Gardena Valley Baptist Church

I attended Bilingual Christmas Concert that my friend invited me to. The concert and message was awesome. Pastor Eisai was very good and his translator was awesome.
The concert was amazing by One Voice. The soprano, Mari Paxton was amazing and so was special guest Andy.

Just took my family to this wonderful church. GVBC is by far the best church I have experienced. Everyone there is friendly and extremely welcoming. My children cannot wait until Sunday when they can go back again. I am beyond pleased and very fortunate to have found this church.

pretentious

My family and I attend the contemporary service at 1045am. It’s a great church with lots of various fellowship groups to accomodate all areas of life. People are friendly, but it’s a large church so you have to make an initial effort. It’s great for people with families and they have an awesome! sunday school program for kids, as well as other great kids programs throughout the year (children’s christmas breakfast, vbs, etc). The only thing that keeps me from giving it more stars is that I find the music is too loud, making it difficult to feel like you’re worshipping as one church rather than watching a concert and singing along. despite repeated comments from other members of the congregation, they haven’t been able to resolve the problem. The other issue I have is that the worship leader doesn’t seem to sing the melody but more the harmony and that’s confusing for people who dont know the hymns. The worship leader should sing the melody and let the back up sing the harmony. But otherwise, it’s still a great church and there are a lot of nice people there.

I attended a few times back in the 80’s and ran into a lot of standoffish attitude. I guess some of it is cultural, i.e. Asian reservedness, and since I’m a catatonic-​ally shy JA myself, I can relate. But some people crossed the line from shyness into outright snobbery, and I think church is the very last place you should act that way.
However, I know some people who got a lot out of Gvbc, including one close friend whose influence eventually helped lead me to accepting Jesus. So good job indirectly, Gvbc.
Also, Pastor Ron M. is a very genuine person, he did my Uncle’s funeral and did a great job.
And to anyone who’s a regular over there, pls don’t take offense at this review, if you found Christ at Gvbc more power to you. I’m not doing this review out of spite (although I gotta admit, venting feels really nice), I’m just trying to give a warning; there’s a risk that Gvbc might leave you with a negative impression of Christians (and speaking from experience, it could take a very long time to change that impression). And while I acknowledge it was ultimately my decision to turn my back on God, and I also now realize it made no sense to judge an entire religion based on just one church, I do feel it’s a shame my 1^st experience w/​Christianity was so negative. Who knows how things would’ve been different if I had accepted Christ early in my life.

For my 300^th review, I thought I’d review one of the places that, when I look back, fundamentally shaped me as a person. Gardena Valley Baptist Church, or GVBC, has been a part of my life since I was born, when my Caucasian uncle married his Japanese-​American wife and began attending this local church in Gardena. My Caucasian family followed suit, and so began a childhood in which a mixed white/​black child grew up at a predominantly Japanese-​American church. It was here that I first began to learn about and understand the faith that shaped me, and it was at this church that I met open-​hearted, dedicated people that really loved Jesus and tried to carry that love in a significant way to the wider community.
Like a lot of kids that grew up in mainstream Protestant churches, I have fond memories of youth group activities, worship songs, and so much of that contemporary American Christian culture that can be so positive and so stifling simultaneously. Part of GVBC that has always stayed with me is the incredible way in which a faith system became so intertwined with the cultural experience of third, fourth, fifth generation Japanese-​Americans who sought to understand and navigate their own racial and cultural identities through the lens of their faith. Part of my faith journey has been the process of learning what parts of my faith that I hold to are menaingful because they’re the words of Jesus, and which ones are linked to a broader culture. I hope that the people at GVBC have taught em a bit more about learnign to love people in an open hearted way while also being aware of the impact of culture, identity and heritage in one’s faith.
That all said, GVBC is a part of Los Angeles and JA history. It was first founded back in 1914 and survived multiple moves and the entire disruption of internment. It still hosts a sizable Nichigo, or Japanese language speaking population, while trying to reach out to an increasingly multicultural community and a generation of increasingly cynical Sansei and Yonsei attenders. The church itself went through a radical growth and expansion phase over the past few years, and increasingly has attempted to turn its face outward; rather than nestle itself securely in middle class Japanese American identity, I see, with a lot of hope, a faith center that attempts to be relevant and meaningful to the wider, changing community while still holding onto core values. It think it’s an interesting and complex journey, and I love that I’ve been a part of the place, particularly as it rapidly approaches its one hundredth anniversary.
GVBC, you’ve been a place where I’ve discovered so much about my heritage, my identity, my faith, my values, and my worldview. I’m thankful for those times, and I’m thankful that you’re still a relevant, engaging place. Maybe I’ll even play a game of bball in your new gym when I come back up for a visit. :)