The first Protestant congregation in Milpitas began in 1871 as First Presbyterian Church of Milpitas. It was located near the intersection of what is now Main Street and Weller Lane, on land donated by the Curtner Family.
FPCM was established as a branch of First Presbyterian Church of San Jose, but in 1915 the families in the Milpitas congregation returned to San Jose to worship. In 1964 the Presbytery of San Jose once again looked to the city of Milpitas as a strategic location for church development. In July 1964, the Reverend Albert Damon was called by the New Works Committee to begin the reorganization of First Presbyterian Church of Milpitas.
The first worship service was held in a model home on September 13, 1964, and the church was officially reorganized on June 27, 1965. At the reorganization service, Mr. Curtner presented the church with the original finial, the bell on our patio, the silver baptismal font, communion chalice, and two communion bread plates.
In November 1966 groundbreaking was held for the permanent location of the church building on 4.6 acres of land at our current site on the corner of Clear Lake Drive and South Park Victoria Avenue in Milpitas.
Pastor John Bristol was installed as Pastor in March 1975. John came to this church from Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church and is a graduate of Wheaton College and Princeton Seminary. John received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1988.
In June 1977 Pastor Jim Tirone came to FPCM from the Boston area to serve as our summer intern. In January 1978 Session asked him to stay and Jim accepted the call to the position of Associate Pastor. Jim is a graduate of Wheaton College and Gordon-Conwell Seminary.
We began a strong, long-standing relationship with Compassion International in May 1997 when 187 third-world children were adopted for sponsorship by our congregation. Our members currently sponsor over 1000 Compassion International children.
On October 1, 2002, two words were changed in our church’s name and First Presbyterian Church of Milpitas became Christ Community Church of Milpitas. Our new name proclaims that we are here for Christ and for the community. It also signified a new era for us as we seek to bring the love and truth of Christ to our community and world.
The congregation began its ninth consecutive stewardship campaign in January of 2004 with the goal of building new facilities to facilitate ministry growth. The Daring to Dream Again campaign provided the funds to hire an architect and go through the initial design stages of a master building plan. In January 2007, we kicked off the initial campaign to fund phase 1 of the master building plan with the “Future with Purpose” campaign. The campaign raised $2.4M and construction began with groundbreaking on April 6, 2008.
In May 2009, we moved into the new Ministry Center on the corner of South Park Victoria and Clear Lake. On the first floor, we have a social hall that can accommodate 300, a coffee shop, an aquarium, and a state-of-the-art kitchen. The second floor houses the church offices for the Pastors and church staff. |
