Chuck Smith, 86, Dies After Cancer Battle

Chuck Smith, the evangelical pastor whose outreach to hippies in the 1960s helped transform worship styles in American Christianity and fueled the rise of the Calvary Chapel movement, died Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013, after a battle with lung cancer. He was 86.

Diagnosed in 2011, Smith continued to preach and oversee administration at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa (California), where he'd been pastor since 1965. In 2012, he established a 21-member leadership council to oversee the Calvary Church Association, a fellowship of some 1,600 like-minded congregations in the United States and abroad.

Smith was known for expository preaching as he worked his way through the entire Bible, unpacking texts from Genesis through Revelation and offering commentary along the way.

Yet it was his openness to new cultural styles, including laid-back music and funky fashions of California's early surfer scene, that helped him reach young idealists and inspire a trend toward seeker-sensitive congregations.

"He led a movement that translated traditional conservative Bible-based Christianity to a large segment of the baby boom generation's counterculture," says Brad Christerson, a Biola University sociologist who studies charismatic churches in California. "His impact can be seen in every church service that has electric guitar-driven worship, hip casually-dressed pastors, and 40-minute sermons consisting of verse-by-verse Bible expositions peppered with pop-culture references and counterculture slang."

Born to a Bible-quoting mother and a salesman father who became a zealous convert in midlife, Smith grew up in Southern California, where he witnessed to the Gospel from a young age.

After Bible college training and a stint as a traveling evangelist, he sought a niche in Pentecostalism by pastoring several Church of the Foursquare Gospel congregations. But he confesses in Chuck Smith: A Memoir of Grace: "I just never succeeded" in that denominational environment.

He found his groove in the 1960s, when many evangelicals were frowning on the wild outfits, long hair and psychedelic music that were all the rage among young adults. One seminal moment came during his early days at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, where old guard trustees posted a sign in their renovated sanctuary: "no bare feet allowed." Smith tore it down with a promise to reach young souls for Christ, even it meant throwing out new pews and carpeting and bringing in steel folding chairs.

"Lifestyle issues and morality issues were things that he would expect Christ would clean up in these folks lives," said Larry Eskridge, associate director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College. "But the informality of these folks and the music they were fond of – he was willing to let that slide quite a bit."

Smith never became a hippie, Eskridge said. But he nonetheless won a following as a non-judgmental father figure by welcoming a blend of pop music, poetry and aspiration to live like Jesus. Together with hippie Lonnie Frisbee, Smith helped propel the Jesus People Movement, with its embrace of Christ's teachings and disavowal of institutional church trappings.

Smith also pioneered translations of Gospel teachings into 20th-century pop art forms. In 1971, he launched Maranatha! Music, a pioneering record label designed to promote the "Jesus music" that his young followers were producing on the California coast.
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Tribute to Pastor Chuck Smith Includes Praise for Biblical Foundation, Loyal Support of Israel: Christian Post by joelcrosenberg

"Pastor Chuck Smith, regarded by many prominent Christian leaders as having influenced their ministries and spiritual lives, was remembered as a preacher holding firm to Biblical principles and a loyal friend to Israel at a memorial tribute Sundayevening," reported the Christian Post.

"More than 16,000 people at the event, as well as those viewing the live stream webcast internationally, watched as Smith, who died on Oct. 3 after battling lung cancer, was honored through words, music, and video," noted the Post.

"He preached his last sermon four days before he went to heaven," said evangelist Greg Laurie, who was one of several featured pastors speaking at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. "When a loved one leaves us, like Chuck, we feel great sadness, but I must say, please don't feel sadness for him. We might say, 'Oh, poor Chuck, I wish he could be here tonight to see all of this.' Wait a second, Chuck's in heaven right now. He's thinking 'I wish they could be up here to see all of this.'"

"During the more than 3-hour tribute, featuring both pastors and musicians influenced by Smith's teachings during the Jesus Movement of the late '60s, Consulate General of Israel, David Siegel, spoke about the Calvary Chapel movement leader's commitment to Israel, that included 60 visits to the country," noted the Post.

"In the 65 years of Israel's rebirth as a modern nation, one would be hard pressed to find a more committed and more honorable friend than Pastor Chuck, a pioneer in forging relations between Christians and Jews, and between the Christian world and Israel," Siegel said. "The bond he formed with us is comparable to the biblical friendship between Jonathan and David. Pastor Chuck was our Jonathan."

He added, "We are indebted and we are deeply touched. We join with you today to express our profound sadness and respect on behalf of the people of Israel for the passing of Pastor Chuck Smith. … He worked for historic reconciliation between Christians and Jews. With his passing, the state of Israel has lost a great friend.".....

Siegal, who spoke about midway through the event, said at the outset of his message: "Being the representative of Israel, a kid from northern Israel and a rabbi's son, I've probably been to more synagogues and churches in my life, but I've never seen anything like this.

While suggesting that some who were touched by the Jesus people or Calvary Chapel movements in its early days may have lost their full commitment to Jesus Christ, Laurie asked those in attendance and the online audience to consider making a recommitment Sunday evening.

"Some who started their race during the days of the Jesus Movement have stopped running," Laurie explained. "They are resting on their laurels or have been crippled by sin. Paul said, 'Forgetting those things which are behind . . . I press toward the mark' (KJV). I can't think of a greater tribute that they could give to Chuck than to 'come back to their first love.' It's not enough to merely start the race; you must finish it."....

In talking about the afterlife, Laurie said, "Chuck is more alive than he has ever been before because Jesus said, 'I am the resurrection and the life and he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.' That's the hope of the Christian."

"More than 52,000 watched 'A Tribute to Pastor Chuck' live from 80 countries (including 420-plus simulcast churches), according to the event's webcast team," reported the Post. "The tribute was also broadcast live nationally via Calvary Chapel's radio station, K-WAVE. The archived version of the tribute can be seen online by clicking here: http://pastorchucksmith.com/."