Chuck Smith Gives Up Radio Network to “Unfit” Pastor Who’s Being Sued by an Ex-Cow
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Mon, March 05, 2007
- Viewed 445
- (9) comments so far
Mike Kestler was one of his proteges, a folksy preacher with a ponytail who had ridden the Calvary phenomenon to a pulpit in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Smith had presided at Kestler’s wedding. He’d helped Kestler keep his job after a churchgoer complained that Kestler had begged her to run away with him.
Now, the pastors would be business partners. Kestler knew how to run a radio station. Smith had money and a famous name. They shared a vision of FM radio as a megaphone for God’s word.
Bolstered by $13 million from Smith’s Costa Mesa church, Calvary Satellite Network grew into a spectacular recruiting tool for the evangelical movement. In listening areas across the nation, Calvary Chapels proliferated.
But relations between the two pastors deteriorated. In 2003, Smith cut off funding for the radio network, precipitating a crisis that continues to roil Calvary’s leadership. It sparked a war for control of the network on terrain Smith had preached against for years: the earthly courts.
The two sides have hurled accusations of lust and greed, betrayal and embezzlement. As part of the battle, Smith funded a lawsuit against Kestler by a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader who said he had fired her from her radio job for rebuffing his sexual advances.
Now, after a year of hugely expensive legal sparring, the 79-year-old Smith is so eager to settle the case that he is willing to do so at a staggering loss.
He is about to surrender much of the radio empire to Kestler, a man he calls morally unfit for ministry. Smith says that by walking away, he is making a Christian gesture.
Lori Pollitt, the former cheerleader, said Smith told her he had hoped his legal maneuvers would bring Kestler to repentance. “But it appears it won’t, so I think they just want to wash their hands of the whole thing,” Pollitt said. “He said basically it was just time to turn Kestler over to Satan.”
SMITH opened the first Calvary Chapel on a Costa Mesa lot in 1965 with a handful of congregants. Combining literalist Bible teaching with casual dress, contemporary music and an aversion to ritual, the church quickly became famous as a sanctuary for disillusioned hippies and a hub of the Jesus People. The doctrinal cornerstones included the depravity of the world, hell for unbelievers and the promise of a Second Coming.
The church became the symbolic center of one of the nation’s largest religious movements. Smith, a deep-voiced man fond of Hawaiian shirts, remains its undisputed father figure.
Kestler was drawn to Smith’s church in the early 1970s, when it still occupied a tent. He joined the movement and with Smith’s blessing opened his own church in Twin Falls in 1979. Before long, he had built a small Christian radio station there.
In 1994, Kestler’s fortunes appeared to teeter on the brink. A parishioner had accused the married pastor of showing up at her home and office uninvited and pleading with her to run away with him. Kestler stood to lose both his pulpit and his radio station.
Smith took a plane to Twin Falls, defended Kestler before his church board and fended off his ouster. In a recent interview, Smith said he believed Kestler’s claim that the woman’s accusation stemmed from a misunderstanding.
In salvaging Kestler’s career, Smith also rescued plans the two were hatching for a radio ministry.
Smith’s son, Jeff, had been paying Christian radio stations to broadcast his father’s sermons for years. Kestler and the younger Smith had become close friends. They approached the Calvary Chapel founder with an idea: Instead of handing money to other stations to carry the Calvary message, why not invest in their own radio network?
Kestler would handle technical matters out of Twin Falls, the younger Smith would handle the finances out of Santa Ana, and Chuck Smith would bankroll the project. Calvary Satellite Network was born.
Broadcasting a mixture of sermons and worship music, the network started with two stations: Kestler’s in Twin Falls and another in Yucca Valley, Calif. From 1996 to 2003, Chuck Smith poured an estimated $13 million — much of it from the collection bowls of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa — into expanding the network.
Kestler and the younger Smith snapped up broadcast licenses, built towers and invested heavily in satellite technology that beams low-power signals to remote pockets of listeners. As host of a daily call-in show, Kestler became one of the network’s best-known voices.
SOURCE: LA Times (Read the whole article here)
You just can't make this stuff up, folks... When Chuck Smith, founder of the worldwide Calvary Chapel movement, decided to invest big in radio, the Orange County evangelist joined forces with a pastor he trusted. Now he is about to surrender much of the radio empire to Mike Kestler, a man he calls morally unfit for ministry. Smith says that by walking away, he is making a Christian gesture...
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Chuck on Mon, March 05, 2007
Good article, a bit sad as many years ago I was a regular listener to Chuck Smith and really blessed by his teachings. One in particular “Prayer the Decisive Weapon” was especially meaningful and I shared it regularly.
So, to hear of these struggles and failings is a bit distressful. I will be praying for Chuck and the ministry that through all of this God will be honored, many will be saved and the “ all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose” will be evident.
Blessed indeed, in Him
Jan on Mon, March 05, 2007
As a person in ministry in Idaho, there’s a lot not being said here.
I hesitate to state what I’ve heard, over the internet. But suffice it to say that I ‘ve seen some major fall out as a result of Kestler’s “ministry”.
I tend to think that Smith is trying to take the high road in a very ugly situation.
Honeywell Home Security on Fri, May 23, 2008
Sweet article
Home Security Atlanta on Fri, May 23, 2008
Nice post, wonderful read
Donna Gray on Sat, June 21, 2008
I have always like Chuck Smith’s radio ministry. As a matter of fact, he was one of my favorites. I am sorry to hear of this situation, and am praying for a godly solution.
I wish Pastor Smith a peaceful
retirement.
Donna Gray
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G on Mon, July 07, 2008
I have met and been taught by both men. First Chuck Smith and Greg Laurie then a move to Idaho had me in Mike Kestler’s church. I stayed far too long, all along feeling something just wasn’t right. His leering at my breasts, the lack of growth of his church, his obsession with those of wealth, the weakness of his pastoral staff, unscriptural marriages, unwillingness to extend help to those in need, the timid/fearful and sometimes greedy behavior of his wife.
Pastor Chuck did the right thing.
m on Wed, January 14, 2009
I have a tremendous amount of respect for pastor Chuck. If he severed association with someone, there is no doubt in my mind that it was for a good reason. As far as I am concerned, the guy has no business in ministry. But my wise pastor has left this in the hands of God.
Chad on Sun, March 07, 2010
And now Mike uses CSN as his person toy, with his shameless self promotion.
learn quran on Tue, March 09, 2010
Dan Wooding of ANS explains that from the beginning, Pastor Chuck accustomed all, adolescent and old, after judgment, agreement his accent on the teaching of the Word of God. His simple, yet sound, biblical access draws 25,000 humans account to the abbey and aswell millions of radio admirers who apprehend his sermons Islamic Fiqah. With a aboveboard affair for the lost, Pastor Chuck fabricated allowance in his affection and his home for a bearing of hippies and surfers recite quran; breeding a movement of the Holy Spirit that advance from the West Coast to the East Coast, bringing bags of adolescent humans to Jesus Christ.
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