Calvary Chapel is an evangelical association of Christian churches. Calvary Chapel also maintains a number of radio stations around the world and operates many local Calvary Chapel Bible College programs. It presents itself as a "fellowship of churches" in contrast to a denomination with over one thousand congregations worldwide. Churches that affiliate with Calvary Chapel may use the name "Calvary Chapel" but need not do so.
Beginning in 1965 in Southern California, this fellowship of churches grew out of Chuck Smith's Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Doctrinally, Calvary Chapel is evangelical, dispensational, pretribulationist, and believes in the principle of sola scriptura.
Chuck Smith's "Calvary Chapel Distinctives" summarizes the tenets for which Calvary Chapel stands. Calvary Chapels place great importance in the practice of expository teaching, a "verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book" approach to teaching the Bible. Typically, Calvary Chapels operate under a senior pastor-led system of church government, sometimes referred to as the "Moses" model.
Read more about Calvary Chapel: History, Doctrine, Practices, Organization, Criticisms, Notable Congregations
Famous quotes containing the words calvary and/or chapel:
“shows its berries red
In token of the drops of blood
Which on Calvary were shed.”
—Unknown. The Holly and the Ivy (l. 10–12)
“I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;”
—William Blake (1757–1827)