What is Calvary Chapel?

For context, I was raised independent fundamental Baptist.
ran into a couple guys from a Calvary Chapel. Which is strange because I always thought of them as a California/Florida phenomenon and I’m not from those parts.
Besides the Sunday attire and music how do they differ?
What should I know about them?

Charismatics, the babbling starts up during special services they call 'Afterglows'.

Here are CC founder Chuck Smith and CC evangelist Lonnie Frisbee on Kathryn Kuhlman's I Believe in Miracles show in the 1970s:

Some Calvary Chapels have become dually affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention!

Harvest Christian Fellowship (Calif.)

Calvary Phoenix (Ariz.)

Mr. Lunt said:

For context, I was raised independent fundamental Baptist.
ran into a couple guys from a Calvary Chapel. Which is strange because I always thought of them as a California/Florida phenomenon and I’m not from those parts.
Besides the Sunday attire and music how do they differ?
What should I know about them?

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Yeah charismatic and I think were precursors to the Vineyard movement, ie Lonnie Frisbee

Jerome said:

Charismatics, the babbling starts up during special services they call 'Afterglows'.

Here are CC founder Chuck Smith and CC evangelist Lonnie Frisbee on Kathryn Kuhlman's I Believe in Miracles show in the 1970s:

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Ah yes that’s the Jesus Revolution story. The guy who played Lonnie Frisbee did an exceptional job depicting him now that I watch this clip.

360watt said:

Yeah charismatic and I think were precursors to the Vineyard movement, ie Lonnie Frisbee

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Vineyard is pretty chaotic sounds like.

Mr. Lunt said:

Vineyard is pretty chaotic sounds like.

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They were the main driver under John Wimber for charismatic becoming popular

Mr. Lunt said:

For context, I was raised independent fundamental Baptist.
ran into a couple guys from a Calvary Chapel. Which is strange because I always thought of them as a California/Florida phenomenon and I’m not from those parts.
Besides the Sunday attire and music how do they differ?
What should I know about them?

Click to expand...

Calvary Chapel is now a denomination in and of itself. Once upon a time, it was the epicenter of the "Jesus People" movement in Southern California led by Chuck Smith who was a Foursquare Gospel preacher. There are now "Calvary Chapel" churches worldwide.

They are actually pretty sound and legit as far as churches go. They have casual attire and contemporary music which would be the bane certain "Independent Fundamental Baptists" but they also place great emphasis upon expository teaching and preaching. They are usually dispensational and premillennial and most would hold to the eternal security of the believer.

The direction in which Chuck Smith took Calvary Chapel makes it far more doctrinally sound than the Foursquare denomination of which he came. They are "continuationist" meaning they acknowledge all of the spiritual gifts but they exercise great caution in the use of the "Sign Gifts" (tongues, healing, etc.) and typically discourage their use during a worship service.

Some are mentioning the Vineyard Christian Fellowship which broke off from Calvary Chapel. While there are some similarities between the two, Vineyard is far more "mystical" placing a greater emphasis upon the "sign gifts" and so forth. It is therefore unfair to lump the two together as being one in the same. When Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee parted ways, Lonnie Frisbee affiliated with the Vineyard movement that was just in its beginnings. It has become far more "wackydoo" over the years. There is a Vineyard congregation just down the road from my Church and it has a woman as the senior pastor.

If I were in a town that had a liberal Baptist Church and a Calvary Chapel, I would go to the Calvary Chapel. If I were in a town that had a liberal Baptist Church and a Vineyard Christian Fellowship, I would either start a church or would find something in the next town.

Armchair Apologist said:

Calvary Chapel is now a denomination in and of itself. Once upon a time, it was the epicenter of the "Jesus People" movement in Southern California led by Chuck Smith who was a Foursquare Gospel preacher. There are now "Calvary Chapel" churches worldwide.

They are actually pretty sound and legit as far as churches go. They have casual attire and contemporary music which would be the bane certain "Independent Fundamental Baptists" but they also place great emphasis upon expository teaching and preaching. They are usually dispensational and premillennial and most would hold to the eternal security of the believer.

The direction in which Chuck Smith took Calvary Chapel makes it far more doctrinally sound than the Foursquare denomination of which he came. They are "continuationist" meaning they acknowledge all of the spiritual gifts but they exercise great caution in the use of the "Sign Gifts" (tongues, healing, etc.) and typically discourage their use during a worship service.

Some are mentioning the Vineyard Christian Fellowship which broke off from Calvary Chapel. While there are some similarities between the two, Vineyard is far more "mystical" placing a greater emphasis upon the "sign gifts" and so forth. It is therefore unfair to lump the two together as being one in the same. When Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee parted ways, Lonnie Frisbee affiliated with the Vineyard movement that was just in its beginnings. It has become far more "wackydoo" over the years. There is a Vineyard congregation just down the road from my Church and it has a woman as the senior pastor.

If I were in a town that had a liberal Baptist Church and a Calvary Chapel, I would go to the Calvary Chapel. If I were in a town that had a liberal Baptist Church and a Vineyard Christian Fellowship, I would either start a church or would find something in the next town.

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Thank you for your precision.

Armchair Apologist said:

Calvary Chapel is now a denomination in and of itself.

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Here's a prominent Calvary Chapel church that's also Southern Baptist, yet advertises itself as "nondenominational church"!

Armchair Apologist said:

Calvary Chapel...are "continuationist" meaning they acknowledge all of the spiritual gifts but they exercise great caution in the use of the "Sign Gifts" (tongues, healing, etc.) and typically discourage their use during a worship service.

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After the preaching services, they have 'afterglow' worship services where the babbling, etc. starts up!

Armchair Apologist said:

Some are mentioning the Vineyard Christian Fellowship which broke off from Calvary Chapel. While there are some similarities between the two, Vineyard...has become far more "wackydoo" over the years. There is a Vineyard congregation just down the road from my Church and it has a woman as the senior pastor.

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Uh...there's women ministers at the same Calvary Chapel as above (that's also SBC!).
Watch:

Jerome said:

Uh...there's women ministers at the same Calvary Chapel as above (that's also SBC!).
Watch:

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Calvary Chapel is not a denomination I would affiliate myself with personally and yes, there are some wackydoo Calvary Chapel preachers out there what we need to look out for and stay away from. I stated that if I had to choose between a Calvary Chapel and a liberal Baptist Church, I would choose the Calvary Chapel (attend, not join) but perhaps I had better qualify this saying "provided the pastor and congregation are relatively sound." If it had a woman preacher, I would avoid it in the same way in which I would avoid the Vineyard Church. I believe that Greg Laurie's Church became affiliated with the SBC some years ago. If an SBC Church is ordaining women preachers, they need to be disfellowshipped in the same manner as what happened with Saddleback Church.

I attended a Calvary Chapel for a while when I was coming back to the Lord but my wife and I always felt like outsiders so we moved on. I have therefore never experienced the "afterglow" fellowships of which you are speaking.

Armchair Apologist said:

I attended a Calvary Chapel for a while when I was coming back to the Lord but my wife and I always felt like outsiders so we moved on. I have therefore never experienced the "afterglow" fellowships of which you are speaking.

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I tried to find Calvary Chapel Afterglow Services on YouTube. Videos were just music performances, no speaking in tongues.

Straight from the horse's mouth:

I am from and live in southern California and I have attended a number of Calvary Chapels in the past so I have some familiarity about the Calvary Chapel movement. Chuck Smith (d. 2013) founded Calvary Chapel in 1965. Calvary Chapel was an important part of the "Jesus People" movement and Calvary Chapel played a major role in the beginning of Contemporary Christian Music. Calvary Chapels normally do not have a formal membership roll unlike most if not all or nearly all Baptist Churches as well as other denominational churches. Calvary Chapel claims to be non denominational but in my opinion is a de facto denomination. One way Chuck Smith kept control of the Calvary Chapel movement was that he had the name "Calvary Chapel" legally trademarked so he thought that a Calvary Chapel pastor was to stray too far from what he thought was doctrinally correct, the trademark would be invoked and that pastor would have to give up the Calvary Chapel name and find another name for his church.

Calvary Chapel is technically of the pentecostal/charismatic persuasion but they are not quacks about it and normally do not overtly do "tongues" in the main church services. Calvary Chapel affirms the inspiration/inerrancy of the Bible but is not officially King James Only. Calvary Chapel affirms the Trinity, the deity of Jesus Christ, the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and His Second Coming. Calvary Chapel is pre-trib/premillennial on eschatology and that is a non negotiable requirement for affiliation with the Calvary Chapel or at least it was while Chuck Smith was living. Calvary Chapel is not Calvinistic and if a Calvary Chapel pastor became too Calvinistic that would mean losing the privilege of using the Calvary Chapel name or at least that was the case when Chuck Smith was living.

Calvary Chapel is known for not only allowing its parishioners to dress "casually" but also many of its pastors also dress "casually" and some wear jeans and t shirt which I do not have a problem with. The problem I have is that there are at least some Calvary Chapel pastors who wear their shirts untucked and in my opinion, look like a Slob.

When Chuck Smith was alive, the main Calvary Chapel at 3800 S. Fairview in Santa Ana, California had multiple Sunday Morning services as well as a Sunday Evening service. On Sunday mornings the main sanctuary would be absolutely jam packed with people and there was an overflow room where people could see the service on closed circuit video and that overflow room was also full and in good weather (normal in southern California) there would be a lot of people listening to the service on the outside patio. On Sunday Evenings the main sanctuary was normally full but you could usually get a seat in the overflow room though that was usually mostly full. That was how things were when Chuck Smith was living. Chuck Smith was a very popular Bible teacher and he would normally take a book of the Bible and go straight through it so if you were to attend Calvary Chapel long enough under Chuck Smith, you would hear teaching from the entire Bible. After the Lord took Chuck Smith home in the autumn of 2013, things changed and I don't know a lot of the details though I understand there was some sort of split or rift in the Calvary Chapel movement.

Two or three years after the Lord called Chuck Smith home, I attended a Sunday Evening service at the main Calvary Chapel. I estimated that the main sanctuary was less than 20 percent full and I had an entire section of seats to myself. Quite a contrast from when Chuck Smith was living. I understand that the main Calvary Chapel no longer has Sunday Evening services.

why Vineyard split from Calvary

I once had the pleasure of visiting Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, where Pastor Chuck preached for years. Even though Calvary Chapel advertises themselves as non-denominational, if you didn’t know any better, you'd probably assume that they were Baptists. This is especially true if you were to read Chuck’s commentaries; you’ll find that his theology lines up almost the same with someone like Warren Wiersbe.

That being said, there are a very minimal number of differences that may set him apart from most mainstream Baptists. Aside from being a continuationist, he later abandoned his view on eternal security after witnessing Charles Templeton’s apostasy. Others have also, unfairly in my opinion, labelled him a false prophet over his suggestion that the most likely date for the world to end would be in 1981 or 1988, even though he admitted ahead of time that he could be wrong.

After Smith’s passing, a church split occurred, led by his son-in-law, Brian Brodersen, regarding the future direction of the church. There is now the Calvary Chapel Association, which aims to preserve Smith’s conservative, expository interpretation of Scripture, and the Calvary Chapel Global Network, which focuses more on topical preaching and is noticeably more liberal.

Not all CCs are the same, so just know what you’re getting into if you plan to visit one.