Pastor Chuck Smith Talks Candidly about His Lung Cancer

Dan Wooding : Jan 10, 2012
ASSIST News Service

He vows to keep on preaching and broadcasting during this difficult time and says, "I have no fears."

(Costa Mesa, CA)—It was Sunday, January 1st [this year] when many in the congregation at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, California, were shocked and surprised when Pastor Chuck Smith, its senior pastor, announced during the morning services that he has lung cancer.

Yet Smith, now in his eighties and the father of the Jesus People Revolution in Southern California, said that he has never smoked in his life.

Now Pastor Chuck, as he is known to his the thousands who attend his church, has agreed to talk candidly about his illness.

In an exclusive interview that he gave me during the "Meet the Missionaries" event at the church on Saturday, January 7, 2012, where he made a surprise appearance, he began by answering my question about how he was feeling.

"I'm feeling great," he began. "You know, it's an interesting thing, with what they say is going on inside of me, that I'm not feeling it at all. There is no pain and I am just rejoicing in the Lord."

I then asked him when he first heard that he had lung cancer.

"Actually, I do my physical checkups twice a year and they take blood and analyze it and there was one of the factors that was in the blood that was increasing dramatically and so that was an indication that there was something wrong and it did indicate the possibility of cancer," he said.

"So that instigated a bunch of tests—PET scans, CAT scans, MRI's (Magnetic resonance imaging)—and the whole thing. It seems like it's pretty much localized in the area of my middle lobe of the right lung, and so it looks like it's treatable and so we know it's in the hands of the Lord so I have no fears."

Has there been a date set for the surgery?

"No, actually, they're still analyzing the situation," said Pastor Chuck. "They've taken all the tests and they're analyzing them now, and then on Tuesday the doctors are going to all meet together and have a conference and they're going to talk about the strategy and the best way to attack what they've discovered.

"So I won't know until sometime after Tuesday about what they've learned and what they want to do. It's all in the Lord's hands and I am trusting Him to guide them, and I'm sure He's guiding me.

"It's an interesting thing that people expect you to sort of panic, but why?" he asked, "I know that God's on the throne."

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