A Historical Blog

Church History V

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:38:44 -0700

Here is another installment of our church history provided by long time member Clara Rains. This leads up to our 50th anniversary celebration on Sunday, October 12, 2008:

CHURCH HISTORY 1988-2008

I am still struggling with the need to answer the question I have been asked many times “how we managed to drop from over 500 people to a little over 100?”.
Grover and I had been associated with several churches before we arrived at Hacienda Heights. Once we were discussing the pattern of rising/falling church membership. Over the years we worshiped at HHBC we observed what we knew was a pattern not unique to HHBC. The congregation is moving at a smooth even pace of growth on all sides and then there appears to be a decline in attendance, giving and enthusiasm. The Pastor resigns. There is an immediate small but noticeable decline in membership. During the interim ministry, it may continue to decline but usually stabilizes. It seldom rises. When the new pastor is called there is sometimes another drop. Next membership stabilizes and slowly experiences a growth cycle. After few years, there is another perceptible drop in membership and consequently of giving. Eventually the pastor resigns and a few more members leave. Then a new pastor comes on board and the cycle repeats itself, sometimes with a few variations.
In searching church records to refresh my memories, I found a copy of an annual report to the convention in which Bob Westgate stated that “the honeymoon is drawing to a close.” I assumed he was referring to the early phase of this constant cycle. One of the problems at HHBC was that in the growing phases, membership did not rise as far as it had fallen during the decreasing phases.
According to the Annual Report of 1988 membership had dropped to 215 active members, plus 8 inactive members. The annual budget for that year was $268,000.
In mid 1988, Rev. Bill Prigger was chosen to be the interim pastor. He was an inspiration to our church. He provided strong spiritual support to the Deacon Board, and they, along with youth pastor, Michael Fast, managed to keep the church moving forward with a lot of help from the abiding Holy Spirit. In addition his kind and loving ministry helped to soothe many ruffled feathers. The Family Life Center was completed with hard work by Curt Rumage, Ferrell Morgan, Bill Raisner and many others. The Preschool Yard received some finishing touches. Many members gave generously to purchase kitchen accessories and other needed equipment.
In May of 1989 the Pastoral Search Committee presented Rev. Patrick Pang as a candidate for Pastor of Hacienda Heights Baptist Church. The Church moved to hire him. Michael Fast continued on as associate Pastor, Ben Allen continued as Music Director. And in early 1990, Becky Wagner was hired as church secretary. It appeared to me that we had a winning team.
In 1990 HHBC reached an agreement with the Korean Congregation to allow them to use the Family Life Center on Sunday mornings. They had been using our sanctuary in the afternoons.
From the beginning, Patrick Pang had a compassion for the needy and homeless and he also had a spirit of evangelism, so in conjunction with the Evangelism Committee a program called “Reaching New Heights” was created. In April 1994, one Saturday was set aside, flyers were passed at various places in the community announcing food, clothing, job counseling and lunch would be available to needy people. The congregation was asked to donate non-perishable foods and usable clothing, Some members of the congregation, with knowledge of job training, were recruited to share their knowledge. So a fairly large number of people came for the event. They had a good message from Pastor Pang and speeches from the job-training recruits on how to search for a job. They were fed a hot meal and then allowed into the clothing and food closet. Several more of these Saturday “Reaching New Heights” were held over a period of a few years. Later it was decided to just keep the food closet and a room full of clothing on hand for whenever people came by asking for assistance. Previously they were given vouchers and could go and purchase the groceries they chose. Eventually the program was discarded and other things were tried.
After long and fruitful ministries on our staff, Michael Fast and Ben Allen left the church in the early 90s. Merleta Dunn was hired as our music director and Ken Murphy took over as youth director. Meanwhile, Pastor Pang began to pursue a PHD at Fuller Seminary.
Patrick had a gift for visiting the sick and shut-ins, and he did it regularly as needed. He took his whole family to visit hospitals and convalescent homes around the holidays.
Unfortunately the church attendance and membership which had already been dropping, did not turn around and begin to show growth. On the contrary, though baptisms were occurring regularly, and many people came by letter and experience, both membership and church attendance were in a steady decline. The membership went from 388 in January 1983 to 178 in 1991. By the end of 1999 it had plummeted to 125.
In 2000 Dr. Pang announced his resignation as pastor of HHBC effective in October 31, 2000. Soon thereafter, he accepted a position with Rainbow Acres, a ranch for developmentally challenged young men in Arizona.
Dr. James Christian was asked to serve as pulpit supply in October 2000 while the pastoral search committee sought an interim pastor. He served in this capacity until Dr. Richard Carman was selected to serve as the Interim Pastor in February 2001. Each of these men helped to stabilize the church. Dr. Carman felt that it was his responsibility to prepare the facility for a new pastor. This included preparing the congregation spiritually as well as tidying up the campus and getting some repairs taken care of. He worked long hours to get the sprinkling system up and running so the lawns could be watered so as to grow a green cover. Dr. Christian brought scholarly sermons and attempted to open the hearts of the people to new insights into God’s Holy Word.
In February of 2002 the pulpit Committee, after more than 18 months, was ready to introduce a prospective Senior Pastor to the congregation. It was decided to create a gap between the Carmans departure and the arrival of a new pastor, so Dr. Christian was once again asked to serve as pulpit supply
In July of 2002, Rev. Jon Lambert and his family were invited to visit HHBC and spend time with the congregation at several planned events. On Sunday he preached his first sermon. Later that afternoon there was a congregational meeting called to vote on whether to issue a call to him to become our pastor. The vote was positive and the Lamberts accepted the call.
Faith Canedo, who had been our long time pianist, left in 2003 and God blessed us by bringing Joel Gruenberg back to our congregation to fill that position almost immediately. Merleta Dunn and her husband Clint left our church to retire in Colorado in 2004, and again it didn’t take God long to find her replacement in Vinh Luu. Vinh started out part-time while he finished seminary at Haggard Graduate School of Theology, but since has graduated and has become our Associate Pastor with the chief responsibilities being worship ministry and young adults. Peggy Herrington retired as preschool director in 2006. Michelle Bredinger assumed the role next as only the third director in the thirty years that the preschool has been around.
Jon’s expertise was being a youth pastor. He brought with him the start of the youth group for which our congregation had been regularly praying in the persons of his two lively daughters and an energetic son. His experience as a youth pastor was largely what drew the Committee to Jon. We felt it was vital for the survival of our church to be able to build an active youth group. God has provided help in the person of one of our own, Leo Mendoza as a youth leader. His sister Mae has also been instrumental in helping with this ministry. And now He has led a new person to lead our youth. Victor Lee, a graduate of Fuller Seminary, has been welcomed as our new Youth Pastor. God has blessed our church with a large youth department. Once again God is bringing an increasing phase. This year we have seen more baptisms than we have in several years. There is a cohesive spirit. An enthusiasm in the worship services is observed. And praise God for the seven new babies in our congregation. God is good! May HHBC become the beacon in the community that He intended it to be.

Church History IV

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:27:40 -0700

Here is another installment of our church history provided by long time member Clara Rains. This leads up to our 50th anniversary celebration on Sunday, October 12, 2008:

CHURCH HISTORY 1978 - 1988

In May 1975, Michael Slater became interim pastor. Joyce Callow, Bob Polley and Bob Goff continued on the music staff. Craig Harper became the youth Choir Director. Bob Hunt and Pat Lake were hired as part time youth interns. Sandy Mowry became the full time church secretary, and Joan Rodden was hired part time to assist her.
While there was a drop in attendance in both Sunday School and Worship Service attendance from 1977 to 1979, people continued to make decisions for the Lord. Mike Slater proved to be an able leader and an inspiring speaker.
In early 1979 the Pastoral Search committee recommended Dr. Harold Lind, a former Navy Chaplain, to be called as the Senior Pastor of Hacienda Heights Baptist Church. The Church acted favorably on this recommendation.
It was at this time that I left Hacienda Heights to join Grover in Saudi Arabia. In a letter to Carol Smith a few months later, I posed two questions: 1) How is your father doing?, and 2) How goes my church? Her reply came soon: My father has passed away, and both Dr. Lind and Mike Slater have resigned, so we have once again formed a Pastoral Search Committee.
Mike Slater soon accepted a call to pastor what is now Crossroads Community Church in La Habra. The first act of the Search Committee was to hire Dr. Paul Kopp as interim pastor. Dr. Kopp started fence mending: no easy task. He served from Aug.3, 1980 to Feb. 22, 1981. In 1980 Steve Smith and Bob Trachta shared the choir director’s job, and Bob Goff was the Church organist, and Bob Polley was pianist.
In April of 1981 Dr. Bill Tipton and his wife Cathye with their two teen aged sons, Mark and David, arrived to minister along with us. Since Grover and I were still in Saudi Arabia, and Grover’s brother Bill who had lived in our home when we left, we rented our home to the Tiptons so they had a home while they looked for a house suitable for their permanent home in Hacienda Heights. In a recent e-mail to Silvia Bobluk, Cathye remarked that in the early 60’s Dr. Bill flew over in a private plane belonging to a member of the Pomona First Baptist Church to survey the area. The following Saturday he brought the College Department of the Pomona Church to canvass the neighborhood. (This must have been in the late 50’s rather than the 60’s.) She comments that they perhaps knocked at the home of John Gibson that day. It was after this that the Pomona First Baptist Church decided to “plant” HHBC. Dr. Bill was the youth Pastor at Pomona at the time. So says Cathye he was in it at the very beginning. Interestingly, the search committee that ended up finding Pastor Lind, had also approached Dr. Bill and he had turned them down. He said that when they came back the second time, he decided that he should take a longer time to pray about and he finally said yes.
During his ministry the Family Life Center was built, the sign was put up out front, and the Korean ministry was begun. He had the task of restoring confidence in the ministry following an unfortunate chain of events: the turn over of pastors, loss of membership.
One of the earliest tasks was to find an associate pastor to help with the ministry to youth and singles. Rev Michael Fast was called. He started in January of 1982. Even as early as September 1981 he persuaded Deanna Williams to become the Director of Christian Education. And Steve Smith became the full time choir director.
It was during this time that the sculpted garden was leveled, an action that alienated a number of members who still cherished the memory of Gary Callow, and caused some further decline in membership. Sometime during this interval Joyce Callow became the choir director at Crossroads Community Church.
However, it was becoming more and more difficult to maintain. Shrubbery needed to be trimmed every week or so, and there was a lot of it. Kids liked to ride their bikes through it, and it was a hazardous activity. The area homeless had found it and came in at night for a rest. They left rubbish almost every night for others to clean up. In other words it was a nuisance.
It was also at this time that the Annual Reports were started. Every committee chair was asked to submit a summary of their committee’s activities and accomplishments.
On May 31, 1988, Pastor Tipton resigned to accept a call from the First Baptist Church of Carmichael. Cathye says that church is celebrating their 60th anniversary this year.
The Search Committee recommended Dr. Bill Prigger as interim pastor and the church agreed.

Church History III

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:30:18 -0700

Here is another installment of our church history provided by long time member Clara Rains. This leads up to our 50th anniversary celebration on Sunday, October 12, 2008:

CHURCH HISTORY 1974 - 1978

I must back track a bit in this section to mention several other people who played a vital role in the period of rapid growth. Two Bobs became a vital part of the music ministry early on. In the beginning Elinor Enos (later Minge) was the church organist and there was no pianist. Bob and Laurie Trachta became a part of the music ministry. Bob was a talented musician. He soon replaced Russ Murray as Choir Director, a position he held until the Callows arrived. Soon after their arrival, Bob became the Church Pianist. Laurie had a beautiful voice and sang in the choir. The other Bob was Bob Polley, who was also a marvelous pianist. He arrived in 1970. He and Trachta traded off on the piano, and when Elinor left our church Trachta started playing the organ. The two Bobs worked together like magic. They set the pace for worship, and sometimes when they got going it sounded as if the roof had been lifted at least a foot, and heaven was pouring in. There was another Bob for a while, Bob Goff. He played the organ for several years, but never joined our church. Exciting memories! During this period, we had two morning worship services with an average attendance of over 200, plus an evening service.
Talk of enlarging the main building was begun and some preliminary plans were drawn up.
When Bob Westgate left in 1974 to pastor a church in San Diego, the Church called Kenneth Dunkelberger to be our interim pastor. We were in the middle of a church expansion planning. Ken became a driving force in implementing and following through on the projects previously planned. After a year and a half as interim, he was asked to become our permanent pastor. We called Mike Slater to be our youth minister. Ken challenged the C.E. department to set a goal of 500 in Sunday School attendance on rally Sunday. He was the only one who expected us to meet that goal, but we exceeded it.
There were three adult Sunday School classes, plus a college age class and a young married and Singles class. The membership on December 31, 1977 was 653. Average morning worship service attendance was about 490. In 1977 VBS was a two week program with an enrollment of 275, average daily attendance was 248.
It soon became obvious that it was time to expand our facilities again. Plans had been drawn up. Now a professional fund raising organization was hired to conduct a capital fund drive. Members were asked to buy bonds with a maturity date from five to fifteen or more years in the future. When the bonds were all sold, construction could begin. One of the positives of this type of financing was that some purchasers, when their bonds matured, donated them back to the church.
The plan included moving the side walls out. The columns that are still standing in the worship center mark the original walls. They were a part of the support system. The wall put up to make the original narthex was removed and that area was incorporated into the Sanctuary, and the current narthex and two class rooms were a part of this remodeling. It involved a complete refurbishing of the worship area, and the pews were put in at this time! What is now the Preschool (originally called “the quad area”) was also built then.
The rooms in the Quad housed our burgeoning children’s Sunday School classes. We had a separate class for each of the grades from preschool to six. The classrooms on the West wing of the building were also used as a social hall when needed. The classrooms for the youth were in the garden. A lean-to was attached to the east side of the satellite building and housed one of our adult classes. That roof, already sagging, was damaged by a tree and was removed several years ago.
It was during Pastor Dunkelberger’s term, that the Preschool was started with Mary Kopecky Smith as the director.
In 1978 Pastor Dunkelberger announced that he had accepted a call by the convention to move to Irvine and pastor a new church in that area. As our daughter Laura was attending UC Irvine at the time, I was glad to know that she had a church family in that area to give her support and encouragement. But I was sad to hear that we were losing our pastor.
After ascertaining that he was not interested in applying for the position of pastor, Mike Slater was asked to serve as our interim pastor. He accepted this position, and we moved on.

Church History II

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:50:47 -0700

Here is another installment of our church history provided by long time member Clara Rains. This leads up to our 50th anniversary celebration on Sunday, October 12, 2008:

When Grover and I and our two sons joined HHBC in November 1963, we were assigned membership numbers 174 – 177, Forty two members had been dismissed for one reason or another by then, so the church had a membership of about 135. But then as it is now, there were a goodly number of people who attended the church regularly and participated in many of the church activities, but had never joined the church. In 1965 our first pastor, William Salverda, resigned as pastor and a period of rapidly changing leadership ensued. For about six weeks Dr. Curtis Nims was the full time guest speaker. Rev. Don Reiter followed him as interim pastor. (He later became senior pastor of FBC Santa Ana.) In 1966 the church called Rev. Gene Warren to be our pastor. His contract called for him to move into our community, but only a few months later, on moving day, his wife flatly refused to move from their home in Claremont and he resigned his pastorate. Rev. Lawrence Bailey, with his wife Mary, served as interim through June 1967. Eighty-one new members were accepted and sixty members were dropped from the rolls during this period of flux. Many new leaders were developed. This was a period of sorting, as well as maturing of the flock.
In September 1967, Rev. Robert Westgate was called to be the Pastor. He accepted the call and on September 4, 1967 he and his wife Shirley became members of HHBC. They arrived with their two young daughters, and immediately set to work. Within two weeks two young couples joined our church and soon began a ministry with our youth. Jerry Wheeler and Al Campbell, both principals in our local schools, with their wives Sue and Sally, started a youth choir called The Regenerations. It soon had a membership of about forty members who were active in other areas of the ministry. Shortly thereafter, Joyce and Darrell Callow joined us. Joyce let it be known that her chief talent was music, and it was where she felt called to minister. She became our choir director. The adult choir soon had about forty members, up from ten or twelve and many people were drawn to our church through the ministry of these choirs.
Soon we were bursting at the seams. We had filled up the space available and were casting out for some ways to continue to grow. We rented some rooms from the Seventh Day Adventist Church next door to accommodate our expanding Sunday School. Rev. Westgate successfully negotiated with Rose Hills to let us use some of their canopies so we could shelter the large number of children we had in Vacation Bible School. We rented the cafeteria at Mesa Robles School for our annual Christmas banquets for a couple of years.
One morning Rev. Westgate was driving down Stimson Avenue on his way to work when he noticed a wrecking ball on the west side of the street where the sales office of the housing tract was located. He stopped and got out of his car and questioned the men as to what they were going to do with that structure. Upon having it affirmed that they were prepared to raze it and remove it, he persuaded them to hold off on demolition until he could get hold of the owners of the building. He persuaded the owners to donate the building to HHBC and move it onto our church property free of charge. (The church was obligated to put in a foundation.) He then had to convince the Church Board that this was a feasible option. Once moved onto our property, the building quickly acquired the name of Satellite Building because of its weird shape. Before the County would approve its use the center Dome needed to have additional bracing. The iron pole in the center of the hall was the solution. This free building cost the church over $30,000 dollars before it was usable. In addition, two extra rooms were added to accommodate a nursery and a kitchen doubling the original price. The project acquired the sobriquet of “Westgate’s Folly”. However it solved some of our problems for the moment, and is still in use. It has paid for itself many times over.
This still left the problem of how to house our growing Sunday School. A garden area between the Satellite building and the original building was designed with pods on various levels with dirt scooped out to build up higher pods and leaving lower pods. At the lowest spot was a firepit. The steps making it possible to move between the various levels were often used as seating space when we had group activities there. One of the pods is still intact just outside the preschool fence between the preschool office and the playground.
The original design called for a space heater to be installed on each pod, but these never came into fruition. But in the age of outdoor weddings, our sunken garden was a popular spot for weddings. Plus, the garden solved our classroom needs except on rainy or very cold and damp Sunday mornings.
Another of Pastor Westgate’s free acquisitions was a large tree for the garden. How many of you can remember the small olive groves scattered throughout the area? One day Pastor Westgate saw a truck with equipment pulling out an old olive tree from a private yard. He stopped and asked what they were going to do with that tree, and was told that they were going to haul it to the dump. He approached the property owner and asked if it could be taken up with a root ball and planted in our garden. I for one thought it would never live. I was in fact convinced that it was already dead.
I taught the High School Sunday School class on the pod near to where that olive tree was planted. Imagine my surprise one Sunday morning, in the middle of my lesson, after months of looking at that “dead” tree, to glance at it and realize that it had sprouted new little leaves on all the dead branches.
Many of you have noticed the small column just inside the gate from the south parking lot with a plaque noting that the garden is dedicated to the memory of Gary Callow. Gary was a college student who worked at a Seven-Eleven in Garden Grove (I believe) at night to earn his keep. He was also the brother-in-law of our Choir director. He was a fine young man with what seemed a great future studying for the ministry. One night a thief came into the store and delivered a fatal shot and stole all the money in the cash register. It was decided to dedicate the garden to the memory of Gary Callow. Several good friends of his made it their mission to keep the garden trimmed and weeded.
I have given a large amount of space to this chapter, because to me it was the hey day of HHBC. The fellowship was great. People were growing in Christ, and many were coming to know Him as Lord and Savior. We were growing in numbers, increasing and improving our facilities, and adding to God’s family. These years also shaped what would become the future of HHBC. The youth of that era (At one time Grover and I hosted a luau for more than fifty of them.) still keep in touch with one another and long for the good old days, as do the adults. We travel around Southern California to weddings, funerals, and anniversaries of these good people to celebrate with them or mourn with them and to fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ who have moved away.
In mid 1974 Pastor Westgate announced his resignation as pastor. He had accepted a call from FBC San Diego to be their pastor. The membership at that time was just a few less than five hundred.
What happened to the Garden? How did we get from there to here? That’s another chapter.

Church History I

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:35:23 -0800

Here is the first installment of our church history provided by long time member Clara Rains. This leads up to our 50th anniversary celebration on Sunday, October 12, 2008:

BEGINNINGS 1957-1958

A Step of Faith
In 1958 the First Baptist Church of Pomona under the leadership of Dr. Ted Cole and the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest (ABCPSW) caught a vision to plant an American Baptist Church in the rapidly developing rural area in eastern San Gabriel Valley that was then known as North Whittier Heights. Dr. Paul Ray Director of Church Extension for ABCPSW began to scout the area for a suitable property. He found a five acre orange grove on Stimson Avenue for sale at $5,000 per acre. So for $25,000 The Convention and/or First Baptist Church of Pomona bought a site for the new church. A sign was placed on the property announcing Future Home of North Whittier Heights, American Baptist Convention, sponsored by Pomona First Baptist Church.

And the Lord Blessed
Rev. John Graber a professor at the California Baptist Seminary in Covina was chosen to be the starting pastor. Rev. Graber began knocking on doors in the area inviting people to attend a meeting at the two-storied white house on the corner of Halliburton and Lancewood. It backs up on Hacienda Blvd and is there to this day. And the Lord blessed. This first meeting took place on March 2, 1958. Carol Smith told me that there were approximately twelve people who showed up at that first meeting. Subsequent meetings were held at this same house.
On July 20, 1958 a groundbreaking ceremony was held on the property at 2100 Stimson Avenue. And soon construction was underway.
On September 15, 1958 Rev. Bill Salverda and his wife Nancy and their 4 children were at the Sunday Service. They moved into the white house which continued to be the meeting place for the church.
On November 30, the budding church moved into the 4,200 square foot new church building. Folding chairs rather than pews provided seating. This provided versatility for the use of the building. The chairs could easily and quickly be rearranged around tables to provide an area for potlucks. Wood panel dividers on wheels were used to mark off areas for separate Sunday School classes for all ages. What is now the choir room was the place for the Primary Sunday School Department. The church nursery was in the room currently occupied by the Preschool Office. Later that room became the Church Office.

And the Lord Added
The building was officially dedicated on February 15, 1959. This was followed by the first organizational meeting held on February 16, 1960, the signing of the Church Charter by about 45 members on April 3, 1961, and ratification of the Church Constitution. When the Charter application was submitted to the County, they pointed out that North Whittier Heights was not a community, but the property of a developer. Therefore they needed to change the name on the application. Hacienda Hills was chosen and accepted by both the Church and the County.
And the Church Grew
An excerpt from the La Puente Valley Journal of December 7, 1961, reads, “Each Sunday morning over 300 attend the full Sunday morning schedule which includes Church School at 9:30, Morning Worship at 11:00, Youth Fellowship at 6:20, followed by the Evening Fellowship Hour. The mid-week service meets each Wednesday at 7:30, followed by the regular choir rehearsal. It is the ambition of the program to always have ‘preaching that lives, singing that lifts, and fellowship that lasts’”.
With the entry to the sanctuary right off of the front sidewalk, late comers were disruptive to the services. It soon became apparent that a change in structure was needed. It was decided to wall off the rear six or seven feet of the sanctuary to provide for a vestibule, or Narthex. Every Saturday morning for several weeks the men gathered to work on this project. Little did they know that in just a few more years they would be coming down on Saturdays to take out that wall and push out the side and rear walls to enlarge the sanctuary to accommodate the growing congregation. But that is another chapter.