Our Story

How it all started...

As a child, Dallas Sandoval, witnessed a life devoted to God through the example of his father.  Dallas was active in his church as a youth. At the age of fifteen the elders prayed over him and his Pastor told Dallas that God was calling him to pastor a church one day. Not long after, Dallas fell away from his faith and followed a path of addiction for 10 years. On December 27, 1997 a sober Dallas answered an altar call giving his life to Jesus Christ. Happy to be free from the life of an addict, Dallas sought the counsel of a mentor.  Once again, Dallas was told that God was calling him to become a pastor by an evangelist, while attending a tent revival meeting in 1999. In 2002, Dallas and his wife started a Bible study in their home, continued to study the Word, attended a local church, and began to listen to   expository teaching on CSN radio. While attending a second home study group, a brother in Christ, shared that he had a dream where Dallas was the pastor of a church in Toppenish.
A few years later, the study group combined with 4th Avenue Community Church in Toppenish. It was a 32 year-old  inexperienced new pastor who lead the first Sunday worship service with 40 attendees in the park on June 27, 2004 as Lighthouse Christian Fellowship.

Pastor Dallas has taken the Pastor Chuck Smith C2000 Series 2-year course, studied the Servants Call course series.  The church began their affiliation with the Calvary Chapel  fellowship of Churches in 2005. The congregation met in various rented facilities over the years until the current location was purchased in May of 2007.

Currently Lighthouse Christian Fellowship | Calvary Chapel Toppenish offers three weekly services, has grown to 250  regular attendees at the Sunday morning worship service, and celebrated its 19th church anniversary in 2023. The church continues to grow both spiritually and numerically as it follows the precepts of Biblical teaching,   service, prayer, worship, and evangelism.

20th Year Anniversary
Celebrated on June, 30th 2024

Our church family continues to grow as we are fed the truth of God's Word each week.  The leadership team at CCToppenish continues to seek God's guidance for new opportunities to establish other congregations in our surrounding area.

The Calvary Chapel Story...

Calvary Chapel was founded by Pastor Chuck Smith in 1965. He began with a small group in Costa Mesa, California. The “Hippie Movement” was in full swing in Southern California so Pastor Chuck broke convention and sowed seeds of the Gospels in the hearts of the youth in the counterculture; hippies, drug addicts, and those not accepted by the other churches of that day. Pastor Chuck saw an amazing   transformation of delinquents and aimless young people into individuals on fire for God. As they grew in the Lord, Pastor Chuck saw the need to plant other churches. God wanted to use these “on fire” young people as leaders.
Calvary Chapel broke many    traditions, creating a very relaxed atmosphere of worship. Now more than fifty years later, Calvary Chapels are still reaching out to the lost and attempting to love the unlovable with an international   ministry of over 1,800 fellowships throughout the world. We are best known for our strong emphasis on the    teaching of God’s Word and the application of the Word to every day life. Part of Pastor Chuck’s philosophy is to teach through the Word of God systematically. He felt this is much more productive, and allows the full counsel of God’s Word to work in the hearts of the people.