Steve Whinery
Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities · Kennewick, Washington
Saved at a Calvary Chapel in Riverside in the summer of 1975, assistant pastor at Big Bear for seven years, and one of the four families who drove north in 1990 to plant Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, where he has been senior pastor since. His Crosswalk broadcast is a half hour of verse-by-verse teaching carried on radio across eastern Washington.
Life
“I was born in 1959 in Central California. When I was a baby, my parents moved to Riverside, in Southern California, and spent much of the rest of my childhood in the Riverside area. Coming from a broken home, I had much of the baggage that can come along with a “dysfunctional family” and by the time I was in high school had become pretty cynical about life in general and people in particular. It was at this point I was invited by a friend to attend Calvary Chapel in Riverside. After some convincing I decided to show up and it was that night in the summer of 1975 that I first surrendered my life to Jesus. I had no idea what I was getting in to. After a few years of struggling in my walk with Christ, culminating in a 9 month backslide, I gave my heart back to the Lord at the age of 19 and have been serving Him ever since.”
“Although I was involved in athletics and did well scholastically, I had been known for partying and a violent streak. When I rededicated my life to the Lord, all of that was left behind and I began looking for ways I could please and serve the Lord who saved me. I sat under the teaching of Greg Laurie, pastor of Calvary Riverside. I also began getting involved in ministry at Calvary Chapel, first as an usher, then, as the Lord opened up opportunities, as a new convert counselor. During this time I was working construction, which provided ample opportunity for telling coworkers about Jesus. I also began teaching a Bible study at the home of my future brother and sister in law. That is where I met my wife, Bobi.”
“In 1982 I married Bobi Sparks who had also been raised in Riverside. A little over a year after our wedding, God led Bobi and I to move to Big Bear, California where we were involved in the startup of a Calvary Chapel fellowship. About 3 months after our arrival, I was asked to be assistant pastor at that fellowship. Although the position was a paid one for about 11 months, I went back to construction because of financial considerations. I was assistant pastor in Big Bear for 7 years.”
“In 1990, feeling that God had called us to the Tri-Cities area, we moved to Kennewick, along with several good friends. I got a job and began a home fellowship in our apartment. God began to bless and Calvary Chapel of Tri-Cities was the result. I went on paid staff, full time, in 1994. Bobi and I have two children, Bethany, born in 1994, and Nathan, who arrived in 1998.”
The church tells the planting from the other side, in its own history. It began as a card night: “In 1988, a group of friends from Calvary Chapel Big Bear, began to get together once a week for fellowship. We would play cards, or board games, and share a meal, and laugh our heads off!” The fellowship nights became prayer meetings, and the question became where. “The first state that we prayed about was Wyoming. The night that we prayed about moving to Wyoming, all of us heard a distinct, ‘no’ from the Lord”; Washington, prayed for next, got “a distinct ‘yes’”. Calvary Chapel Spokane suggested Kennewick, and the church records a confirmation it only understood on arrival: Isaiah 43 promising “rivers in the desert”, and then the arrival: “It wasn’t until we knew that this was the city that God was leading us to, that there was a huge river flowing through a desert!”
“So on April 9, 1990, we rented 4 huge U-Haul moving vans and began the business of packing up 4 families, which included 9 adults, 7 kids, 3 dogs, 2 cats, and a cockatiel! Our caravan was 9 vehicles long!” The first service was in a motel: “When we arrived in the Tri-Cities, we stayed the first 3 nights at the Motel 6 in Pasco. It was here that we celebrated our very first church service as Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities. It was Easter morning.” Then the Whinerys’ own home, then a middle school, then a building on 3rd and Washington where “KBLD went on the air for the first time”, then the Red Apple Market complex where Calvary Christian School opened, and in February 2008 the ground was broken on Clearwater Avenue, where the church is now.
Stated as his ministry states it, from Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities · Steve Whinery. Nothing here is inferred.
What he teaches
SCRIPTURE
We believe in what is termed “The Apostles’ Creed” as embodying all the fundamental doctrines of orthodox evangelical Christianity. We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God and inerrant in the original writings. 2 Timothy 3:16 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
GOD
We believe there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
FATHER
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 Christ. John 1:1-3 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made."
JESUS CHRIST
We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He was fully human and fully God; in His virgin birth; in His sinless life, in His miracles; in His vicarious atonement through His death and shed blood; in His bodily resurrection (1 Cor 15:1-11); in His ascension to the right hand of the Father; in His personal return in power and glory (Rev 19)! John 1:1-14 "...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the Holy Spirit, who came forth from the Father and Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-10) and to regenerate, sanctify, and empower in ministry all who believe in Christ. We believe the Holy Spirit indwells every believer (Acts 1:7-8) in Jesus Christ and that He is an abiding Helper, Teacher and Guide. We believe that Jesus Christ baptizes the seeking believer with the Holy Spirit and power for service, either at the time of, or subsequent to, regeneration: which is a separate work from the indwelling Spirit for salvation. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit and in the exercise of all biblical gifts of the Spirit as listed in scripture (1 Cor 12:4-11).
MANKIND AND SALVATION
We believe all people are by nature separated from God and responsible for their own sin (Romans 8:23-24), but that salvation, redemption, and forgiveness are freely offered to all by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When a person repents of sin and accepts Jesus Christ as his/her personal Lord and Savior, trusting Him to save, that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit (John 3:3-8), all of his/her sins are forgiven, and that person becomes a child of God destined to spend eternity with the Lord.
We believe that Jesus saves us from something and that thing is eternal separation from God in hell, which is the result of rejection of Jesus' offer of the free gift of salvation; we also believe in a literal heaven and that all those who place their faith and trust in Jesus will spend eternity there with the Lord. We are neither five-point Calvinists, nor are we Arminians. We adhere firmly to the biblical teaching of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. We avoid any theological systems of belief that go beyond the written Word and thereby divide the body of Christ.
CHRIST’S RETURN
We await the Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church (Matthew 24:36-44), and we believe in the literal second coming of Christ with His saints to rule the earth, which will be personal and visible (Matthew 24:29-30). This motivates us to holy living, heartfelt worship, and committed service. We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the unsaved; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are unsaved unto the resurrection of damnation (Revelation 20:11-15).
THE CHURCH
We believe in the universal church, in the living spiritual body, of which Christ is the head and all regenerated persons are members (Ephesians 4:1-6).
We believe the Lord Jesus Christ committed two ordinances to the Church: 1. baptism, 2. the Lord’s supper. We believe in baptism by immersion and communion, both of which are open to all believers in Jesus Christ.
We believe in the laying on of hands, for the sending out of pastors and missionaries, and in conjunction with the anointing of oil by the elders for the healing of the sick.
MARRIAGE, GENDER and SEXUALITY
We believe that God creates each man and woman and that He created them with the immutable and unchangeable nature of male and female, and that these two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God (Matthew 19:4-5).
We believe that God created marriage to be exclusively the union of one biological man and one biological woman (Gen 2:18-25; Matt 19:4-6), and that intimate sexual activity is to occur exclusively within that union (1 Cor. 6:18; 7:2-5; Heb. 13:4).
We believe that sexual relations outside of biblical marriage are sinful and offensive to God (Matt 15:18-20; 1 Cor. 6:9-10) and that legitimate sexual relations are exercised solely within marriage. Any behavior that contradicts or denigrates the biblical sexual relationship is incompatible with a true biblical witness. (John 4:16-18; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Cor. 5:11; 6:9-11; 6:18-20; 7:1-3; 7:8-9; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-7; 1 Tim. 1:9-11)
WE DO NOT BELIEVE
We do not believe in “positive confession” (the faith movement belief that God can be commanded to heal or work miracles according to man’s will); human prophecy that supersedes the scriptures; the incorporation of humanistic and secular psychology into biblical teaching; the overemphasis of spiritual gifts and experiential signs and wonders to the exclusion of biblical teaching; or that true Christians can be demon possessed.
Certain issues become controversial in the church. Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities feels it necessary to take a stand in the following areas:
WHAT WE HOLD TO
- The inerrancy of scripture
- The continuance today of the diversities of spiritual gifts as found in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
- Simplicity in church government, rather than a complex bureaucracy
- The pre-millennial, pre-tribulation return of Christ for His waiting church
- The teaching of the word of God in such a way that it can be applied to life as beneficial toward growing maturity
WHAT WE REJECT
- The teaching of "positive confession"
- The belief that true-Christians can be possessed by demons
- A fatalistic, Calvinistic view, which allows no room for free will
- Prophecy that supersedes biblical scripture
- The incorporation of humanistic psychology and philosophy into biblical teaching
- “Charismania”, over emphasis upon spiritual gifts, experiential signs and wonders
- Universalism - the teaching that faith in Jesus is not necessary for salvation and that all humanity will finally end up in heaven
THE PURPOSE OF CALVARY CHAPEL
- To worship God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
- To build up the church of Jesus Christ through the teaching of the word and the ministry of the Spirit
- To persuade men and women to repent and confess Jesus Christ as their Lord unto eternal salvation
Statement of Faith, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities. Quoted, not summarised. This page applies no label to Steve Whinery that he has not used of himself.
Teaching archive
The pastors page, where each man writes his own account. Whinery is senior pastor; the page also names nine associate pastors, each with a first-person testimony of his own rather than a staff blurb.
- Audio. “old testament, new testament, topical, q & a, guest teachers”
- Video. “old testament, new testament, topical, guest teachers”
The question-and-answer arm of the Crosswalk broadcast, which the church describes as “a half hour program of verse by verse, chapter by chapter teaching by pastor Steve Whinery”, carried “on several radio stations throughout eastern Washington”.
The same teaching as a feed.
Radio
KBLD · The church’s own station, which its history dates to the building on 3rd and Washington: “It is here that KBLD went on the air for the first time.” The site also links KNDU. What the church’s formal relation to either is beyond that sentence, it does not say, so neither does this page.
Books
Where to find him
- A portrait. The church shows him on the pastors page and publishes no media or press terms, so the image is not ours to take.
- The church’s media index. calvary-tricities.org/index.php/media/ is in the church’s own navigation and returns 403, on six attempts across two URL forms and a browser user agent. The sub-pages that do resolve are linked instead; the index is not, because a link that does not resolve is not shipped.
- What his formal relation to KBLD and KNDU is. The history says KBLD went on the air in the church’s building and the site links both; the connection is never described.
- Where the eleven months of paid ministry at Big Bear sit inside the seven years. His own account gives both figures and does not reconcile them.
- Anything of his schooling or ordination. His account dates itself by conversion, marriage, the move and the year he went on full-time staff, and names no school.
Sources for this page are closed to Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities and the Calvary Chapel Association.