A Reformed Witness in the Napa Valley
On a quiet street in the city of Napa, the building at 4149 Linda Vista Avenue has been the home of Napa Valley Community Church since 2001. Worshipers gather there each Sunday morning for a service that opens at ten o'clock and runs until noon, with a coffee hour and a casual Open Forum threaded in between. The congregation is small by many measures, averaging sixty to seventy people each week, but it carries a weighty theological inheritance: Napa Valley Community Church belongs to the Christian Reformed Church in North America and lives within the historic Reformed Protestant tradition that traces its roots back to sixteenth-century Geneva.
The church's self-description, repeated across its materials, is straightforward. It is a Bible-believing church in the Reformed tradition. Its services seek to honor God in all that is done. Its sermons are expository in nature. The cross inside a triangle that serves as the church's icon captures that identity in a single image. The triangle represents the Trinity, one God known as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The cross within it points to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the only means of salvation.
From Two Families to a Closed Door, and Back Again
The story of the congregation spans more than four decades, two lives as a church, and a remarkable act of resurrection. It begins in the summer of 1983, when two families, the VanHofwegens and the Woudenbergs, began efforts to establish a Christian Reformed Church in the Napa Valley. The Reverend C. Eric Fennema accepted the call to be the first pastor, with the Walnut Creek CRC doing the calling, and he arrived with his family in December 1983.
On December 28, 1983, the Steering Committee was formed and officers were elected. The first Sunday worship service was held on January 1, 1984, in the newly purchased facility at 1701 Menlo Avenue, with Sunday school following in September of that year. The first Vacation Bible School was held in the summer of 1984. On October 22, 1985, the congregation was officially organized as The Napa Valley Christian Reformed Church, with twenty-six eligible voting members. At that same meeting Pastor Fennema was officially extended the call to Napa by the newly formed congregation, and the first council was seated with Jack VanHofwegen and Stan Pang as Elders and Woody Woudenberg and Gary Farmer as Deacons.
The church grew steadily through the late 1980s. A girls' ministry called the Calvinette program began in 1986 with just four girls and two counselors. It eventually grew to more than fifty girls and at one time was the largest such group in the regional Classis. By 1987 the congregation had grown to about twelve families and was averaging fifty to sixty in morning attendance. Coffee Break and Story Hour, a women's Bible study, began in the spring of 1987 with about twenty women attending. In the spring of 1988 Pastor Fennema accepted a call to Rock Valley, Iowa. The Reverend Berton VanAntwerpen accepted the call to Napa and began his service in January 1989.
The congregation soon outgrew the Menlo Avenue location. The building was sold and the church moved to the newly remodeled D.T. Davis school facility at 1600 Myrtle Avenue, where a Cadet program for boys was begun. Plans to purchase property and build were blocked by the city each time the congregation tried. Growth continued, however, and in December 1991 the church moved again, this time to a larger rented facility at 28 Highland Drive from the Korean Seventh Day Adventists. Around that time the name was shortened to Valley Community Church.
Pastor Bert VanAntwerpen accepted a call to the Princeton CRC in Grand Rapids, Michigan in January 1993. A series of interim pastors ably served the congregation for nearly a year and a half until Dr. Phillip DeJonge accepted the call and arrived in July 1994. Soon after, the church moved again, this time to 902 Enterprise Way, celebrating its first service there on May 7, 1995. Several years later, financial hardship among several members forced a relocation in January 2000 to a less expensive location on Trancas, where Sunday services were held in the mid-afternoon. Membership plummeted from about 175 down to about 60.
Then in the spring of 2001, the congregation was able through the grace of God to purchase the building that has been its home ever since, at 4149 Linda Vista Avenue. Shortly after the move, Pastor DeJonge accepted a call to St. Joe, Michigan. A search team was formed and Pastor Roger Visker accepted the call in the summer of 2002, moving to Napa with his family. During his tenure, much work was done to the facility and several mission trips to Haiti were organized. He served until February 2008.
Former Pastor Bert VanAntwerpen returned in January 2009 to lead the congregation through an analysis of ministry and a reorganization effort. Working with Pastor Bert and the leadership of The Gathering Church in Sacramento, the congregation determined that the best way to revitalize the church and change the culture to a more seeker-oriented one was to close, move to a home church model, and eventually reopen. On Sunday, May 21, 2009, a memorial service was held for VCC and the church building was officially closed to further meetings.
A Brand New Ministry, 2009 to Today
Beginning in June 2009, a group of about thirty people began meeting weekly in homes with the idea of planting a new church in Napa. From June 2009 through Easter 2010 this home church worked through the book of Acts, learning how the early church carried out ministry. The home church model proved difficult to sustain, and over the next year the group dwindled down to nine adults and two children. In June 2010 the remaining people voted to close the church permanently and sell the Linda Vista building, ending the effort to build a Reformed church in Napa.
Before making that vote official, the group determined to spend thirty days in prayer on the matter. At the July 2010 meeting the group reconvened, with each person confirming that God was not releasing them from this ministry. With renewed commitment, they continued on to build a Reformed ministry in the Napa Valley. Within two weeks of that decision, the group received a total of $25,000 in denominational and classical grants to help with the process.
Dave Buurma began preaching for the new group, with his wife Laurie providing the musical leadership. Semi-regular services in the Linda Vista facility were begun in September 2010. Buurma completed his Sierra Leadership Network training in February 2011 and was called to be the bi-vocational Pastor of VCC that month. His classical examination was held in March 2011 and his formal ordination took place the same month. Every-week services began on Easter Sunday, 2011.
From nine adults and two children the church began to grow. Children's ministries came back into place, two women's prayer groups began meeting, a men's group began meeting, and a Church History course started being taught on Thursday nights at the church. The Lord's Supper returned to its place on the first and third Sundays of the month, and a Potluck Sunday was reinstated on the last Sunday of each month.
In July 2014 the name was changed to Napa Valley Community Church to better identify the congregation's location and to reflect its new vision statement: Where we welcome you to discover the life changing love of God! In December 2024, for the second time in its history, NVCC became an officially designated organized church in the Christian Reformed denomination.
Sunday Morning at 4149 Linda Vista
The Sunday service is the rhythm that holds the church's life together. It begins at ten o'clock in the morning and runs through a sequence that is at once structured and warm. The order of worship includes an opening greeting and announcements, a call to worship, the passing of the peace, a song of praise, a prayer for the children, a reading of confession, a song of confession, the reading of the assurance of pardon, a song of the assurance of pardon, the reading of a historical creed or confession, a song of thanksgiving, the offering, congregational prayer, scripture reading, and the day's exegetical message. On the first and third Sundays of the month, the Lord's Supper is part of this rhythm. The service closes with a parting blessing and the doxology.
Sermons at NVCC are typically expository, walking through books of the Bible in sequence and digging carefully into the text. Series have included long journeys through the Gospel of Mark, Genesis: Foundations of Faith, the I AM sayings of Jesus in John, the book of James under the banner A Faith That Works, Paul's missionary journeys, Galatians: Our Declaration of Independence, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Six Vows of Every Believer, and the attributes of God. A summer sermon series has featured congregational requests, and Christmas seasons have been marked by series such as Christmas in a Chaotic World and The Songs of Christmas.
After the service concludes, the congregation breaks for coffee and social time. From 11:30 to 11:55 a.m., an Open Forum is offered for those who can stay, an opportunity to ask about the morning's sermon message or to discuss it further. The morning wraps up at noon.
The Lord's Supper is celebrated on the first and third Sundays of the month. Potluck Sunday is observed on the last Sunday of each month, a shared meal that doubles as a community moment around the table.
The Reformed Tradition: Creeds and Confessions
Napa Valley Community Church is a local ministry of the Christian Reformed Church of North America, a denomination that traces its history back through the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century to Geneva and the work of John Calvin, and to the United States in 1857. NVCC itself is part of the Central California Classis of the CRC, a regional body that gathers churches from Bakersfield to the Oregon border.
The church subscribes to the historical ecumenical creeds: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. It also subscribes to the three Reformed confessions: the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dort. The Five Solas of the Reformation, Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus, and Soli Deo Gloria, summarize the doctrinal heart of the church's teaching. Full texts of each creed and confession are made available on the church's theology page, and the Heidelberg Catechism in particular has been a recurring preaching source over the years.
The church describes itself as Christ-centered, Bible-based, committed to biblical marriage between a man and a woman, committed to the biblical family, and rooted in the Reformed perspective. The Bible is taught in church and in Bible studies, and sermons are typically exegetical by choice and design. Members and attenders are encouraged to make daily focused time for prayer and Bible study and to make regular church attendance a priority. Every ministry and service, in the church's words, is intended to enhance and promote the ideal of the family of God.
The Belgic Confession, written in 1561 by Guido de Brès during the Spanish persecution of the Lowlands, is one of the most detailed of the church's doctrinal standards. It traces the knowledge of God from creation and from holy Scripture, confesses the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the deity of the Holy Spirit, the creation of all things, divine providence, the fall of humanity, original sin, election, the incarnation and the two natures of Christ, the atonement, justification by faith, sanctification, the church, the sacraments, the civil magistrate, the last judgment, and the life everlasting. Visitors who want to read along can find the entire confession, alongside the other creeds and confessions, in the theology section.
Forming Faith in the Next Generation
Children are an essential part of life at Napa Valley Community Church. The congregation holds that the family was the first institution created by God and remains the primary means by which the Christian faith is taught and spread. As the church puts it, parents have been entrusted with the sacred and weighty responsibility of training and discipling their children, and the church exists to come alongside and partner in teaching young ones about the love of God and the power of his Word.
In practice, children join the rest of the congregation for the family singing and worship portion at the beginning of the ten o'clock service, then are escorted into Sunday School classes where age-appropriate lessons from the Bible are taught. In addition to their Sunday school study, children are encouraged as they are able to memorize scripture verses and are given the opportunity to share what they have memorized with the congregation. Two Registered Nurses serve on the team of carefully selected teachers, and a Safe Church Policy is in place to protect every child in the program.
Outside of Sunday mornings, the church encourages families to continue the work of faith at home. The vision is that the Christian education of children is a partnership, parents as the primary disciplers and the church as a supporting resource.
Learning Together, Week by Week
Beyond the Sunday service and Sunday School, Napa Valley Community Church gathers during the week in smaller settings for study and prayer. Two women's prayer groups meet regularly. A men's group meets as well. A Church History course is taught on Thursday nights at the church, drawing students who want to trace the story of Christianity from the early church through the Reformation and into the modern world.
The coffee hour after Sunday worship and the Open Forum that follows extend the same commitment to learning and conversation. The Open Forum exists specifically so that people can ask questions about the morning's text or message, a deliberate opening that treats the sermon as the start of a conversation rather than its end.
The church encourages every member and every attendee to make daily focused time for prayer and Bible study, as well as making regular church attendance a priority. In its own words, the people of NVCC seek a refreshing God-centered and Christ-centered worship, loving and authentic fellowship, and invigorating and life-affirming service.
Hands in the Soil and Beyond
Community engagement at Napa Valley Community Church has a deeply local flavor. The most visible is the Area Community Gardens, inspired by a group of local gardeners in 2009. Church members pointed out that the church property had a suitable plot of ground right in front of the building, and the church offered a ten-by-five-foot plot for free to any gardener willing to farm it organically for personal use. The gardens continue to weekly contribute food to members, to neighbors in the wider community, and to the local Napa Valley food bank.
The congregation also supports several ministries and organizations whose work they affirm and whose causes they help fund. These include 40 Days for Life, the largest internationally coordinated pro-life mobilization, helping local communities end the injustice of abortion; Ligonier Ministries, the teaching fellowship of Reformed theologian R.C. Sproul, which provides higher theological education to lay people; the Pacific Justice Institute, which defends religious freedoms, parental rights, and other civil liberties; the Sierra Leadership Network, a church-leadership training program that equips church leaders to serve their local congregations; and World Renew, a disaster relief and community development agency that is a ministry of the Christian Reformed Church.
Reaching Out Globally
Beyond Napa, the church's mission support focuses on community-driven development in impoverished communities. The goal of these efforts is to address the economic, physical, and emotional health of a community, recognizing that extreme poverty requires a proactive and holistic approach. The church partners with indigenous organizations, local leadership, and other US nonprofits to reach into remote areas around the world and help anchor healthy, sustainable communities.
In addition, the congregation supports two denominational mission arms: Christian Reformed World Missions and Christian Reformed World Renew. Past mission trips under Pastor Roger Visker's leadership took teams to Haiti, and the church continues to channel prayer and financial support through the CRC's worldwide network.
Pastor Dave and the People of NVCC
Pastor Dave Buurma has served as the bi-vocational pastor of Napa Valley Community Church since his classical examination and call in early 2011. He and his wife Laurie helped lead the small group that prayed its way back into existence after the 2009 closure, with Laurie providing the musical leadership that has continued to this day. Pastor Dave's training came through the Sierra Leadership Network, and his ordination in the denomination took place in March 2011, just before the first regular Sunday service on Easter of that year.
The Buurmas continue to be central to the life of the church. Laurie is the contact for the children's ministry, helping coordinate teachers, families, and the Safe Church Policy. Guest speakers occasionally fill the pulpit when Pastor Dave is away. Lamar Lewis appears in the sermon archive as a visiting preacher who has delivered messages on texts such as Romans 5:1-2, Titus 3:3-7, and Luke 4:14-21.
Sermons, Online and On Demand
The church maintains an extensive sermon archive, available in audio form through a podcast and in video form through Vimeo. Sermons are typically uploaded after 2:30 p.m. Pacific on the Sunday they are delivered. The archive goes back to the earliest days of the renewed ministry and stretches forward through the present, organized by series and by date. Anyone interested in following a particular book of the Bible or a particular theme, from Foundations of Faith to The Six Vows of Every Believer to The Sovereignty of God, can find the relevant messages collected together.
Online giving is available for those who would like to support the ministry financially, and the church pledges to be a good steward of any gift contributed. Visitors who want to come in person are warmly invited to worship at 4149 Linda Vista Avenue any Sunday morning at ten o'clock. The phone line is open for any questions before a first visit.
From two families in 1983 to a congregation that has closed, prayed itself back into existence, and now thrives at sixty to seventy people a week, Napa Valley Community Church is a community church with deep denominational roots. It is Bible-believing, expository in its preaching, governed by the historic creeds and Reformed confessions, and committed to the family and to the next generation. Its vision statement still reads, Where we welcome you to discover the life changing love of God.