Calvary Chapel Essen was started on January, 24th 2010 as a home bible study and has grown to a small church of about 20 children and adults since. It is located in the City of Essen, which has a population of about 575.000, currently ranking as the 9th largest city in Germany. The city of Essen is located in the center of the Ruhr area, one of Europe´s most densely populated regions, which has a population of about 5 million. Essen is located about an half hour drive away from Düsseldorf (Airport) and about an hour drive north of Cologne.

Calvary Chapel Essen was planted by Gunar and Stephanie Kapp (former CC Siegen) with support from Oliver and Julia Leiste (former CC Siegen and CC Leipzig). Gunar, who was born in 1977 and raised in the Siegen area, started attending Calvary Chapel Siegen as a 17-year-old in 1994. Since 1997 he worked in the worship and youth ministry and went on staff in 2001. After 4 years on staff as the youthpastor and one of the elders he was ordained as a Calvary Chapel pastor on January 26th 2005 by the CC pastors Nick Long, David Guzik, Brian Brodersen and Bil Gallatin. In 2006 Gunar and his wife moved to Essen, feeling the LORD´s call to eventually start a Calvary Chapel.