Calvary Chapel

The teaching method is the identity. A Calvary Chapel pastor starts at Genesis 1 and works to Revelation 22, a passage at a time, over years, rather than choosing a topic each week. Nothing is skipped because it is awkward. Chuck Smith, who began the whole thing in Costa Mesa, taught through the entire Bible from the pulpit and the recordings are still in use.

On the gifts of the Holy Spirit this tradition is misread constantly. Calvary Chapel believes every gift is still given today, tongues and prophecy and healing included. It also holds that the main Sunday service is not where they belong, reading Paul’s instructions about order in 1 Corinthians 14 strictly, and puts them in separate meetings afterwards. Smith described the position as middle ground: fundamentalism, he thought, had gone rigid and shut the gifts down, while Pentecostalism had let enthusiasm crowd out the teaching of the text.

On grace the map names nothing, and here the silence is a decision rather than a gap. Calvary Chapel accepts most of Calvinism and refuses two pieces of it: that Christ died only for the chosen, and that God’s call cannot be resisted by anyone who wants to resist it. Smith wrote a small book to explain why he would not take either label. Congregations contain both sorts of people and are meant to.

The last three readings all come out at the far end. Smith taught that Christ will take the church home before the tribulation and preached it hard. Worship is a band, an open Bible and no robes. The Lord’s Supper is a remembrance. And no denominational office tells any congregation what to preach: churches associate voluntarily and keep their own pastor’s authority.