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Calvary Chapel is a non-denominational, Protestant fellowship of churches
which began in 1965 in Southern California. The term "fellowship of
churches" is used in contrast to a denomination. Churches who apply and
qualify for affiliation are named "Calvary Chapels". Calvary Chapel has
over one thousand such congregations worldwide. [1] The original Calvary
Chapel is Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa which is pastored by Chuck Smith.
Doctrinally, Calvary Chapel is evangelical, pretribulationist, and
strongly sola scriptura.
In their form of church government, Calvary Chapel uses a mostly
episcopal structure. Tongues and prophecy are not a normal part of
typical Sunday morning church services, but they are held as doctrinally
valid and encouraged among the members of the church. Calvary Chapels
faithfully uphold expository teaching, a "verse by verse, chapter by
chapter" approach to teaching the Bible. This essentially means that
their sermons are directly related to a passage of the Bible, and
following sermons will start where the previous sermon left off (often
this is done from Genesis to Revelation). They hold the opinion that
topical studies fail to present the "whole counsel of God" and that
ministers who use this approach often choose topics they have a certain
inclination to teach, while leaving out important controversial issues
of the Bible. It is their desire to teach, not preach the word, in order
to equip and train laymen for everyday ministry; as well as encourage
development of a personal relationship with Christ. Calvary Chapel also
maintains a number of radio stations around the world, and they also
operate a number of Bible colleges. Chuck Smith's "Calvary Chapel
Distinctives" is essential to understanding, holistically, the tenants
Calvary Chapel stands for.
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