My Singing Partner, Pastor Chuck

Thursday morning, Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa (CCCM) noted the passing of Pastor Chuck Smith by posting the following image and message:

Our beloved Pastor Chuck went home to be with the Lord around 3:00 o’clock this morning. He passed into eternity peacefully in his sleep. We rejoice that he has moved out of his worn out tent and into his heavenly body. On behalf of the family, his children, and Kay, they are so appreciative of all your love, prayers and support. We praise the Lord that we will all be together again some day!

…….

Due to his passing, there is a lot of information about Pastor Chuck available right now. This includes what the media have to say about his life and his passing, as well as countless “Pastor Chuck stories”, being shared by those who knew him. Since I’d be hard pressed to identify a better role model, along the lines of the ones I pointed to in my recent article entitled God’s UPS Drivers , I want to encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to learn as much as you can about this man.

I’m not going to attempt to add to what the media is presently providing on Pastor Chuck. Instead, for those who would benefit from having a bit of a thumbnail sketch about Pastor Chuck, I want to share the following message that my Pastor, Daniel Gettemy, of Calvary Chapel Downtown (Vancouver, WA), sent out about Chuck’s passing:

“Please be in prayer for the family of Pastor Chuck Smith, as well as the congregation of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, as Pastor Chuck, 86, has gone home to be with the Lord early this morning after a long battle with lung cancer. Chuck was mightily and uniquely used of God to not only spur the Jesus Movement of the 60’s and 70’s, but also as the founding pastor of the Calvary Chapel Fellowship, an association of over 1,600 pastors and churches around the world. While Pastor Chuck is surely enjoying the glory of the Lord’s presence that he so often spoke of, please pray for all of the family, friends, and extended church fellowships who will dearly miss his pastoral leadership, care and friendship.”

Just as I’m not attempting to add to the current media coverage about Pastor Chuck, neither will I try to take the place of those who knew him well in sharing their “Pastor Chuck stories”. For this, I recommend starting by checking KWVE, the radio station started by Pastor Chuck nearly 30 years ago. Additionally, you should consider checking individual websites of some of his closest colleagues, including: Raul Ries, Greg Laurie, Skip Heitzig, Mike Macintosh, etc.

Upon hearing the news of Pastor Chuck’s passing, I shared CCCM’s announcement on Facebook, saying, “I’m blessed to have known this wonderful servant of God as my Pastor. As I grieve with the many who will miss him, I rejoice in knowing he is where he has longed to be, home with Jesus.”

Though I did know Chuck Smith as my Pastor, during the last eight years we lived in Southern California, I would say that we only had a slight personal acquaintance. With that understood, I do want to share a bit about how he was used to impact my life and to share a couple of my own “Pastor Chuck stories”.

I recall the late Pastor Romaine talking about when he first met Chuck Smith at a Billy Graham Crusade. He said, “I saw this guy sitting there who had a smile a yard wide.” That smile is what first comes to my mind, when I think of Pastor Chuck. Although it was an exaggeration for Romaine to say it was “a yard wide”, it was a great smile. For me, that was because it was genuine and it was always accompanied by the sharing of God’s love with those He sent His Son to die for. I suspect that, with that qualifier, Chuck would be OK with me remembering him that way. I think he would have been displeased if all I remembered about him was his smile. Although I see Pastor Chuck as a great role model, I’m confident he wouldn’t care for anyone pointing to anything about himself. His focus was to present God’s gracious gift of salvation in Jesus Christ and then to tend those who received that gift, primarily through the feeding of God’s Word. I was blessed by that in person while in Southern California, as well as through experiencing it virtually, both before we worshipped at CCCM and in the years since we moved away.

My first personal acquaintance with Pastor Chuck came early on in the seven years of my serving in CCCM’s Prison Pen Pal Ministry. It was just a brief chat we had when we found ourselves standing next to each other, as both of us were picking up incoming mail in CCCM’s front office. However, the true beginning to my personal acquaintance with Pastor Chuck wasn’t so much in getting to meet him and chat with him briefly. It came through reading the incoming letters from prisoners, that I would respond to. You see, though I gained a lot of insight about Chuck Smith through the questions and comments the prisoners would write, the key element was that the salutation for almost all of those letters was “Dear Pastor Chuck”. At first, I was intimidated by the thought of trying to respond on behalf of Pastor Chuck. But I came to understand that wasn’t Pastor Chuck’s expectation at all. He understood that he couldn’t handle all that correspondence and he wanted to be sure these guys got connected with Christians who, like him, just wanted to share God’s love.

An obvious goal of Pastor Chuck’s ministry was to be able to say, as Paul said to Timothy, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” – 2 Timothy 4:7. My Wife, Ruth and I have a favorite “Pastor Chuck story” with that as its central theme. Our story took place while we were attending a Married Couples Retreat at the MurrietaHot SpringsConferenceCenter; the property gem that Pastor Chuck discovered, purchased and renovated nearly 20 years ago. After dinner, we walked to our room in the historical Stone Lodge. As we climbed the main staircase, we realized that Pastor Chuck was going up just ahead of us. When we reached our room on the second floor, Pastor Chuck was entering the room next door. We all smiled, greeted each other and went in to our respective rooms. Ruth and I talked about how fun it was to know that Pastor Chuck was going to be our neighbor and then we relaxed until time to go to the evening Bible study. That study was to be taught by Pastor Chuck at the main chapel, located a healthy walk away from the Stone Lodge. When we arrived at the chapel, we noticed the distinctive car that Pastor Chuck drove was parked at that building. I remember making some comment that it seemed Pastor Chuck, then in his mid-70s, was starting to make some accommodations for his age – i.e. driving to the chapel rather than walking. To our surprise, after the study, we saw Pastor Chuck driving away from the conference center. It turned out that, he was driving back to OrangeCounty so that he could teach at a breakfast meeting the next morning. This, after a full day’s activity in Orange County, driving to the conference center, bustling all over the campus greeting everyone he encountered, sharing dinner with the retreat attendees, teaching evening Bible study and driving back to Orange County. The man was 20 years my senior and there’s no way I could have kept pace with him.

The final “Pastor Chuck story” I want to share is the one behind the title of this article. This, also, took place at the MurrietaHot SpringsConferenceCenter. I was there for a Men’s Retreat. The guys in From The Heart (the worship team I sang with) had been asked to be part of the worship team for the retreat. Pastor Tom Fenholt was having us rehearse in the main chapel when Pastor Chuck appeared at the back of the room and Tom asked if he wanted to join us. Suddenly, I went from sharing a mic with Michael Preciado to sharing it with Pastor Chuck. That certainly made the rehearsal more fun for me and to my greater surprise, when it came time for us to lead worship, Pastor Chuck joined in and I shared his mic again. Since then, I’ve often jokingly referred to Pastor Chuck as my singing partner.

One of my fondest memories of Pastor Chuck, however, is of him with a real singing partner, the Christian musician, Dennis Agajanian. Whenever Dennis would perform at a venue where Pastor Chuck was present, at the end of his performance, he would invite Chuck to sing How Great Thou Art with him. Here is an example of that:

As I noted earlier, Pastor Chuck’s focus was to present God’s gracious gift of salvation in Jesus Christ and then to tend those who received that gift, primarily through the feeding of God’s Word. And, as Pastor Daniel Gettemy noted, under Pastor Chuck, over 1,600 pastors and churches have been raised up around the world, with every one of these sharing that same focus of Pastor Chuck. That isn’t the sum total of Pastor Chuck’s legacy but it’s certainly the heart of it. As Pastor Daniel also said, “Chuck was mightily and uniquely used of God.” That use came, primarily, through the steadfast teaching of God’s Word and raising up others to do likewise. Whenever Pastor Chuck concluded a Bible study, he would always send you off with loving concluding comments. To conclude this article, I want to share the loving benediction that Pastor Chuck would send us off with at the end of each of his Sunday morning Bible studies at CCCM:

My special “Thank you!” to Michael and Golden Preciado for finding this first performance of The Lord Bless Thee and making it available.