History of Living Grace Church
It all started when…
Pastor Cliff Gonzales and his wife came to visit family for a 2-week holiday in Edmonton 2002…
In 2002, Pastor Cliff Gonzales and his family visited Edmonton for a two week holiday. And was burdened with their relatives here in Edmonton; they were all attending different church bodies as just “attenders” and had just been going to church for the religion. During the holiday, his relatives asked Pastor Cliff to start a church here in Edmonton, while he had already planted a church in Vancouver. So, Pastor Cliff started sharing stories of church planting he’s been a part of in Vancouver and his family started getting excited. The confirmation came from the Lord in July 2002 during a Klondike days event that being was hosted by a Filipino community. After attending the event, Pastor Cliff and his wife, Jenny, saw thousands of Filipinos at that event and God gave them hearts to really reach out to them and God spoke to their hearts that there was a great need in Edmonton. Then, God had asked them to move to Edmonton. By September 2002, the Gonzales family moved to Edmonton.
That was the beginning of it. They started with meeting with 5 families in in the city, excluding relatives. And it became clear to Pastor Cliff, they needed to plant this church. Thus, starting with the 5 families, formerly known as Living Grace International Baptist Church, we had our first ever service in October 2002; families came one by one, including the relatives which were in Pastor Cliff’s heart.
32 people attended the first ever service at Living Grace International. 14 months later, we hired Pastor Joshua Pantoja as an associate as we continued to grow. We spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and many people responded.
In 2004, we planted The Journey with Christ Church in North Edmonton (Located in Castledowns area) and extended LGI and that work grew to about 80 people in just one year.
In 2005, the Gonzales family accepted the call to move to Calgary to continue the church-planting movement. So, Pastor Joshua Pantoja took over as Senior Pastor, and in 2008, we changed our name to The Gathering Church as we started working with a small Alliance and Pentecostal church in the Millwoods community.
In 2011, we moved buildings and start renting out at Ellerslie Road Baptist Church, and moved into an afternoon service time. We built great relationships with the Ellerslie church family right from the start, from serving in community gatherings to Mission Trips in Tijuana. We continued to see new families come in and be part of the church family, but also met some hardships and battles along the way. But God continues to be faithful in every season.
In September 2016, Pastor Joshua Pantoja resigned as Senior Pastor of The Gathering Church and the search began to look for a new shepherd who would lead The Gathering Church. In November 2016, Pastor Johnston Pablo and his wife moved to Edmonton and took over as Senior Pastor to lead the The Gathering Church till August 2021. In August 2021, Pastor Johnston and his wife Sandra followed their call to move to Sacramento and was accepted in a chaplaincy program and be closer with family.
God continues to show how good and gracious He is by sustaining us and showing us ways to advance His Kingdom in Southwest community of Edmonton. Following Christ isn’t just following a religion, it’s all about knowing Jesus and making Jesus known. From August 2021 to November 2022, The Gathering Church was pastor-less but continued walking alongside the Holy Spirit to serve and equip the body of believers as leaders stepped up and filled in the gaps in His kingdom building. During this time, the Search Committee continued to seek for the next lead Pastor of The Gathering church.
The Search Committee had interviewed 2 other pastors for the lead pastor position in the Fall of 2022 but had not sensed confirmation with the 2 candidates. Then in November, they had received an application from Johnston Pablo and shared they were being led to return to Alberta after finishing his chaplaincy in Sacramento.
In January 2023, Pastor Johnston and his wife, Sandra Pablo, returned to Edmonton and had again been hired as our Lead/Senior Pastor after 1.5 years of our church being pastor-less. And now since the hire of our newly hired Lead Pastor, The Gathering Church has moved back to the heart of the Millwoods community in the city of Edmonton and now meeting Concordia Lutheran Church. And with the move to a new space and community, The Gathering Church is now Living Grace Church. Living Grace is not just a name change, but a movement in where God’s people continue to grow in His grace and live out His grace for all the world to see.
