Hello, my name is Chuck Lindsey. I am the Senior Pastor here at Calvary Chapel of Flint. I am the husband to my wife and best friend Oralia and I am the father to my two children Ben and Molly. We love this church, the Lord has blessed us greatly. Here’s some background on the church and my family.
First the church:
The first Calvary Chapel of Flint service was held on Thursday March 16 2006 in the home of Bud and Marie Livermore in Flushing MI with 8 people! We studied the first chapter of the Gospel of John (well, by chapter I mean like 5 verses!). Since that first study in the Livermore home… we have seen God bless. For several months we met only on Thursday evenings. What a drive that was every week!!! My wife and I lived in Sterling Heights, MI and the assistant Pastor Tony Giraud and his wife Gina lived even further away in Warren MI. Each week we would all pile into the car (kids and all!) and drive the hour and a half to the Bible study. It wasn’t long before the Lord began to move on my heart to move to Flint. I knew that this is what God was doing…. so I talked with my wife, she was on board… and “coincidentally” our house sold the next day without even a for sale sign on the lawn!!! The house sold so quickly that we were driving up on weekends looking for anything we could rent. The Lord provided a place for us to rent and we moved in and began this new adventure together. I worked for General Motors at the time and would drive every day to Warren… ha, I thought driving to Flint once a week was nuts!! I made that drive for 2 1/2 years!
During that time… we saw the church grow and the need for Sunday morning services became obvious. So we began doing both Sunday’s and Thursday nights in my (rented) home. And soon needed to move from there to the Holiday Inn. The Lord graciously provided and we met there for over a year. Through many ways, the Lord led us out of the Holiday Inn and into the Valley Christian Academy School. This has been a total blessing for us… but sadly the school is closing, which means we’re moving… which means we’re excited to see what God is going to do yet again!
Me:
I define myself as (in order) a disciple of Jesus, husband, father, pastor, dork. I first came to know the Lord in the back bedroom of my grandmother’s home at the age of 16 while reading the Bible (specifically Matthew). I wasn’t three chapters in before I was on my face asking for His forgiveness and giving my mess of a life to Him…. because He said He wanted it. The Lord immediately poured out forgiveness, mercy and grace..and made me His own. His beloved. “Accepted in the Beloved”.
I had always been an artist, and by this time was drawing some very wicked things professionally. I would draw/paint between 15-20 hours a day! I NEVER took a day off… but on that day… I forgot about drawing. It had been several days before I realized I had not drawn anything at all. My pencil had been replaced by the Word of God. For during three days time, I read the entire New Testament. I would read, sleep, read, eat, read, sleep…. it was awesome. I always say, I have been born again by the Word of God!
Drawing professionally is all I had ever wanted to do, it’s the only plan I had ever really had, but with that desire being gone and replaced with a new one… I began to wonder what God might want with my life. While praying in my parents home… I remember praying, “Lord, the only thing I have ever wanted to do was art… I don’t want to do that anymore. Where does that leave me? What do you want with my life? How can I serve You?” It was just then that the Lord reminded me of my friend who went to Bible College. And I asked the Lord, “do you want me to go to Bible College? If so Lord, show me and I’ll go.”
That was Saturday night. Sunday morning I went to church, as almost as soon as I walked in the door my Pastor walked up to me and said, “hey Chuckie (he always called me that!) got this in the mail and thought about you.” You might have guessed… It was a brochure for the Bible College my friend went to. Then just before service, my mom came to me and said, “hey honey (she, always calls me that!) I got this for you, thought you might be interested.” Another Bible College brochure (same one). Lastly, my friend came to me and handed me the very same brochure and said, “hey, thought you might be interested in this.” SO… that was pretty clear! 6 months later (after working two jobs) I left for Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta California. I graduated from there with degrees in Theology and Pastoral Ministry. He is faithful, always.
During school, the Lord opened the door for me to co-youth pastor a group of high school kids at a local church… while there were very difficult and painful things happening in the lives of those kids… the Lord was teaching me how to teach His Word and pastor His kids.
Once I graduated, I went back to Michigan. I, unlike most of those I knew at school… had NO IDEA what God wanted me to do. While everyone else was accepting youth pastor positions or worship leader positions or even pastoral positions… I had no one offering me any position! So I went back home.
During my time in school a most important thing happened… I met the loveliest woman in the world. My best friend in this world (still true today). We were married 2 years later. She was willing to move to Michigan… which by default means your called. 
Rewind a little, once back in Michigan (after school) it became quite obvious that I didn’t know what I was doing, nor what God was doing. Everyone else’s life seemed to be in motion. Mine seemed at a stand-still. So as one month went by of working at a local mortgage company through a temp agency (man I hated that job)… I went to my Pastor discouraged. I laid it all out for him and he just kinda looked at me and said, “God knows… He’ll work it out”… I was like, “thanks”.
What I did not know is that God was working it out… He had been preparing me all along. I just had not seen it yet. 2 months later as I walked into church on a Sunday morning, my pastor said, “hey Chuckie (told you), I want you to pray about teaching the youth (high school) kids.” “ok”, I said. Then he said, “what day do you want to do it, what time and what book are you going to go through” I said, “I thought you wanted me to pray about this?” He said, “No I have to go announce it right now!” So I said, “uh…. Sunday night, 7pm, the Book of Revelation?” “Great! He said” and walked off to announce it before the congregation that it was starting next week! The Lord is hilarious.
I youth pastored in that church for the next 8 years! And LOVED every minute of it. It was a blessing in every way. There was allot of fruit in the lives those kids, most of whom are actively serving the Lord in really great ways. I thought I would do that forever, well until His return anyway. I was content. Loved what I was doing. God was blessing it. But soon it became clear… the Lord had another plan. I can only describe it this way, it was like something started to move… I was on a train suddenly… one that was headed away from one thing and towards another thing. In God’s grace the train moved slowly out of the station… but soon.. it was speeding full speed ahead… and the destination became clearer and clearer the closer we came. The Lord was calling me out of youth ministry. I was devastated at first. Argued for a minute or two with Him about it, but eventually submitted to His leading. He then made His will clear… He wanted us to start a church.
I talked to my Pastor and told Him what I knew the Lord was doing and he was in agreement to it and “knew God would call you to this”. It was encouraging. I talked with the other elders and asked them to pray for us. They agreed and saw God’s hand on it. We prayed and prayed and prayed. I told my family, and my brother in law (Tony) said, “wherever you’re going, we’re going… we’re called to whatever you’re called to.” How gracious is our King… to give such support right at the start. Thank you Jesus.
From the time I talked to my pastor about this until the first service was 2 years. “Be patient” is what I heard often from the Lord. During those two years… the enemy did everything he could to try to stop this. He tried to discourage us in every way imaginable. Dear friends turned their backs on us, questioning our motives and hearts (I don’t hold it against them at all), accusations of trying to steal sheep and nonsense like it was rampant… it was the enemy, and he was not happy. We have forgiven those that hurt us and love each of them deeply. I bring this part up to say… follow the Lord. Not men. Follow Jesus, He will lead… even when it’s hard and hurts.
The Lord fulfilled His promise to send us out of that fellowship with joy.. and He did it. We praise Him for it. We left that fellowship when we started to do Sunday Mornings.
I can’t say that there aren’t times I miss youth ministry… because I do… but, I have seen WHY God wanted us to start this fellowship… to bless and feed His people. “TO equip His saints to do the work of the ministry”. To do youth ministry and more… because He loves the people of the city of Flint and because He was moving to reach them and we were following Him.
In October of 2008 the Lord called us to trust Him once again and leave General Motors to serve the body here in Flint. It has been a joy to do so. While I regularly do freelance work to supplement my income, this is the first time I have ever been able to “devote myself entirely to these things” as Paul told Timothy…. and I love it and feel incredibly blessed to serve Him in this way!
Love Jesus with all of your heart…
Pastor Chuck
oralia80@gmail.com
(586) 610-4162 (cell)
