My family and I started attending Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in 1974 when I was 11. It was during the height of the Jesus People movement and an exciting time to be around the church. Every night, something was going on at the church, and the main services and concerts were always packed full of people of all different ages. It was truly the way the music group Love Song described it in their song “Little Country Church”:

“Long hair, short hair, some coats and ties / people finally comin’ around.
Lookin’ past the hair and straight into the eyes / people finally comin’ around.“

I remember going to the Thursday night Bible study in the Sanctuary with Pastor Chuck. The place was packed full of people. Not only was every seat taken in all of the pews, but young people ages 11 to 18 were sitting on the floor up and down the aisles as well as on the floor in front of the stage.

Everyone was there to feast on the Word of God. Everyone, including all of us younger people, was super attentive. There was no hype, no fanfare. It was truly a revival, although none of us really even knew what that was at the time. God was doing something amazing in a generation of people, and God used Pastor Chuck as one of His key vessels during that time.

My First Encounter With Pastor Chuck

My first personal encounter with Pastor Chuck happened during that same year. I started attending Maranatha Christian Academy, the school at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. I was in the 5th grade, and the school and church staff were playing a flag football game against the kids.

Pastor Chuck was playing running back. If you have ever played sports with Pastor Chuck, you know how competitive he could be. Well, there was this play where he took a pitch and was running a sweep right. He made it past the line, and the only obstacle between Pastor Chuck and the end zone was me; I was playing safety.

As Chuck came running toward me, I got into position to try and pull one of his flags. I expected him to try and put some move on me. But instead of putting a move on me, he just ran me over. As I lay there on the ground, completely unhurt, I might add, I remember thinking, “Wow, that guy is my pastor.”

Seeing The Ripple Effect of Pastor Chuck’s Leadership

My next personal encounter with Pastor Chuck happened about six years later, during my junior year of high school. Randy Osborn, the high school pastor, was leaving, and I had been a part of the high school group at the church for three years at that point.

Under Randy, I felt like the group was going as well as it had been in my three years of involvement. The group had doubled in size, and I was really vested in the group. I went to a public high school, and high school ministry was my sanctuary, my refuge, my lifeline, so I really wanted Pastor Chuck to make a good decision in picking Randy’s replacement.

One Sunday after the morning service, I waited in the line out in the courtyard to speak to Pastor Chuck. When it was finally my turn to talk to him, I introduced myself and told him my thoughts about the high school ministry. I asked him if, before he made a decision, he would come and visit the group on a Wednesday night and see what was happening there.

When I think back on that conversation today, now as a Senior Pastor of a church, I think how silly it was of me that Pastor Chuck would need to visit the group or have the time to visit before he could decide on who was supposed to lead it.

Well, Pastor Chuck didn’t visit, but he did send a little Italian guy named Richard Cimino to come and check it out. Richard became the high school pastor, and God used him to make the single greatest impact on my life from the age of 17 to 21.

It was Richard who gave me my first opportunities to serve the Lord and to teach the Bible. Richard has been a dear friend in my life for the last 41 years. Chuck definitely made the right choice.

Richard served in the role of the High School Pastor at CCCM for nine years. During those years, hundreds of kids were saved and became true disciples of Jesus. At last count, at least 100 students who were involved in that high school group over those nine years went on to serve Jesus in full-time ministry as pastors, pastors’ wives, missionaries, and church planters around the world.

Wondering If God Could Use Me

Aside from Pastor Chuck’s faithfulness to teach the Bible, he faithfully loved the sheep at CCCM for all his years there. The single greatest impact that Pastor Chuck made on my life is one that he didn’t even know about when he was alive.

It happened during a Preach The Word conference that Greg Laurie was hosting. I was a young man serving as a youth pastor and wondering if I had a call on my life to be a senior pastor. I was looking for this conference to help me grow in my preaching. Pastor Chuck was one of the speakers, along with Chuck Swindoll and a few other noted and well-esteemed pastors.

Pastor Chuck was the last to speak, and the pastors who preached before him gave these very polished and masterful sermons. They were textbook sermons with great introductions, great connected points, humor in just the right place, and personal illustrations to drive their point home.

I remember listening to these amazing messages and thinking, “I could never do that!” “I could never preach like that.” I later found out that several of my friends who were there that day were all thinking the same thing about their lives. These men were such gifted communicators that my friends and I realized we just didn’t have that kind of gifting.

But then it was Pastor Chuck’s turn to give his message, and Pastor Chuck did something that day that I had never seen him do before and never saw him do afterward. As he was giving his message, he suddenly paused and said, oh, I forgot something. Then he started flipping back through his notes until he found it.

When he found it, he said, “Oh, there it is,” and proceeded to share that point. It was such a weird, awkward moment that stood in stark contrast to the other perfect messages the other speakers had given that day.

Realizing That God Can Use Me!

To this day, I don’t remember what the point was, but that moment impacted me and, later found out, also impacted all my friends who were there. It was at that moment that we all had this thought, “I can do that!” “Maybe, just maybe, God can use me to teach the Bible to people. ”

Later, as I reflected on that moment and those other speakers, I realized that none of them have had many other men who have come out of their churches and have gone out to plant other churches, but to this day, there are at least 1500-2,000 churches that have been planted out of Calvary Chapel that can trace a connection back to Pastor Chuck who lived by the principle to simply teach the Bible simply.

Pastor Chuck’s impact on my life through his example and his faithfulness to teach the Bible has shaped me deeply as a pastor. I have often said that should the Lord tarry another 100 years, which I doubt He will, but if He does, in 100 years, people will be talking about Pastor Chuck and the influence he made on the church in the same way that we currently talk about the influence of Spurgeon.

I greatly miss the stability that Pastor Chuck brought to our family of churches.

It is hard to believe that our beloved Pastor Chuck has been gone for a decade. I remember how honored my husband, Tom Stipe, was to be among those chosen to eulogize his spiritual father. We discussed what he would express, and it did not take Tom long to decide. He would highlight Chuck’s faith and willingness to take a risk when he allowed a nineteen-year-old like him to be launched into ministry. That night, he underlined how Chuck had platformed him and a massive team of youthful ministers and how forever grateful Tom was for what he did.

Tom and I were friends when we first came to Calvary Chapel in 1969. And it was early in 1970 that Tom was given the opportunity that would change his life forever. After praying like crazy, Tom approached Chuck and boldly shared that he was in Bible College and had been a youth director. Tom explained how his call to the ministry had been affected during his short time at Calvary and what a blessing it would be if Chuck would allow him to serve at the church. Tom told Chuck that there was a call on his life to teach his generation. Without any hesitation, Chuck told Tom to plan to prepare a message for the following Tuesday night. Tom was incredulous as he heard Chuck say he would give Tom a chance, and “they” would see how it would go.

The “they” who would see how it went was Pastor Romaine. He stood in the back, calmly listening to Tom’s every word. When the study was over, Romaine put his arm around Tom and, with a slight smile, said, “So, do you think you can do that again next week”? And as it turned out, the next week, Chuck listened, and the rest of the story is history. Tom was on the team.

The team back in those days did not have offices. In the “little chapel.” Chuck had an office, his secretary had an office, and everyone else was on their own. The young men “trying out” for the team were relegated to “Room 6.” Room 6 was a Sunday school room hijacked during the week by all the “ministers in training” as a place to go and wait to serve. Tom would pick me up from my nearby high school after school and head to Room 6. In those days, clusters of young people hung around the courtyard of the little chapel almost all the time. Hippies, musicians, and wayward kids of every shape and description who had accepted Jesus, many sharing one thing in common: they had broken lives.

As the pastor, Chuck could not possibly minister individually to all the many young people with needs. So incredible as it may be, he let us (Tom, Chuck Smith, Jr., me, and others willing to volunteer, mere teenagers) sit in Room 6 and welcome people who wanted ministry. I could share many episodes of what happened in Room 6. What I remember most is that Chuck Smith not only let it happen but was always affirming of us all. He would stick his head in the room to encourage us. Still, in the end, it was clear that he trusted us to depend on the Holy Spirit and, out of that anointing, to minister to others. Let it be known that Chuck, as a coach, also instilled character. Chuck expected us to be faithful servants, hard workers, and students of the Word.

Years later, as a pastor’s wife with years of ministry under my belt, I would think back to those formative times in our lives and marvel at what Chuck did as the pastor of the Jesus Revolution. First, he let it happen; he welcomed thousands of hippies and wanna-be hippies into his church. And then somehow, he coached a vast team of us into becoming influential leaders in the Body of Christ.

While many remember Chuck as Papa Chuck, I also remember him as a great coach. He seemed to not be watching but always had his eye on us, encouraging those with true gifts to try the next ministry challenge and never seemingly worrying about the possibility of the ramifications of failure. As a female and a very young pastor’s wife, he encouraged me, just like the guys, and as a result, I never looked back.

Today, my much-loved helpmate Tom is with Chuck in heaven. As I remember Chuck, I appreciate that he not only raised a young team of warriors for God but was also willing to let a young woman like me on the team. Over fifty years later, I am still a counselor and teacher in the ministry. I will be forever grateful to Chuck Smith for the chance he gave me and so many young people like me to minister under his careful watch.

I am very thankful that I got my start in Room 6.

One of the greatest gifts that I have received from the ministry of Pastor Chuck was his emphasis on the grace of God. Not just the grace that saves, but the grace that upholds and sustains.

Returning to Why Grace Changes Everything

I frequently come back to these paragraphs from his important book Why Grace Changes Everything.

“One of the most tragic errors the church can make is to emphasise the work that believers should be doing for God. How many times have you heard heavy, condemning sermons that tell you, “You ought to be praying more! You ought to be giving more! You ought to be witnessing more, or reading your Bible more, or serving God on some committee more!” How often do you go to church looking for encouragement only to hear about your failure and how disappointed God must be with you?“

The last thing I need is for someone to lay a heavy burden on me about my failures. I know I ought to be doing more. No one needs to tell me that I don’t pray enough or read my Bible enough or give to God enough. All I get from such messages is a huge guilt complex. My frustration increases because I really want to love God more, to pray more, to have a deeper fellowship with Him. When we place our emphasis on areas of failure, we end up creating defeated, discouraged Christians who give up and drop out of the race.

What a different message we see when we turn to the New Testament! It highlights not what we ought to be doing for God, but what God has already done for us. What we can do for God can never be enough. Our efforts at righteousness are always marred by our imperfections. What God has done for us is perfect, beautiful, complete, and fantastic. How sad that we have reversed the equation and constantly harp upon our responsibility instead of God’s wonderful grace! This is why we see so much of the church on the verge of dying out. We don’t need someone to remind us of our failures as much as we need someone to show us the way out of our predicament. We need grace, not guilt.

Believing in God’s Promise

God has given you one simple responsibility: to believe in His promise. You can enjoy the blessing of a relationship with God even though you may not pray enough, or give enough, or sacrifice enough because of your faith in what God has already done for you.

God made Jesus to be sin for you that you might be made the righteousness of God through Him. Jesus imparts to you His righteousness when you simply place your faith and trust in the work He has done for you. His work is all of grace.”

The Simple Truth

How often do I myself need to be reminded of the simple truth that God is graciously and kindly disposed towards His children, not based on what we do for Him, but because of what Jesus has done for us!

It was the late nineties, cassette tapes were still a thing. Each semester, each of us would spend our hard-earned cash to buy a box of cassettes that contained through-the-Bible teachings by Pastor Chuck. Each week, one of our Calvary Chapel Bible College (CCBC) assignments was to listen to six or seven of those teachings, taking notes along the way.

Chuck, of course, was notorious for his deliberate cadence, complete with long pauses that made you wonder if it was time to flip the tape to side B. Because of his slow pace and the many hours it took to complete this assignment, lots of us toyed with ways of speeding up the man. Some students chose the deluxe option, purchasing variable speed tape players that enabled them to retain Chuck’s baritone pitch. Others went the more frugal route and used the high-speed dubbing option on a dual deck to put Chuck on chipmunk mode. Intelligible? Yes. Hilarious? Also yes.

Well, it’s an unwritten rule in Bible college settings that some people must appear to be more holy than others, and one big mark of holiness in my era was to refuse to speed Chuck up. If you were a single-speeder, you were right up there with Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, or the Apostle Paul. If you must know, I was not in this holy elite but only admired them from the base of the mountain. On the outskirts of the Tabernacle, I peered in from time to time at these ultra-spiritual pillars of consecration, wondering if I would ever have the chops to take up my cross, die to myself, and listen on single speed.

This question was put to me afresh one beautiful Saturday morning in the middle of a sunny spring semester. I had just worked a graveyard shift and was about three hours into sleep when a neighboring student began blasting their Chuck tapes at an ungodly volume. Immediately, I lost all sense of admiration for every single-speeder on campus and began judging this self-righteous Pharisee for their need to let us all know how holy they were. There I was, in my innocence, trying to sleep, but they had to let the whole world know of their resolve and conviction. They should have been content to refuse to let their left hand know what their right hand was doing, but instead, they needed to let the whole student body know that single speed was the only true path to holiness.

I was livid, and after trying to power through it and fall back asleep, the astounding volume threw me out of my bed and to the back window of my dormitory. “Turn Chuck down!” I shouted. I’m not a quiet guy, and it was not a quiet plea. I knew it would do the trick, and I went back to bed.

But the minutes ticked by, and there was no discernible change in the volume. I lay there shocked, in total disbelief that someone would so forcefully throw their conviction in my face. I thought of the Judaizers in Paul’s day—this must’ve been how Paul felt.

So I opened the window again and announced my plea. “Turn Chuck down!” Again, nothing. Two or three more times, I attempted to break through the sound barrier to penetrate the Pharisaical heart of my fellow student—”Turn Chuck down!”

But nothing changed. Finally, defeated, I decided to begin my day, but I couldn’t get any decent Bible reading done in an environment like that. There was too much noise from outside the room and inside my flesh. I had to get out of there, so I packed my bag and headed to the library.

Now, the front door of my dorm led to a large concrete porch that overlooked a beautiful grassy hill. When I opened that door to leave my room, I was a bit surprised to find that porch and hill filled with people. Hundreds of my fellow students sprawled all over the hillside, attentive and alert. And I was even more surprised to see, at the bottom of the hill, at a small pulpit, Pastor Chuck Smith teaching his Saturday morning book of Acts class!

Avoiding eye contact, I put my head down and mouthed the words, “Turn Chuck down!” I hoped against hope that no one had heard me. But again, I’m not a quiet guy.

This joyful and embarrassing memory aside, like so many others, I thank God often for the exposure to the Word of God that I found through Pastor Chuck. His steady exposition, on tape and in person, gave me a firm foundation and a model to emulate. And now, many years later, I celebrate the grace of God and the knowledge of Scripture that poured through that man to my heart. I praise God for his life and ministry and pray that the work God began in him will find its faithful completion in so many of us who received it.

To whom much is given, much is required. And through Chuck Smith, single speed or otherwise, many of us were given a ton.

Only in the later years of Pastor Chuck’s life and ministry did I have the pleasure of personal interactions with him. I was at Murrieta, when the Bible College was located there, and in a difficult season of life. It seemed like a thousand pastors were huddled around Pastor Chuck’s golf cart and carrying on. He was laughing so hard that I stopped to eavesdrop on the fun.

While standing on the far outside of that social circle, Pastor Chuck made eye contact with me, and I got nervous. He called out to me and told me to hop in his cart. Everyone stared at me, and a few of them confirmed that I won the lottery: Pastor Chuck wanted to spend time with me. I had no idea what was coming.

Pastor Chuck asked me a few basic questions as we drove around the property, and I shared that I was not in a good place. He just kept smiling and laughing a good bit, and none of that seemed out of place. We parked in a shady spot, and I thought I was about to receive the instruction manual for ministry. Instead, I learned how to draw near to the Savior.

Pastor Chuck looked at me and said, “You’re actually highly intelligent, I can tell just talking with you, and you’re overthinking because you can.” Then came the classic Chuckism, “Keep it simple; it’s not more than that,” he said, “Keep it simple, and you will see how much the Lord does.”

I didn’t get saved at Costa Mesa, and as a young Pastor, I was grafted into the vine of Calvary Chapel, and sometimes always felt like a bit of an outsider. Pastor Chuck asked me if I wanted to be a Calvary Chapel Pastor. Technically, I already was but knew he was saying something deeper.

I said, ” Ya, I would love to be a Calvary Chapel Pastor.”

Then Pastor Chuck smiled, laughed again, and said, “You’re in.”

Then I said, “I’m stoked.”

But what came next is what floors me even to this day. Pastor Chuck said, “Let’s be friends.”

I never imposed on that act of kindness by calling Pastor Chuck and asking for favors. I simply received it as kindness and love with tremendous gratitude. To my utter surprise, in rooms full of thousands, if I were walking by, he would motion to me to come over, remember my name, enthusiastically introduce me to whoever was around, and make me feel like the most important person in the room.

I learned more about Christ-like leadership sitting in a golf cart with Pastor Chuck Smith than the hundreds of books I’ve read.

I love that man. He was my friend.

When I was 18 years old, I boarded a plane bound for Hungary. Despite the fact that I had only been following Jesus for two years, my pastor, the late Tom Stipe, sent me out as a missionary. Three years later, when I was 21, Tom ordained me as I was going out to plant a church.

At the time, these actions didn’t strike me as abnormal or unusual, yet now, years later, I look back on them with a sense of surprise. Why was Tom willing to take a chance on me, as young as I was? Why did he trust that I could serve the Lord in those ways without any formal training?

Later on, I came to realize that the reason was because that is what Chuck Smith had done for him when Tom was a young man: In 1976, Pastor Chuck sent Tom to Colorado to start a Calvary Chapel church here. In the movie, “Jesus Revolution,” millions of people saw the portrayal of how Chuck Smith empowered the young Greg Laurie to plant a church in Riverside, California. Still, the even more incredible reality is that Pastor Chuck did similar things with many young people over the years. Tom was doing for me what Chuck had modeled for him.

I remember sitting with Tom and listening to him tell stories of the early days of Calvary Chapel. One thing that Tom told me was that, in his opinion, the true genius of Chuck Smith was not his verse-by-verse teaching, as many people assume, and as masterful as that was. The true genius of Chuck Smith, Tom said, was that Chuck was willing, and even eager, to empower young people to serve the Lord in meaningful ways because he genuinely believed in the work of the Holy Spirit in and through people who were willing to make themselves available to God.

I finally got to meet Pastor Chuck in Austria, at the conference center that he had acquired for Calvary Chapel as a launching point for ministry in Eastern Europe. He asked about our ministry in Hungary and gave encouragement and affirmation. As I look back on that, I’m full of appreciation for him as a person who was more than just a good Bible teacher but an example of foresight and faith. Not only did Pastor Chuck want the Gospel to go forth into the whole world, but he understood that God wanted to use many other people to do that work. He was willing to support missionaries and church planters, including some of us who maybe wouldn’t have been empowered to do those things by anyone else who didn’t have the measure of faith he did!

Now, ten years after Pastor Chuck’s heavenly homecoming, I’m more inspired than ever to carry on his legacy of Bible teaching, evangelism, missions, and empowering people, especially young people, to serve the Lord.

So many words have been printed, published and proclaimed to honor Pastor Chuck. My tribute seems hardly worth disseminating when others with greater eloquence or experience have expressed so many memories.

My first significant conversation with Pastor Chuck occurred more than thirty years ago. I was a new believer, who had been following Jesus about eleven months. I taught a home Bible study with about 45 people in attendance. I had started reading through the Bible in Genesis, and when I got to James 3:1, and the warning that those who teach will be judged more strictly, I was panicked. I called the church and asked to speak to Pastor Chuck, and although I’d never met him, he graciously came on the line.

I explained my situation—that I’d never gone to Bible college or seminary and there were all these people coming to my house, and how I’d just read James 3:1, and … In the midst of my discourse, Pastor Chuck started to laugh, and walk me off the ledge. He encouraged me to participate in the School of Ministry (SoM) at CCCM. I explained that I was an attorney and although I had a pretty flexible schedule, there would be court appearances where I’d have to miss class. Pastor Chuck told me that he would ask Pastor Carl be gracious and work with me. That was the first hand-upthat I received from Pastor Chuck.

When Pastor Chuck was teaching through the Book of Acts at SoM, he reserved time towards the end of class to answer questions. One student asked, “Pastor Chuck, what do you do when Sunday comes and you’re not prepared?” Chuck simply closed his Bible, and walked out of class. I never asked him about it, but I presume that he was offended that someone would think that he ever came to his calling as a Bible teacher unprepared for God’s noble work. That was another hand-up. In thirty-plus years of teaching, I’ve made sure to be diligent to be prepared.

Pastor Chuck had a tendency to walk down the center aisle to greet congregants as they were leaving the services. One day, an elderly looking woman, perhaps in her 80s, approached. I was next to Pastor Chuck when I heard him excitedly shout, “Lois!” I later learned that when Chuck was a boy, Lois was his Sunday School teacher in Ventura, California. It was another remarkable hand-up. I purposed to remember the people who influenced me for Jesus, and remember the people I was privileged to serve for Jesus.

Pastor Chuck gave me opportunities to teach at the School of the Bible at CCCM, opportunities to serve, and his ear (attention). He encouraged me to plant a Calvary Chapel in Camarillo, California and prayed for my wife and I and our infant son, commissioning us. Being vertically challenged, he towered over me, but I remember him looking down and his broad grin. There are three great smiles in the universe, the Mona Lisa, the Cheshire Cat, and Chuck Smith. That was another hand-up, he encouraged me, empowered me and helped me to believe that God could use me—not because I was an attorney, but because He had counted me worthy.

Seven years after the church in Camarillo was planted, we had an opportunity to purchase a two-acre parcel of land. In the city where I serve, open land is rare and expensive. There has only been one Protestant church built from the ground up in the last twenty-five years. That one church is yet another example of a hand-up from Pastor Chuck.

Our fledgling church had no way to qualify for a loan even with my willingness to use our home as collateral. I reached out to Chuck to explain the situation, and the opportunity, and he graciously approached the CCCM Board about giving us a hand-up, not a handout, to help us to qualify. We were able to get the loan and quickly remove CCCM’s involvement in their gracious assistance to us.

As the blueprints and construction drawings were developed, Pastor Chuck invited me to share them with him. There in his office at CCCM, he opened the voluminous pages. He had clearly done this countless times before. And like so many abilities, he clearly had a knack and knew what he was doing. I recall that he affirmed the design, and words to the effect that we had done good. But what really stood out to me was Pastor Chuck asking about our proximity to the fields. In our community, there is fertile open agriculture space between the city and the ocean. It is generally a lovely verdant space, but when broccoli or cauliflower are harvested the odor can be noticeable. Chuck had grown-up nearby in Ventura, California and was very familiar with the phenomenon. He wanted to give me a hand-up so that I would be careful how the campus was designed.

When the building was finished, Pastor Chuck agreed to come and speak at the dedication service. I got to make some opening remarks, and encouraged people to open their Bibles to the Book of Jeremiah (people had printed Bibles in those days rather than their phone or tablet). Chuck was in the front row sitting with my wife, Karen. Chuck had heard me refer to my wife as, “The godliest woman that I know.” That evening, Karen didn’t have her Bible, so our pastor leaned over and said, “Can I share my Bible with the godliest woman Bruce knows?” My wife’s face was crimson, but it was just another hand-up.

As I reflect, I had a very comfortable life in Orange County. I had ample opportunities to teach, serve, and was being used by God. I never aspired to be a pastor, but when it was obvious that it is what God had called me to be and do, I left my career to embrace my calling. As I reflect, the single most influential human being in that process is Pastor Chuck. I have no regrets in my decision, and love what I get to do in God’s kingdom. So, in gratitude for what Pastor Chuck has done for me, I’m submitting these words as a tribute to him, his memory, his incredible legacy, and the very tiny part I play in it.

The first time I set foot in Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa was on Easter morning. The air was full of electricity as thousands of people swarmed around me like bees in a hive, looking for a place to sit. We chose a pew that was fairly empty, and fairly uncomfortable as well. For all the excitement in the room, I would have thought the seats would be more comfortable. The year was 1990 and I was thirty years old.

Shortly after we sat down, a middle-aged man walked onto the platform and stood behind the pulpit. He waved his hands to get our attention and ordered everyone to do the “Calvary Crunch.” Suddenly everyone became scooting toward the center of the pews to make room for those still swarming. I would later discover this man’s name was Pastor Romain. When he said move, we all moved.

Our wide-open pew was no longer empty. Now, we were cramped and uncomfortable, squished between total strangers. What in the world are we doing here? I thought. Then, another man, also middle-aged, wearing a light gray, polyester suit stepped out onto the platform. He stood behind the pulpit leaning over it with both arms resting on either side.

We watched as he turned his head to scan the room, revealing the backside of his bald head to us as he turned. As he continued to glance around the room, he turned toward us, a huge smile gracing his face. He was glowing!

It seemed he was done looking around as he stared directly at us, still smiling. My eyes began to burn. I couldn’t look at him. After what seemed an awkwardly long pause, he opened his mouth and, still smiling, bellowed, “GLORIOUS!”

Not long after that glorious day, I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Everything changed. My wife and I started going to church every Sunday morning. We went to Israel with Pastor Chuck and five hundred of his closest friends. A few months later, I enrolled in the School of Ministry. We began attending Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. We served in the high school ministry. I was asked to come on staff as the College and Career pastor. Then, in 2005, we planted a church in Newport Beach, California.

Everything had changed.

Now, ten years after Pastor Chuck’s passing from this life into the next, I find myself wondering, How did I get here?The funny thing is, my story is not an unusual one.
Thousands of others have similar testimonies.

One day we walked into Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and watched Pastor Chuck glow as he taught through the Bible verse-by-verse. There are now thousands of Calvary Chapels around the world pastored by individuals who were transformed by Jesus through Pastor Chuck’s ministry. You can ask any one of them and they’ll tell you the same thing: Pastor Chuck was glowing.

The Glory of the Lord

“When Moses came down Mount Sinai carrying the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, he wasn’t aware that his face had become radiant because he had spoken to the Lord. So when Aaron and the people of Israel saw the radiance of Moses’ face, they were afraid to come near him” (Ex. 34:29-30).

It seems to me that both Pastor Chuck and Moses radiated the glory of the Lord. But what was it that caused this radiance?

Humility

In Numbers 12:3, we read that Moses wasn’t even aware that his face had become radiant. I love what Charles Spurgeon wrote regarding Moses’ humility. “We are always praying, ‘Lord, make my face to shine’; but Moses never had such a wish; and, therefore, when it did shine, he did not know it. He had not laid his plans for such an honor. Let us not set traps for personal reputation, or even glance a thought that way.” What a beautiful depiction of true humility. The Book of Numbers goes on to say the same, “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth” (Nu. 12:3).

Like Moses, Pastor Chuck was a humble man. He didn’t set out to pastor a church of thousands, nor was he looking to build his own reputation. In fact, when the early success of CCCM led to a cover feature in Time Magazine, and people began asking about the secret of his success, he would often respond, “When they ask about this I feel like a bystander. I remind them it’s not Chuck Smith at work. It’s God through His Holy Spirit turning people on” (The Reproducers, Chuck Smith and Hugh Steven, page 9).

Pastor Chuck’s face, like Moses, radiated God’s glory because of a humility that only comes from proximity.

Proximity

Reading through the book of Exodus we find Moses climbing Mt. Sinai eight times to meet with the Lord (Ex. 19-34). It was on Mt. Sinai where Moses received the covenant, the Ten Commandments, and the instructions to build the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant. It was on Mt. Sinai where Moses began to intercede on behalf of the children of Israel. It was on Mt. Sinai where the Lord would speak to Moses before Moses would descend from the mountain to speak with the people.

The events on Mt. Sinai were monumental in the history of the world. It’s where the Lord revealed His desire to forge a relationship with the children of Israel; a wonderful picture of the intercession of Christ and sinners.

Likewise, the events of the Jesus Movement were also monumental. Through the Jesus Movement, the Lord revealed His desire to forge a relationship with the hippies through an ordinary man. Pastor Chuck’s proximity with Jesus and his great humility caused God’s glory to radiate through his face and countenance welcoming and inviting thousands of lost souls like me into the eternal love of God.

I am so thankful for the ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith. His example reminds me that God can use ordinary people to do extraordinary work in the world as we radiate God’s love. Like Pastor Chuck said, “it’s not Chuck Smith at work. It’s God through His Holy Spirit turning people on.”

The first time I discovered Chuck Smith’s teaching, my wife and I were on our honeymoon. The pastor mentoring us as a couple invited us to a conference Chuck was to speak at. My first reaction was, “Thanks for the invite, but it’s our honeymoon.”

“I know,” he told me, “but it’s at Warm Beach Conference Center, which is already a fantastic place to be. Come on, you won’t regret it!”

He was right; this place was magic even for a couple of twenty-year-olds in love. It’s one of those places where Puget Sound folds into an estuary surrounded by endless evergreen forests and a farming community. And at the time, you could easily spot a bald eagle.

Chuck was already speaking by the time we got to the conference hall. Our friend saw us standing at the entrance. As we walked in, Chuck’s deep, rich voice and slow cadence instantly mesmerized us. He was speaking from Galatians 3, “Having begun in the Spirit…” a subject we’d hear more about as time went on. The message was enough to stop us in our tracks, and praise God, it spoke to us. But that day, we were still on our honeymoon and headed out as soon as he finished speaking.

Fast-forward a few years to the first time I truly listened to Chuck Smith; I was in a different place. We were in our first year on the mission field. We’d come to the stark realization that our high school French was sorely inadequate, but we were thankful for our friend who had tutored us before we left. This was before the World Wide Web changed our lives, back when we’d have to call our families in the US from a phone booth to avoid overspending on a long-distance call.

We lived in that isolated sound bubble where an entire culture and their dogs communicate in a language we couldn’t understand. During those days, the pastor who hosted us, seeing its profound spiritual effect on us, began feeding us cassette tapes from the 5000 series. “You’ve never listened to Chuck Smith before?” he asked.

“No, but we heard him at a conference at Warm Beach.”

“You should start with this.”

We took a few tapes home. Genesis 1. Nothing too fancy, a white tape with a blue label printed everything we needed to know. Pressing play in our little apartment, that warm, deep voice filled the room. There was a dynamic I hadn’t heard for some time. The Spirit moved in my heart as he taught the Word. Yet the message wasn’t simplistic. Sure, he was speaking from what I imagined was the 1970s, but there was something pertinent about it. If I didn’t keep President Carter or the Iran Hostage situation in mind, I could see the applications to the late nineties I was living in. I was hooked.

Tape after tape, we couldn’t stop. Little did I realize that my Biblical theology was developing. He covered every book of the Bible, chapter by chapter; it entered my ears, transformed my heart, and infused into my worldview.

Eventually, we did learn French, and one day, I became a church planter myself. I met Chuck Smith at my first Pastor’s Conference at the Murrieta Conference Center. We were back in the US to take care of some visa issues. A pastor friend from Southern California invited me to the Conference.

“You’ve never been to Murrieta,” he asked.

“No, I’m from Seattle.”

“You have to come. You will come and stay with me.”

So I did.

One day, we were walking through the grounds. I was enjoying the perfectly manicured environment, the warm California sun, and the palm tree shade when a white golf cart passed us. I instantly recognized Chuck in the driver’s seat. He greeted my friend, who introduced me.

“You’re Mike Dente from Paris.”

I couldn’t believe it. He knew who I was. Then he said, we were praying for you! I was done. I couldn’t think how he knew who I was, but he seemed genuinely happy to meet me. But I was meeting my hero, who knew my name. That’s the day he became my favorite. It was also the day I realized a personal side of him that can’t be caught on tape. He didn’t just teach; he taught people. It was a profound lesson.

That’s why I was so happy to participate in this Tribute in memory of his life and legacy. Even though I didn’t know him well, I’m deeply thankful for him. His ministry kept me at my post when we were in a very fragile place. His teaching inspired me to seek the Lord to see if pastoring was in his divine plan for my life. His example gave me rich insight into serving and loving God’s people.

I met Chuck Smith on a tractor at Murrieta Hot Springs.

It was 1996, and I had just moved to California from my home state of New Mexico. I had been offered a job at the hot springs to work landscaping and help to restore the property the year after it was purchased by Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. The place was a mess. There were abandoned buildings, an old bar (later to become The Overflowing Cup coffee shop), hundreds of random rubble piles, and even a few ghosts roaming around.^[1]

The forty-six-acre property was not even close to looking the way that it would in the years to follow. There was a lot of work to be done to transform it into the haven for ministry and Biblical education that it would become.

I relocated to California due to some difficulties I was experiencing in my hometown. My dad, in collaboration with his Calvary Chapel friend, arranged for me to work at the hot springs, doing landscaping in exchange for room and board. It didn’t seem like a good deal at the time, but it was the only option for me since I was in a bad situation getting worse.

That’s a story for another time. All I knew was that as an eighteen-year-old in ’96, I was glad to be in a new place, and I was looking forward to new opportunities. I had no idea that God would use the experience over the next three years to redirect me onto a path of ministry in Calvary Chapel, and to give me one of the greatest examples of servant leadership that I have seen: Chuck Smith.

The first thing I noticed when I saw Pastor Chuck was his smile. It was big, bright, and impossible to miss. You could see it from a mile away. He had that bald head with gray hair on the sides, and the smile went ear to ear.

It seemed a little out of place, especially for a construction worker. Yes, I thought Chuck Smith was one of the construction crew. The first day he pulled up on the tractor, I didn’t know him as “Pastor” Chuck. I assumed he was one of the workers. A very happy worker.

I was only a few weeks into my job. Me and a few others were digging trenches for the new irrigation system, and it was a hot day. Pastor Chuck was driving around the property with Karl Benz, the head of construction. They were assessing damage, stopping to pick up trash, and doing other small projects. When they pulled up to where we were working, they stopped, and Pastor Chuck got out.

“Uhm, ohh, you fellas need to get some water. Why don’t you take a break and get something to drink?”

Those were the first words I heard him say. There was something about this guy that impressed me. It wasn’t just the smile; it was a sense that this was a man of God. I got the feeling like he knew something I didn’t, and that he was special in some way.

I didn’t know who he was at the time. But later, the other guys were going on about how he was the big boss, and how I should’ve been more attentive when he was talking. But he didn’t act like any “big boss” that I’d ever seen. What kind of big boss smiles at the little people and cares for the common workers? What kind of big boss drives around picking up trash, and digging holes, and carrying rocks, and the hundreds of other tasks I saw him do?

The answer is that it’s a boss who follows Jesus. And Chuck Smith was a man who followed Jesus.

“Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve”^[2]

Pastor Chuck spent a lot of time at the property during the construction and renovations. I didn’t really get to know him personally, but I was able to observe him regularly. I saw the way he worked when no one was looking. I saw the care he put into trimming the rose bushes near the top of the springs. I saw the friendliness he showed to everyone there, including myself. I also saw him back a tractor into one of the cars in the parking lot, but I never told anyone about that.

He was a regular guy just like the rest of us. But there was something unique about him. Years later, after I recommitted my life to Christ, I realized what was so special about Chuck Smith. It was his close personal relationship with the Lord. He really knew and loved Jesus. Everything else that we admire about him came from his relationship with God.

As time went on, I went from working landscaping to attending Bible college. The campus had changed from being a mess to being a place of peace. CCBC moved down from Twin Peaks, and I started attending classes. I met my wife there. We have such wonderful memories. Murrieta Hot Springs had been transformed, and so had I.

Twelve years later I attended a pastors’ conference at Murrieta Hot Springs. I visited the rose garden above the springs, and I saw Pastor Chuck walking with a few of the other pastors. The Lord brought back all the memories of those early days. It was a special moment.

He looked over at me with that big smile and said hello. He didn’t know then the impact that he had on me as a young man—and the hundreds of others like me—but he does now. Those early years were very formative, and I will always be thankful for the example that I was given in Chuck Smith.

References

^[1] That’s not a joke about the ghosts. To be more accurate, they were demons. You can talk to some of the old Calvary Chapel pastors who visited the property in those early days to pray and cast the demons out of several of the buildings on site. The hot springs were formerly a very dark place, and there were spiritual renovations taking place at the same time as the physical renovations.
^[2] Matthew 20:26–28 (NKJV)

In 1971 or 1972, Mike MacIntosh asked me to capture the new worship songs that were being born during the Jesus Movement on vinyl. (Yes, vinyl..)

Hmmm? How would you capture the spirit of these wonderful songs?

Worship was simple and inviting. It was singing together as a community.

Pastor Chuck didn’t have a choir, a piano, or an organ in the little Calvary Chapel on Sunflower Street. It was just him sitting on a stool and leading us in what seemed like songs you’d sing at camp.

But soon things exploded.

Hundreds of young people and many musicians started coming around. Lives were changed, new songs were being written. They were scripture songs, songs of thanksgiving, and songs of changed lives.

I enlisted the talented singers and musicians in the many bands that existed at the time and tried to record the songs accurately and in a way that people could use in a small group, a home Bible study or a church service.

I recorded about 20 songs and took them over to Chuck and Kay’s home one night.

As Kay was headed upstairs to bed, she turned and said, “Oh, finally, something for us!” I knew what that meant!

But I didn’t expect what happened next.

After listening to all the songs Chuck finally said, “That doesn’t sound like a Praise Album to me!”

He took the fast songs off and assembled the album of songs that he loved the most.

That became the blueprint for the Praise Album Series. Beautiful and heartfelt. Songs we wanted to sing to express our newfound faith.

The camp song leader touched the church worldwide.

That voice…that beaming smile…that sparkle in his eyes. Even after a decade has gone by, who could forget the man that thousands upon thousands have called, “Pastor Chuck.” To this day, I can still hear those distinct words, “Let’s turn in our Bibles to…” and his simple “Oh!”

What an honor and privilege it was to grow up in my formidable years under Chuck’s teaching ministry. He was my very first pastor and my earliest spiritual influence when I first visited Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa as a young 10 year old boy. With only a child-like faith and a few vivid pictures in my head from my illustrated children’s Bible, I was deeply impacted by the Word of God being taught and explained in what I would later understand as the work of the Holy Spirit.

Chuck commanded an immediate respect because he was a strong, yet gentle…unwavering, yet flexible kind of man who taught the pure Word of God as the one and only main course with no side dishes or artificial additives. Chuck was calculated with his words and knew precisely who he was and why God had placed him on this earth, namely, to teach and preach the Word of God simply, systematically, and exegetically through the books of the Bible and to encourage a few generations of pastors to do the same.

SERVANT-HEARTED

There was no flashiness to his ministry or fleshly concocted plans to manipulate people or force things to happen. After many early challenges, failures, and disappointments, he left his prime years of life to enter into his primary years of life, where he came to believe that “whatever was used to win people would have to be used to keep them.” Chuck was a true servant who went from cleaning the toilets or doing some building repairs to faithfully feeding the flock of God by simply teaching the Word and loving people with a shepherd’s heart.

I believe he was a faithful example of what Jeremiah the prophet said in his day,

“And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” (Jer. 3:15 NKJV).

SPIRIT-FILLED

What was seen and heard was just a humble openness to the Spirit and a burley, unforgettable voice which resonated in a slow rhythmic pace as he worked his way through the Scriptures, verse by verse, adding just enough wit and a whole lot of weight to every word that he preached. All ages were riveted and a great many souls were hearing God call them to live a sanctified life that would store up treasure in heaven.

To this day, there is something very special and unique about hearing Chuck’s voice that still resonates with those who are hungering for the pure, unadulterated Word. He was open to the Spirit’s leading but was not going to stand for anything that contradicted the written Word or misrepresented the character of God.

SIMPLE MINISTRY

In Chuck’s classical way, with his ‘built in Selah,’ he would have these dramatic pauses…that left you wondering if he went somewhere else for a short time…but he was yielding to the Spirit and allowing his hearers just enough time for personal reflection and mediation on whatever passage he was teaching from. Chuck had a simple but stern way to get your attention when he wanted to drive his points home…to such a degree that there were many times on the drive home, I wondered whether we would even make it home before the Lord came to take up His church since he loved to remind people of Christ’s imminent return.

Pastor Chuck unintentionally became the founder and public figurehead of a spiritual movement that became known as “The Jesus People Movement,” which was highlighted this past year around the world in the movie entitled, “Jesus Revolution.” Chuck baptized me in those very waters at Pirate’s Cove as shown in the movie. For all who knew or served with Chuck, he was just a simple, ordinary guy with an extraordinary God, who loves to choose “the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise … and the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty” (1 Cor. 1:27).

I began hearing the call of God on my life around 12 years of age and I still remember when Chuck called me into his office after I graduated from Chapman University while leading a campus ministry and serving in the high school ministry to ask me to join Mike Harris as an assistant youth pastor. I think the salary was the same as it had been for the past 30 years but this was an open door that I believed God led me to go through so after praying about it I answered the call of God to serve the Lord to reach the next generation for Christ.

As a very zealous and inexperienced pastor on Chuck’s staff, I was so thankful for every moment that I could glean and learn from someone who had been used so greatly and who loved the Scriptures and the sheep so deeply. Chuck was actually quite introverted and so I remember needing to drive the conversation when sitting down with Chuck. One time, he asked me to take a drive with him in his classic powder blue Cadillac to pick up a son of another pastor. It was great driving with Chuck but it was mostly quiet in the moments that I was not talking. However, even in the silence I felt very loved by Chuck whenever in his company.

Whether it was a pastor’s meeting or a youth retreat, Chuck tried to be as personal as possible but he was the most comfortable in the pulpit. It is worth adding that he could hold his own on the basketball court and was quite competitive when pitching a softball. He had a great mantle of ministry and had so many thousands of people to feed and so he counted on his pastoral team to help tend to the needs of the body. But despite the high volumes of people and various ministries happening throughout the week, do not think for a moment that Chuck did not know what was going on in the church. He kept himself very informed and was aware of what was happening in the lives of people and all the different ministries.

I will never forget the time that I was sitting on one of the pews on the left side of the sanctuary during a midweek Bible study through the book of Acts when Chuck all of a sudden started talking about me in his sermon when he was describing the enthusiasm and zeal of Apollos in Acts 18. I was surprised to see all of these heads immediately turn around among those who knew I was sitting in that area and was quite honored that Chuck would even think to use me as an example in this way. The Holy Spirit kept me humbled as I immediately noticed in the text how Apollos still had much to learn and was even pulled aside by a more seasoned couple to be taught the ways of God more accurately.

One of my fondest memories of Pastor Chuck came at a critical time in my life after I was serving for a couple of years in youth ministry and various changes and developments were taking place in the church, which left my future role in the church uncertain. It was during this time that I went through what was the most difficult and dark time of my life as my wife Tiffany, who was pregnant with our first child, showed signs of toxemia, and something more serious called HELLP syndrome, a variant of preeclampsia, which led to an emergency c-section in her 29th week. Our precious daughter Madelyn was born weighing only 1 lb, 15 ounces, and my wife almost died after the delivery due to her liver and kidneys rapidly failing.

We were in the hospital for the next 64 days, where we saw the Lord heal and restore my wife and bring our daughter through every obstacle and difficulty. The power of prayer was palpable and the presence of God was so intimate to me during this season of my life. Once I knew my family was doing well enough in their health, it finally dawned on me that all of this was going to cost an enormous amount of money. I told my wife one night that we have no idea whether our health insurance was going to cover this so we prayed about this new burden together. The very next day when I drove to the church, I was greeted by Pastor Chuck who came over to me and asked me how Madelyn and Tiffany and I were doing. After I shared the update about everyone’s well being, Chuck put his arm around me in a very fatherly way and without knowing my prayer or thoughts the night before, tenderly said “Joey, don’t worry about the finances of this whole thing. Whatever the insurance doesn’t cover, it will be taken care of.”

I felt like my Father in heaven was speaking directly to me through Chuck. To this day, I don’t know exactly what was meant by that but I knew that Chuck was reassuring me that God was going to take care of me every step of the way, whether by His divine hand or through Chuck’s generosity. I still well up with tears whenever I think upon this moment with my pastor.

Shortly after this, I went on to eventually assist Pastor Chuck and Brian Brodersen, who after seeing me go through that trial with my family, chose to give me more responsibilities in the church, from praying with the body after services to counseling appointments and guest speaking opportunities and leading an evangelism ministry called “Soul Winners.”

Chuck was always available for me to talk to whenever I had a Bible or ministry question, even when I went on to serve at another Calvary Chapel on the east coast and then eventually on the mission field in England where we planted and pastored a church in Cambridge for over 10 years. He lit up whenever the Bible was brought up and I am so very thankful to have been spiritually raised up by his faithful ministry.

Today, Chuck is cherished, remembered, and respected by pastors within the Calvary Chapel family of churches and from churches across the denominations around the world. He taught the Word almost to his dying breath but the words he taught are still life giving to those who listen to his simple yet weighty teaching on the “Word for Today.” I will never forget the many years of hearing him teach, his contagious joy, his belting out of old hymns, and of course the Aaronic blessing at the end of every service as he would walk down the aisle singing, “THE LORD BLESS THEE…” I am indeed blessed by my spiritual heritage and pray that my life will impact the world in some degree as Chuck did when my race is complete.