Every great work of God begins with a step of faith, and the story of First Pentecostal Church of the Coachella Valley began the day Bishop Paul Walker arrived in Desert Hot Springs, California, on January 13, 1985. He came carrying no crowd, no reputation, no guarantee — only a calling.
He opened the doors of a small building on Pearson Avenue, and on that very first day, four faithful souls gathered together to answer the call of God. Four people. One vision. And a God who has always specialized in taking the small and the humble and turning it into something that can shake an entire valley.
From that small beginning on Pearson Avenue, Bishop Walker did not simply build a congregation — he built a revival. For more than two decades, he pastored this church with a fire and a devotion that turned a handful of believers into a thriving house of worship.
Under his leadership, First Pentecostal Church became known throughout the Coachella Valley as a place where the presence of God was real, where lives were transformed, and where people witnessed firsthand what happens when a man of God refuses to let go of the vision God gave him. He faithfully shepherded this flock until his retirement in 2009.
That same year, Bishop Walker made a decision that would carry the church’s legacy into its next great chapter. He entrusted the pulpit to Pastor Royce Walker, a proven and seasoned man of God who had already spent nine faithful years as the senior pastor of Victory Life Tabernacle in Kingman, Arizona.
This was not simply a handoff — it was a passing of the torch, rooted in the confidence that the same anointing that built this house on Pearson Avenue would continue to burn under new leadership.
And burn it has. Since that transition, First Pentecostal Church of the Coachella Valley has experienced a great move of God and exponential growth.
What started with four people in a small building has grown into a thriving body of believers, and the same spirit of revival that filled that little room on Pearson Avenue in 1985 continues to fill this house today. We stand in awe of everything God has already done — and with faith, expectation, and hearts wide open, we are believing God for even greater things still to come.
