Calvary Chapel Of Costa Mesa California 1972

This awesome book can still be found on the net. 

Try Googling.

Some are in used condition and some are brand new!

A must read for anyone who was there and wants to recall those incredible times and needs a reminder of what the Jesus People Movement did in their youth...

This was from Calvary's short evangelical phase. 

Which I was introduced to when I was 17 years old by Calvary Chapel.

Back in those days we would hit the beaches witnessing and invite everyone to come with us to Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa on Monday nights.

Chuck Smith would share from the Word of God and at the end of the service he would give an 'alter call.'

He would say something about salvation while all of us young Christians were quietly praying for those present who needed to be saved among us.

 Then "While every eye closed and every head bowed" he would give an invitation to accept Christ by lifting their hands up until he acknowledged them.

After this he would say, "you can lift your heads now.

 And then he would give the scripture about:

Matthew 10:32
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

Then he would invite anyone who had raised their hand to come forward and confess Christ before man.

For those of us who were there it was such a great time to be able to have the freedom to participate in the reproductive process of the Body of Christ!

We were encouraged to get out there and share our faith in witnessing and bring in the sheep.

It was a major priority for Calvary Chapel to reach the lost. And it is a major priority for Jesus Christ to reach the lost:

Matthew 18:11
"The Son of Man has come to save that which was lost."

It was a major priority for all of us kids also!

Reaching out to the lost is one thing that we can't do in heaven that we can do here on earth.

You can worship God in heaven.

You can sing songs to God in heaven. You can learn God's Word in heaven.

 But one thing you can not do in heaven is share your faith with a nonbeliever.

Why?

Because everyone in heaven is a believer.

 Once you take your last breath of air you will never again be able to talk to a lost person.

Since this is true, shouldn't it be a priority of your life to reach out to all the lost people on earth while you can?

Then one day, without any kind of warning or explanation, Calvary Chapel shifted gears midstream and stumbled a lot of us...they very suddenly became subtle Calvinists as it were and the book "The Reproducers" quietly disappeared from the book shelves.

(Note 5-7-2016 the book has since been reprinted)

They became a Bible teaching church, almost exclusively  without telling me or any of my other Christian friends.

We got alienated.

 Chuck's Monday night fish~net was put away to dry behind "The Block Wall" to dry.

The emphasis on salvation took a back seat to Bible teaching.

In one of Pastor Chuck Smith's addresses to the Calvary Chapel's Minister's conference he mentions his shift from Evangelism to teaching.

I didn't get to read the transcript of this address until just last year (2009).

A light went on in my head. "So that is what had happened to us so many years ago!"

He truly stumbled myself and a lot of my generation of the Jesus People by his sudden shift with no explanation what so ever to any of us.

We were left to drift by his midstream change of course.

He just took hold of the helm as captain of the ship and changed course while we were not really looking or paying much attention to the subtle change.

 Gone were those incredible moments at church that Chuck would evangelize with the express purpose of catching the fish we were bringing into his church with much personal effort on our part.

Slowly the trickle down effect hit us hard.

The handing out of tracts and the sharing our faith on the streets was no longer emphasized and evangelism was no longer a priority of Calvary Chapel.

The evangelical zeal of the church waxed very cold.

God burdens our hearts to reach the lost, but we must get out there and start practicing those conversations.

2 Timothy 4:2-8
Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season...

This means that we should be ready to preach the Word at all times, any other time would be wrong. We are to go for it, do it!

 Share your faith, the Mormons are doing it, the Jehovah's Witnesses are doing it...what about us who know the Truth?

How did you come to Christ? 

Did anyone share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with you? Didn't someone lead you to Jesus?

"I would sooner bring one sinner to Jesus Christ then unravel all the mysteries of the divine Word, for salvation is the one thing we are to live for."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

"O my friends, we are loaded down with countless church activities, while the real work of the church, that of evangelizing the world and winning the lost, is almost entirely neglected!"
Oswald J. Chambers

We should want to see people in heaven so much that we would be willing to do anything for them to know Jesus.

"When preaching and private talk are not available, you need to have a tract ready...Get good striking tracts, or none at all. but a touching gospel tract may be the seed of eternal life. Therefore, do not go out without your tracts."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Proverbs 11:30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

"To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in the world. And with every soul you bring to Jesus Christ, you seem to get a new heaven here upon earth."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Those evangelical meetings on Monday nights with Chuck Smith were so glorious!

 The atmosphere was charged with the manifested presence of the Holy Spirit.

As if to say to us in confirmation, "Well done my good and faithful servants."

A hundred and fifty years from now, will it matter if you made a million dollars, drove an expensive vehicle, graduated from college?

No.

The only thing that will be important then is whether you know the Almighty God who created you, because you will be in one of two destinations forever...and ever and ever.

It is very important to get people to realize that it is the eternal, not the temporary, things that matter. They must be told about salvation through Jesus Christ before they enter eternity.

To enter eternity with out Christ is eternal damnation.

Do you care about this?

Do you care about why Christ died upon the cross, about His main emphasis in going to the cross?

If you want to see your friends in heaven, invite them.

 If you don't want to see your friends in heaven don't invite them...

It doesn't matter whether people like us or not.

Jesus was perfect, loved everyone perfectly, and still got nailed to a cross.

Jesus did His part over two thousand years ago, and now it is time for you to do yours.

When leadership is wrong does not give us the right to ignore the ministry left to us by Christ! Use the breath that Christ has given you to preach the gospel message to every living creature.

Acts 13:47
For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

"If sinners be damed, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned or unprayed for."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon


John 6:47
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life."

How will they know if you remain silent?

Romans 10:9
"If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Not that you might be saved, but you will be saved.

1 John 5:12-13
"He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."

If you died tonight, are you 100% sure that you would go to heaven?

Christian, you have assurance of salvation and others do not. Step out in faith, tell someone about Jesus, the only way to heaven, and you just might be someone's answer to prayer.

Hell is a very real place, according to the Bible. we need to convince people of its reality and warn them not to go there.

We need to plunder hell to populate heaven.

Share the good news of Jesus Christ with others.

BEHOLD, NOW IS THE ACCEPTED TIME; BEHOLD, NOW IS THE DAY OF SALVATION 

2 Corinthians 6:2

A tragedy is knowing someone will be dying and going to hell for eternity, and not caring enough to do anything about it.

"The Word of the Lord was made to me a reproach and a derision daily. Then I said, "I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name." But His Word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.
Jeremiah 20:8,9

We are given the honor and the privilege that angels do not have!

We get to invite others to heaven through Jesus Christ.

We get to deliver the invitation that Angels can not deliver.

We are inviting you to decide what you want to do with the invitation.

 Do you have the confident assurance that if you were to die that you would go to heaven?

While you can if you accept Jesus Christ and His death upon the cross on your behalf to redeem you from your sins.

Christian reader, when was the last time you talked with a lost person?

"You cannot stop their dying, but oh, that God might help you to stop their being damned! You cannot stop the breath from going out of their bodies, but oh, if the gospel could but stop their souls from going down to destruction!"
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

David Sloane

***


Update
5,7,2016

Now you can read the book for free in PDF here. 

Or you can purchase a reprint of the book here. 

One man's take on Calvary Chapel history in free PDF here.