A reflection on the heart, purpose, and unity behind our latest book.
I have read Calvary Chapel Distinctives more times than I can count. Like many of us, I can still recall its entire table of contents from memory. It is a book that has shaped me deeply and laid the foundation for my own ministry. When Pastor Chuck Smith first taught what became Calvary Chapel Distinctives, he was helping pastors and leaders understand the ministry principles that had shaped Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Decades later, those same principles continue to form churches and believers around the world.
Calvary Chapel: Its Essence and Identity was written to stand alongside Distinctives, not to replace or reinterpret it. Both books reflect the same heart and theology, but they serve different purposes and speak from different contexts. My hope in editing and contributing to Essence and Identity was not only to articulate what defines us, but to invite us back to what unites us, to call attention to the shared center that can still draw our family together in the Word and in the Spirit.
A Broader Audience
Calvary Chapel Distinctives was written for pastors and leaders, for those being trained to teach, shepherd, and plant churches in the same Spirit-led way they had witnessed at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. It was a book written to form ministers. We have all handed out copies of Distinctives to those we are raising up in ministry. But Essence and Identity is a book we can hand to visitors who ask, “What exactly is Calvary Chapel?” It is written for the broader Calvary Chapel family, for pastors and teachers, yes, but also for congregants, missionaries, students, and seekers shaped by this movement who want to understand its heartbeat. It is meant to be short, accessible, and introductory, not a last word but a first word.
A Diverse Perspective
Distinctives grew out of Pastor Chuck’s lectures in the Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa School of Ministry. It emerged from a specific local setting that God had uniquely used to spark a global work. Every thoughtful commentary or reflection on Distinctives has recognized this, understanding that Pastor Chuck never meant for local applications, such as his caution against raising hands during worship, let alone his personal preferences, to become universal mandates that define the entire movement. The enduring value of Distinctives is not in reproducing Costa Mesa’s practices, but in embracing its principles of simplicity, humility, and dependence on the Spirit of God. In contrast, Calvary Chapel: Its Essence and Identity was written from the vantage point of a global and generational movement. It seeks to distill the universal aspects of Calvary Chapel, the convictions and values that hold true in any age and place, and to reflect the global and generational impact of what God has done through this family of churches.
A Collective Witness
Distinctives carried the voice of our founder. Pastor Chuck spoke as a spiritual father, offering guidance to those being raised up under his care. Essence and Identity carries the witness of the family in the generation after his passing. It represents a collective witness rather than a single voice, a unified testimony shaped by many pastors, teachers, and churches who share one heart. Those who contributed did not write as individuals presenting personal views, but as members of a movement bearing witness together to the grace and truth that have defined Calvary Chapel from the beginning. This book is not the authoritative word of one leader, but a shared confession of the same Spirit-led life that continues to shape us.
A Different Purpose
Distinctives emphasized what made Calvary Chapel distinct from other movements and models of ministry. It provided boundaries, clear lines that helped us recognize the particular calling God had given us. Those boundaries have served us well, keeping us faithful to the Word of God and dependent on the Spirit of God amid changing times. Essence and Identity does not erase those boundaries or move the markers. It begins at the center, the heart from which those boundaries first emerged, and invites us to remember why they matter. Its aim is not to redraw the map, but to draw us back to the source: the Word, the Spirit, and the grace of Christ that make Calvary Chapel what it is. If Distinctives defined how we differ, Essence and Identity affirms who we are together.
Conclusion
Distinctives will always have a place in our movement, as do all of Pastor Chuck’s books and teachings. They continue to shape us and remind us of the foundation on which we stand. But I sought to publish Essence and Identity because I believe it also has a place, to continue to affirm and promote the legacy of Calvary Chapel, to keep these values alive in the next generation, and to pray that we might be drawn together again around the essentials that have always defined us.
I hope you will read it, and if it serves you, share it. But more than that, if you feel there is more to say, please say it. Let us keep talking, keep listening, and keep seeking the Lord together, regardless of who speaks first or how long the discussion takes, until we reach, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” What united us in the beginning was never a command from Pastor Chuck, but the clear truths he presented, modeled, and embodied, and that we all share. My prayer is that those same truths would continue to draw us together, to shape our fellowship, and to bear witness to the grace of God in every generation.
