OUR MINISTRIES

The Santa Ynez Valley Presbyterian Church has been marching straight ahead since 1885, when a small group of worshippers met for the first time in a saloon. From there, the congregation moved to the "little red school house" in Ballard, then to the "little white church" in 1888 (also in Ballard). This remained the center of church life until 1966 when the congregation moved into a new sanctuary, part of a much larger complex on 5 acres (that remains the hub of our current site). In 1997, SYVPC purchased a 10-acre parcel adjacent to the existing 5-acre campus.

 

In 2004, to accommodate our continuing growing population, plans were started for a new sanctuary. In 2008, we moved into our beautiful new sanctuary.In 2012, after years of prayerful consideration, the session of SYVPC recommended that the congregation leave the PCUSA and join ECO (Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians). This was overwhelmingly approved by our members. In February 2014. SYVPC officially became an ECO church, operating with the Presbytery of the West. Four months later, we celebrated our move into ECO with the ordination of our Associate Pastor, Glenn Beede, as an ECO pastor.

 

After our senior pastor, Reverend Rick Murray, retired in November 2019, the church began a search process for a candidate to fill this position. The search committee completed the process in December, 2020 and selected Glenn Beede. Pastor Glenn had begun his ministry at SYVPC as a Youth Pastor in 2004 and had held the position of Associate Pastor since 2014. In 2020 he was installed as our Senior Pastor and Head of Staff.

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We invite you to become a part of our story as the Lord leads you.