Grace Community Covenant Church started as a vision in 1997 that God gave to Pastor Steve and his wife, Winnie, to reach second- and third-generation Asian Americans and their friends in Silicon Valley. Steve’s background and education in church work and Asian American psychology, combined with Winnie’s career in hardware design engineering made them a good fit for carrying out this vision. They gathered friends and friends-of-friends in their living room for vision-casting meetings during the summer of 1997 and by October a core group of 18 was formed.

The vision was for a church community that was inviting to Asian Americans and their friends, a place of spiritual formation in community that was intergenerational, with energetic and accessible worship, that communicated the good news of God’s hope and healing through Jesus with a heart for mercy and justice in the surrounding community and globally.

The core group was invited to hold worship services at Foothill Covenant Church in Los Altos, which seemed an ideal place for reaching out to the Asian Americans concentrated in Sunnyvale, Cupertino and Mountain View. By September of 1998 the core group had grown to 75 regular worshipers and Grace Community Covenant Church had its Grand Opening on September 13, 1998. During this time we were featured in a couple of articles in the San Jose Mercury News, “Congregations at the crossroads” on April 12, 1998, and “Where we worship” on August 5, 2003.

By 2004 the leadership team felt it was time to leave Foothill. Like a young adult, we needed to move out on our own and test our mettle. God provided us a place in Palo Alto and over the next five years we learned how to handle our own affairs. We sent mission teams and individuals to places like Biloxi, Mexico, China, Pakistan, Thailand, India, and Cambodia, and we grew in our passion to help fight human trafficking. Besides the mission teams and short-term trips, we also sent missionaries to China, Thailand, and Indonesia. And we developed our vision of intergenerational church community and learned how to run our own children’s programs.

In mid-2009 financial pressures helped us to realize that the Palo Alto location was too far north to serve as a base for most of our people. We had centers of community in Sunnyvale, central San Jose, and Milpitas. So we looked for a place that was south of Palo Alto. God showed us his sense of humor by opening up Foothill Covenant Church to us! In February 2011 we moved back to Foothill. Things have changed for both churches. We are developing a continually deepening partnership to serve our community and our world. We are excited about the possibilities available as we share Foothill Covenant’s beautiful campus in Los Altos. We invite you to join us in being visible grace, offering hope and healing in Christ to Silicon Valley and to the world.