About Us
We are a loving group of believers who love God and love His people. The worship service you experience at the Griffin Drive Church of Christ is scriptural in practice as taught by the apostles of the New Testament Church. We encourage you to investigate and compare the church with the one described in detail in your Bible. Our aim is to bring men and women to Christ in a life committed to dedicated service. The Bible is our standard of authority, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the author of our salvation.
the congregation in padding and covering the pews. These many decades later, a testament to their hard work still stands, as the original pews and padding are still in use today. Soon after the completion of the building, the property adjacent to the church at 100 McGrue Avenue, which had been used as the Country Club Crest’s sales office, went on the market for sale. When Mr. Bennet, the husband of one of the sisters of the church, learned the congregation wanted to purchase the property, he donated the down payment and arranged for a note of just over $100 per month. Bro. and Sis. LeRoy and Ava McGrue, who had been commuting from Richmond to Vallejo a few days a week for five years doing the work of the church, sold their Richmond home providing the proceeds to the congregation, and moved into the house at 100 McGrue Ave.
Our History
The Griffin Drive congregation of the Church of Christ began in Vallejo, California in 1956. Believers worshiping at 321 Alamo Ave in Richmond, California were sharing Christ with men working at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo and arrived at the conclusion that there was a need for a congregation in Vallejo. A group of eight who had been meeting in the home of Bro. Wilber Gatlin decided to rent the upper room at the Labor Temple which still stands at 316 Virginia Street in Vallejo and Bro. F.F. Carson at the request of Bro. A.J. Nelson and Bro. Charles Smith asked Bro. Leroy
316 Virginia Street, Vallejo, CA 94590
Within three years, God had called many to Christ in Vallejo and the congregation increased to 75 members. In addition, its savings account grew to $10,000, enough to purchase a small lot in an open field with a dilapidated building. The church chose a one and one quarter-acre lot in the Floyd Terrace neighborhood of Vallejo where temporary war-time housing projects once sprang up in the 1940s to house Mare Island Naval Ship Yard workers. However, this open field would soon be the home of a new housing development, the Country Club Crest which featured middle-class homes catering predominately to African American families.
As God would have it, the builders of the Country Club Crest, wanted the property owned by the congregation as it was zoned for commercial use. In exchange for the property where currently stands a gas station at the corner of Fairgrounds Drive and Gateway Drive, the builders asked the congregation to swap properties. The congregation accepted the offer without haggling over a new price and the future site of the Griffin Drive congregation was set. In appreciation of the transaction, the builders named the street McGrue Ave after the congregation’s minister.
Members of the congregation got busy building. Bro. McGrue took a three-month leave of absence from his job at American Standard Radiator and along with a talented carpenter, Jack Peters from Napa, CA the construction work began. The brothers of the congregation including Bro. Smith, Bro. Nelson, Bro. Lauderdale, Bro. Pitchford and many others donated their labor despite working six to seven days a week at their jobs supporting their families. Members of the growing Country Club Crest community also volunteered their labor to the construction effort. The Sisters of the congregation in addition to ensuring their children and homes were taken care of, fed the laborers daily keeping the workers motivated and on track.
Four months later, the construction of the pretty pink building at 2235 Griffin Drive was complete. In need of pews, Bro. Pitchford and Bro. Harper provided a down payment. For the remaining balance, Bro. and Sis. James and Fairillia Pitchford arranged for the members of the congregation to worked cutting grapes in St. Helena. The members donated their wages to the congregation. After purchasing pews, Sis. Geneva Broussard, a most talented seamstress, taught and supervised
Original Building at 2235 Griffin Drive
McGrue, Sr. to assist in this important venture. Intent on saving money for the furtherance of the gospel of Christ, and a building belonging to the church, Bro. McGrue took no minister’s salary but donated the money to the congregation’s savings account.
After more than four decades the building was remodeled. Lead by Bro. Donald Wade and Bro. William (Bill) Fleming, Bro. LeRoy Stanford, Bro. Clinton Bruns, Bro. Al Carbin, Bro. Patrick Guy, and members of the congregation worked tirelessly modernizing the facilities. Once again the sisters kept the laborers motivated and fed. Sister McGrue turned her garage into a dining room serving daily meals to the workers. By 2007, the renovations were complete and now stands a beautiful two-story building that serves the modern needs of the church. The Griffin Drive congregation has
Remodeled Building at 2235 Griffin Drive
been laboring in the work of the Lord in Vallejo, CA from the1960s to today. Through the leadership of trail-blazing ministers including the late Bro. LeRoy McGrue, the late Bro. Albert Nelson, Sr., Bro. Clinton Bruns, and Bro. Stephen Bridges and the dedication of a host of teachers and steadfast parishioners, the Lord has brought 1000’s of souls to Christ. The congregation has been a staple in the Country Club Crest community that has endured the rise of drug and gang activity of the 1980s, the closure of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in the 1990s, and the Great Recession and housing crisis of the 2000s. Today, in the spirit of Mark 16:15, going into all the world and sharing the gospel with everyone, the Griffin Drive Church of Christ is sharing the Love of God beyond Vallejo throughout the United States and the World through online worship services and virtual Bible classes.