Over forty years ago, Calvary Chapel Pasadena entered the world at the Lord’s direction, in, of all places, the city of Alhambra.
In the quaint California bungalow of George and Rita Gutierrez, on Hidalgo Street, the fellowship started as a home Bible study with three people.
Today we meet weekly with an attendance of some 1500 adults. In the early days, the church rented space in various facilities for the holding of Bible studies and Sunday services. Starting in the summer of 1980, our Sunday morning services were held at the Alhambra YMCA, which, we understand, had never rented space for such an activity before. “Somehow” they felt inclined to provide us a home for our first few months. Our Thursday night Bible studies were held at the Alhambra women’s club on Second Street, while the children’s ministry was anchored at the church office a few blocks away on Stoneman Avenue. During the six years, the church served the city of Alhambra as we operated out of a wide variety of locations:
the Masonic Lodge on First Street, the Adventist Church on Chapel, the old Edwards movie theater on Main Street. Only once in those years did we venture outside the city of Alhambra for a meeting place. In the mid-eighties we met in an available church facility on Walnut Grove in Rosemead and moved our midweek service to Wednesday evening. We held special events in public parks and recreation facilities, concerts in the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium, Easter sunrise services in parking lots, and on golf courses, children’s ministry, sometimes in the same complex with the services, and sometimes removed by a few blocks or a mile or two; all during these very productive years as God was developing and maturing the church, the leadership, and the staff. Pastor Xavier Ries, Pastor Mario Alvarez, Sam Scotti, and secretary Lilly Chavez conducted, organized, and assisted the orderly undertakings of an army of volunteers that transported and operated the church in all its ministries to their various locations. As difficult as these years were, true to the Lord’s pattern for the church, tribulation produces perseverance.