Chuck Smith
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Chuck Smith (Charles Ward Smith) (born 1927) is a religious leader in the United States.
Pastor Chuck was born in Ventura, California to Charles and Maude Smith. He graduated from LIFE Bible College and was ordained as a Foursquare Pentecostal pastor. After struggling for years as pastor and frustrated by church growth and recruitment techniques (in Tucson, Arizona; Huntington Beach, California; and Corona, California) he founded Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in 1965 with only 25 people. It coincided with the popular cultural phenomenon known as the Jesus Movement. It has grown tremendously, turning the Calvary Chapel movement into a world-wide phenomenon.
Along with Lonnie Frisbee and John Higgins, Smith was one of the founders of the world-wide Calvary Chapel denomination. Smith came out of the Four Square Gospel churches in the Jesus Movement.
Wife: Catherine (Kay) Louise Johnson. Children (4): Daughters (2): Jan and Cheryl (Cheryl is married to Chuck Smith's' assistant pastor, Brian Broderson). Sons (2): Jeff and Chuck Jr. (Jeff is maried to the daughter of Dwight Thompson, a TBN evangelist.)