Mike McClure
Calvary Chapel San Jose · San Jose, California
Senior pastor of Calvary Chapel San Jose since 2003, when he took the pulpit from his father Don McClure at twenty-seven. The church's teaching is centred, in its own words, on the power of the cross and dependence on the Holy Spirit.
Life
Calvary Chapel San Jose did not begin the way most Calvary Chapels do. Its own account starts in 1991 “as a result of a struggling congregation desiring God to do a new work”: a body of believers that had been a well established church for around sixty years, and that had dwindled under heavy debt.
Chuck Smith, pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, loaned the congregation money to pay its debts, and with that payment committed to send a pastor to establish a Calvary Chapel in Northern California. In 1991 Don McClure moved his family from Redlands to San Jose “to minister to the congregation and restore health and balance”. The church says God used him mightily in that work, and that he was instrumental in raising up pastors.
After serving the congregation for eleven years, in 2003 Don McClure was called on to minister to Calvary Chapels throughout the country, and his son, Mike McClure, became the senior pastor.
“Pastor Michael McClure was twenty-seven when he began teaching the body of believers at Calvary! His love for Christ and commitment to His word has been evident in his teachings, which are centered upon the power of the cross in ones life and the dependency we must be upon the Holy Spirit!”
Since then the church records that the debt held since the original purchase in the 1940s was paid in full, that a new mission in Africa was begun and partnered with, and that Calvary Christian Academy opened.
Stated as his ministry states it, from Calvary Chapel San Jose · our story. Nothing here is inferred.
What he teaches
We believe that there is one living and true God, eternally existing in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory; that this triune God created all, upholds all and governs all.
We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, fully inspired without error in the original manuscripts, and the infallible rule of faith and practice.
We believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love; that He concerns himself mercifully in the affairs of men; that He hears and answers prayer; and that He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ.
We believe in Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. We believe in His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles and teaching, His substitutionary atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension into Heaven, perpetual intercession for His people, and personal, visible return to earth.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, who came forth from the Father and Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, and to regenerate, sanctify and empower for ministry all who believe in Christ and that He is an abiding Helper, Teacher and Guide. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit and in the exercise of all the Biblical gifts of the Spirit.
We believe that all men are sinners by nature and choice and, therefore, under condemnation, that God regenerates by the Holy Spirit, those who repent of their sins and confess Jesus Christ as Lord; that Jesus Christ baptizes the seeking believer with the Holy Spirit and power for service, often subsequent to regeneration.
We believe in the universal Church, the living spiritual body, of which Christ is the head and all regenerated persons are members.
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ committed two ordinances to the church; 1) baptism, and 2) the Lord's Supper. We believe in baptism by immersion and communion, which are open to all believers.
We believe in the personal, visible return of Christ to earth and the establishment of His Kingdom; in the resurrection of the body, the final judgment and eternal blessing of the righteous and endless suffering of the wicked.
Statement of Faith, Calvary Chapel San Jose. Quoted, not summarised. This page applies no label to Mike McClure that he has not used of himself.
Teaching archive
The church's own teaching, streamed and archived.
What the church offers alongside the teaching.
The church's own store.
Books
Where to find him
- A portrait. The church publishes no media or press page offering one.
- Scripture references for the statement of faith. The page sets them out as nine articles with no references attached, unlike most of the Council's churches; none were added here from elsewhere.
- A brand colour. calvarysj.org's markup carries only white and black, so this page wears our own gilt rather than a colour invented for his church.
- Anything he has written. No book is named on the site.
- The year he was born, and anything of his life before the pulpit. The church's story begins with the congregation, not with him.
Sources for this page are closed to Calvary Chapel San Jose and the Calvary Chapel Association.