Calvary Chapel - History

History

While Chuck Smith was still a member of a denominational church, he claimed that a prophecy came to him in which the Lord said to him that He was changing his name. His new name would mean "Shepherd" because the Lord was going to make him the shepherd of many flocks and the church would not be large enough to hold all of the people who would be flocking to hear the Word of God. In December 1965, Smith became the pastor of a 25-person congregation and in 1968 broke away from the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in Santa Ana, California. Before Smith became their pastor, twelve of the 25 members attended a prayer meeting about whether or not to close their church: they reported that "the Holy Spirit spoke to them through prophecy" and told them that Smith would become their pastor, that he would want to elevate the platform area, that God would bless the church, that it would go on the radio, that the church would become overcrowded, and that he would become known throughout the world. An almost identical prophecy was recorded in Chuck Smith's book Harvest where the prophecy was delivered to 16 discouraged people ready to quit. In 1969, Calvary Chapel became a hub in what later became known as the Jesus Movement when Smith's daughter introduced him to her boyfriend John, a former hippie who had become a Christian. John then introduced Chuck to Lonnie Frisbee, the "hippie evangelist" who became a key figure in the growth of both the Jesus Movement and in Calvary Chapel. Frisbee moved into Smith's home, and he would minister to the other hippies and counter-culture youth on the beaches. At night he would bring home new converts and soon Smith's house was full. Frisbee was put in charge of a new rental home for the steadily growing crowd of Christian hippies and he named the commune House of Miracles, other House of Miracles would be set up throughout California and beyond. As Calvary Chapel grew "explosively", a tent was erected while a new building was under construction. Among the converts were musicians who now were writing music for praise and worship. This became the genesis for Jesus music and Christian rock concerts. Maranatha Music was eventually formed to publish and promote the music. The services usually resembled rock concerts more than any worship services of the time. Frisbee was featured in national television news reports and magazines with images of him baptizing hundreds in the Pacific Ocean at a time. The network of House of Miracles communes/crash pad/coffee houses began doing outreach concerts with Smith or Frisbee preaching, Frisbee calling forth the Holy Spirit and the newly forming bands playing the music.

By the early 1970s Calvary Chapel was home to ten or more musical groups that were representative of the Jesus people movement.

In 1982, John Wimber, a Calvary Chapel pastor, and the Calvary Chapel leadership mutually agreed to part ways. Tension had been mounting over Wimber's emphasis on spiritual manifestations leading Wimber to withdraw from Calvary Chapel and affiliate with a network of churches that would become the Association of Vineyard Churches.