Holland Davis: Following the Spirit from The Jesus Movement ‘Til Today
Photos by Holland Davis
Saved at 12 and a youth pastor at age 16 during the Jesus Movement, Holland Davis never imagined the impact his music would make around the world. Calling Pastor Chuck Smith his mentor, the award-winning songwriter has been pastoring Calvary Chapel San Clemente, CA, for 14 years.
In 2005, Holland Davis (right) and Pastor Chuck Smith lead the group in worship. As a seeking teenager, Holland would tune in to Chuck’s teachings—grounding him in the Word and fueling his love for ministry. An award-winning song writer, Holland is the founding pastor of Calvary Chapel San Clemente, CA, which began Valentines Day 2010.
Fifteen-year-old Holland Davis sat in a car during his work break listening to the radio in Vista, CA, in 1976. Three years earlier, after hearing John 3:16, “I heard an audible voice say, ‘Holland, I love you.’” Those words changed his life, and Holland accepted Christ. Eager to grow closer to God, the preteen had spent hours in his room playing songs to the Lord on his guitar and devouring the Bible.
But then some pastors told him that the Bible was not literal, that miracles and spiritual gifts were not for today. This didn’t jibe with what he had heard about the young runaways and drug addicts getting saved during the Jesus Movement. He was hungry for more of God—but confused. That day, a warm, genial voice came over the air waves:
“Everything in the Bible is true. You can believe all of it,” encouraged the pastor, “and it is all happening today at Calvary Chapel.” Hope flooded Holland’s heart; he knew this was his answer from God. Every day, Holland would time his breaks so he could tune in the radio at 5 o’clock to hear teachings by Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, CA.
Jesus Movement: The Word & the Spirit
Later that year, Holland and his friends began driving to CC Costa Mesa for Saturday night concerts. An hour and a half before the concert, the sidewalk would be teeming with a mix of hippies and regular Joes. “People would sit in groups playing worship songs before the service,” recalled Holland. Young people were writing original songs about Jesus. Droves of Christ-seekers were turning from drugs, the occult, and immorality and being baptized by Pastor Chuck in Pirate’s Cove, in Newport Beach, CA.
Crowds flocked to popular Christian hangouts like Maranatha Village, a Bible-land shop on Sunflower Avenue in Costa Mesa. “Tom Stipe and other guys would do evangelism,” Holland recounted. “We brought our friends up to get saved.” With no Calvary in their area, Holland and some friends started a Christian club at Vista High School in Vista, CA. “We had 20 to 30 kids meeting at someone’s house every week, worshiping and studying the Bible,” he said. “We just wanted to be with Jesus and learn together.”
Chuck and Iva Eason opened a new Christian bookstore in Vista called Loaves and Fishes. Wanting to serve God full time, Holland got a job there and would often play the guitar during slow times. Iva bought Holland a praise song book, and soon Chuck Eason asked Holland to become the worship leader and youth pastor at the new Vista Calvary Chapel.
Above, Holland Davis leads worship prior to a baptism at Pirates Cove at Corona del Mar, with Pastors Chuck Smith and Jon Courson standing to the left. Saved at 12 and a youth pastor at age 16 during the Jesus Movement, Holland never imagined the impact his music would make around the world. Holland has penned more than 150 worship songs, including several classic worship songs such as “Jesus Lover of My Soul” and the award-winning “Let It Rise”
“I was 16 years old and teaching Bible studies; they made me the youth pastor and worship leader—that was a mistake,” Holland chuckled, confessing, “I was immature, making dumb mistakes because I was a kid—like not getting the word out about events.”
Reflecting on how the Holy Spirit was moving during the Jesus Movement, the now seasoned pastor noted, “There were things done that we would never do today. … A drummer from the Mamas and Papas got saved and started bringing pastors from Calvary Costa Mesa to Catholic churches to do outreaches and Bible studies. Pastor Chuck preached at some Catholic churches a couple times. … It was like we had this incredible gift that God had given us, and we just wanted to share it with people.”
Music with a Message
To share the Gospel through music, Holland and his friends then formed The Philadelphia Band to play Christian punk rock. Bill Venezuela and Bugs Giglio ran the Ministry Resource Center at CC Costa Mesa, equipping the young men to share Christ: “They would disciple us and send us places. They made records, gave the bands a thousand copies, and that’s how the bands would pay for their trips—selling the records,” Holland detailed. The teens did outreaches wherever they could, even in prisons.
When Holland was 17, his friend Mark Poor at the new Calvary Chapel Bible College gave him a cassette tape of some of the simple worship songs the kids were singing. “The songs were so simple and powerful, all directed to the Lord; it was really sweet worship,” he recalled. “I would go up there periodically to sit in the classes, and I began listening to Chuck’s teaching tapes. That really gave me a love for the Word.”
Holland desired to write his own simple worship choruses to God, never imagining the impact his music would eventually make around the world.
Empowered by the Spirit
Also while 17, one night Holland was leading worship at CC Escondido, CA, there was a spontaneous afterglow with Lonnie Frisbee, the radical hippie evangelist who worked alongside Pastor Chuck during the Jesus Movement. Lonnie began to walk around the room, touching people and praying. He called Holland out: “The Lord is touching you right now.”
Holland thought, That’s it? That’s all I get? Lord, that’s not enough. I want everything You have for me, and more. I want all of it. Holland earnestly beseeched the Lord silently for about 10 minutes. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder.
Lonnie brought him forward and surprised him by saying, “You were praying, ‘I don’t want just a little touch; I want everything You have for me.’ Are you ready?”
Holland nodded, and Lonnie laid his hands on him, calling out, “Give him more, Lord!” Holland felt as if a massive jolt of electricity went through his body. Lonnie cried out again, “Give him more, Lord!” The feeling grew stronger, and then Lonnie bellowed, “Mooooore!”
Every time Lonnie said “More,” the feeling intensified. “I felt so much raw power going through my body at that point, like I was going to die,” Holland reported. “It was so intense, I said, ‘I can’t take any more; you have to make it stop.’” He could barely listen as Lonnie prophesied that the young musician would one day plant churches.
“After that, there was a new dynamic in the ministry that I never had before,” stated Holland. “We would go onto college campuses and preach the Gospel, and a hush would fall over the whole place. No one would move. I would pray for people, and they would be filled with the Holy Spirit. People would be healed.” After a season, the Spirit’s dramatic outpouring seemed to mellow, he noted, though God was still guiding the work.
Spirit of Love
That early encounter taught Holland who the Holy Spirit was. “I became more loving and accepting, not judgmental or suspicious. The fruit of the Spirit in my life was to unify, not to divide. When I would hear people say, ‘This is of God,’ or ‘This is not of God,’ or if there was anything divisive, I knew the Spirit was not in it. When the Holy Spirit is moving, there was always a sense of love in the room. In those early days at Calvary, there was an atmosphere of love. It didn’t matter how old you were. I was 16 years old, leading worship. People of all ages would fellowship and pray together, and love on each other. The fellowship was really sweet.”
Holland met Roxie at CC Escondido in 1978; they married in December of 1983 and helped plant several churches in Southern California. His music ministry led him to serve around the world before returning to serve at CC Costa Mesa and later planting a church in Orange County. Recently, she and Holland were praying at their church, CC San Clemente. Holland recalled that Roxie prayed, “Lord, send us unbelievers,” and within minutes a woman walked through the door saying she was lost and needed Jesus. Following the example of Pastor Chuck and Kay Smith, Holland and Roxie both seek to love the people God brings.
Holland met Roxie at CC Escondido in 1978; they married a few years later and have served the Lord together all over the world. In the 1990s, he began working with Maranatha! Music—scouting and developing new talent, marketing, and meeting prominent musicians. “While we were in Israel with a Calvary Chapel, God spoke to me that He had more for me to do. I thought, More than this, Lord? He said He was calling me back into church ministry.” Soon Holland was serving under Pastor Chuck at CC Costa Mesa: “I served there from 2001-2005: I launched a school of worship, relaunched Calvary Chapel Music, and oversaw the Worship Conferences with Pastor Chuck.”
Pastor Chuck consistently modeled love and grace. When someone reported that an outside minister had shared something unbiblical on Chuck’s radio station, it was assumed Chuck would kick that ministry off the air. Instead, Pastor Chuck explained, “We don’t do that. We don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. God is really using [that person], and we want to look at what God is doing, not at the person’s mistakes.”
So, Chuck called the head of the ministry, who apologized, and is still a Bible teacher to this day. “Chuck smiled and said, ‘That’s how we are; we look at what God is doing in people’s lives.’ That’s what I felt back then, and I have always tried to do that as a pastor—giving grace.” Holland shared, “Chuck wasn’t trying to maintain or force anything. If you were like-minded, you could walk with him—and if not, you were free to go and do whatever God had called you to do. Everyone was welcome to walk with us, and to serve at the church together.” Through Chuck, Holland learned to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in choosing those who served in the worship ministry.
Pastor Holland contemplated, “It’s easy to be critical of other groups; we have forgotten how to love each other. Love was an important part of what God was doing in the 1970s and 1980s; it’s the love of God in the Spirit that unites us, covers a multitude of sins, and allows us to worship together—to love Jesus together and serve Jesus together.”
Generations of Worship
Holland has enjoyed watching the Lord raise up new musicians in the Calvary Chapel family generation after generation. While there was a plethora of young Jesus People musicians in the 1970s, the 1990s also saw several young CC musicians who now have a global audience. Holland remembers inviting a teenage Phil Wickham to lead worship at Costa Mesa in the 1990s, urging Chuck to give him a chance like he did so many other young people during the Jesus Movement. About the same time, Jeremy Camp attended Calvary Chapel Bible College, where a staff member heard the shy young surfer sing in the kitchen and invited him to join the CCBC worship band. Likewise, Switchfoot lead singer Jon Foreman started out playing concerts at his dad’s church, North Coast Calvary Chapel in Carlsbad, CA.
Worship music surged in popularity within mainstream Christian music. After receiving an American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) award in 2006 for his worship song “Let It Rise”, Holland reflected, “One thing I noticed was the large number of worship songs that were winning awards. There’s been a shift in our culture, and people want to worship the Lord.” Other notable songs by Holland include “Jesus Lover of My Soul”, “I Will Stand”, and “Who Is Like the Lord”. His music has been featured on at least 23 Christian albums since 1993.
He has put a new song in my mouth—praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:3
Original worship music continues to flourish in the Calvary family. Holland affirmed that exciting new music is still coming from Calvary—Wildwood CC in Yucaipa, CA; Matt Houston and his team at CC Stone Mountain, GA; Greg Fadness at Lighthouse Christian Fellowship in Twin Falls, ID; Brandon Bee with CC Tri-Cities in Kennewick, WA; CC Merritt Island, FL; and Joshua Springs CC in Yucca Valley, CA. “I’m seeing a wide variety of stuff, different styles, and I’m still writing songs,” he remarked. “Calvary Chapel is too big to have a label anymore. We have so many creative centers where God is working.”
A new album, Called to Joy: Songs of Calvary Chapel Volume 2 just launched in August. It features original songs from several Calvary musicians around the country and is available at ccaworship.com.
Follow His Lead
At his church, CC San Clemente, Holland seeks to follow the Spirit’s leading, especially in reaching the lost for Christ. When the recent movie Jesus Revolution launched, Holland contacted Regal Edwards Kaleidoscope Theater in Mission Viejo, CA; the manager gave him half an hour before and after the film was shown. “We had Chuck Butler—who wrote the song “Two Hands” recorded by Love Song—come share and play some songs. Dave Rios of Blessed Hope shared his testimony, weeping as he talked about the Holy Spirit moving. The theater manager told us, ‘We’ll cancel our second showing so you can do whatever you want to do.’ It was packed out; we had a massive worship time; people were really touched.”
Holland (far left) was brought on staff to start the School of Worship at CC Costa Mesa by Pastor Chuck in the early 2000s, and teaches at several worship conferences each year. He still encourages other musicians and believers to grow in the Word and follow the Spirit’s leading. One thing he recalled from his days in the Jesus Movement was that God’s love is always present when the Holy Spirit is moving.
Holland urged other believers to be available to the Lord’s leading: “Just pay attention and listen; He will tell us His plans. Be willing. If you’re willing to obey, He will use you.” He cited a verse encouraging believers to press on into God’s calling for them:
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14.
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