By Roger Oakland
Understand the Times, International
Recently, a letter posted by the Calvary Chapel Association (CAA) was signed by fourteen senior pastors and sent out to clarify what the Calvary Chapel movement represents. This letter has been widely circulated around the world. These well-known leaders in the Calvary Chapel Association council emerged following Pastor Chuck Smith’s death. It appears their goal is to provide a collective directive for those in the movement who are accustomed to receiving their instructions from human authority.
Long before Chuck Smith died, many were asking and wondering who would replace him as head of the movement when he died. It was also a wide concern as to whether Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa would remain the Mecca of the movement. To see and hear a discussion over this issue, please click on the following link that presents comments made by a panel at the 2012 Murrieta Calvary Chapel Pastor’s conference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xygUvRX0MsQ&list=PLJ72RIrPC41QUv51fVT9-GWeWrZBGzvP1&index=5
One of the major concerns at the time of the Murietta Conference was that the Calvary Chapel movement was being infiltrated by the emerging church fueled by postmodernism and that the authority and infallibility of the Bible was being undermined from outside sources. If you listen to this discussion by the panel, you will hear the thoughts being discussed. Bob Coy, who is no longer a Calvary Chapel pastor, was very vocal in this discussion as was Greg Laurie and Brian Brodersen. Coy recommended that “getting out of the boat” was the natural expression for modifying a biblical message for our times that would help reinvent Calvary. It is also obvious that Brian Brodersen was already assuming he would be Chuck Smith’s replacement at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and the new head of the movement and that change was around the corner.
So, what has happened to the Calvary Chapel movement since the Murrieta Pastor’s Conference panel discussion in 2012? At the end of the discussion, the camera shifted from the platform and focused on Chuck Smith who was asked the question: who will be the head of Calvary Chapel in the future? He pointed out that the Church belongs to “Jesus,” and no man should be given the position of pope. It seems apparent that the question was asked to put Chuck on the spot and force him to name a human successor to replace him as the head of Calvary. Click here to continue reading.
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