| Grace Community Church | |
Grace Community Church Worship Center
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Denomination | Non-Denominational |
| Website | www.gracechurch.org |
| History | |
| Founded | 1956 |
| Clergy | |
| Senior pastor(s) | John F. MacArthur |
Grace Community Church is a non-denominational, evangelical megachurch located in Sun Valley, California. John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of the congregation, founded in 1956. As of 2008, the average weekly attendance was 8,258.[1]
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Founded as Grace Community Church of the Valley, with an emphasis on the basics of Christianity, the congregation held its first public service on July 1, 1956, calling Don Householder to be its founding pastor. Within the first few years, the church had moved to the present location on Roscoe Boulevard and expanded to hold two Sunday morning services.
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, building a new 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]
Grace Community Church has tightly-held theological positions regarding elder rule, church discipline, divorce and remarriage, the evangelization of children, the cessation of spiritual sign gifts (such as speaking in tongues), Lordship salvation, and the sufficiency of Scripture.[4] They are also noted for their views regarding the role of psychology in counseling,[5] and their teaching that Roman Catholicism is "a satanic religious counterfeit."[6]