Grace Valley Christian Center

Location

27173 County Road 98

(On the edge of campus property)

Hours

Worship: Sundays, 10:00AM

Phone

(530)756-5255

Website

http://www.gracevalley.org

Our congregation is committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the inerrancy and the infallibility of the Holy Scriptures. We are a body committed to living out the call that God has placed upon our lives to be his holy people. As those who have been called out of this world into God's kingdom, we are being built into a community that loves one another and practices God's word. We are regularly encouraged by the rich biblical teaching we receive and by the life we experience here. We believe in the "solas" of the Reformed tradition (sola gratia, sola fide, solo Christo, and sola Scriptura) and are in fellowship with Christian Brethren assemblies throughout the world.

Originally from India, Reverend P. G. Mathew first came to Davis in 1973 to teach Greek and theology at then St Justin's Theological Seminary. In May 1974 the church was formed as Davis Evangelical Church and met in Rev. Mathew's Cranbrook Court apartment. In July services were moved to 345 L Street. From November 1976 to May 1987 services were held at Lutheran Church of the Incarnation at 1701 Russell Boulevard. In May 1987 the church moved to its present location at 27173 County Road 98 and the name changed to Grace Valley Christian Center. For a full account see "A History of Grace Valley Christian Center."

Senior Minister
Reverend P. G. Mathew

Senior Associate
Minister Gerrit Buddingh

Elder Daniel Washabaugh

Over the years a number of other prominent local citizens have been involved in leadership including Doctors Peter Droubay and Steven Smith, UC Davis Professor Richard Spencer, and UC Davis assistant football coach Mike Moroski.

• Sermons on Podcast Senior Minister Reverend P. G. Mathew makes his sermons available in his "Grace and Glory" podcast and puts his transcripts on the web site.

• Grace Alive Campus Ministry. Many activities are directed by University Minister Greg Perry.

• Grace Valley Christian Academy, a private Christian school serving grades kindergarten through 9th grade

• Grace Valley Choir: "Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted" (Easter 2008), "Sing Choirs of New Jerusalem" (Easter 2008), "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent" and "For Unto Us a Child is Born" (Dec '07), and "Glad Tidings" (Dec '07)

• Global Grace, the international ministry of Grace Valley Christian Center. In addition to offering ESL classes to visiting students and scholars, efforts are also made to reach out to seasonal migrant workers.

• Team Donate Life Grace Valley June 2007 eight cyclists and ten support team members from Grace Valley participated in the Team Donate Life Race Across America effort. Their mission: to educate the public regarding the life-saving benefits of organ donation while raising funds toward continued transplant research. Over six days team members rode 24 hours a day to cover the 3,000 miles from Oceanside, California to Atlantic City, New Jersey. In the process they raised over 53,000 dollars. Part of the inspiration for their journey was Joan Roby's donation of a kidney to Simeon Trotter, both members of Grace Valley. Joan was a crew member for the 2007 team. Read more about their adventures on their Team Donate Life Grace Valley Blog.

• "Faith and Reason Series" Lectures In recent years, Grace Valley Christian Center has been holding lectures under what they call the "Faith and Reason Series". Some transcripts and audio files of these lectures are available on the GVCC website. The lectures question the theory of evolution and present the Gospel. Invited speakers include William Dembski (2004), Michael Behe (2005), or Phillip E. Johnson (2006) (interview), who then give two lectures on Intelligent Design, one on campus and one at the church. The student club affiliate of GVCC, Grace Alive, hosts the first lecture on a Friday night, usually in Chem 194. The Friday night speech is generally devoid of overt religious content (although the lectures begin with prayer). Then on the following Saturday morning they give the second lecture at the church, which includes religious content. The lectures are about an hour or so long, and are followed by a period for questions lasting about ten minutes. For more information on Intelligent Design, please visit the Wikipedia page.

GVCC is surrounded by controversy and a wide range of experiences. It is a close-knit community, but there are some allegations of emotional and spiritual abuse. Go to the Experiences page for more information. For a detailed description of the alleged aberrations at Grace Valley Christian Center, see Allegations and Recovering From Spiritual Abuse.

For discussion about the content of this page, please see the talk page.

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2005-12-01 23:41:53   Is the pastor of Grace Valley Christian Center the ASUCD student coordinator for blood drives? —MichaelGiardina

2007-03-01 23:08:33   I painted the day care center in Grace Valley. It was a good job. —StevenDaubert

2007-10-24 15:47:46   On the surface Grace Valley is a wonderful place: close-knit community, good teaching, many wonderful activities for families and singles. Unfortunately, all is not as it seems. Beneath the surface lies a pattern of public humiliation of individuals by the leadership as well as the leadership's adherence to an abusive form of control which ultimately robs individuals of their liberty in Christ. Take heed! —RichLindvall