As Grace Church prepares to celebrate its 70th anniversary next year, we recognize and honor those whom God has used to build this church.
It’s likely that many of the thousands who attend Grace Church each week don’t know that the oldest building on campus is called “The Michaelson Chapel.” And that’s just fine with the man the building is named after. Burton Michaelson has never needed the spotlight. For the entire 69-year history of this church, he’s been happy to labor behind the scenes to build—literally build—Grace Church.
Burton and his wife, Dolores, who married in 1950 and celebrated their 75th anniversary on June 16, were part of a group of young families who planted Grace Church in 1956. At first, the church met in the home of one of those families, the Smiths, but quickly outgrew that space and started renting from the Van Nuys nursery. As they looked for a permanent home, Burton took a drive down a new road that cut through the center of the Valley. There he saw a “for sale” sign on the plot of land that is now 13248 Roscoe Boulevard.
It’s hard to imagine from the vantage point of 2025 just how different Roscoe Boulevard and the San Fernando Valley must have looked through Burton’s eyes as he first saw the property in 1956. The year the church was founded, the population of the entire Valley was just over 100,000. There was still an abundance of orchards and farmland, including the area around the property Burton found. Today, nearly two million people live in the San Fernando Valley and the rows of orchards are a distant memory, replaced by rows of houses, strip malls, parks, and movie studios.
The church purchased the property in October of 1956, a relatively empty plot of land that included a chicken coop, which would later serve as the first location of Grace Books. Burton immediately got to work building the Chapel, and the small, modest building was completed in 1957. For the next twelve years, this congregation grew from a few dozen to a few hundred as the Valley’s population exploded. But the Michaelson’s, along with Sam and Emarie Britten and the other young families of Grace Church, couldn’t have imagined all God had in store when they called John MacArthur to be their pastor in February 1969. Not long after Pastor John arrived, the congregation had significantly outgrown the Chapel. So, Burton designed and built the Family Center. Meanwhile, other members of the church were recording Pastor John’s sermons and distributing them, first to shut-ins, then to anyone who wanted them—and lots of people wanted them. By the mid 1970s, the Family Center was bursting at the seams, so Burton’s construction company designed and built the Worship Center. By the time the Worship Center opened its doors in 1977, the church had become far more than a local congregation of San Fernando Valley families. Because of Pastor John’s expository preaching, it had a growing influence all over the world.
Yet through all the change and expanding ministry, the backbone of Grace Church has always been those who, like Burton and the other founding members, serve in unassuming ways, ensuring that the ministry of God’s Word continues to sound forth here in the San Fernando Valley and around the world.
Thousands have come to Grace Church over the past seven decades and used their God-given talents and resources to serve the church. This is exemplified each March at Shepherds Conference, when the global impact of our church is tangibly demonstrated. Nearly 1,000 Grace Church members take off work, sacrificing time and vacation to joyfully serve the pastors from all over the world who come to be encouraged, refreshed, and strengthened in ministry.
As we look at the past, we see God’s faithfulness through our pastor and the people of this church. And as we look to the future, we are confident that God will continue to use this congregation to proclaim the truth and expand His kingdom. We celebrate all God has done in and through Grace Church. The story of this church is, above all, the story of our faithful God, working in the hearts and lives of His people.