Charles Ward Smith Pastor Of Calvary Chapel Of Costa Mesa

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. http://pastorchucksmith.com/

From Chuck Smith Jr on Facebook...

“I am no good at organizing my time. I overbook, miss appointments, and one time was late for a wedding I was to perform–by a whole day. So I cannot always say how I came to be in a certain place at a specific time.

Of course, there are those moments we could never plan or arrange–life’s unpredictable appointments that have God’s providence written all over them.

So it was that last night I slept in my parents’ room between their closets. I wanted to be close enough to hear Dad’s breathing over the sound of his oxygen machine. Several times I got up to check on him and all seemed well. Then, around 2:30 Mom’s voice woke me. She was calling across the room in the dark to her husband. It was something about his breathing that disturbed her. I let her know I was there (she was asleep when I arrived) and told her I would check on Dad.

Skipping over a few details, the two nurses who were there (one who lives with my parents and another who, with her husband, kindly volunteered to stay a few nights, came into the room to help me. In fact, they took over. We tended to Dad’s needs for twenty minutes or so, jostling him this way and that, finally settling him into a position we figured would be comfortable. Dad slept through all of it.

I called my oldest sister and sent text messages to my brother and youngest sister to let them know Dad was slipping into a coma. Then I returned to his room. But rather than lie down, I thought I would sit next to him for awhile. Can’t say why. Just wanted to enjoy a space of quiet with him in the dark.

What do you pray? I just sat in God’s presence next to Dad, surrendering everything to God’s infinite love and wisdom.

Dad’s oxygen level and heart rate monitor shut off. I fiddled with it to see if it would come back on. The live-in nurse, who had come over and stationed herself on the opposite of the bed took the monitor and placed it on his other hand. It soon shut off again.

Dad’s breathing gradually became more shallow and less strained. In fact, his breathing was very gentle. Softer. Softer. Softer. And then–the last breath.

Around 3:20 this morning, Chuck Smith (“Papa Chuck” to many, although I have never liked that title, but my thousands of adopted siblings have left me no choice but to accept it), took up permanent residence in his eternal home, “not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

Dad has been very grateful for all the prayers made on his behalf from friends all over the world. These last two weeks, in spite of the cancer spreading in his lungs and that had metastasized and was working its way through his bones, has had no pain. Even these last few days, no pain meds or morphine.

Other than perhaps being “raptured,” Dad preached three services on Sunday and answered questions Monday on his radio program, then made his exit peacefully in his sleep early Wednesday morning. He could not be happier with his transition through the threshold and into Splendor.”
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Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee started something big, Calvary Chapel..

I lived across from the original Calvary Chapel before Chuck Smith arrived on Church Street in Costa Mesa CA. I was 11 years old. I recall walking past the church when he was there and seeing this smiling man greeting people as they were leaving the church. I was on my way to the local catholic church that I was being forced to attend by my well intentioned mother. I had to pass Calvary Chapel on my route to the Catholic church every Sunday.

Chuck glowed with this incredible smile that I could not help but notice as I passed by. The contrasting frowns of the priest at the Catholic church made Chuck's smile all the more incredible to me.

A few years later as a 17 year old I walked into the small school house on Sunflower and there was Chuck again. His first words that I ever heard him say were totally memorable because of the weight and anointing of Almighty God behind them. They were, "Kids, Jesus Christ loves you."

God totally backed up that statement with an atmosphere that was so thick with His manifested presence. Anyone there would not ever forget having been in that holy atmosphere and would spend the rest of their lives looking for it again. As some of us still so...

God poured out of His Holy Spirit upon those of us who were so blessed to have played a part in the early formation of what was to become a new denomination unlike any before it.

Chuck Smith built a firm foundation of the knowledge of the Bible under all of us. He built it brick by brick line by line. As time rolled by and I got to watch the man grow older I came to realize that indeed he had built a Bible knowledge into my personal being.

Scriptures just pop into my head when I am ministering in any situation. I know that this happens because of Chuck's tireless teaching. I am not alone in this. So many thousands of others can say the same thing. He fed us the Bread of Life and we grew!

What a shining example of someone who was dedicated to the sheep of God. He heard Jesus saying to him, "Feed My sheep."

The bulk of my life has been centrally filled with Pastor Chuck Smith. In all of my downsittings and uprisings there was Chuck. Chuck knew me, even with years between times that I have talked with him he remembered me by name. As if only days had passed. I guess it was because I had spent a few years on the crew that had built the church and got to know Chuck.

The last time that I spoke with him was a few years back. God had me give him a prophecy. It was on a Sunday morning. I believe God had me say to him, "Chuck, you will see the full extent of your Calvary Chapel empire with your own eyes." My heart was beating fast as I delivered the message to him in the presence of the self appointed entourage that had gathered around him. Some approving and others perhaps not.

A few years after that he went on tour with the 60's Christian band "Love Song" to visit all the Calvary Chapels. So I guess the message was correct. Oden Fong confirmed the message a day or so after I had given it to Chuck.

Today is a sad day and a joyous day for me, and I know for a lot of others.

Chucks smooth and much practiced voice and his control and mastery of keeping things formal and under complete control will certainly be missed.

Brian Broderson, the son~in~law of Chuck, has some hugh shoes to fill.

The love of Chuck Smith will forever be remembered as we move forward together towards our final destination.

May Brian be filled to over flowing with the Holy Spirit. And may he continue the practice of feeding the sheep of God that the name of Calvary Chapel be honored as a place where one can learn about Jesus Christ the Savior.

Assistant pastor Romain and Lonnie Frisbee at a baptismal service at Pirates Cove in Corona Del Mar during the summer. The man on the right near Lonnie is Don McClure who was assisting  Pastor Chuck Smith.