Grace Community Church (California)

Grace Community Church
Grace Community Church of the Valley, Inc.
Grace Community Church Worship in 2007
Location 13248 Roscoe Blvd. Sun Valley, CA 91352
Country  United States
Denomination Non-Denominational
Website www.gracechurch.org
History
Founded 1956
Clergy
Assistant Phil Johnson, Rich Gregory, Mike Mahoney
Senior pastor(s) John F. MacArthur

Grace Community Church is a non-denominational, evangelical megachurch founded in 1956 and located in Sun Valley, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. Noted speaker and radio evangelist John MacArthur is the senior pastor of Grace Community Church. As of 2008, the average weekly attendance was 8,258.[1]

History

Grace Community Church Aerial View

Founded as Grace Community Church of the Valley. The congregation held its first public service on July 1, 1956 calling Don Householder to be its founding pastor. Within a few years, the church had moved to its present location on Roscoe Boulevard and the decision was made to hold two Sunday morning services to accommodate the growing congregation.

Following Householder's death in 1965, Richard Elvee was called to be pastor and the church continued to grow under his leadership until he died in 1968. In February 1969, John F. MacArthur assumed the pastorate. During the early days of MacArthur's ministry the church doubled in size every two years which led to the building of the Family Life Center in 1971 and a new Worship Center in 1977.[2] In 1972, Moody Monthly magazine published a feature article about the congregation titled "The church with nine hundred ministers".[3]

Distinctives

Grace Community Church building

Grace Community Church is elder-ruled and within the Evangelical Protestant tradition, not to be confused with mainstream Evangelicalism. It teaches Calvinist theology, although it is not aligned with a denomination. Grace Community Church holds to the beliefs of spiritual gifts, Lordship salvation, and the sufficiency of Scripture.[4] Noted for speaking out against movements such as the prosperity gospel and the emerging church, the church also adheres to the view that Christian giving should derive voluntarily from the heart, not from a fixed or mandated percentage.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Outreach 100: Largest and Fastest Growing Churches in America". SermonCentral.com.
  2. ↑ "About - History".
  3. ↑ "John MacArthur - Celebrating 40 Years of Ministry".
  4. ↑ "Distinctives".


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