Patient expansion
Michele Marr
One biblical proverb teaches, “Train up a child in the way he
should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
It’s a thread of wisdom Central Baptist Church has long taken to
heart. For almost as long as the church has existed, Liberty
Christian School has coexisted with it.
The church was founded in 1964, a mission of Central Baptist
Church in Anaheim. It had six adult members and seven children. Just
one year later, with 100 members, it purchased a five-acre property
on Warner Avenue in Huntington Beach. The congregation met in two
temporary buildings brought to the site.
By 1970, the church had founded Liberty Christian School with the
aim to reinforce in school the biblical teachings, moral principles
and discipline parents worked to teach their children at home. The
school’s goal was -- and still is -- to help parents raise their
children to be knowledgeable and responsible, spiritually mature
adults.
In 1977, Bruce C. Melton became the church’s senior pastor. Under
his ministry, the growing congregation built a sanctuary to hold
1,000 people. It was clear though, in time, that the church and the
school needed expanded facilities for their other programs and
ministries.
“In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, we started taking steps to make
that happen, and Dr. Melton has carried us all the way through it,”
said Drew Lockerbie, executive pastor of Central Baptist Church.
It was imperative, according to Lockerbie, to go into the project
as well funded as possible. The church and the school did not want
the expansion to raise the cost of tuition so much that it would be a
financial burden on the families of students, so the congregation
began to hold fund-raising projects.
It also began to explore ways to meet the combined and diverse
needs of a large church congregation, a school offering kindergarten
through 12th grade and a preschool all within the limited space of
its five-acre property.
After a lot of patient waiting, mutual consideration and skillful
planning assisted by an architect and contractor, the congregation
broke ground for its building expansion on Oct. 5, 1998.
“We could have had just classrooms a long time ago, but we wanted
to make sure we also had a gymnasium, with lockers and shower rooms,
to be competitive with our sports program, and a nice kitchen for
lunch programs and for banquets and dinners to meet the needs of the
church and the school,” Lockerbie said.
On Sunday, the congregation will at long last observe the
Dedication and Consecration Day for its long-awaited new facilities.
Melton, who chose Sunday for the celebration because of its proximity
to Thanksgiving, sees the day as a “a very special day of rejoicing
and giving thanks.”
Because of the limited size of its property, the congregation had
to build up three stories to accommodate new classrooms, an
8,000-square-foot gymnasium, an industrial kitchen, a weight room, a
computer lab, music rooms, a science lab, a clock tower and plenty of
parking.
By its patient planning, the church has gained 28,000 square feet
of new, functional space that allows for an additional enrollment of
200 students while still maintaining its long-held low
student-to-teacher ratio.
The dedication of the building, along with the consecration of
church and school staff, will take place Sunday at 10:30 a.m. At 6
p.m., church members, students, families and friends will gather in
the new gymnasium-fellowship hall to share a celebration of food and
games.
Melton hopes that anyone associated with, or interested in, the
church or school will attend Sunday’s events.
“This is a time of great satisfaction,” he said. “The students are
already enjoying the new the campus. This is the Lord’s doing and
it’s marvelous in our eyes.”
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