S3E8: Calvary Chapel: It's Essence and Identity-Faithfulness, Freedom, and Fellowship

Well, I'm excited to be able to kick off our fall 2025 CGN Online Connect. And we're gonna be doing four sessions this fall. And I'm excited because we're doing something a little bit different. We've been focusing over the past couple of years on things that help us in the church, things that help us individually ⁓ grow ⁓ as leaders and as pastors. And and we're gonna put pause on that, we're gonna take This session to do something a little bit different. As many of you know, we got to ⁓ take a look at a new book that came out ⁓ at the CGN conference. And that book right here, Calvary Chapels, its Essence and Identity, was released. And we want to take some time to go through that. And I think for a couple of reasons. One, it gives us an idea to really kind of frame the ministry in which we're all in, because we're all affiliated and associated with Calvary Chapel. And it gives us an opportunity to look back to see all the amazing things that God has done while also looking ahead to see all the things that God still wants to do. And if you're anything like me, I know that all of us have our story of how God has used this incredible movement of the Holy Spirit to impact lives, our lives, and the lives of many, many others. And when we think about the beauty of just hitting pause on kind of what we would normally do and just kind of to spend some time and to reflect. To dream and to think through ministry together. I believe that God is going to really bless us. Because the point is, is we want to remember all that God has done while at the same time continuing to dream big in all the areas in which you're ministering, for God to continue to use his spirit, much like he did during the early days of the movement and he still is doing now. We're going to continue to believe for some big things for Calvary Chapel. And what God is doing through the local church. And I want to kind of start off by sharing two of my favorite ⁓ Pastor Chuck quotes. I think we all have them, but I know two of my favorite is, and I know we've heard these where God guides, God provides, right? I think we've heard that. ⁓ and in context, if you're a church planner or if you've parachuted in, or if you're a missionary, or if you've done anything where you really had to rely on God, you know that that's true, where He does guide, He provides. A second one. that he had that really kind of stuck, you know, really struck a chord with me is he said, ritualism is nothing more than a rut. And the only difference between a rut and a grave is the length and the depth. And of course, coming from me growing up ⁓ in in in a non-Christian home and kind of looking at traditions and the things that I was kind of involved with before I came into Christ, that just really kind of struck a chord with me. And so we know Pastor Chuck had a great influence on many, many Folks, many pastors, many of you. And we just want to honor what God did through him and what God has done through the Calvary Chapel movement by spending just four sessions going through this book to really kind of have us take a look to see again what all God has done and what He's going to continue to do. So if you're watching this session, this is going to be session one. And part of session one was a pre-read. So hopefully you were able to go to the CGN website, go to their store. You can download the PDF or you can get this book. I think it's eight bucks, pretty inexpensive. And I got a couple of hard copies for my staff and some other folks in our church who I know would like it, but you can always get the PDF. But you'll want to read, ⁓ if you haven't done so already, pre-read that introduction and the first chapter. And that's kind of what we're going to be diving into today. And as we kind of look at the combination of those two chapters or the intro and chapter one. The thing that kind of stuck out to me was this idea that the word, we think about the God's word, it grounds us, the Holy Spirit frees us, and fellowship grows us. And we kind of get this idea as we read through these two chapters of that importance. And when I think about Calvary Chapel, and I know you probably have the same view as well, but we see that there's just been the great commitment to faithfulness and faithfulness in teaching God's Word. And also teaching that there's freedom, you know, in in the Holy Spirit. And in authentic fellowship, there's amazing growth. And our identity, we know, has been surrounded and really, you know, brought together, stuck together with this idea that we have been rooted in teaching the whole Bible verse by verse. Expository teaching. That's been one of the key things that when people think of Calvary Chapel, that's typically What they think of. so I want to break down a couple of key areas when we kind of look at these two sections that we read, again, the the intro and chapter one. The very first one you can follow along in your notes if you've got them. But we see kind of this idea that there's a faithfulness to God's word. Again, the word of God, the inerrant word of God, what we study, what we preach from, what we study from, and what we what we share on Sundays, and whenever we can. But we see there's kind of a key truth here when you think about faithfulness to teaching God's word, that God's word is central. We grow through the full counsel of God through his word. And I believe in the ministry, many of us have seen that come to fruition. That we've seen not only that in our own lives, but in the lives of people who attend the congregation, people that maybe you've gone to church with, friends and family. That when we come to the Word of God, that we need to consider the whole counsel on what that means for our lives. In fact, we can see in Acts 2.42, many of us are familiar with Acts. We probably have taught it many times. But in Acts 2.42, we see that the apostles and the early church devoted themselves to the teaching, to the apostles' teaching. That's what the early church was doing. And in 2 Timothy 4 2, again, many of us are familiar with this, we see that he was encouraged to preach the word and to be prepared. in season and out of season. So when you think about this faithfulness to God's word, it's a big idea and it's a big concept. And it's one of the hallmarks for Calvary Chapel. It's one of the hallmarks for what we really kind of grab a hold to. It's part of that identity. And it's one of the things that when I was reading through it kind of just struck me because as a teaching point for myself, when we teach through the whole Bible, we receive the full counsel of God. Now, there's nothing wrong with topical teaching, and I have friends that are non-denominational, they're not affiliated with Calvary Chapel. They do topical teaching. So there's nothing wrong with that. But I know for me, when I've seen good expository teaching, a systematic verse-by-verse teaching, it ensures that we don't skip over the hard things or over-emphasize personal preferences. And so I know for me, I think I've really have always appreciated that about the movement. And I know many of you have too, but when we think about it, that's one of the things that we could celebrate how God has used that commitment for expository teaching to not only grow Calvary Chapel, but to grow his church and to bring people to faith. And I often think of it in that expository teaching when I have to explain it to someone. I always tell them, you know, if I'm gonna go. To an all-you-can-eat buffet. I'm usually gonna hit the dessert first, or I'm gonna hit something that I like. And I'm and what you're not gonna see on the plate is probably a whole bunch of green stuff. I'm not anti-salad or anti-broccoli or asparagus. I like those things from time to time, but I don't want a whole bunch of it. And again, you know, as we've have all had this conversation with people, I'm sure, in ministry in our church, that when we think about the whole council of God, we we get a plate full. There's gonna be some things that are tough to deal with, some things a little bit Easier to deal with and maybe things we would naturally gravitate to. But when we go through a verse-by-verse teaching, that whole plate, so to speak, using that analogy, keeps us spiritually healthy because we need everything on that plate, right? We need the whole full counsel of God's word to be spiritually healthy. The second point I want to make as we kind of look again at the intro and chapter one is that there's this incredible freedom in the spirit. Now, this isn't freedom to just go sin and do do silly things, but when you kind of think through from the perspective that of Calvary Chapel and where we've come from, the spirit gives freedom. It's not about legalism and it's not about some sort of empty ritual. In fact, Galatians 5, 1 reminds us that it is freedom that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. We've been set free. And freedom in Christ is not lawlessness, it's not like just complete chaos, it's life in the spirit. And I think that's key for us to remember. And I know we we talk about these things, but just to pause and to think, you know, freedom in Christ is not lawlessness, it is life in the spirit. And legalism, we all know what that does. It adds burdens while the spirit, when we're walking in the spirit, empowers us not only for obedience, but to continue to do ministry and to continue to do things that God wants us to do. Worship and ministry should be spirit led. I know that that goes without saying, but when we think about it, it can't be an individual, it can't be a business, it can't be an organization. It has to be spirit-led, not bound in some sort of tradition, not bound in some sort of thing that maybe we just always have done. And when I think about you know, ministry, I know oftentimes ⁓ in in our kind of season and rhythm of ministry, we do planning and things like that, probably like many of you. And I know sometimes we we kind of do our yearly planning and there's things that go on the calendar, but we always ask the question, is this what the spirit is leading us to do? While we may have done it for 10 years in a row or whatever, we may have done the same thing and we feel like it's a great opportunity, a great outreach, a great whatever, we have to ask the question, is the spirit leading us to do this? And that's kind of the essence when you think through this freedom in the spirit. Where we're not bound to have to do something because we're trapped in a tradition or some sort of ritual, but we truly are walking in the spirit. And for me, I'm a planner and I like planning and I like systems and processes. And so this has always been a real good tension, I know, for me, and probably some of you, if you're kind of wired the same way, of how do you balance planning while effectively walking in the spirit? And we've seen that demonstrated, I think, quite well over the years through the movement. The third thing I want share ⁓ and final thing as we kind of look at this introduction in chapter one is the authentic fellowship. You know, you think about the early church and how powerful it was when they understood that Jesus, the Son of God, came and touched this earth. God walked among us. I mean, this was a big, big deal, right? And so you think about the richness of their fellowship and how you and I, as pastors and leaders, we desire that same authentic fellowship. For our church and for ourselves. And when you think about authentic fellowship, it is built around the grace and truth in Christ that we find in Christ Jesus and nowhere else. And I know sometimes it's it's easy for us to kind of look at all the different ideas of what the big churches are doing or what church down the street or whatever, you know, the case study may be. But we just need to hold true to this very simple fact. Is there there's great programs, there are great programs out there, a lot of great things that we can do. in groups to to to drive fellowship, but it can't be devoid of grace and truth in Christ. Like those are the hallmark elements of authentic fellowship. And in fact, Acts chapter two, many of us again familiar with that, verses 42 through 47, we get this idea that the early church, they shared meals, they prayed together, they had resources, they were sharing amongst themselves. And we all seek to desire that even in our Western American World where people pretty much kind of have everything that they may need and or desire. And so fellowship isn't what we can give somebody and isn't driven around meeting all the needs. I mean, that's part of it, if there are needs, but it's centered on the grace and truth in Christ Jesus. And when I think about fellowship, I think of it as, you know, more than just kind of a sit-down for coffee. I love coffee. I roast my own beans, by the way. ⁓ so I love making coffee because I know the work that went into it. I can tell the story behind it, all those things. But fellowship is more than just sitting down for a great cup of coffee and some conversation. That koinonia is that partnership in the gospel that I'm sitting down with my neighbor or, you know, f guys that are in my my men's group that that I'm partnering with them in some way to advance the gospel. And when we partner together and we're committed to Christ and there's that that grace and truth, That means we're going to share in the joys. That means we're going to share in the struggles. That means we're going to share in the needs and the spiritual growth together. And when I think about fellowship, and I think of it in terms of, you know, when I read this and I was kind of one of the things that hit me is I thought, man, this is a lot like a campfire, right? If you got a campfire and you've got all the coals where, you know, the the red glowing coals of of wood that now are just glowing hot. If they're all together, they're burning hot and there's a lot of heat, and that's when the fire is at its strongest. But if you take those same coals and you spread them out and they're not together, what do they do? They're isolated and they grow cold. So we see this idea of authentic fellowship as being one of the things I think Calvary Chapel has really emphasized and has brought meaning to our lives. The teaching of the word, you know, feeding the whole counsel of God. ⁓ you know, there's great, great content, great things to chew on as we go through this book together. We saw again the word, the spirit walking in the freedom and power of the spirit, and then that fellowship building authentic, grace-filled community. And this is what marked the early church, but it also what is what marked Calvary Chapel in its Genesis when it first began, and it still marks us now. It's part of our identity, which it's good to kind of look back and see. Over the years and decades, that God is still doing his work through many, many faithful servants. And this Calvary Chapel movement, we can hit pause, look back, and celebrate all that God has done, but we can also continue to look expectantly towards the future that all he's going to do because of your faithfulness and your commitment to the things that we've talked about today, because they're important. Last quote I want to share before we end our time and get into some great discussion in our group is this quote from Pastor Chuck. One last, one last one. I think it's good. He says, You only have one life and it will soon pass, and only what's done for Christ will last. Many of us know that quote. But when you think of that, the truth in that, that we only have one life, and the only the things that you do. for Christ will last. And so I want to encourage you that as we go through this, it's not only a look back to celebrate all that God has done, but I'm hoping in my prayer is that it gives you a boldness to continue to pursue all that God has called you to do to bring him honor and glory and to make Jesus famous. And we're just going to see God continue to bless this movement along with others because we're making Jesus famous. And so I again Want to encourage you as we break out into our small group time to jump into the questions that are related to the intro and this first chapter. And I believe as we look for some application and see what God is doing, we can look expectantly to the future and expect even more from what God is doing. So hope you're blessed and we're going to pray for a continued blessing on you and your ministry.