How Our Story Started
Our beloved Founding Pastor, Pastor Lee, now resides in Heaven enjoying life everlasting in the presence, glory, and eternal love of our Heavenly Father. While there isn't enough space to tell the entire story of how the Lord worked and preformed miracle after miracle in the life of Joy Christian Center and Pastor Lee, the following was written by Pastor Lee's beloved wife, Bertha Wheatley. She explains the inception of Joy Christian Center with more detail, revealing how God's guidance and Spirit was and has always been active in the life of JCC.
"In the beginning of 1982 Pastor Lee shared with the college and youth class he taught at the time how God was going to do a new thing very soon. No one even thought it was going to take Pastor Lee away from the church he was at. But God inspired him with a vision to start a church, not for himself, but for God. God spoke to Lee and asked him to take a paper and pen in hand and begin to write names as He gave them. There were 12 names on the list. God told Lee to call all the people and ask them to meet at his house on the evening of March 10, 1982. They all showed up. Just to let you know none of the twelve were plugged in to any one church. Pastor Lee shared with the group how God had told him of the plan to start a church and how their names had come to be on the list. At the end of the night eight of the twelve decided that they wanted to be a part of what God was doing. God supplied all we needed. Therefore, Joy Christian Center had its beginning. We continued meeting in the home until Easter of that same year and miraculously God opened a place for the church to meet in Arcadia at the Best Western Hotel. We were there for one year. Going back let me say that when Pastor Lee was asked by the pastor of the church where he was employed at, 'Lee where are you going to plant the church' without hesitation Lee replied 'Duarte' and he had never been to Duarte or heard of it. Then one day as Lee was driving down the freeway he saw a beautiful rainbow. He said he could see the end of it so he drove his car in that direction. And low and behold the end of the rainbow was in the town of Duarte. So the search began for a place for the church to meet. Whenever Lee wanted to go to Duarte to look for a building there were always lots of roadblocks (spiritually and physically). Then one day when we were in Glendora at the Home Depot running an errand for a friend,
"In the beginning of 1982 Pastor Lee shared with the college and youth class he taught at the time how God was going to do a new thing very soon. No one even thought it was going to take Pastor Lee away from the church he was at. But God inspired him with a vision to start a church, not for himself, but for God. God spoke to Lee and asked him to take a paper and pen in hand and begin to write names as He gave them. There were 12 names on the list. God told Lee to call all the people and ask them to meet at his house on the evening of March 10, 1982. They all showed up. Just to let you know none of the twelve were plugged in to any one church. Pastor Lee shared with the group how God had told him of the plan to start a church and how their names had come to be on the list. At the end of the night eight of the twelve decided that they wanted to be a part of what God was doing. God supplied all we needed. Therefore, Joy Christian Center had its beginning. We continued meeting in the home until Easter of that same year and miraculously God opened a place for the church to meet in Arcadia at the Best Western Hotel. We were there for one year. Going back let me say that when Pastor Lee was asked by the pastor of the church where he was employed at, 'Lee where are you going to plant the church' without hesitation Lee replied 'Duarte' and he had never been to Duarte or heard of it. Then one day as Lee was driving down the freeway he saw a beautiful rainbow. He said he could see the end of it so he drove his car in that direction. And low and behold the end of the rainbow was in the town of Duarte. So the search began for a place for the church to meet. Whenever Lee wanted to go to Duarte to look for a building there were always lots of roadblocks (spiritually and physically). Then one day when we were in Glendora at the Home Depot running an errand for a friend,
Pastor Lee E. Wheatley - Founding Pastor
this man came up to us and told us that every time he would pass this church in Duarte, God would tell him to call Pastor Lee. He didn't call so God had to arrange THE MEETING, of all places at a home improvement store and in a town that we were unfamiliar with. We got so excited about he possibility of an actual church building we were on our way to Duarte to locate it. We could not find it so we stopped at a phone booth and looked up the number of the church. At that time it was owned by the Free Methodist. The secretary was very accommodating when we requested to see the building. We stepped inside the building and God spoke to me and said, 'This is going to be your new home.' We were there for several years then moved down the street to the Masons Lodge where we literally had to pray to remove the oppression from the building. We were there for several years then we were invited back to the church where we were before, by this time the church had been refurbished, what a glorious day that was. We were there until July of 2010. Then we were at the YMCA in Covina for 15 months and moved to our present location in November, 2011."
Carrying The Story Forward
Hello! I am Pastor Johny (yes, that's me in the picture, along side my beautiful wife and adorable daughter). We are so thankful for Pastor Lee stepping out in bold faith and listening to the voice of God to go and build His church and bring forth His Kingdom. We continue to carry forward the torch God gave to Pastor Lee decades ago with a passion to build up His church in His power, love, truth, and Spirit and to bring forth the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in heaven, one redeemed, saved, set free, and transformed person at a time. If this sounds like something you would like to make part of your story, we invite you to be a part of our JCC Family and to come along side us as we follow Jesus, becoming part of His story, and are empowered by His Holy Spirit to carry out the mission and purpose He has given us!