The Day After Chuck
When Greg Laurie announced his new partnership with the Southern Baptist Convention, he wasn’t just announcing a new affiliation.
What was unspoken was that he was announcing that the Calvary Chapel brand was no longer sufficient to contain and support him because it had been diminished through split, scandal, and endless internal bickering.
It was also, I believe, the final split from the hold that Chuck Smith had on Laurie and that still grips many in the group with.
Nobody felt that grip to the degree that Brian Brodersen has and he too has now finally found release from it.
This conference has been all about the present and the future, not the past.
It’s taken a few years after Smith’s death, but the split from him and the split in Calvary Chapel is now final for this group.
While many of the unspoken rules have been jettisoned, what remains is Smith’s original legacy of freedom in the Holy Spirit to follow God where He leads.
Brodersen’s rambling introductory talk didn’t set the tone of the conference and throw the last shovel of dirt on yesterday, but Greg Opean’s did.
He honored the past and it’s leaders, but also spoke of moving forward in unity not just with fellow CC’s but with people from other traditions who are invested in bringing the Gospel.
That is the mindset of virtually everyone I’ve talked with who attended this conference.
There is a freedom in worship and a freedom in the Holy Spirit that has been quenched in years past.
There is an openness to learning from others and cooperating where possible while still being uniquely Calvary Chapel, or now, Calvary Global Network.
Ironically, this atmosphere is more like how it was in the early days…Chuck might have been proud of what his bickering kids did this week…
when will we learn to treasure what God brings to us thru a man (generic), make that blessing our focus and not become dependent on the man bringing it?
I would quite like to experience that. The freedom to worship Christ in the Spirit and to simply offer yourselves to him was foundational in the Jesus movement.
Everyone talks about what this generation needs and about us losing them. If we have lost them it is simply because they have not tasted the powers of the age to come and become new creatures in Christ. It is not better marketing we need. It is another move of God in which they hear his voice for themselves.
This little article encourages.
Em,
It’s always been this way…as Calvin said, our hearts are idol factories.
God moves anyway…
BD,
That was really well said…I concur. 🙂
@BD. Thanks.
Thanks for the update, Michael.
On one of my midnight shift at work, I ask one of a close friend and a co-worker if he knew anything about the Holy Bible. Little did I know that this close friend was the Worship Leader at Calvary Chapel Honolulu. That was over 30 years ago. God Almighty removed my family and I from Roman Catholicism to Calvary chapel where He wants my family to be and learn His word and to worship Him in songs. At first I fell in love with Calvary chapel worship songs from Maranatha songs. Than I began to understand God’s Word by Calvary chapel’s teaching the whole counsel of God from Genesis to Revelation, book by book, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Than I ran into Acts 20:27 where the Apostle Paul said, “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.” Also Jesus said in Matthew 5:4 “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
I am out of touch of why the Calvary Chapel split or Greg Laurie’s split with Calvary chapel. It’s so confusing on why the split. All I know I attend a Calvary chapel Pearl Harbor and my Pastor, Derald Skinner who continues to teach the whole counsel of God with Prophecy update because of troubling in the world. Praise the Lord, Derald still teaches the whole counsel of God the same direction the late Pastor Chuck Smith led all Calvary chapels from Costa Mesa California.
I hope no one feels obligated to be critical of Mr. Partido.
BD’s comment @ #2 made me think of this song – The Other Country by Burlap to Cashmere:
Xenia, not me… just having read Mr. Partido, i was blessed greatly by his words regarding his walk in the Faith… a testament to the work that the Holy Spirit truly has done thru the work of Calvary Chapel
Michael, do you have a link to the webpage for Costa Mesa’s conference? Do you know if they videoed it, and if so, if there is an archive of it? I’d love to watch the conference!
Right here, Bobby…
http://live.calvarychapel.com
I’m reminded that “redemption” is a term that not only applies to the lost… it applies to all of us. I think what we may be seeing is the redemption of an ideal that many of us, though now distant from that original ideal, still treasure.
Thank you, Michael!
“Nobody felt that grip to the degree that Brian Brodersen has and he too has now finally found release from it.”
A successful past can provide direction for the future, but too often it becomes a prison. My current church has struggled trying to find freedom from the past for the last 15 years (I’ve been here 7 years). We’ve made some strides, but not out of the woods yet.
I recently got an email from someone who left our church. All they did was talk about the glory days and how nothing has compared to what they had experienced. In trying to uphold day gone by, they threw everyone under the bus who was trying to forge a new day.
Be thankful for the past.
Live in the present.
Expect great things from God in the days to come.
God bless you Mr. Partido and thank you for that. It’s a good reminder of the simplicity of Christ. “All I know is, I was blind but now I see.”
What’s your point #17?
Covered it’s a link to his blog where he references this post.
Got it. Thanks Col46. I’m tired and getting old… 🙂
I read the link to Steve’s blog and he makes a good point about SDA’s quoting their founder more or less.
We do need to be careful about how much we quote people and the Bible in the same sermon….
My day after Chuck was in March of 2006
#17 was an automatic post between sites because I mentioned this blog on my blog. The primary audience of my blog is my own church and friends who have been following this whole CC issue. I did just revise my post a bit to better develop my comparison point on disunity and obsessing with one’s past.