Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa Says It Ordains Women as Pastors, Drawing Pushback from the Calvary Chapel Association
Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, in Orange County, California, has announced that it believes in and practices the ordination of women as pastors, drawing public opposition from within the Calvary Chapel movement. Pastor Char Brodersen read the statement during the church's service on November 1, according to a November 8 report by The Christian Post, and the Calvary Chapel Association (CCA) responded with a statement calling the decision "a significant departure from the biblical convictions that have historically shaped our Calvary Chapel family."
Char Brodersen, a grandson of Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith, said in the statement that the church "believes and practices the ordination of both men and women to pastoral ministry as a recognition of the priesthood of all believers and the unique gifting of individuals by the Holy Spirit to continue the mission and ministry of Jesus in the Church and in the world." He said the congregation has been practicing this for almost a decade, with women already leading and serving in every echelon of ministry. "We aren't changing anything in our current practice, but simply want to clarify our biblical position and our conviction," he said, describing women serving as pastors as a "secondary issue" on which faithful Christians may disagree, sometimes strongly.
In a statement signed by Pastor Josh Blevins and the CCA Heartland Regional Team, the association said it sees no sound biblical basis for ordaining women to serve as elders and pastors and that the practice conflicts with the association's distinctives. Blevins wrote that through Smith's leadership, Calvary Chapel became a central part of the Jesus Movement, and that Costa Mesa's present direction departs from convictions Smith faithfully taught and modeled. He urged churches in the region to keep the Calvary Chapel name and continue teaching and caring for their congregations, and asked pastors to pray for the pastors and congregation in Costa Mesa.
Other Calvary Chapel churches also weighed in. Calvary Chapel Liberty in Liberty, Missouri, in a statement signed by Senior Pastor Scott Gurwell, rejected the ordination of women as elders or pastors and reserved the offices for biblically qualified men, citing chapters 2 and 3 of 1 Timothy and chapter 1 of Titus. Alan Disbrow, pastor of Calvary Chapel Lehigh Valley in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, wrote that his church cut ties with Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa after Smith died in 2013. Lloyd Pulley, pastor of Calvary Old Bridge in New Jersey, wrote that the announcement did not surprise him and criticized Costa Mesa for what he described as steady decline since Smith's death.
Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa was founded by Chuck Smith and was once the flagship church of the Calvary Chapel movement. After Smith's death in 2013, his son-in-law Brian Brodersen took over the Costa Mesa church, later resigned from the CCA's council and in 2016 started a competing body, the Calvary Global Network, splitting the movement; the Costa Mesa church also controls the website calvarychapel.com. Separately, The Christian Post reported that in September the church agreed to pay $12 million to settle a lawsuit by a former staff member who accused Jacob Harman, a former pastor at the church, of raping her several times.
Source: The Christian Post
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：各各他教会运动创始人 Chuck Smith 牧师（2013 年逝世），Costa Mesa 各各他教会由其创立，此次争议正围绕他的教导与遗产展开。Calvary Curriculum 摄，CC BY 3.0，经维基共享资源。/ Pastor Chuck Smith, founder of the Calvary Chapel movement, who founded Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Photo by Calvary Curriculum, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
