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In the early sixties, Smith started the Corona Christian Center which grew rapidly (Miller, 1997, p. 32). Small Bible study groups held in Smith's home carried a Christian message that was easily understood and was applicable to people's everyday lives. These groups grew in number and size because they met the mundane needs of those who attended (Burgess & McGee, 1998, p. 792).
During his ministry at the Corona Christian Center in 1965, Smith was invited to pastor a small church with only 25 members called Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California. The growth rate exploded following Smith's acceptance to minister to this church. In just two year there were almost 2,000 members overflowing the church (McGraw, 1997). Membership constantly outgrew itself. Radios broadcasted Smith's sermons but this was halted because the church could not accommodate all the new members Smith was attracting. Three years after Smith had joined the congregation, the church grew to a larger church in Newport Beach in order to accommodate the increasing membership. Yet, soon this church was also outgrown. In response, Calvary Chapel constructed a place of worship on 11 acres in Costa Mesa, California. Costa Mesa is still the location of the original Calvary Chapel. In the past three decades the church has grown from only 25 to 25,000 (Burgess & McGee, 1988, p. 792).
The future of Calvary Chapel was dramatically changed by Chuck Smith's decision to spread his ministry to the "hippies" at the beaches surrounding Costa Mesa. At the time, Smith and his wife Kay had three teenage children who were encountering the drug culture. Through his college age daughter, Smith began to meet some of the hippies who were early converts of the Jesus Movement. These young people who were called "Jesus Freaks," were experiencing great inner transformations and expressed an excitement for sharing their new faith (Miller, 1997, p. 33). The open atmosphere fit them perfectly at Calvary Chapel, filling them with religious energy.
Many of these young people needed a place to live. Smith's solution to this dilemma was to invite them into his own home. However, soon the Smith's home became overcrowded. In May of 1968, Smith rented a small house intended for new converts who were turning away from drugs towards Jesus (Miller, 1997, p. 33). Calvary Chapel helped pay half of the rent for this house which was named the House of Miracles. In a week's time, over 35 new Christians had found a home in the House of Miracles and church members went looking for new renting possibilities (DiSabatino, 1995, p. 59). This was the first of over a hundred "community houses" supported by Calvary Chapel (Gateway Films, 1992).
Gradually mainline church membership has been declining. The reason for this is not because people are becoming less religious, the proportion of Americans that regularly attend church has remained unchanged at around forty percent (Niebuhr, 1998). Then where has everyone gone to worship? Three new religious movements may have part of the answer. These three Christian movements are the Calvary Chapel, Vineyard Chapel, and Hope Chapel.
In his book Reinventing American Protestanism, Professor Donald E. Miller proclaims that these new movements may produce a "second transformation" in Protestanism (Miller, 1997). All three movements emerged from the 1960's. The first of these Christian movements was Calvary Chapel.
Calvary Chapel is an example of what Donald Miller calls a "new paradigm" church. These churches are characterized by their contemporary music, relaxed dress, and Bible based teachings (Niebuhr, 1998). Sanctuaries do not typically contain religious ornamentations except for a dove's image found in Calvary Chapel (Miller, 1997, p. 80). The pastors usually are indistiguishable from the congregants in their informal attire. This is because the focus of new paradigm churches is not a change in external appearence but the experience of internal transformation (Miller, 1997, p. 67). Hierarchy structure is not practiced because the church members believe all have equal status before God. The only roles that distinguish the members are the various functions of servanthood such as pastor or deacon. (Miller, 1997, p. 80).
THE JESUS MOVEMENT
Calvary Chapel is one of many organizations that emerged during the Jesus Movement. The Jesus Movement occured between the late 1960's and the early 1970's as a result of the sixties youth counterculture. This counterculture was a societal rebellion against establishment. Young adults in the sixties were living in a chaotic time. There was the assassination of their president in addition to the assassination of a prominent leader of the civil rights movement. Furthermore, Vietnam provided a unifying theme of rebellion for these youngsters. In response to these overlappping events, the youth of the sixties attacked with a unified rebellion against all types of establishments.
The counterculture became a time of self-identification and openness to new experience. This new experimentation was often expressed in the form of heavy drug use. Many youth showed their rejection against establishment and their parents' materialistic world by becoming hippies with long hair and ragtag clothes.
Who Converts and Why?
The Christian movements formed in the 1960's directed their message to people thirty years and younger (Niebuhr, 1998). Conversions were not usually dramatic. The typical convert was already looking for change in their lives and were open to Christian ideology (Miller, 1997, p. 74). In the appendix of Miller's book, he reports the religious background characteristic of people who convert. He found that 28 percent were raised Roman Catholic, 11 percent "liberal Protestant," and 13 percent had no previous affiliation (Miller, 1997, p. 198). Part of the movement's attraction was its anti-establishment values (Niebuhr, 1998).
Reactions to the Jesus People of the movement were mixed. The media tended to portray them as amusing because of their colorful clothing and upbeat music. But, through the lens of the media, they were relatively undifferentiated from the broader youth counter-culture and its notoriety of being drugged while walking the streets aimlessly. Conservative Christians tended not to be enthusiastic about these young people finding faith and meaning in their lives. Generally, Evangelicals did not approve of the approach of Jesus Freaks to Christianity. Conservative Christians saw Christianity as a rational process that required thought and reason. The style of the Jesus People was too loose and was based on the emotions they were experiencing. (Gateway Films, 1992).
Calvary Chapel views God in a miraculous way. In their expression of fatih they do not rely on reason, but instead on emotion. A personal relationship with God is what is important to Calvary Chapel members.
Music
Contemporary music often makes up half of worship services. The music is written by ordinary people who have experienced tranformation in their lives through Christ (Miller, 1997, p. 80). Hippies of the Jesus movement began to write lyrics about the joys and struggles of their born again experience. Chuck Smith encouraged them to play their music in at services. Smith brilliantly gave these new young converts a stage for their music (Miller, 1997, p. 82).
This new music was culturally relevant to its audience. Calvary music is described as being upbeat and praise oriented (Miller, 1997, 84). A different message is sent by a hippie and his guitar compared to a robed choir and a pipe organ. New converts knew that Calvary Chapel was not traditional religion because of the music that was sending the message of Jesus' love (Miller, 1997, p. 83).
As the movement grew so did the popularity of its music. Radio stations realized the potential audience and began to play this new music. Christian music was able to spread its message far and wide (Miller, 1997, p.83).
In the early days of Calvary Chapel, Smith established a recording company called Marantha Music. Auditions for potential bands were held before church services. Since then Smith along with Tom Stripe, who assisted with Marantha Music, have developed Calvary Chapel Music. This company has been in operation for two years now. Compared to the handful of auditions Smith held with his first record company, Calvary Chapel Music conducts over 200 auditions. These music ministries have overwhelming popularity and often outsell mainstream contemporary Christian artist. Yet sales is not the concern of Cavalry Chapel Music. They believe that Christians should "sing a new song" continually unto the Lord. Building a solid base for music ministry is there goal (Calvary Chapel Music, http://www.calvary music.org/home.html, 4/15/98).
Worship
In addition to having unique music, new paradigm churches also have unique worship services. The purpose of worship is to express love, praise, and thankfulness to God. Unlike mainline churches, there is no instruction of when to stand, sit, recite, or read. The typical service traditions in mainline churches of scripture reading, offering collection, and other time fillers do not characterize churches like Calvary Chapel (Miller, 1997, p. 88-89).
Worship services are flexible and not weighted down with certain expectations like those in mainline churches. This open atmosphere of worship is thought to encourage the opening of one's emotions (Miller, 1997, p. 89). It is the non-traditional worship that draws people to these churches.
Hippies found what they had been searching for in drugs in this open worship. Most of these young people were burnt out; drugs were no longer filling the void in their lives. It was the togetherness found in worship that they had been searching for as hippies but never could attain (Gateway Films, 1992).
Beliefs
Members of the Calvary Chapel believe in the open love of Christ as the basis of Christian fellowship. Their worship services are flexible and open so that they may be guided by the Holy Spirit. Music is of great importance in worship because they believe worship of God should be inspirational. In addition, worship of God should be intelligent and this is why Bible teachings are the basis of sermons. Beliefs of the church follow basic evangelical Christian beliefs. They believe in Jesus as the Messiah who was born of a virgin, crucified, resurrected, and returning in a second coming. But most important to the Calvary Chapel is their belief in Christ's love that promises salvation, redemption, and forgiveness to all regardless of what you look like or how you choose to worship (Statement of Faith, http://calvarychapel.com/library/smith-chuck/text/sof.htm, 3/06/98).
Chuck Smith Archives
This section of the Calvary Chapel Homepage provides an extensive archive of books, teaching tapes and sermon outline.
http://calvarychapel.com/library/smith-chuck/index.htm
Calvary Chapel Music
History of the
Jesus Movement
Calvary Chapel: Freuqently UnAnswered
Questions
Calvary Chapel Homepage
This is the Calvary Chapel Homepage. It is an excellent source of the church
history, its locations, and practicing beliefs.
http://calvarychapel.com
This is a homepage that centers on the music of Calvary Chapel. It
updates you on current artists, upcoming music events, and lets you
know how you can order their Christian music.
http://www.calvarymusic.org/home.html
This is a thesis written by Dave DiSabatino about the history of the Jesus
Movement. It includes an excellent understanding of the youth counter
culture of the 1960's and of the "Jesus People." This is the reference
for the House of Miracles created by Calvary Chapel.
http://shell3.ba.best.com/~dolphin/jpindex.shtml
Doug Gilliland is Apostate Numero Uno of Calvary Chapel. Saved at Calvary Chapel
Conta Mesa in 1978 and baptized at Little Corona, Doug Gilliland has decided that Chuck
Smith doesn't have it quite right. In fact, he thinks there is a whole lot wrong with
what Smith believes and how he runs Calvary Chapel. This is an extensive web site
that explores the doctrines, authority, distinctiveness and controversies of Calvary
Chapel. Gilliland has found a lot of other folks who have had troubles getting
their doctrine straight.
http://ccfuaq.tripod.com./
- Balmer, Randall Herbert. 1993.
- Mine eyes have seen the glory: a journey into the evangelical subculture in America. New York, Oxford University Press, pp. 12-30.
- DiSabatino, Dave. 1995.
- History of the Jesus Movement. A thesis written during the 1993-94 semester at McMaster Divinity College, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
- http://shell3.ba.best.com/~dolphin/jpindex.shtml
- Gateway Films. 1992.
- Mine eyes have seen the glory. A production of Isis Productions and Cutting Edge Productions and WTTW/Chicago; based on a book of the same title by Randall Balmer; produced and directed by Julian Norridge; narrated by Randall Balmer.
- McGraw, Carol. 1997.
- "Let the Flower Children Come to Me:Pastor Chuck Smith Served as Godfather to the Jesus Freaks." Orange County Register,
- http://nrstg1s.djnr.com/cgi-bin/Ne...tionalSources=MAJSOURCES+TOP50+PR+
- Miller, Donald E. 1997.
- Reinventing American Protestanism: Christianity in the New Millennium. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Niebuhr, Gustav. 1998.
- "New Groups Fuel Christians' Growth." Review of 'Reinventing American Protestantism by Donald E. Miller. The New York Times, (January 3).
- Perrin, Robin D., Kennedy, Paul, & Miller, Donald E. 1997.
- "Examining the sources of conservative church growth: where are the new evangelical movements getting their numbers?," The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religio 36:1 (March).
Created by Gwen Newton
For Soc 257, New Religious Movements
University of Virginia
Spring Term, 1998
Last updated:11/29/01