Editor’s note: This month CalvaryChapel.com is doing a series of articles reflecting on the amazing work that Jesus accomplished through the life and ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith.

The Joy Of Nonconformity – Dave Rolph

I have a million stories racing through my head right now about Chuck, but the one that stands out at this moment is one that, I think, gets to a part of his core.

One Sunday morning, I was with him in the office as we were picking which hymns to sing that week. I saw his mind kind of drift off for a second and he chuckled. I said, “What’s so funny?” He explained that his granddaughter Kristyn had spent the night. At one point she was frustrated with him for some reason, and she put her hands on her hips and with a scowl said, “You are noncapormous!”

He asked her what noncapormous meant and she said, “It means you don’t want to do what people want you to do.” As Chuck was telling me the story his face just beamed.

I said, “It made your day that your little granddaughter could see that you are a nonconformist right?” He said, “To me there is no higher compliment!” After that day, every time Chuck would take a minority opinion on something, or do something radical, I would say, “Chuck, you are noncapormous!” and he would flash that huge smile and say, “and don’t you ever forget it!” In a day where conformity rules the day, I really miss that spirit.

Love, Leadership, And Legacy – Sarah Yardley

Pastor Chuck made an indelible mark on my life.

In my younger years, he was iconic, almost like a character rather than a person. I still remember sitting on the steps outside the front office with two of his grandchildren. They both called out, “Hi, Grandpa!” and I shyly whispered, “Hi, Pastor Chuck.” He was unfailingly kind, always had a treat for the lost teeth, stood at the door to greet every person who wanted a handshake, taught us in that booming, rich voice that made you sit up and pay attention.

In my teenage years, he became my boss. I started working for Calvary Chapel at age sixteen. I worked at a secondary campus, and he was universally respected. I would now, less shyly, greet him with, “Hello, Pastor Chuck.” I worked for Calvary Chapel for ten years, ended up managing the department I started working for, and began to meet with him for monthly financial updates. He always knew my reports better than I knew them myself.

In my twenties, I left to travel and find new ways of being with Jesus. I sat in his office, and it was one of the few times I saw him cry, just for a moment, as I said, “Goodbye, Pastor Chuck.”

He told me I was always welcome to return, and I remembered that through thirty-four countries. We corresponded occasionally as I visited Calvary Chapels scattered throughout the world, living stones of his teaching legacy.

At the end, I had the honour of helping Chuck and Kay personally. I won’t say much about those moments; they are too sacred to share publicly. Even as his memory began to fail, he always spoke of his love for Kay, for his family, for the church. He was in pain, but never complained. I helped coordinate his memorial service—the Honda Center filled with the roar of his spiritual children and grandchildren saying, “We love you, Pastor Chuck.”

In my Bible, he wrote these words: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth.” (3 John 4).

So much of my life of living truth today springs from the way he taught, sang, and lived Scripture to us. Pastor Chuck was a vibrant, astounding, faithful, imperfect, and genuine leader.

So for now, until eternity, “See you later, Pastor Chuck.”

God Stories And Gum Wrappers – Kathy Gilbert

I kept offering Pastor Chuck gum while I worked on the church switchboard. It was always mellow on Saturdays in 1974. I finally got the clue not to bother; Pastor Chuck didn’t chew gum. Actually, he would grumble about those who left their gum behind for him to clean up!

Pastor Chuck was given a custom-made picker to use as he zoomed around the CCCM campus on a golf cart picking up cigarette butts.

In 1975, I was hired by Maranatha Evangelical Association to duplicate Chuck messages and mail the cassettes all over the world. Everybody loved Pastor Chuck’s teaching, and so did I—and I still do. I love hearing his excellent teaching on his Word for Today radio program.

One big benefit of being on staff at CCCM was learning to depend on Jesus for His calling and commendation, not on Pastor Chuck. Without words, he pointed us to Jesus, to do our work to please Him.

Nothing would bring a big smile on Pastor Chuck’s face faster than hearing God stories. He loved Jesus and would always stop to enjoy hearing what He was doing or had done.

It took 40+ years, but I finally passed the Jesus and Pastor Chuck servanthood test (“If you want to be great in God’s kingdom, you must be the servant of all.”) It happened while ushering during a recent CCCM Sunday service. It meant the mopping up of a really disgusting bathroom stall that would do Jesus, Pastor Chuck, and janitor/CC pastor Rich Chaffin proud!

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

For a worshiper and follower of God, what could be more important than pleasing Him?

And if one desires to be pleasing to God, it is imperative to understand what faith is, since pleasing God apart from faith is said to be impossible. For many people, the term “faith” is used to denote a belief in something that is held to with a strong certainty. In such usage, faith is seen as the opposite of doubt. But the faith that is taught in Hebrews 11 contains the idea of trusting in something that you haven’t personally seen or witnessed, which would seem to imply some level of uncertainty. In the cases of the heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews 11, most of their stories suggested that they were fraught with doubts and uncertainty, yet they chose to act on their faith, despite their uncertainty. For instance, how certain was Sarah that she was going to have a baby? How certain was Gideon that God would give him the victory over the Midianites? How certain was Moses that he would be used to free his people from Egypt? But the point of faith is that they did what they were told to do, despite their doubts. The only real evidence was their faith. And God was pleased with each of them.

I have heard people suggest that seeing a miracle will help people’s faith to grow. Some have invested millions of dollars in various efforts to find the Ark of Noah, believing that discovering the remains of the Ark would increase people’s faith. But the opposite is actually true.

The more visible evidence one has, the less faith is required. Faith and certainty are in inverse proportion.

The less evidence one has, when acting on faith, the greater the faith. Faith increases as sight decreases, as long as one continues to trust and act. Of course, ultimately, faith is only as good as the object of that faith. Many people have great faith in something that is not trustworthy, while others have little faith in a God who is completely trustworthy. Faith isn’t the ultimate value, but it is impossible to please God without it. Faith in the wrong thing can prove to be devastating. Faith in the right One is life changing.

Given the relationship between faith and uncertainty, it begs the question as to why people of faith seem sometimes to be threatened by doubts.

If doubts arise in people who believe, our reaction perhaps should be to welcome an opportunity for our faith to increase. Doubts and uncertainty are not a threat to faith. They are actually the seedbeds of faith and should be welcomed. Faith is not just ignoring our doubts when they arise or arguing them away. Mark Twain said, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.” That isn’t Christian faith. Our faith is not ignoring or pretending we don’t have doubts. Our faith is trusting despite our uncertainty. Clearly, uncertainty in and of itself is not a virtue. Being certain of nothing just makes one a flake. But uncertainty opens the door for faith, and as such, represents an opportunity.

Thomas, the disciple of Jesus, wasn’t going to believe He had risen unless he could touch His wounds. When Jesus offered him that chance, he believed. But then Jesus said, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed” (John 20:29). Not seeing elevates faith and pleases God. Certainty is overrated. Uncertainty opens the door for faith. Let’s embrace it when it comes.

“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:1-6).

Unity is a wonderful thing.

Whenever I am with others and feel an affinity with them, knowing that we are on the same team, wanting the same things, sharing similar experiences, opinions and history, it is incredibly comfortable and reassuring. By the same token, whenever something happens that breaks that sense of unity, it is very painful and disconcerting. At the church where I serve as pastor, I feel a great sense of unity. We are all very different people, but we are united by the fact that we all like me as a pastor. (Just kidding… sort of.) But if someone leaves our church, really for any reason, our relationship changes to a degree, and we feel that the unity we once shared has been disrupted. It can be painful. But unity is easy and natural as long as we are sharing a common context.

In the above Scripture from Ephesians 4, Paul exhorts the Christians to “endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit.” The word translated “endeavor” is a Greek word that means, “to chase after” or “to work hard for.” The Greek word that is translated “keep” literally means “to guard.”

What Paul is essentially saying is, “You need to work really hard at protecting unity.” Unity isn’t just something to be experienced and enjoyed when it comes, but it is something to work hard at, to chase after and to protect.

All too often our unity comes by the process of elimination.

If I can just get rid of everyone with whom I disagree, then I will finally experience unity. But that isn’t really unity at all, at least not the kind of unity Paul is talking about. Feeling connected to people just like you doesn’t require any work at all. It is just a mutual admiration society that feeds our pride and narcissism.

All my life I have loved the Los Angeles Dodgers. When I go to a Dodger game, I feel a great affinity toward everyone there who is wearing Dodger blue and eating Dodger dogs. Every time Clayton Kershaw gets another strikeout I am high-fiving total strangers and enjoying our unity. But I was recently at a spring training game between the Dodgers and the Giants in Arizona, and our seats happened to be in the middle of a bunch of Giants fans. I happen to hate the Giants, but I had a choice to make. I could spend the whole game yelling loud insults at the Giants fans, and getting doused with beer, or I could find a common ground with some of the people around me and enjoy the fact that we both love our teams and our great tradition of rivalry. It was really an enjoyable experience, ultimately, to actually befriend several Giants fans around me and to enjoy a beautiful day at the ballpark. Some of them even turned out to be Christians, which I really didn’t think was possible. It took work, but we found unity in our common love of a great sport.

Every year I attend several pastor’s conferences with other pastors with whom I share a common history, common doctrinal distinctives, a common style of ministry, and similar cultural perspectives. It doesn’t take much work to find great basis for unity when I am with members of my own tribe. But I recently went to a pastor’s prayer event that included pastors from various different denominations, backgrounds and culture. Frankly, some of it was a bit uncomfortable for me, and I heard people say, and even pray, things that did not resonate with me. My temptation was to judge people for their differences and peculiarities, and pick them apart for not being just like me. But God really dealt with me as the meeting unfolded, and I sensed a really special unity because we were all honoring our one Lord, as we celebrated the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins and rose again. In a strange way, the unity I felt with this assortment of pastors felt more significant than the unity I feel with those who agree with me on almost everything.

I had to work at it, and that actually made it more special.

The unity that comes from shared distinctives is natural and enjoyable. But it is also effortless and perhaps even lazy. We should all be asking ourselves, “What am I doing to chase after, work toward and guard the unity that I should be having with others with whom my main connection is simply our one Lord?”

One of the most important doctrines of the Christian faith is the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture.

This doctrine asserts that the Scriptures, in their original autographs and when properly interpreted, will be shown to be wholly true in everything that they affirm. In other words, the Bible can be absolutely trusted as the ultimate source of truth. The late R.A. Torrey suggested that we should get rid of all denominations and start over with only two: those who believe in inerrancy and those who don’t. That’s how important he felt inerrancy was. Everyone either believes that all Scripture is “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16) or they don’t. And whether or not one believes in inerrancy means everything in a search for meaning and ultimately truth.

If the Scriptures are without error, then we have a basis for our epistemology (or our basis for truth.) If I begin with an assumption that the Scripture contains errors, then I am ultimately left to decide for myself which parts of the Bible I choose to believe and practice. And with such being the case, I will likely tend toward accepting the parts of the Bible that I like and rejecting the parts of the Bible I don’t like. With such an approach, the Bible loses its ability to correct me, which is one of the most valuable functions of the Bible.

But as important as the doctrine of inerrancy is, there is an equally critical understanding that must accompany my studies of this inerrant Bible.

For an inerrant Bible to have value, it must be studied and communicated by someone who has a clear understanding of their own personal errancy.

That is, we must keep in mind and make clear in our communication, that we are fallible people, struggling to understand and communicate an infallible Scripture. We can’t afford to mislead people, and even delude ourselves, into believing that our particular interpretation of Scripture is the infallible, inerrant Word of God.

Sadly, many people have rejected inerrancy because they rejected some interpretations of Scripture they had heard.

Interpretations are not inspired and inerrant. The Scriptures are. When we confuse the two, we degrade God’s Word.

I have various understandings concerning all sorts of Biblical doctrines, including cosmology (exactly how old is the universe?), soteriology (how do election and human responsibility work?), eschatology (is the Antichrist gay?), as well as personal Christian conduct (what is worse: drinking, dancing or voting Democrat?) My opinions on most of these issues are informed by my interpretation of Scripture. But there are others who are equally devoted to Scripture who come to different conclusions than I. So who is right? The Bible is right, always. We are all consistently wrong, about almost everything. Which is precisely why we need a Book that is without error. And why we need humility to interpret and teach it.

I have heard people say, “I just interpret the Bible literally.” Really? Then I’m assuming you believe in transubstantiation, since Jesus literally said, “This is my body.”

Interpreting the Bible is frequently challenging and should always be humbling. I am bringing my errant understanding of an inerrant Book, and it is important for me to remember which is which, so that the truth of the Holy Bible is always what shines forth.

The term “stay the course” was an old nautical term of navigation meaning “to continue in the proper direction.” It was later used by Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan and both George Bushes as an exhortation to not give up or turn back. Pastor Chuck used the term often in his later years to exhort pastors to continue in the direction in which we started. Today there are many fads and distractions that threaten to sidetrack us from our calling, so it is a good idea to consider what “staying the course” looks like as we venture into an unpredictable future.

Adjustments and change are inherent to navigation. Staying the course is absolutely dependent on adjusting your course. An aversion to course correction is a recipe for navigational failure. But how are these adjustments made? Your navigational course is the line between your present location and your intended destination. Navigational adjustments are made when you realign yourself with your desired destination. Looking back at where you’ve come from is of very little help in navigation. Setting a course for your desired destination is everything. If our destination is wrong, our course is hopeless, and staying the course will be fruitless.

For some people, staying the course just means to keep doing the things you’ve already been doing.

As one humorist put it, “Staying the course does not mean banging your head against the wall until you die.” Life would be easy if you could discover an easy formula for success and just keep repeating the past and be assured of future success. But life is unpredictable and in a constant state of change. What worked last year may not work next year. What works for someone else may not work for you. Staying the course does not mean repeating the past and just doing what you’ve always done, in the way you’ve always done it.

So, as we set our courses for the future, what is our desired destination? What is our compass point to which we should adjust our course?

The Apostle Paul possessed an amazing sense of focus for his life and ministry, and his example is especially instructive for us as we set our course for the future.

Paul says, “One thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Paul wasn’t interested in repeating the past. He forgot the past so that he could focus on Jesus.In pursuit of Jesus, Paul did a lot of great things. He planted churches, but that wasn’t his goal. He was an effective evangelist, but that wasn’t his focus. He had strong ideas about government and politics (see Romans 13), but that didn’t drive him. He gave us some of the greatest eschatology, but predicting the future wasn’t what he majored on. He wrote 14 books of the Bible, but even the Bible wasn’t his compass. His singular goal was simply Jesus. And we will do well to follow Paul’s lead and make sure that our goal, our prize, our desired destination is simply Jesus.

Our world is full of distractions.

It is so easy to be drawn away by the enticement of the latest fads and by whatever new gimmick promises us a shortcut to success. We can sometimes react against that temptation by retreating and withdrawing to a past that feels more secure, but that may not carry us forward to God’s future plans for us. Let’s stay the course. Let’s set our compass on Jesus and be willing to adjust our course to align with Him. May we be known, once again, as simply Jesus People.

The word “success” means “to move forward.” In common usage this refers to accomplishing one’s goals. The word “succession” means “to pass something forward to another.” For each of us, our personal success can be assessed by the degree to which we are moving forward. When we stop moving, we stop succeeding, we stagnate. So also, if we do not pass our successful accomplishments on to others, we ultimately fail. As someone has said, “Success without succession is failure.”

Thus, two of the most important questions we can ask ourselves are, “Am I truly continuing to progress successfully?” and, “Am I passing my success on to others, so they are able to proceed and continue the successive progress?”

If the ultimate point of success and succession is progress, then the ultimate enemy of each is regress and regression. Going backward is the obvious opposite of moving forward. But when we stop too long to admire our progress, we very subtly begin to regress. Paul understood this as he learned that single-mindedly pressing toward his ultimate goal necessitated “forgetting what lies behind” and “pressing forward to what lies ahead.” (Philippians 3:12-14)

The resistance to progress, whether individually or corporately is tremendous, especially in the church. We fall so in love with our past success that our nostalgia brings stagnation and regression. Success can turn into failure very quickly, but very subtly. The Spirit keeps moving, like the wind (John 3:8) as we are left with nothing but sentimental and fading memories of the days when we once felt the wind.

Of course we should never change just for the sake of change, and we must never forget the lessons from the past. But instead of being suspicious when succession leads to change, our more legitimate concerns should arise when succession starts to look like a nostalgic attempt at repeating the past. The Spirit wants to move us forward, covering new ground. He doesn’t pine for a return to the “good old days.” He has moved on, and wants to do something better. Something new.