February 2021
Pastor Kevin Lea has been pastor at Calvary Church since its founding in 1993. He and his wife Juanita have 2 grown sons and 6 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Kevin Lea was born into a non-believing family, growing up without any exposure to biblical Christianity. In high school, he embraced the false teaching of Edgar Cayce-style reincarnation in an attempt to fill the spiritual void in his life.
After enlisting in the U.S. Navy upon graduation from high school, Pastor Kevin met Christians who shared the biblical gospel with him for the first time. After repeatedly rejecting the truth, he finally received the Lord Jesus in 1974 at a showing of the Billy Graham movie, Time to Run. As he bowed the knee to King Jesus with volunteers from a coffeehouse ministry in Vallejo, California, he sensed the Lord completely forgiving his years’ of hostility toward Him. Pastor Kevin says that at once, “Jesus began changing my life, replacing an attitude of sin with a desire to serve the God who saved me. I also felt a calling to spread the gospel as far and wide as He would give me the gifting to accomplish.”
While still in the Navy, Pastor Kevin met his wife of 45 years, Juanita, at Calvary Chapel San Diego. After his discharge from the Navy and with two young children in tow, they headed off to the Calvary Chapel Bible School in Twin Peaks, California. They then moved to Washington State where Kevin worked as a nuclear engineering technician at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton while serving actively in his local church. He was ordained as a pastor and started a church plant in Port Orchard, Washington in 1993. After 13 years at the Shipyard, he resigned in 1995 to serve as the church’s full-time pastor.
Pastor Kevin’s zeal is to reach the lost with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ and to build up believers through the teaching of the Scriptures, verse by verse. He is also a fervent apologist for a literal, six-day creation and global flood, drawing on his technical experience and knowledge to equip believers with truth to combat the lies of evolution and the associated false interpretations of scientific evidence.
“It has been a joy to serve Jesus for these many years, in and out of full time ministry. I have seen His power save and change so many lives, testifying to the fact that He is alive and gives life to all those who repent and call upon Him to save them from sin. I hope that the ministry of Calvary Church of Port Orchard can assist you in becoming a biblical Christian and/or to grow in your faith and walk with Jesus until He comes again.”