A History of Grace Valley Christian Center
Copyright © 1994 by Rev. P. G. Mathew, M.Div., Th.M. (Westminster Theol. Seminary), Senior Minister
Grace Valley Christian Center proclaims God's free grace to forgive our sins and reconcile us to God. The senior minister of this church, P. G. Mathew, by God's unmistakable guidance, came to Davis, California in 1973 for the purpose of teaching Greek and theology at St. Justin's Theological Seminary. God's blessing was so evident in his teaching that a number of students, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, requested him to found a church to practice this biblical teaching.
In May 1974, after much prayer, the church, then known as Davis Evangelical Church, was founded. It began as a small fellowship at P.G. Mathew's Cranbrook Court apartment. In July 1974, regular worship services commenced at 345 L Street in Davis. Twelve years later, to his amazement, P.G. Mathew learned that the ministry at the L Street building was the fulfillment of a vision God granted to another local minister several years before Mathew's arrival in Davis.
Demonstration of God's power was in evidence as P.G. Mathew boldly preached from the Bible with authority. People's lives changed. It is Mathew's conviction that the Gospel is the "power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes."
God's ways are simply marvelous. All the needs of the church have been sumptuously and supernaturally met by God in response to believing prayer. For example, sometimes God has supported the ministry through postal money orders sent to us by unknown sources. Many other material gifts and spiritual blessings gave proof that this church family was moving in God's will.
When a larger facility was needed, the Lutheran Church of the Incarnation granted use of its facilities at 1701 Russell Blvd. Our church worshiped there from November 1976 to May 1987. To accommodate our growing congregation, we began seeking God in prayer for our own facilities. We needed miracles, and God performed them. We were able to purchase twenty-one acres of land debt free.
Through the sacrificial giving of our membership God enabled us to build a beautiful, spacious and modern facility without a mortgage. We have been worshiping in this new facility since May 1987. To reflect our expanding ministry to a wider geographical area, our new name, Grace Valley Christian Center, was officially adopted in September 1987.
Because GVCC believes in the priesthood and gifted ministry of every believer, the work of the ministry at Grace Valley Christian Center is carried on by Holy Spirit- taught and empowered people of proven character.
The authority of Grace Valley Christian Center is the inspired and infallible Holy Scriptures. The doctrine of inspiration which Grace Valley Christian Center holds is to the effect that Holy Scripture alone and Holy Scripture in its entirety is the Word of God written, given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and practice, an inspiration of an organic nature which extends not only to the ideas but also to the words of Holy Scripture, and is so unique in its effect that Holy Scripture alone is the Word of God. This doctrine of inspiration, while holding that the human authors of Scripture were moved by the Holy Spirit so as to insure that what they wrote communicated infallibly God's self-revelation, also maintains that the Holy Spirit did not suppress their personalities, but rather that he sovereignly prepared, controlled and directed them in such a way that he utilized their endowments and experience, their research and reflection, their language and style. This human aspect of Scripture does not, however, allow for the inference that Scripture may be regarded as a fallible human witness to divine revelation, for such an evaluation constitutes an attack upon the glorious sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in inspiration. This estimate of Scripture is the demand arising from the witness which the Scripture itself bears to its divine origin, character, and authority. More particularly it is demanded by the witness of our Lord and His apostles, and to entertain a different estimate is to reject the testimony of Christ and of the apostles. This doctrine of Scripture must not be regarded as a dispensable addendum, far less as a merely human accretion, to our Christian faith. Holy Scripture is the only extant form of redemptive revelation. Faith in Scripture as God-breathed revelatory Word is implicit in our faith in the divine character of redemption itself.
The following statement of faith is a summary of that system of doctrine and religious belief which is contained in the Bible. This statement of faith is a subordinate standard to the Bible consisting of the Old and New Testaments.
Statement of Faith (long document)
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