Our Past

In 1932, Living Hope Community (formerly known as Sepulveda Christian Center) started on a small three acre ranch, in Van Nuys California. God called Felisa Fernandez (Pastor Sam’s grandmother) to full time ministry in 1936 and remained the Senior Pastor until 1973. Her ministry was characterized by signs and wonders, an unshakeable confidence in God’s Word, a dynamic preaching style, and a gift of faith to believe God for the impossible. She was succeeded by Rev. Samuel C. Meza (Pastor Sam’s father) who became the senior pastor after her retirement. In July, 1976 Felisa laid her hands on current Pastor Sam and his wife Janel and commissioned them to move forward with God’s plan and purpose for their generation. Because of her anointing and legacy, the church is still thriving today – 75 years later!

Our Journey

Under Pastor Sam and Janel's leadership the church began to grow to multiple services. It became obvious the church needed to look for a larger place to meet. So in 1991 the Pastors and the leadership decided to take a leap of faith and sell the property on Burnet St. in North Hills. The church moved to Cal State Northridge where we started to experience more growth. In 1994 Cal State Northridge was impacted by the devastating Northridge earthquake. Consequently, Living Hope was left without a place to meet. We prayed for God to open the door for us, and He answered by leading us to Mission College in Sylmar, California. That location turned out to be a bigger blessing because it opened our eyes to a vacant property around the corner from the campus. In 1995 we purchased 6.7 acres of that vacant lot in Sylmar. We thought at that time the purchase of that property would be our final destination. However, God had other plans.

It finally happened! We purchased the Azteca theater in the heart of downtown San Fernando. Our goal was to renovate “a state of the art” theater to be a vehicle to reach the emerging generation. During this time, Janel and Pastor Sam were cultivating a relationship with Pastor Rudy and Annette Trujillo, pastors of Praise Chapel, who were holding their services at the theater. After much conversation and prayer, Living Hope and Praise Chapel joined forces to work together as one for the cause of Christ.

Our Destination... A New Chapter Unfolds

With much anticipation, our new theater will soon be completed and our new ministry dreams will begin. Our vision has been to create an amazing place where our church family can “reach out” to our community with the timeless message of hope by providing a place where people can feel welcomed and loved.

Can you capture the vision in your heart and mind? God has surely blessed us in the past, but the past blessings cannot be compared to the blessings that He has in store for our future.

Living Hope Leadership Team