The Philosophy of Ministry of Calvary Chapel (CONTINUED)

O.T. Theocratic Government

God
Moses
Judges      Priests
Children of Israel

Church Government

Jesus
Pastor
elders board     assistant
deacons       pastors
congregation

We feel that this is the form of government God desires for His church; Jesus Christ is the head of the body, the church; He established the episkopas or bishop, who we call the pastor, who is responsible to Jesus and whom must recognize and bear the responsibility to guide and direct the ministry of the local church, guided directly by Jesus Christ. Under the pastor, in some cases, you have assistant pastors, equivalent to the priests under Moses' rule.

You also have a board of elders. The board of elders discuss and decide the business of the church, the spending of the church funds, the requests for help that they have from various missionary groups, and ministries.

The board meetings should always begin with prayer. When a voting situation comes up, you should go to prayer before the vote. You should ask the Lord to show you what He would have you do. The Lord's guidance and direction are needed in all matters. The assistant pastors oversee various aspects of the church in the spiritual sense. Jr. High, single adults, married couples, special interest groups. When they come up against a problem that they don't know how to handle, they should seek the counsel of the senior pastor, who, like they, should be seeking counsel from the Lord.

If someone in the church comes to a board member about something they feel that the church ought to be doing, it is presented at the board meeting. The board will discuss it and pray about it together, and oftentimes the board will say, "Chuck, what do you feel that we should do?" The board recognizes that God has called me to be the pastor of the church, the shepherd. In Calvary Chapel the pastor is not a hireling. There are many churches in which the pastor can be fired by the board. He becomes a hireling and he's totally responsible to the wishes of the board as they govern the church. But these men are oftentimes businessmen and not the most spiritual men within the church. In that case, the church becomes governed by men rather than governed by Jesus Christ.

There are dangers, though, in a theocratic form of government, primarily because there are some pastors who disobey what the Lord said concerning the one who is chief becoming the servant of all. There are pastors who have abused their powers. They do not make a clear accounting to the board of the financial aspects of the church. The do not seek the advice and counsel of the board before they make important decisions that are relevant to the function of the church. They try to be a one-man show.

When issues come up at our board meeting, invariably before a decision is made, the board will ask how I feel about the particular issue because they respect the fact that God has called me and has raised our ministry, and has used me as His instrument in so doing. But many times I won't have an opinion: "Fellows, I really don't have an opinion; let's pray and seek the will of the Lord." And I let them go ahead and make the decisions without any input from me at all.

There are other times where I have very strong feelings and express them: "I feel this is what the Lord would have us to do. I've been praying about this and I really feel this is what God wants us to do." Invariably, because these men recognize God's anointing upon my life, the vote will go that way. I'm honest and above board with the men; I'm not trying to be a one-man show. We're open in our discussions and in the things that come up, and they respect the integrity and the leading that the Lord has placed upon my life. Without question, though, the Lord is definitely the head of the body of the church. I am only a servant to carry out His orders.

It is important to have a church board but not to assemble that board too quickly. In starting a new work, the Bible says to lay hands on no man suddenly. Know the men well. Whenever we are looking for new board members, I always look in the Saturday night prayer meeting for men who have prayed with me for years. I can trust them. I know that they are men of prayer; men who will seek the counsel and the guidance of God, even as I seek the counsel and guidance of God; men who were faithful in the Saturday night prayer meetings with me.

I mentioned that it is important not to appoint a board too quickly. As case in point illustrates one of the reasons why. The man who was in charge of the Korean fellowship at our church is a medical doctor. He did not get any salary for his ministry to the Koreans. He makes his living as a pediatrician and an allergist. The Korean fellowship was growing quite large, so they said, "We really need to get a board established for the Korean fellowship." So the man appointed board members and asked me to come to the service that I might lay hands on these men that he had chosen for his board, and I did. The very same week that we laid hands on these men and prayed for them and appointed them as board members, they had a meeting and asked the pastor to resign. They said, "Either give up your medical practice or resign as the pastor. We feel that we need a full-time pastor and your medical practice is taking you away from your ministry here." The man was devastated; he didn't know what to do. So he asked me what I thought. I said, "Fire the board. God has called you to pastor that fellowship; the board didn't call you to pastor it. Let them go." So, we ordained them one week, and defrocked them the next. That's just one of the problems you can run into if you haven't really prayed together and really know the men who are serving on the board with you.

On the other hand, you need a board of dependable men for your protection because there are decisions that must be made that are not going to be accepted by everybody, decisions that will create divisions among the body if you make them yourself. Several years ago I was pastoring in Tucson, Arizona, where every year we had an annual picnic on Mt. Lemon on the 4th of July. There was a beautiful public campground up there; it had a baseball diamond, football field, and so forth. We would always go up and play ball and a have a potluck; it was great church fellowship.

We had a fellow who came to the church, sort of the hyper, super-spiritual type, and a group came in with him. He had an acre of ground atop Mt. Lemon and he felt that it would be great to have the church picnic on his acre of ground. However, he did not have restroom facilities or running water, but, he suggested, we could spend the whole day in prayer. Wouldn't it be better to spend the whole day in prayer and waiting upon God rather than doing such a frivolous thing as playing ball? This man talked some of the people into a spiritual 4th of July. We would all go up to his property and pray.

Other people, however, said, "If you go to his property, we're not going. We're not going to subject our kids to a place where they don't have any potties; if you go there, we're not going." The super-spiritual group replied, "If you go to the public campgrounds, we're not going. We're not going to expose our children to the riff-raff of the public this weekend."

So, everybody came to me and said, "Okay, Chuck, what are we going to do?" It was a catch-22 situation. Either choice I made was sure to have a group of enemies. I said, "Well, let's pray about it and at the board meeting we will decide where we are going to go."

We had the board meeting and the board said, "It's foolish to go to the place where we don't have facilities; we can't have 150 people out there without a restroom; we'll just go to the public campground." The board, then, decided that we would go to the public campground. I happened to think that was a wise decision, but the board technically decided it.

When I announced that the board had decided to go to the public campground, these super-spiritual types called me up, just as upset as they could be. I said, "You know, it would be exciting, wouldn't it, just to have a day of prayer?" We should just plan that sometime. But the board made their decision." You see, I was still able to minister to them. They didn't polarize against me. They polarized against the board.

So, the board is there as a protection for the pastor, a buffer to stand between you and the people when difficult decisions are made that are not always acceptable or agreeable to the entire body. Your board can keep you from being cut off from your congregation and allow you to continue to minister to them. It has a very important function and every church, I believe, as soon as they have qualified men, need to appoint a board to oversee the operations and spending and to make the decisions that must be made.

In conclusion, I believe Calvary Chapel has a biblically sound and balanced understanding of the church, its function in the world and its total dependence upon the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit of God for its success as it faithfully proclaims the Good News of the cross of Jesus Christ and the hope of salvation through Him only.

"For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."
Isaiah 55:10-11

[To read further about this amazing revival go to the section titled "Some Church History, Let's Get To Know Each Other" and click on "Chuck Smith and the Calvary Chapel Christian Revival"]