There has been an interesting turn of events in this past month. It has created a buzz among evangelicals and has left many of us confused as to the stance and status of the Calvary Chapel.

On August 16, 2009, Calvary Chapel hosted their 20-year anniversary Harvest Crusade in Anaheim, CA. At that event Chuck Smith and Greg Laurie were not only sharing a stage with the "Purpose Driven" Pastor, but Chuck Smith went on to ask Rick to lead in prayer. In his own words, Chuck Smith announced him as "my good friend who pastors Saddleback Church".

Greg Laurie, Chuck Smith & Rick Warren at Harvest 2009

So what's the big deal?

Well, it was in 2006 when the Calvary Chapel Distribution website recalled Chuck Smith Sr.'s book, When Storms Come (which had been tampered with - allegedly some catholic mysticism was added to the book's final draft, unbeknownst to Mr Smith). In that recall, the notice was also given for 'Purpose Driven' material which stated clearly "The teaching and positions of Rick Warren have come into conflict with us at Calvary Chapel. Pastor Chuck has directed us to discontinue this product effective immediately."¹

On Roger Oakland's site (http://www.understandthetimes.org/commentary/c48.shtml#_ftn1), Roger surmised as to the reasons that Calvary Chapel had taken this stance against the purpose driven material.

Interestingly enough that same year of 2006, Chuck Smith had the following 'Parson to Parson' document issued to the Pastor's of Calvary Chapel -> Parson to Parson (click)   <- where Chuck warned the pastors about the Emerging Church movement.

Further, pastors who attended the nation-wide Calvary Chapel Pastor’s Conferences held at Murrieta, California in either 2005 or 2006 would have heard Pastor Chuck explain in detail that Calvary Chapel pastors are not to be “Purpose Driven”. While there were some in attendance who were leaning towards Purpose Driven methods, Pastor Chuck emphasized Calvary Chapel was not going in that direction.

So what happened? Here we are in the fall of 2009 and we have Pastor Chuck Smith introducing Rick Warren as a friend.

The following video is Chuck Smith introducing Mr. Warren as, "My good friend who pastors Saddleback Church".

The day after the Harvest 2009 a caller from the Pastor's Perspective radio show (go to kwve.org, click on podcasts, then click on 8/17/09 - direct link http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kwve/pastorsperspective/~3/Hl8uFrObcUA/2009.08.17-15.00.00-D.mp3 ) Listen 26:59 minutes in and you'll hear the following.

Caller’s (John’s) Question: Should pastors share a platform at an evangelical event with someone who typifies the Emergent Church, a minister?

Smith: [chuckle] That’s difficult, John, because, you know, you might say in a sense that last night I was on the platform with a minister that they say that he is a part of the Emergent Church, that he has, you know, sort of a different emphasis in his ministry, more of a social emphasis on what the church should be doing socially for people rather than the spiritual emphasis, and so I was on the platform with him but, you know, I think that it would be divisive. Now the man, I’m convinced, loves the Lord, has a large church, and is, you know, feels that he is called of God to really deal with the social problems of our world today. Now it could be that God IS calling him to that, but that isn’t why God has called ME to do and so, but I can still look at him as a brother in Christ – he believes that Jesus died for our sins and he just has a different emphasis as far as what he feels should be the priority of the church today.. We were both invited to be there but we were on the platform together, sat next to each other, and he is a brother in Christ, and so I didn’t really have any real problem with sharing, being on the same program together with him.

Previously I had mentioned in this article that I was concerned that Chuck would allow himself to be in such a situation, and I had commented on his choice of words - 'divisive' - as being a faux pas for us to worry about as ministers of the gospel.

Since the original writing of this article, new information has come to me, and after further thought and consideration I would suggest that Chuck Smith was just as uncomfortable with the event as we were.

This new information affirms a hunch that was bothering me about the video as I was watching it again this morning. If you watch the video over and over as I have, I am somewhat convinced that Chuck was in fact uncomfortable with the whole affair. The premise that Chuck was a Rick Warren supporter, also wasn't sitting with me well because of the history of Chuck Smith and his ministry. My criticism of the event was indeed subjective, and although I try to be as informed as possible, we must all be careful to look at the event with objectivity, especially when our subjectivity causes confusion with the facts we would ordinarily expect. If you look at his previous stances (Parson to Parson), his words about the Purpose Driven materials, it would seem too illogical for Chuck to suddenly suffer from amnesia and become an emergent and purpose driven supporter. I had indicated previously that the event left many of us confused.

If we are going to jump to conclusions that Chuck has gone to the 'dark side', what harm is there in giving him the benefit of the doubt that he is still on the 'good side', but found himself in a situation that his own gracious nature would not allow him to embarrass the event. I'm not convinced that any of us would have reacted differently under the circumstances. Especially without knowing the chain of events that left Chuck in that situation.

We might also be reading too much into Chuck's words, "My good friend...", as I have had many good friends myself, that would certainly raise an eyebrow among my fellow ministers of the gospel. I still however think those words could have been chosen more carefully, and a lot of this confusion would have been snubbed before it even started had Chuck not used them.

Some may think I'm being soft on this issue, but I'm willing to give Chuck Smith the benefit of the doubt on this one. And so with the information at hand, I'll leave it be.

Until Next time.

Serve Your King.

Jer

Footnotes:

1. The original copy was found here: http://www.calvaryd.org/assets/uploads/RecallonStorms.pdf, but has since been taken down. We got the quote from an article written by Roger Oakland located here: http://www.understandthetimes.org/commentary/c48.shtml#_ftn1