Legacy Gift Leaves Positive Kingdom Impact 

Valley Christian Church (VCC), meeting at Lake Berryessa in a fire department facility, was a faithful, loving congregation of believers with a vision for the future and a desire to reach the community for Christ. While saving to build their own building someday, they were also generous in addition to being a partner church with Jessup since 2006, giving faithfully to the University’s scholarship fund. 

In August of 2020, the Hennessey fire destroyed more than half of the congregation’s homes and the county declared that permits to rebuild would not be granted for most homes. As a result, many folks moved away and the vision of constructing their own church building quickly vanished. 

The leadership began talking with me about closing their doors in the near future, but no one was ready for what ensued. Before any decisions had been made to disband the church, Senior Pastor Steve White passed away in July 2023. 

With the loss of their pastor, and the congregation down to less than 10 members, closure of the church seemed best. Closing VCC allowed the remaining members to attend other fellowships to meet their spiritual needs, and the finances that had been saved for a building could be used for kingdom efforts. 

While the closure of a church is always a sad thing to hear about, this closure resulted in over $300,000 resourced into an endowment to help launch the Center for Church Health (jessup.edu/cch) at Jessup University. 

This center is designed with the small church in mind and has already helped many pastors by providing leadership events, resources and relationships. This endowment now provides yearly funding in perpetuity for the Jessup Center for Church Health to help pastors thrive and grow. 

Thank you VCC of Lake Berryessa for your selfless gift to help other pastors and churches!