Chuck Smith

Chuck Smith (Charles Ward Smith) (born 1927) is a religious leader in the United States.

He 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 strugling for years as pastor and frustrated by church growth and recruitment techniques (in Tucson Arizona; Huntington Beach, CA; and Corona, CA) 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.

Chuck Smith, along with Lonnie Frisbee and John Higgins, 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: Daughters - Jan & Cheryl (Cheryl is married to Chuck Smiths' assistant pastor, Brian Broderson) Sons - Jeff and Chuck Jr. Jeff is maried the daughter of Dwight Thompson , a TBN evangelist.