In The Spirit

Michele Marr

ADDRESS: 20112 Magnolia St. (south of Adams), Huntington Beach

TELEPHONE: (714) 968-4940

WEB SITE: o7 https://www.cpchb.org

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DENOMINATION: Presbyterian Church of the USA

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1965

SERVICE TIMES: Sunday morning services are at 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11

a.m. Sunday school at 8 a.m. includes nursery for infants through 30

months and classes for children age 30 months through children in 6th

grade.

SENIOR PASTOR: Gary J. Watkins

ASSOCIATE PASTOR: Cheryl McClanahan.

STAFF: The church has about 15 other staff members who provide

secretarial and administrative services as well as Sunday school, youth,

women and men’s programs leadership and missions and outreach leadership.

SIZE OF CONGREGATION: 500 adult members. 120-140 children.

MAKEUP OF CONGREGATION: Members include many seniors -- the church is

close to the Landmark community -- lots of young children as well as high

school age youth, college-age young adults and single adults.

CHILD CARE: Provided for all services.

TYPE OF WORSHIP: The 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. services are contemporary,

with music provided by the church’s praise band -- guitar, electronics,

drums -- and at times soloists. The 11 a.m. the service is more

traditional, with music provided by the church’s chancel choir, which

will be back in September. Traditional hymns as well as some of the more

contemporary songs are used in the service. Both services have a time of

worship, prayer, confession and assurance of forgiveness.

TYPE OF SERMON: Sermons are usually part of a series based on a book

from the scriptures or a topic. Watkins approach to teaching is inductive

rather than deductive.

RECENT MESSAGE: A series on “What We Believe.”

UPCOMING MESSAGE: In September Watkins will begin a series on

Christian apologetics, “Reasons To Believe.”

DRESS: People are welcome to come in what is comfortable for them.

VISITOR INFORMATION: Visitors may fill out a visitor card if they like

and may request that someone call them. The church prefers to allow

visitors to make themselves known at their own pace. A visitor’s table

provides literature and a welcome gift to newcomers who stop by and let

the table’s staff know they visited.

CHURCH PROGRAMS: The church has a lot of small groups, prayer groups

and Bible study groups. There are ongoing ministry opportunities. There

is a lot of midweek ministry with children, youth and college-age adults.

The church sponsors a number of camps. Every August there is a family

camp that meets at Mount Hermon in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Youth groups

go camping, house boating and on mission trips. There are very active

men’s and women’s ministries. The church strives to disciple and to

enrich the people in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

OUTREACH PROGRAMS: Teams from the church were in Thailand this summer

for a variety of ministries. In addition to visiting missionaries they

worked with a ministry, which the congregation supports. It buys girls

out of prostitution and slavery and gets them situated, educated and set

free from that life. Teams go to Guatemala and support Bible translators.

They also work to build housing for widows of the civil war. In India

teams have helped to build homes for leprosy patients and supported a

leprosy hospital, medical center and medical staff. Along with other

local Presbyterian churches the Congregation has built homes in East

Africa outside Nairobi and helped put water wells on the church property

for the community to have fresh water. The church also supports

missionaries who are teachers and pediatricians in Nairobi and Indonesia.

Locally, the church goes to Mexico and distributes food and clothing to

people who live in the city dumps who have very little. The church

supports food drives through the Ecumenical Service Alliance and assists

other local outreaches to feed those in need.

MISSION STATEMENT: To glorify God, proclaim the Good News of Jesus

Christ and share the love of God with the local community and beyond.

Explained Watkins, “We glorify God by not only worship, but by growing in

the character of Christ. So our desire is to present people mature in

Christ.”

INTERESTING NOTE: The church is in the middle of a major building

project. It is simply out of space and needs to expand its facilities.

The first phase of building, with costs that approached close to a

million dollars, was just completed. It included adding a number of

modular buildings, expanding parking lots, remodeling the fellowship hall

into a more aesthetically appealing worship space, adding

air-conditioning to the buildings and putting in place all the utilities

for the next phase of construction. The church is now about to embark on

the next phase, a major remodeling of the front building and a

15,000-square-foot addition.

The church runs a preschool that currently has 180 children enrolled.

It is open to the community, but it does have a waiting list for new

students. Classes run through the academic year and for a month of summer

school.

* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer and graphic designer from

Huntington Beach. She has been interested in religion and ethics for as

long as she can remember. She can be reached at o7

michele@soulfoodfiles.com.f7