Struggles of Calvary Chapel part 5

This is some documented conversations that I have had with people on social media about Calvary Chapel. Let us begin.

This is a conversation I had with a CC member on Facebook I have omitted his name to protect his identity

Him-I’ll give you a quick response thanks man. I’d love to hear yours if you don’t mind sharing. It might do us all some good.

I had only been to baptist churches and I was raised in the church of christ. I started doing bible studies in college and had a friend that had moved here, in Texas from California. He invited me to a bible study. I liked it as it was different from anything I had ever been to. Yes they were all very loving.

I then moved to houston. And went to a calvary chapel there. They were all very loving and this calvary had a very good expositor of the word. People were very very loving, sometimes where I didn’t know what to think, I didn’t understand how people could be so loving, lol.

Me- yes I understand brother . Unfortunately the leadership of all Calvary chapels condition their congregation to do a cult tactic called love bombing. They do this by overwhelming you with love and attention . Most don’t even know they are love bombing because it is so embedded into Calvary chapel culture. When this happened to me I was having a rough patch in my life so I didn’t catch on right away but as we did Bible studies they lacked lessons about sin , Gods judgment and repentance. When I asked why this was so I was told by the pastor that “we are all about love” that’s when I challenged him and said “how can you talk about love when you are not speaking biblical truth”? You see the Bible tells us to speak the truth in love. I attended this CC for over 9months and never heard the gospel preached once never heard a word about sin judgment or repentance all of these are core doctrines of biblical Christianity. Long story short he could not give me an answer. There were other doctrines I challenged him on and he seemed more annoyed than loving as he previously had been months before when he tried to recruit me to be a CC pastor because of my evangelical abilities. One day he had another CC pastor take me out to lunch. It was obvious he told him about my doctrinal challenges because he tried to rebuke me for daring to ask questions about chuck smiths false prophecy in 1981 and other doctrinal issues. This pastor who pretended to be loving to me in the past and told me I was a detractor or negative person and that I was no longer welcome at Calvary chapel. Instead of giving me the Matthew 18 treatment he gave me the left foot of fellowship and told me to leave. Also later that day 13 people who I had made friends with their shunned me by unfriending me on Facebook and refused to answer my emails when i asked why? This pastor even threatened to sue me if i continued to slander them to their congregation. This is another classic CC move as they have sued or threatened to sue anyone who speaks out against them. The Bible says this is a disgrace to believers to take a matter before the courts. Another unbiblical practice. This is what Matthew 18 is designed for. If I was truly in error they should have brought two witnesses to rebuke me and then if i didn’t listen they were supposed to take me before the church and let them judge. But they knew they were wrong so they didn’t do that instead they tried to sweep me under the rug. I was told if I ever returned they would call the police. I didn’t threaten them with violence or anything like that only because I questioned their doctrines and practices. I did return to talk to the congregation that I attended to make them aware of the underhanded tactics that these two pastors had used against me and that pastor made good on his promise and called the police on me but the police let me go when they decided i had broken no law.I love the congregations of all Calvary chapels. I just think that their leaders are pulling the wool over their eyes by manipulating them. I have heard other stories similar to mine from different CCs all over the country. When you practice the Moses model of government where one pastor makes all the decisions it makes for a dangerous cocktail. New Testament churches have deacons and elders to hold leaders accountable. That being said it’s because of this that there has been many scandals within CC that they have done a pretty good job of sweeping under the rug but the dirt is there if you do some research. Listen I know I am probably not going to convince you now but just pray on it and do some research. There is Wikipedia and YouTube videos and articles from BBC and other news outlets about CC. I know it’s hard when you play for the CC team. it’s hard to hear anything negative about them. If they want to get right with God they need to get rid of the Moses model of government and adopt the New Testament model so that leaders are held accountable. Also you guys need to weed out the manipulative narcissistic pastors in your ranks. It’s going to be hard to change a culture that has been broken since the beginning. I say this with great love for you and your congregation

This gentleman seemed reasonable and open to my explanation of why I thought Calvary Chapel was bad. The next conversation I was not so fortunate as this gentleman got really nasty which I understand because Calvary Chapel congregants are usually fiercely loyal beyond reason. It’s like these pastors have an evil spell over their congregations to where they overlook all warning signs and reason.

Him replying to me-you are a Liar. Repent, for bearing false witness on people. Sounds like you have some grudges on these people for some reason. Repent, and learn to honor God’s people. God will judge us harshly for speaking against his children that have sought to honor Him and keep His name holy. We don’t want to fall into that. He might even take our lives for things like this. I understand the pain and hurt that we can feel because of what we believe others have done to us. Just let’s be merciful and understand there is so much power in our flesh and we are so easily deceived as people. I’m sorry that you feel mistreated by whoever it was. That does not go away very easily. But to bear lies upon God’s faithful servants, is a very a dangerous thing. Praying for you my brother!!🙂

Before this person made this statement I had laid out some facts negative facts about Calvary chapel, and I believe some of my own experience. This person didn’t even ask me how I came to that conclusion before he called me a liar. This is a typical response from a Calvary Chapel congregant. Like I said, they are fiercely loyal to a fault, and they seem to take everything their leaders say as gospel even if it isn’t. I don’t hold any ill against this man because I have dealt with this before but instead I have great pity for anyone who is in this situation.

This is another conversation

Him -I went to one near where I live in Oregon City and found out the young head pastor cheated on his wife or something like that and had a big affair and long story short he was removed from his position. I don’t attend that church anymore and that was about 4 months ago. But before that I watched the Jesus Revolution movie cause I knew nothing about the Christian movement that happened in response to the secular hippie movement and after using my own discernment I believe Calvary chapel is a credible church (even though they are based out of secular California). But to each their own don’t let one thing get in the way of your faith and use your own discernment as I have.

Me-what you might not know is Lonnie frisbee would have homosexual encounters and so drugs on Saturday night and then preach on Sunday . Chuck smith couldn’t risk that being found out so he dismissed lonnie quietly. He did a great disservice not bringing Lonnie under Matthew 18 discipline but he was more concerned about his precious church and than he was about a friend that was in moral trouble. I know personally from my own experience at a CC that they don’t like negative attention so they find ways to sweep it under the rug. And that story you told about your pastor does not surprise me because of the Moses model of church government that harbors pastors with narcissistic tendencies to be sole decision makers and not held accountable by anyone. The Moses model is not the model of government for the New Testament church where you have a board of elders or deacons and all major decisions are decided congregationally . This is why there is so much disfunction at Calvary chapels every where. The scandal you are thinking of is not Calvary chapels first scandal there have been many and it won’t change until congregations get wise and manipulative leaders repent and they restructure the whole thing. Calvary chapel was built on a foundation that was meant to crumble from the very beginning. I will be writing an expose on CC based on my research and my own testimony attending a Calvary chapel. It will be a hard pill to swallow for fiercely loyal congregations of CC but I know that there are many people suffering spiritual abuse there like I did. I am doing not because I hate the people of CC but because I love them and someone needs to sound the alarm. Calvary chapel has pulled the he wool over the eyes of the evangelical world for far too long. My little know blog might not make a huge difference but if I can save one person out of that movement that will be good enough for me. By the way don’t believe everything you see in a movie. Jesus revolution didn’t tell the whole story. They only showed Calvary Chapel on a positive light and and left out key elements of cofounder. Lonnie frisbees life story. He did write a biography about his life. I’m sure he can find the book on Amazon.

Him-I was told that he turned his life around toward the end and accepted Jesus again and repented. Plus I personally don’t like churches in general they seem to focused on controlling their congregation. That is only from my experience so I do not attend church anymore. To each their own

Me-I am sorry to hear that you do not attend church anymore but I must tell you that it is vital that you do so the Bible says in the book of Hebrews that we must not forsake the assembling of the Saints the reason for this is that you need people that are spiritually more mature than you are to guide you and help you through your walk with God. Also fellow believers will be there to encourage you along the way. I recommend a good Baptist Church. Although I do not agree with everything Baptists teach, I do agree on the most important core doctrines like the gospel of salvation the deity of Christ, the Trinity, etc. a good Baptist Church is an excellent place to learn the word of God and sound doctrine. If you have been exposed to Calvary Chapel, you have probably never heard the true gospel, I am an evangelist so I will share it with you. God bless.

Then I did share the gospel with him. Please pray for his salvation. This is a prime example of how Calvary chapels destroy peoples spiritual lives. This young man was so discouraged that he stopped going to church altogether. He is so lost. He said he used his own discernment after seeing Jesus Revolution movie. It is obvious that he was not led by the spirit but by his own fleshly mind. If you have experienced spiritual abuse at the hands of a Calvary chapel that you attended and you have left, it will be hard to convince others to believe you, so you must be patient when dealing with them. Listen intently on what they are saying because they might not even realize that they are being spiritually abused themselves. Do not ridicule or marginalized them because they are victims themselves. They just don’t realize it. It is of the upmost importance that we have compassion for the congregants of Calvary Chapel. And even though these leaders can be corrupt, we must love our enemies and pray that they repent, or that God removes them from that position.

This is all that I will share about conversations I have had many too many to fill this blog page, but I feel these two gave the best spectrum of positive and negative conversations we can have with someone from Calvary Chapel.

In part six of my article, I will share a testimonies of other people from around the country who have had similar experiences to myself. Until then be blessed in Jesus name.