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.”