I read alot of articles about various Calvary Chapel's....has anyone heard of anything with regard to Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, either by word of mouth or by having attended themselves?

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do you know who their elders are? are they related at all to theflorida five.

they are thegroup that we have been related to in the past. are you familiar with them. some have called them cultish and they have received a lot of criticism.

are they related at all to theflorida five.

who are they?




I lived in Ft. Lauderdale 10 years. I started going to Calvary Chapel in 1991-92 and went for 4-5 years. First two years I went 3 times a week sometimes and was in the choir. Then on and off for 2-3 years. I personally found, in my walk with God, that I outgrew the place. Its hard to go to deeper levels of devotion when the main focus of that church is to persuade people to accept Jesus. The Pastor does an excellent job of that whether people actually realize they need Jesus or not. Since I believe "persuasion" has a lot to do with the "getting saved" crowd, its important to have a rigorous schedule of services and ways to get involved, so you stay there, so you stay "persuaded" Not necessarily a sincere indication of a real relationship w/ God. Imo, of course.

I know that one of the head Pastors in the children's ministry was arrested for soliciting little boys over the internet and meeting them after school in his car. He was the Pastor overseeing all the children while their parents were listening to the sermon! This happened in 94 I think.

I had left that church and the church completely when I was having marital problems. The counseling at Calvary was terrible!!! They did not address any issues. They just said "if you're husband didn't cheat on you and you're not in physical danger then you can't leave. If you do, God will judge you!!" He was really mean about it too. Needless to say, I left my husband anyway, had no support from any christian friends and that was the first domino that led to a few years of many bad choices. I had so much guilt and no love or forgiveness from any "christian", I just spiraled down to cover up the pain with drugs and alcohol and boyfriends. But, God was with me, helped me through it and I have a real sincere genuine relationship w/ God now. I prefer liturgical worship now. I can't stand having someone talk at me for an hour. Theres no life in that. Imo, of course. I love the Episcopal tradition and ELCA Lutheran tradition.

Oh, before I went to Calvary, I was at Vineyard. They are wonderful. Imo, of course. The real genuine sincere love of Jesus I recieved from them changed my life. Unfortunately, I got sucked into Calvary cuz it made me feel self-righteous that I was being a "good" christian by being under "real biblical teaching". Now I realize how foolish and limited that experience was. Real spiritual growth is evidenced by growing in Love. Plain and simple. Nothing else. Vineyard taught that and showed it. Maybe one day a vineyard will spring up close to my house. In the meantime, I don't go to church regularly. When I do go, its Lutheran or Episcopal. :D

Sorry for the long post!!!! I love this site and group!! :P

A man in my housechurch just told me about a couple of incidents where he knew that child molesting was covered up in churches. They were afraid of being sued, so they didn't warn other churchers where a possible perpetrator had gotten employment. I guess you have to keep your eyes open.

My friend goes to Calvary Chapel here in Richmond, VA and it's founders are based out of California......I asked her if she had ever met them before and she said no....I don't know about anyone else, but I think I would seriously like to know or even meet the founders of Calvary Chapel....she is now dating some guy in Maryland and he is Catholic.... she stated to me I have never dated one before.....I don't know if Calvary Chapel is a cult or not or why she would say that Catholics are non believers or assume that she would be unequally yoked to him - she has tried to get me to go to this 'very dry' almost 'agnostic' ministry and for every bible study they have anything but bible study.....there's always a video or only this really dry time of longwinded prayer time on 'bible study' night.......can anyone tell me what I can do to help reach out to my friend in a way that would not offend and redirect her out of there?! She's appearing to be very mixed up in her religious beliefs.....thanks a lot for anyones help!!!