Calvary Chapel

In 1965, Pastor Chuck Smith began his ministry at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa with just twenty-five people. At a pivotal time in history, Pastor Chuck welcomed all, young and old, without judgment, into the local church. With a sincere concern for the lost, Pastor Chuck and Kay Smith made room in the church and their home for a generation of hippies and surfers, serving in the midst of a powerful movement of the Holy Spirit that spread from the West Coast to the East Coast and throughout the world. In his ministry, he emphasized the teaching of the Word of God. In the wake of that move of the Holy Spirit, what began as a small local church grew into an international family of over 1700 churches around the world. Pastor Chuck’s simple, yet sound, expositional approach to teaching the Bible has helped millions better understand God’s Word. It all started when several elderly women asked beloved pastor Floyd Nelson to lead their informal nondenominational congregation. It was in 1965, after the 25-member congregation purchased the little church on Church Street in Costa Mesa, that Pastor Nelson took a leave of absence. He invited Pastor Chuck Smith to assist him as the teaching pastor at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. A year later Pastor Chuck became the senior pastor. CCCM purchases the old Church of Christ building on Church Street in Costa Mesa. The church votes for Pastor Chuck Smith to become the assistant/teaching pastor of CCCM. Kay Smith begins a weekly women’s prayer meeting at Kay Madison’s house. It soon moves to the church and continues to this day. Pastor Chuck Smith gives his first official Sunday sermon, with 50 people in attendance. Beginning in Genesis, the congregation reads 10 chapters each week. Sunday morning sermons are topical messages from those chapters. The Sunday evening study is a verse-by-verse study of those same chapters. Rather than focusing on money problems at the board meeting, Pastor Chuck says, “Why don’t we concern ourselves with the spirituality of the church. You know, when God guides, He provides.” Pastor Chuck requests the congregation close their family meal prayer with “And God bless Calvary Chapel,” …and He does! The first wedding is held at CCCM, joining Margaret and Albert Hsieh in matrimony. Two church services are held (9:30 am and 11:00 am) to meet the needs of the growing congregation. A Sunday night radio broadcast of Pastor Chuck’s Sunday evening verse-by-verse study begins on KGER. What a shock it was to the conservative, middle-class congregation when the hippies arrived! Parents were deeply concerned about the Hippie influence on their children and the criticism of their neighbors and other churches in the area. But the Hippies passion for Jesus and their love for their neighbors broke through. The church kept growing out of its buildings till the property on Sunflower and Fairview in Santa Ana was purchased and a circus tent erected that expanded to fit the 2000+ people in attendance. During the “Summer of Love“, Chuck and Kay Smith reach out to the Hippies. The ministry rapidly grows, and Chuck finds himself carrying out mass baptisms – sometimes 500 at a time – in the Pacific Ocean at Pirates Cove in Corona del Mar. At first, congregants are concerned the Hippies will negatively influence their children. In addition, they fear neighbors will criticize CCCM for allowing Hippies to attend the church and the home Bible studies. CCCM starts a Sunday afternoon service at the Newport Harbor Lutheran Church on Cliff Drive — overlooking Newport Bay. The cost is $150 per week. Rather than decreasing in size, church attendance increases. CCCM purchases the Greenville School at the corner of Greenville and Sunflower in Santa Ana for $55,050. The congregation, plus the Hippies, recycle old materials to build the new sanctuary. The 300-seat Sunflower/Greenville Chapel is completed, and 2 services are held each week. By 1971, the walls are expanded outward, 3 services are