize the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the exercise of spiritual and Scriptural gifts of the Spirit which had fallen dormant in the main line churches. Also criticized by the liberal church and news media as being emotionally driven, Pentecostalism restored to the church the importance of gifts of the Spirit and the power of God for the believer today.

Over the years, however, fundamentalism, while it clung to the integrity of God's Word, tended to become rigid, legalistic, and unaccepting of spiritual gifts. Similarly, Pentecostalism became enthusiastic and emotional at the expense of the teaching of God's Word.

Calvary Chapel is the balance between the two. At Calvary Chapel we believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as declared in the Bible, and we encourage their exercise, but always decently and in order, and with the primary emphasis on the Word of God which we look to as our primary rule of faith. Thus we see one of the reasons why God has opened doors for this ministry in the South.

To quote Pastor Chuck Smith: "We believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Scriptures, and that they are valid for today if they are exercised within the Scriptural guidelines. We as believers are to covet the best gifts, seeking to exercise them in love that the whole Body of Christ might be edified. We believe that love is more important than the most spectacular gifts, and without this love all exercise of spiritual gifts is worthless."