On the 10th anniversary of his passing, Pastor Chuck Smith’s legacy continues to impact countless lives since he founded the first Calvary Chapel in 1965. Today there are about 2,000 Calvary Chapel churches worldwide. Several Calvary Chapel pastors remember Pastor Chuck as a gracious servant leader and spiritual dad.

Looking forward to his eternal life in heaven, Pastor Chuck once said: “Someday you may read in the newspaper that Chuck Smith has died. Don’t you believe it! Accurate reporting would say, ‘Chuck Smith moved!’ Out of an old, worn-out tent into a new, glorious body like Jesus has. No more groaning, no more pain, no more suffering. Just perfect fellowship with the Lord forever.”

Chuck and Kay Smith on their 25th wedding anniversary, June 19, 1972. “My mother and father loved each other deeply; that agape love was the foundation of their marriage,” shared their daughter Janette Smith Manderson.

A Spiritual Dad

Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2:4

When someone was in need, Pastor Chuck Smith would often come through in the clutch. One night Pastor Bil Gallatin and his wife Rosemary were traveling when she suddenly became gravely ill. “I thought she was going to die,” Bil said, “so I called Bob Ward at 3 a.m. … He called Chuck, and got his private pilot, and … they flew to Needles, AZ, and flew Rosemary and our son Jeff [to California] so that she could be taken care of right away. That’s the kind of man he was … how giving. He would never say anything about it; he would never touch the glory.”

Bil added, “He was a good spiritual dad. He was a shepherd of shepherds. He adopted us spiritually, and we all loved him so much.” It always amazed Bil that, “As busy as he was, he gave all of us guys his private number, if we ever needed prayer or had something to discuss. And he would answer every time.” Even when asked for advice, Bil said, “Chuck never told us what to do. … He would say, ‘I wouldn’t do that.’ He wouldn’t attack the other [Christian leader] or degrade them in any way, even if they were wrong in their doctrine.”

Brian Welsh, guitarist for the rock band “Korn“, interacts with Pastor Chuck, Skip Heitzig and his son Nathan in Israel. Brian had just become a follower of Jesus Christ, and had many questions for Pastor Chuck.

Oden Fong was one of the young hippies who was saved and then ministered through music. “He would never allow you to follow him,” Pastor Oden related. “If you asked him questions and were looking to him to give you an answer, he would always redirect you back to the Lord.”

**Pastor Chuck Smith baptizes a new believer in the Pacific Ocean. In the early days of the Jesus Revolution, thousands were regularly baptized.**

A Shepherd’s Heart

And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Jeremiah 3:15

“Pastor Chuck would take us through 10 chapters a week; we had Bible studies almost every night,” recalled Pastor John Milhouse. “That was our seminary.” Pastor John later planted Calvary Chapel Moreno Valley, CA, senior pastor from 1982 to 2022.

**During a visit to Russia in 2003, missionaries pray for Pastor Chuck after a service.**

John noted that Pastor Chuck “was always a pastor at heart, not the leader of a big movement: He never forgot his flock.” He added, “Pastor Chuck was our model. We looked to him as an example of what a shepherd looked like.”

“Pastor Chuck would tell us at conferences to teach the Word, and to make sure our people were the best loved congregation in our city, that people knew we loved them. That’s what we all endeavored to do. After I would preach, I would go out and greet people. I would take their calls, try to be available and accessible—as he was.”

**Pastor Chuck teaches at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, just outside the Damascus gate. He had an unwavering love for the state of Israel.**

Edifying in Love

Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. Romans 14:19

Holland Davis, a respected songwriter and Calvary pastor, remembered his younger days serving on staff at Costa Mesa. One thing was understood: Chuck would never tear down a fellow minister or believer.

One of Holland’s friends on the worship team told him a story. The friend had heard on K-LOVE another famous minister whose guest said “some pretty heretical things. So he took a tape recording of it to Pastor Chuck and asked him if he was going to kick him off the radio.”

**Chuck never tired of answering questions about the Bible and the Lord on the daily radio show he led for years, Pastor’s Perspective.**

Holland recounted, “Chuck told him, ‘We don’t do that. We don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.’ He believed God was using [this minister], and he didn’t want to judge him based on his mistakes. Instead, Chuck said, ‘I’m going to call up my friend [the minister] and talk to him about it.’ Later, my friend asked what [the minister] said. Chuck replied, ‘He said, “I’m sorry.”’ He smiled and said, ‘That’s how we are here at Calvary. We look at what God is doing in people’s lives instead of the negative.’ I never forgot that.”

Chuck also expected others on his staff to be loving. “The only time I ever got in trouble with Pastor Chuck was when I had been unloving to someone,” Holland noted. “I had made some comments about someone, and it got back to him. Chuck brought me into his office, and the person was there. Chuck asked, ‘Did you say this?’ I said, ‘Yes, I’m very sorry.’ He didn’t condemn me. He just asked a question. But I instantly knew it was unloving. That’s how he would deal with things.”

**Young men prepared for the pastorate by studying God’s word with Pastor Chuck Smith at the CC Costa Mesa School of Ministry.**

Servant to All

In the video, A Venture in Faith, several pastors lauded Chuck as a servant leader. Pastor Raul Ries recalled that, one day Pastor Chuck was dressed up in a nice suit to officiate a wedding. He came outside and noticed a cluster of pastors looking at a clogged gutter. “As they were looking at the drain, Chuck Smith took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, got on his knees, reached in and pulled all the trash out, then went to the restroom, washed his hands and put his coat back on and went and did the wedding,” Raul recounted. “That’s the kind of person he [was], a servant. He [taught] by example.”

**A Bible college student enjoys engaging with Pastor Chuck at the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta, CA.**

Mike MacIntosh also remembered seeing Chuck as the last person to leave the church because he had stayed to talk to a troubled believer. “Even after teaching three or four services … he would often stay to talk to someone who had a big problem. He would be very, very patient with them. That taught me, as I observed him on staff for five years … tolove every human that came across your path.” He added, “Chuck always gave you an opportunity to learn from your mistakes, because [he knew] it was through mistakes that you would grow. He would be patient with people’s weaknesses, give them a chance, and watch the Holy Spirit work in their lives.”

Limitless Grace

Saved in 1970 at age 20, Pastor David Rosales of CC Chino Valley, CA, recalled how Pastor Chuck and Kay reached out to the young hippies when other churches condemned them. “Pastor Chuck proclaimed a message filled with the grace of God. He saw the need for that because of the wretched lives we lived. We needed to know that we could never be good enough on our own, and that we needed help. So instead of preaching to us to cut our hair, take a bath, and get a job—the first thing Chuck wanted us to understand was how good God is, what He can do, how He changes you.”

**Pastors Chuck Smith and Joe Focht of CC Philadelphia, PA, engage in a panel discussion at the East Coast Pastors Conference.**

He cited, For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). David remembered, “I was raised in a traditional church, but I had never heard the message of God’s welcoming love. Grace was something I got after I did something—confession, penance. So I was amazed when I heard that Jesus would extend to me the favor of God if I would just confess my sin to Him and receive His grace. I didn’t need to clean myself up; I just needed to come to Him and ask Him to cleanse me.”

In Luke Chapter 7, David explained, “Jesus said the one who is a great sinner will be forgiven much and will love Him much.” That kind of unlimited grace, he noted, “affected the rest of my life. Over the years, I have extended God’s grace to others because that’s what God extended to me.”

For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 4:15

**Pastor Chuck enjoyed having personal conversations with many people he encountered when he reunited with Love Song in 2010 for a tour of eight states.**

A Legacy of Love

Janette Smith Manderson, Chuck and Kay Smith’s oldest daughter, recalled growing up in their home. “Dad loved the Word, and we would often see them [Chuck and Kay] reading the Bible and talking about it, discussing, ‘What does that mean? And how do we apply it?’,” Janette recounted. “Dad would be baking some specialty of his in the kitchen, and she would be cooking, and they would be talking about the Word. … They both had a love for it, respect for it, and a complete obedience to it. That was the path of the joyful Christian life.”

**Pastor Jimmy Stewart of CC Kansas City, KS, was one of many thousands who gathered to celebrate Pastor Chuck’s life and legacy on October 27, 2013, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA.**

She added, “Our parents … created a home for us with the love of God and saturated by the Holy Spirit.” Though raised in the Word, she recalled, “We were taught not to weaponize Scripture; the Scripture is there to comfort, teach, and guide us. That’s how the Word was used in our home. … We had a very happy home life, filled with love and laughter. They left us a legacy of love—to love God and to love others.”

But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. Colossians 3:14

10 Years Later: Calvary Chapel Pastors Remember Pastor Chuck Smith