Architect of the ‘Jesus People’ movement reached millions
“Much is mumbled, trails off, and is not decipherable, but at one point it was almost as if he were fully awake and standing at his pulpit. May the Lord prepare us for everything. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
It was so pure, so simple, and so like dad. In the last few days, he’s been subjected to lots of tests, daily chest X-rays, procedures, and interrupted sleep from hospital staff and periodic coughing. The prayer he said in his sleep seemed so appropriate it gave me chills.”
– Chuck Smith Jr., Sept. 25, 2013
By Dan Vigil
Staff Writer
411whittier.com
WHITTIER – A pastor who didn’t care if his congregation smoked pot, dropped acid or got their daily dose of God through flower power has himself realized salvation.
Pastor Chuck Smith died Oct. 3 at age 86.
Smith founded the Calvary Chapel movement and his lifelong devotion to Jesus Christ has helped save thousands of souls. Maybe tens of thousands worldwide.
“God got hold of my heart and said: ‘If you heal people physically, the best is just for a time. There’s a sickness that’s killing everybody, and that’s sin. If you can bring healing from that, it’s eternal. Do you want to devote your life to things that are temporal or things that are eternal?'”
Seeking to effect more change in the lives of Christians, Smith developed a simple style of expository, verse-by-verse, Bible teaching that still resonates today with millions.
In the late 1960’s and early 70’s Smith’s teaching began to draw in thousands of young people caught up in the popular “hippie” movement. While the rest of the world was complaining about “those dirty, lazy hippies,” Smith’s wife, Kay, began to develop a strong burden for young men and women.
“I’d see them roaming the streets or wherever I saw them, and I would start crying,” Kay Smith said. “I started praying and saying ‘God, what’s wrong? What’s wrong with their lives?’ And I felt the Lord said to me, “They’re empty, they need me.”
It wasn’t too long before the couple had 10 so-called “hippies” living in their home and countless others coming by to listen to Chuck Smith’s teachings. It was out of these early meetings that the Calvary Chapel movement evolved.
Today one can find Calvary churches in nearly every community. Locally there are places of worship in Whittier, La Habra, La Mirada, Downey and Norwalk.
Born in 1926 to devout Christian parents, Smith made a decision to enter the ministry instead of medical school at 17 while he was at a summer camp.
By focusing on a consistent method of “Bible first” theology and keeping Calvary Chapel open to everyone, a system of one-to-one evangelism evolved that spread like wildfire among young people in Southern California.
When asked how this phenomenon occurred, Smith explained Calvary’s rapid growth was through no effort of his own.
As Smith later said, “We didn’t sit down and have strategy sessions and say, ‘Well now, how can we reach them? And how can we grow? And what can we do here? And all these planning sessions. It was just something that just naturally happened. As you follow the leading of the spirit, you just stumble into it’” Smith said.
The “Jesus People” movement, as it came to be known, seemed to hit young people everywhere. George Adams, a longtime Whittier resident, recalls, “A friend of mine just pulled me out of a party one day and took me to a Bible study. I did the same for one of my friends and he became a Calvary Chapel pastor out in Chino Hills.”
Pastor Jack Abeelen, senior pastor of Morningstar Christian Chapel in Whittier, has built an incredibly successful congregation by emulating Smith’s unwavering commitment to the Lord and the Bible.
“I grew up as a young Christian under Pastor Chuck Smith. I remember vividly sitting each Sunday night in the chapel at Costa Mesa and studying through the Bible with him. Over time I fell in love with God’s Word and Pastor Chuck taught me how I could rely on what God had said,” Abeelen wrote in an e-mail. “Eventually I, too, went into full-time ministry and have now been the senior pastor at Morningstar Christian Chapel in Whittier for nearly 30 years. I have seen what I learned from him many years ago, that the teaching of Gods’ Word will bear much fruit. We have grown from four families in a living room to thousands who gather each week to worship the Lord. Pastor Chuck shaped my view of ministry and I had the distinct privilege these past many years to serve with him and teach with him at many pastors’ conferences and gatherings.
“He was in private what you saw in public, a man of faith and integrity and conviction. He both believed and practiced what he taught. He was a role model to me and I am sure I wouldn’t be in ministry today without his leadership. I will miss him greatly and not just his friendship but his leadership. He was a man of the Word, if God said it, that settled it for him. He will always be for me the standard of what a pastor should be like in terms of practice and commitment,” Abeelen wrote.
Calvalry Chapel churches have brought millions of people to Christ over the years. Today there are more than 1,000 churches in the U.S. and hundreds overseas.
A memorial service will be held for Smith at Honda Center of Anaheim on Oct. 27.
411whittier.com editor Tim Traeger contributed to this story.
dvigil@dvigil.com
ttraeger@411whittier.com
By the Rev. Thomas M. Boles PhD., DMin. D.D.
