Is Calvary Chapel Charismatic?

That's a tough one to answer. Chuck Smith was raised and originally ordained in the Four Square Gospel denomination. As a young man he saw many excesses in the Pentecostal churches and has tried to avoid them in his own denomination.

I, for one, received the baptism in the Holy Spirit at a Calvary Chapel in 1979 by the laying on of hands from a CC pastor. That was at a concert afterglow as those kinds of things were reserved for the back rooms even then.

Since then, Chuck Smith has written a book titled, Charisma vs Charismania ©1983. In the book Smith tries to take a middle ground between what he sees to be the excesses of the Charismatic movement and the cessationists (who believe that those manifestations of the Spirit were for the first century only). This desire to take the middle ground and avoid extremes is seen as the strength of Calvary by many people. Others take it as a weakness in not standing up for Biblical truth.

On staff at CCCM, until recently, was "Pastor" David Hocking who (before joining the staff after a messy situation from his personal life), would not allow his church, Calvary Church of Santa Ana (no connection to Calvary Chapel) to participate in the yearly Harvest evangelistic outreaches, because Calvary Chapel held Charismatic views and Hocking was a strict cessationist (the gifts ceased with the closing of the cannon of Scripture).

Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and Chuck Smith are, at least in theory, still Charismatic. Chuck Smith removed John Wimber's church formerly "Calvary Chapel of Yorba Linda" and now known as the "Anaheim Vineyard" for what was reportedly Charismatic excesses.

Sunday morning services at CCCM have never had Charismatic content to them. Some years back CCCM had Wednesday night "Believers Meetings" that were Charismatic with words of knowledge, tongues, and prophecy. Oden Fong (formerly of the Mustard Seed Faith musical group) has recently had weeknight services at CCCM which are Charismatic.

Larry Taylor has stated in the CC SoB, that:

The problem with this statement is that the practice does not match the statement. The practice effectively locks out the ministry of the gifts for all practical purposes. They can not be exercised if there are possibly any non-believers present (impossible to verify). They have such rigid rules of application that their use becomes practically non-existent.

Note when 1 Cor 14 is examined, two elements are both present and necessary in the Scriptures:

This is not that hard to accomplish. Most Charismatic services have an order of service that allows for this within the service at specific times. Calvary completely forbids it during the services. They try to stress #1 and end up violating #2 in the process. Others try to stress #2 and end up violating #1. The various sides in this discussion have already stated the opinions about which should have preference.

In conclusion, although Calvary Chapels are technically Charismatic churches, you could easily attend for many years without encountering the supernatural gifts in operation.