Chuck Smith began a new form of preaching among the Calvary Chapel churches. He preferred expositional sermons to topical, devotional or evangelistic ones. Smith began at Genesis 1:1 and preached verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and book by book from the beginning to the end of the Bible.
There are many advantages to this type of preaching. Parishioners learn the Bible first, and as issues come up, they are related to biblical backgrounds. Also, it keeps the pastor from emphasizing a certain type of sermon or a certain topic. Calvary Chapel pastors naturally cover what appears next in the Scriptures. But there’s a third reason: expositional preaching tends to bring the saints to maturity, which is the focus of the Calvary Chapel movement. Therefore, many of them have said, “God sets the agenda in our churches, not the pastor or the denomination.”6
The Calvary Chapel movement does not employ one of the three traditional forms of ecclesiastical government; i.e., congregational (Baptist), representative (Presbyterian), or episcopal (Methodist). Rather, they use what is called a “Moses Model.” Under this system, God is the head of the people and, as Moses was God’s leader of the people, so the pastor of a Calvary Chapel is leader of the people. Moses also had a priesthood praying for the people and delivering God’s message, but he had 70 elders to support his leadership. The Calvary Chapel movement believes their pastors have a Moses-like leadership, and their board of elders supports that ministry.
Each Calvary Chapel is independent, self-governing and not controlled by the Calvary Chapel Association. They allow churches to fellowship with other churches of the movement, but not control one another. The word
“fellowship” means that a church can choose to come and fellowship or to not fellowship. Those who don’t fellowship are dropped from the fellowship.
Strengths and Weaknesses
There are several strengths of a church of the young that acculturated its revolutionary lifestyle and values into church, life and ministry. Technically, every time one generation passes onto the scene, a new generation brings its strengths and values into the church. So, the first strength is that the Calvary Chapel movement reflected pure Christianity. It stripped off the traditional facades and got rid of programs that were outdated and perhaps no longer worked.
There were “barnacles” attached to worship services that represented a day long passed. Calvary Chapel began with a clean slate and created churches that were reflective of true biblical Christianity. However, these churches were driven by the lifestyle and values of the youth who inhabited their pews and led their services. They brought their new music and cast out the old. They came dressed casually as they worked and played—it was their simple approach to God. Because they were children of rock concerts, they initiated Christian rock concerts. Because they were a visual generation, they introduced drama. Announcements were made through PowerPoint presentations. Calvary Chapel ushered in a new day and worshiped in a new way, but all for the same eternal biblical purposes.
Another way of expressing their strength was drinking wine out of “new wineskins.” It was a new method that came out of the lifestyle of the young people who were influenced by Jesus Christ. Preaching was no longer new things. Sometimes the broom that sweeps the old closet clean stirs up unintended consequences when it does away with that which is necessary.
First, they got rid of programs that were necessary for traditional churches
—programs an older generation considered biblical. There were reasons why the traditional church had the programs they did, and the organization they used, as well as they buildings they built. The embryonic strengths of the past were swept away with the new broom, and with it went away old loyalties.
There is a second problem: unintended financial consequences. When young people begin a church from scratch, they operate within the boundaries of the money they have. There is nothing wrong with this, but when the young take over a traditional church and try to infuse it with Christian rock, new styles of worship and new expressions of love to Jesus Christ, what about the old traditional Christians in these churches? They fought a losing battle and left, taking their pocketbooks with them.
Years ago, I wrote a book called Putting an End to Worship Wars.7 This book described churches in which the young people took over. The elderly (with money) left, and the church survived for a while. But, in some cases, it faced bankruptcy. That leads to a fourth implied problem. On many occasions, the new youth-driven church has been oblivious to the needs of the elderly traditional Christians. Perhaps it is retaliation for the past, when the elderly were oblivious to needs of the young. Just as the young left the church when their needs were not addressed, so the elderly are walking out of churches when they lose control.
Wrap Up
When you look at the Calvary Chapel movement, you find large mega-churches tend to dominate it. When the disciples of Chuck Smith went out to plant churches, they never intended to plant a small, traditional single-celled church. They envisioned a large church filled with young people.
They planned to plant a megachurch, and everything they did was focused on being a huge congregation that would reach a huge amount of people for Christ. They planned big, acted big and prayed big, and as a result, they grew big churches. But they also had a big influence on the rest of Christianity.
Their Baby Boomer churches influenced normal American churches.
Then normal American Baby Boomers influenced traditional American churches. When the American culture began to change, the American churches eventually changed. Calvary Chapels and the “hippies” who had been converted under the ministry of Chuck Smith were probably one of the first churches to be acculturated by the changes in the American lifestyle.
Hillsong Church Sydney, Australia*
Brian Houston Founder, Senior Pastor
Darlene Zschech Pastor Hope Unlimited Church*