In the beginning God created...

As with creation, every great work begins with Him. So it was in the 1960s. God looked down on a lost generation of hippies and had great compassion. As He had done many times before, God chose a man with a simple faith in a great God.

Calvary Chapel was a small Christian fellowship in Costa Mesa, California. In the 1960s, it was at a crossroads: should it continue on, now that the pastor was retiring? They contacted Chuck Smith and asked if he would be willing to take on the role of pastor.

Chuck had spent many years in another denomination and sensed that God was calling him to take this step. For years, he had felt that God had something greater in mind than the limiting framework of denominational thinking allowed. And so, in 1965, he began pastoring the Christian fellowship "Calvary Chapel" in Costa Mesa, with 25 members.

Meanwhile, the hippie movement had reached its peak, and an entire generation of young people had lost themselves in a psychedelic world of sex, drugs, and Eastern mysticism. Chuck’s wife Kay was the first of the two to have a heart for reaching the hippies. So the two of them began praying to God, asking how they could reach these young people.

Their first contact came through their children, and soon their home was full of hippies, with baptisms taking place in their backyard pool. God had begun His work, and not long after, young people were turning to Him in droves. They left behind their empty lives of seeking the next thrill or hope in meditation and found new hope in God. Down at the beach, Chuck baptized hundreds of hippies, and the small church building was replaced by a large tent to accommodate all the hippies climbing out of their VW buses to hear the Word of God.

Calvary Chapel recognizes that, for Jesus, it is not about titles, offices, or positions—He looks at the heart. That’s why we believe God’s truth and love are available to all, regardless of long hair or short hair, shoes or no shoes, doctors or mechanics. Everyone is welcome with us.

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6)

A simple faith in the Lord is enough. God used—and continues to use—the fact that Calvary Chapel has nothing to boast about. Many of the pastors are former drug addicts who are simply grateful to still be alive, let alone serving as pastors of a church.

We see that God’s Word is alive and powerful. We believe that God’s Word does its work simply by being faithfully taught, verse by verse, by pastors.

We believe that when the whole Word of God is taught—from Genesis to Revelation—many disputes over spiritual gifts and theological differences disappear on their own.

Those are the facts. We are not the only Christian church, and in many ways, perhaps not the best—but the fact remains: Jesus loves you and died for you and your sins. You must accept that and repent… today! We would be glad to help you in any way we can.