Pastor Chuck’s MP3s Make a Chinese Connection
Photos courtesy of CalvaryM.com
Pastor Chuck Smith was well respected by the Chinese government and was invited to speak at their statehouse—a high honor.
This bookmark was created for Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, CA’s, Chinese Fellowship that started the work of translating Chuck’s Through the Bible C-2000 Series.
From 2002 to 2003, a group of Chinese believers attending Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, CA, started the CC Chinese Fellowship and began translating Pastor Chuck Smith’s Through the Bible teachings into their native language. It was an ambitious project that took years to accomplish—long before assistance from artificial intelligence and Google Translate. The popular MP3 set, Through the Bible C-2000 Series (formerly known as the 5000 Series), has been the required curriculum for countless Bible college students and was much loved by others who wanted to learn God’s Word.
Chuck’s teachings were recorded in Mandarin, China’s official dialect, on digital audio files known as MP3s. Pictured here is the front and back cover of the Chinese MP3 set.
Felice, one team member of many, recalled, “When I found Calvary, I was really blessed by the verse-by-verse teachings of the Bible. They meant a lot to me, so I thought it was a great idea to help translate them and get them to the Chinese people. Now, anyone can get on the internet, but back then, it wasn’t like that. They would not be able to hear the teachings of Pastor Chuck.”
Once the teachings were translated, they were recorded in Mandarin, the official dialect in China. In time, the MP3s were discretely introduced into China and distributed.
Years later, while Chuck was still alive and after Felice began working at CC Costa Mesa full-time in the mission office, she was called to the church office to talk with a visiting Chinese man. “I did what I always did—I brought a set of the MP3s to give that man as a gift,” she recounted. She explained to him, “It’s through-the-Bible teaching.”
No one expected his response. “He looked at it and looked at me, and again at the set, saying ‘THIS is the church of this pastor on this set?’”
Surprised, Felice replied that it was. “He got so excited and told me that in his network of churches in China, they had received these MP3 sets for years. In China, there are networks of churches, sometimes hundreds, under one pastor.” She continued, “They had no idea who this Chuck Smith was, but they loved the content. So, they made all the students in their Bible college in their network listen to these teachings. He had no idea that the church he was visiting was where the MP3s had come from!”
Looking back on that day, Felice recollected in amazement, “God works in mysterious ways. He let us be a part of things of which we had no idea of how big it could be.” She later learned that other missionaries in China also used the MP3s.
Felice, born in Hong Kong, has been serving missionaries for the last 20 years. Last year she started the ministry CalvaryM.com, a centralized hub for Calvary Chapel missionaries to share prayer requests, give ministry updates, and have access to a wide range of resources. She previously worked in Costa Mesa’s mission department for 16 years.
Felice recounted the days the team worked on the translation. Francis, a Chinese pastor involved in missions at CC Costa Mesa “was the visionary behind this. He pushed it through. Then Chris, who spoke very little Chinese, but was really smart with computers, technology, and websites, was the engine to get the technical parts ready.”
In 1980, Chuck met with a number of Chinese dignitaries. Chuck had a passion to spread the Gospel throughout the world, and his teachings were integral to the hungry Chinese church.
She then laughed as she added, “We got a bunch of us who didn’t know what we were doing. We just jumped in and volunteered. We all tried, but the Lord made it work. We’ll never know the impact these CDs have in China—not on this side of Heaven. I’m convinced that one day, we’re going to get to Heaven and see all these Chinese people, who will tell us, ‘We listened to the MP3s.’ It’s no credit to us because we didn’t know what we were doing. But God is amazing.”
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
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