Pastor Chuck Smith has mentored hundreds of pastors in the Calvary Chapel family over the years. Here they gather at the Jesus People Reunion of 1999 in Anaheim, CA. Back row, left to right: Mike MacIntosh, Jeff Johnson, Greg Laurie, Jon Courson, Raul Ries, Steve Mays, Wayne Taylor, L.E. Romaine. Front row, left to right: Ray Rempt, Malcolm Wilde, Pastor Chuck, Don McClure, John Higgins, and Ken Gulliksen.

Raising Up Leaders

And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 2 Timothy 2:2

The founder of the Calvary Chapel movement, Pastor Chuck Smith, and his wife Kay had the ability to recognize and raise up leaders—to mentor, correct, and lead by example. In their early 20s, Steve and Gail Mays had been saved through the house ministries of Calvary Chapel. Steve briefly pastored a church at Twentynine Palms, CA; unfortunately, the military community was not the best fit for a zealous ex-druggie with a ponytail.

After the church fizzled out, Steve returned to CC Costa Mesa to seek Chuck’s counsel. Pastor Chuck appointed Steve to oversee several house ministries for eight years. After this, Steve taught a home Bible study that became Calvary Chapel Cypress, meeting for a season on the grounds of Knott’s Berry Farm before moving to a Christian school. Yet Steve felt inadequate to be a senior pastor and decided to step down to serve as an assistant pastor at Hosanna Christian Fellowship in Bellflower.

Soon after, the phone rang. The warm, booming voice of his mentor and friend, Pastor Chuck, soberly asked, “Why am I the last one to find out about you leaving your church?” Steve’s heart dropped. Pastor Chuck rebuked him for shocking the people of CC Cypress by leaving his sheep with no warning. “Steve, you are no shepherd. Next time, call me first.”

In a memoir, Steve recounted, “I was devastated beyond belief. … In all my tears and anguish, two words stood out like towers of hope … ‘next time.’” As he hung up the phone, he wondered, God, could there ever be a ‘next time’?

Gail reflected, “Steve had a strong personality. It may have been that he needed to learn balance. After years of running a house ministry—where you really needed to rule with an iron fist and set boundaries for drug addicts just off the streets—it was very different leading a church with families.” Under Pastor Garry Ansdell’s example, “Steve learned that balance. Also, we were able to have more family time.” Gail was invited to teach the ladies. “That was such an important season; it was our training, our Bible college. … God was getting me used to teaching the Bible to a group of women”—something she’s done for the past 50 years.

Faithful in Small Things

Steve and Gail enjoyed the snow at Calvary Chapel’s former youth camp in Grass Valley, CA. Steve was skilled in carpentry and mechanics, and he often helped repair vehicles and buildings. Pastor Chuck gave Steve and Gail a small cabin that needed repairs as a place where the two could come away from ministry for rest and connection.

One week, they ventured to Lake Tahoe to house sit and enjoy a family vacation. Steve wrestled with the Lord, wondering if he would ever lead a church again and praying for a sign. He fished all week, waiting. Again and again, he cast his fishing line, and it came back empty. Discouraged, he cast it once more, and a tiny fish bit—and he sensed the Spirit whisper to his heart that God still had a plan.

“God was speaking to him to be faithful in the small things, and one day he would be entrusted with more,” Gail recounted. “His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord’” (Matthew 25:21).

Sure enough, when they returned home, a call came from CC Costa Mesa. Pastor Chuck wanted him to take over CC South Bay, which had dwindled to about 50 people. Per Chuck’s advice, Steve prayed that the elders would all resign, and they did—a confirmation from the Lord. He became pastor in January of 1980. Within a few years, the congregation had outgrown their building and eventually swelled to 9,000 people meeting weekly at the 140,000-square-foot complex.

Through decades of ministry, Gail recalled, “I had to learn in every season to stand by your man whatever he was going through.” The heart of her husband safely trusts her … She does him good and not evil all the days of her life (Proverbs 31:11a & 12). That was one of many things that Kay Smith had modeled for Gail and the other young pastors’ wives over the years.

Pastor Chuck: Like a Father

Calvary Chapel founder Pastor Chuck Smith (right) and Pastor Steve Mays were very close. From the time of the Jesus Movement and for many years later, they would work side by side. Steve helped Chuck repair a classic car and several ministry buildings in different locations, including in the San Bernardino mountains, like this one.

In his 40s during the Jesus Movement, Pastor Chuck mentored many of the young hippies-turned-pastors. “They would joke around and tell stories to make him laugh. Pastor Chuck was like a big brother or father figure to them,” Gail recalled. “What an opportunity we had not only to get to know Pastor Chuck and Kay but to be a part of their personal lives. Those were the days I cherish and am so grateful for. We learned so much from them.”

A photojournalist from the local paper once captured a sweaty, T-shirt-clad Pastor Chuck working on the church roof alongside young men with long hair. “Steve enjoyed working side by side with Chuck, no matter the project—working on the youth camp, the Bible College at Twin Peaks and then Murrieta, restoring old cars, remodeling houses, the castle in Austria. He gained much wisdom by listening and asking Chuck questions about ministry and life.”

Chuck occasionally invited the young pastors and their wives on trips to Israel or Alaska cruises. Steve once observed, “God always put me with men who weren’t talkers. My dad wasn’t a talker; Pastor Chuck wasn’t a talker. I was the guy who had to sit with Chuck at all the dinners on the ships. It was a terrible assignment. So one night at dinner, I asked, ‘Chuck, when was the first time that you laid a big kiss on Kay?’ Kay got mad at me: ‘Steve!’ But Pastor Chuck just started laughing. It got him to talk.”

On their first 10-day trip to Israel with Chuck and Kay, the young pastors and their wives “really bonded,” said Gail. “It was a small enough group that we could mingle, get to know each other. The friendship went on; life went on as all of us went back to our churches. That connection was the core of the movement that continued on. It united our hearts even more.”

Kay: Encourager & Example

Kay was more soft-spoken than Chuck, but she was remembered as a powerful prayer warrior and a gentle encourager. One year, Gail’s 17-year-old daughter Heather ran away with one of the gangs that plagued Los Angeles. Gail was beside herself with worry when the phone rang. “Hello Gail, it’s Kay,” she said gently. “I know you’re going through a very difficult time because your daughter has run away, and I’ve been praying for you. I believe that God gave me a word for you.” Gail reached for her Bible, and the two women read the passage together on the phone:

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:6-7, KJV).

The words deeply comforted Gail, for she had felt this same “heaviness,” the “manifold temptations,” and the trial “with fire” in her heart that the passage described.

Repeating the phrase “for a season,” Kay emphasized: “It’s only for a season, Gail. This shall pass; it shall not last.” Gail clung to those words, knowing God was speaking directly to her. Then Kay added, “If need be—that means because it is necessary. What you’re going through, God deems it necessary.” God was working something in the sorrow and suffering, something that was needed for Gail or her daughter or someone else. Gail nodded, realizing that the situation was in God’s hands. She focused on those two precious truths: that this trial was for a season and that it was necessary in His eyes. A fresh faith and trust arose in her soul, and she felt the comfort of God like a balm on her aching heart.

After a time, Heather came home safely and returned to the Lord with a deep, lifelong passion for Jesus. “Now, 30-plus years later, she is still so on fire that she puts me to shame,” Gail revealed, chuckling in wonder. “I was so touched that God gave Kay a Scripture just for me. That’s how she was with everybody. She would reach out; she genuinely cared about us.”

Gail sought to bring the same biblical compassion to other hurting women: “Kay taught me that we are always to take a person to the Word of God,” Gail explained. “First, you listen to them share their problems, then you listen to the Spirit of God for direction and pray. And the Lord will give you something from His Word to minister to His people.”

Kay would often encourage women in their spiritual gifts: “I was an introvert, but she recognized the gift of teaching in me and encouraged that. I’ve learned to do the same thing in my ministry.” The initial board of young Calvary pastors’ wives included Sharon Ries, Gail Mays, Jean McClure, Sandy MacIntosh, Karyn Johnson—and later Marie Rosales, Cathe Laurie, and June Hesterly. Gail recounted their first meeting with Kay in The Bride’s Room at CC Costa Mesa—a space Kay used as an office when there were no weddings—to seek the Lord together. “At first we sat on the floor,” Gail relayed with a chuckle, “and Kay asked, ‘Are you going to make me sit at this table all by myself?’ We were so intimidated; she was this pillar of faith … and we felt like we were the least of the least.”

Jean recalled, “Kay had such a heart for pastors’ wives.” The young board met in the spring and summer to plan the annual fall pastors’ wives’ retreat. On a trip back from Israel, Jean suggested that they hold the conference every other year instead, as it was so much work. “Kay was passionate: ‘No, Jean, it has to be every year. They need this.’ She felt it was very necessary for all of us. … She understood that you can feel very isolated as a pastor’s wife.” Kay often had a “word of knowledge or prophecy. She loved us; she could scold us like a mother.”

Established in the Faith

***After earning his masters’ degree, Steve was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity in 2007 from Azusa Pacific University, in recognition of his calling and gift for Bible teaching.***

“God prepares you and leads you where you have to go,” Steve encouraged those in ministry through a sermon on “Building the Church God’s Way,” a Calvary Chapel Distinctive. “You’re going to have to learn to love people unconditionally. … Most of us aren’t fully giving all of ourselves to God. We’re holding something back. We must be willing to go and fully entrust ourselves to the Lord.”

[We] sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith. 1 Thessalonians 3:2

Once, Steve traveled to Nigeria to speak to a crowd of one thousand people with the Gideons International ministry. They had traveled to a treacherous Muslim city. “These Christian brothers came into my hotel and warned me, ‘Don’t go out into the street; it’s too dangerous.’ I thought, If these guys are scared, so am I. … Then they came into my room and said, ‘We’ve got to get you out. Put tar on your face.’ I had to teach that night. … I didn’t want to get shot; I’d been shot once before.” His heart was pounding as they ushered him to the large venue where he was teaching.

As he stood speaking, “All of a sudden, these guns are coming down the aisle—about eight AK-47s. I [silently] prayed, Oh Jesus, send Your angels. This is it; I’m going to die.” A man came up on the stage and walked right over to Steve. “He whispered in my ear, ‘I’m the Deputy General of Nigeria. Would you please continue preaching? These are my bodyguards.’ I thought, Thank You, Jesus, thank You!” When they left the venue, the group got lost because there was a massive conflict in the street. “We got pulled into a back alley filled with Muslims, and I fervently prayed that God would turn my skin black,” Steve shook his head. “It was just the grace of God that we got out of there alive. God worked in my heart on that trip. He can do the same for you, establishing and strengthening your hearts to trust Him in ministry.”

Love and Service

Though Steve Mays’ earthly ministry ended in 2014, the Lord called Gail to continue serving the Calvary Chapel family by speaking at various Calvary conferences to women, widows, and pastors’ wives. Here she is at a Calvary Chapel Apple Valley, where she greeted worship Pastor Cliff Nagy, who was called “Spanky” during his time at Macedonia House.

Gail is grateful for the way Chuck and Kay mentored them in grace, truth, and genuine love—teaching them to mentor others likewise. “Because Calvary Chapel was a new movement, and we were all learning a new way to ‘do church’, it was a privilege to be there from the very beginning and see how it all worked. We were unchurched for the most part, and they had to train us up in ministry. We didn’t know anything.”

And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” Mark 9:35

Gail elaborated: “We are the servants. Jesus said that the greatest in God’s Kingdom is the servant of all. That truth ran strong and deep within our souls. If we think ministry, or Christianity, is ‘all about me,’ we are definitely in the wrong. It’s not about me but about Christ and serving His people.”

Love was key. “During the Jesus Movement, what drew us was love,” pondered Gail. “It didn’t matter what you had done, how low you had gotten—when we were all together, this agape love of God just oozed out, and it went out into the community, and the Calvary Chapel movement started.”

For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 1 John 3:11

Thank you for reading! If this story inspired you, we invite you to partner with us in continuing the ministry God started over 27 years ago. We appreciate your prayerful consideration in joining us to reach more souls for Jesus.

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© 2026 Calvary Chapel Magazine (CCM). All rights reserved. Articles or photographs may not be reproduced without the written permission of CCM. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.® Used by permission.

Steve and Gail Mays Part 2: Growing in Love and Truth