A Generation Led to Jesus: Remembering Pastor Chuck, Part 11
Calvary Chapel pastors came from many different backgrounds when they were saved and called to ministry. Read several of these stories in this installment of our series honoring the legacy of CC founder Chuck Smith. This story is reprinted from Issue 97 (Fall 2023) of the print magazine.
An article in Time Magazine in 1991, about baby boomers returning to church, shows Joe Focht, pastor of CC Philadelphia, PA, teaching a Bible study in their sanctuary in the Bucks County Mall in Feasterville, PA.
A Boxer from Philly
A 6’1” boxer from Philadelphia, Joe Focht was fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament in the late 1960s when his back snapped during a fight, ending his boxing career. The world was in chaos with the Vietnam War, a volatile economy, and the drug craze. “When I graduated high school in 1968, three of my friends who graduated ahead of me were already dead,” said Joe, who dropped out of college and sought healing through yoga. Soon he was into mysticism and LSD.
In 1972, while meditating, Joe encountered an evil presence and heard the flapping of wings. Calling on the name of his Indian guru didn’t help, so he called on Jesus—and immediately the creature departed. Joe and his friend Harris had been taught to meditate with some kind of cover over their heads. One day they began arguing about the Bible. They flipped it open and read it where it landed: 1 Corinthians 11:4, which says, Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. Their jaws dropped. In that moment, Joe recalled, “The presence of the Lord stepped right into the room. It was tangible. There was the overwhelming sensation of a Person—not just a power or a force. I knew it was God in Christ. Harris felt it too. The Presence was so holy that I just hung my head. We both started weeping. ... Jesus was alive, and truly God in and of Himself. He washed all the junk away. ... We were sealed with the Holy Spirit in the early hours of that morning in September 1972.
In pursuit of God, Joe moved to the West Coast and sadly got caught up in Jim Durkin’s cult which forced followers to work hard and turn over all their earnings. But God had a plan. In 1976 and 1977, Joe attended Mike MacIntosh’s Horizon Fellowship in San Diego, CA. Mike had been encouraged by Chuck to go plant a new work in San Diego—a ministry that went on to impact millions—including Joe and several others who went on to become Calvary pastors. During this time, Joe’s wife Cathy became sick, and the couple left the cult, discouraged and exhausted. They continued to attend Horizon, and God slowly nursed them back to spiritual health through the Word. “It was so refreshing to get back into the Word and have our emphasis back on Jesus Christ, and the simplicity of that relationship with Him. We started to grow by leaps and bounds again. There was no elder or ‘apostle’ between me and Him. … It was wonderful just to have fellowship with Jesus and hear from Him.”
In 1980, Joe attended Chuck’s Thursday night Bible studies and began to sense God calling him back to the East Coast. A letter came from Philadelphia requesting a pastor. Joe and Chuck both knew he was the one to go. Chuck recounted, “I called him into my office and prayed for him, sensing that good things lay ahead for him there.” In November of 1981, Joe began teaching a weekly Bible study in a catering hall, and the group of 25 grew to 100 people in six months. Now CC Philadelphia ministers to thousands weekly with a variety of outreaches and ministries. In a TV interview, Joe noted, “When I look back on my life, I’m amazed at His faithfulness—not mine.” He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
A Man’s Man from Maine
A brawny lumberjack from a broken home in Maine, Ken Graves thought he had found his calling from God only to have it pulled out from under him. In Alabama, he had been serving under a Christian program director who had become like a father to him when he was suddenly informed that his involvement with the ministry was off. Ken knew God had called him to teach the Word, but he didn’t understand.
Stricken, Ken fasted and prayed for 10 days. He was shocked when he sensed the Lord answering: Return to Bangor. In Maine, he had spent most of his childhood trying to protect and feed his four sisters; he had fought off rats and suicidal thoughts before coming to Christ. What are You trying to do to me, Lord, kill me? Ken agonized, but he obeyed.
Back in Maine, he ran into a beautiful tourist from California named Jeanette. She was a Christian, and Ken sensed God had sent him a helpmate. He convinced her to marry him four days later. When they moved to California and began attending her church, a Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks, Ken felt like he had come home. “Up to this point, I never fit anywhere. I looked for spiritual leaders to follow but found none. What I saw in Calvary Chapel was biblical Christianity. I remember thinking, I always knew this existed! This is the Christianity that I’ve read about in the Book of Acts.” A year later, in 1985, the couple returned to Bangor to plant a church.
A blond-haired Ken Graves (left) used “Grapple Chapel” to bring unchurched men to Calvary Chapel Bangor, ME. Many of these men were sent out to plant Calvary Chapels throughout the state. Currently, there are 19 church plants that have come out of CC Bangor.
Their first decade was grueling and gradual in Bangor’s cold climate and barren spiritual landscape. Years of coffee shop concerts, Bible studies, jail outreaches, and witnessing eventually yielded a faithful small group meeting weekly in their apartment. From there, the church slowly gained momentum. By 2002, over 1,000 people attended. Through Bible teaching programs on television and their radio station, WJCX, they reached the church-shy. Unconventional outreaches such as the Grapple Chapel, where the sanctuary was converted into a wrestling arena, connected with the tough, self-sufficient local men and translated biblical concepts in a way they understood. Over the years, Ken has sent out 18 men to plant churches around Maine.
A New Work in New Jersey
While attending Michigan State University (MSU) for Chemical Engineering and wrestling, Lloyd Pulley was saved and soon had a ravenous hunger for the Word. “One Saturday, as a young believer, I started reading in Matthew, and 13 hours later, I finished the New Testament and three pots of coffee!”
He received a clear call to leave MSU to get trained in ministry in California in 1978. His sister told him about her church, CC West Covina, and he began attending at age 20. He had a heart for evangelism and going out weekly with teams to share the Gospel. Lloyd met with Pastor Raul Ries and confided his desire to one day be a pastor, and Raul offered him an internship at the church.
“I became infamous for modeling ‘what not to do’ for all the new staff,” Lloyd chuckled. On his first day, Lloyd got in trouble for going into Raul’s empty office, putting his feet on his desk, and reading through his books. Making copies, counseling, doing odd jobs, and organizing groups of singles, Lloyd grew alongside a growing ministry. And when a man in New Jersey wrote to request a Calvary Chapel, Lloyd felt called to answer that letter in person. Coinciding with Chuck’s pastoral heart, the Lord gave him Isaiah 58:12a, “Those from among you shall build the old waste place” and by 1984 Lloyd and his wife Karen were sent out to New Jersey to plant a church.
Lloyd Pulley (second row, second from left) began attending Calvary Chapel West Covina in the fall of 1978 and soon led local outreaches. Pastor Raul Ries offered him an internship at the church.
Lloyd recalled, “We had maybe 10 in our Bible study at the end of 1984. While supporting myself with a construction job, I would listen to Chuck tapes. One day I fell on my knees, overcome with weeping for revival to happen out in New Jersey.” That first year, they had 50 people; within eight years, their fellowship had grown to nearly 1,000.
CC Old Bridge has since multiplied, planted churches and missions, started a PreK-12 school, Bridge Women’s Center, a College Virtues Campus, and the Bridge Christian Radio network. More than 7 million potential listeners can listen to Lloyd’s radio program Bridging the Gap and nationwide call-in program, Bridge Bible Talk. Thousands more attend the Bridge Radio’s annual Bridgefest outreach at the Jersey Shore, which continues the church’s heart for evangelism.
In our next installment, we’ll share more stories from the early days of the Calvary Chapel movement.
SPONSOR MESSAGE: Calvary Bible Institute is a one-year program designed to equip those who are called to serve the Lord in full-time ministry. Visit CBI's website to learn more about their programs at calvarybi.com
