| Our Daily Bread
Campus Journal Jesus Loves You ! |
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OUR HISTORY
The Lord takes care of His church as a father takes care of his children. He provides for their needs at each stage of their lives to help them grow up to be mature. We thank the Lord that He has led our church in this manner.
We first started as a mission in 1977
Our mother church, the First Chinese Baptist Church located in Los Angeles (* See the history of our mother church) , had a vision to establish a mission in Orange County. The first assembly on February 2, 1977, was a prayer meeting at Trinity Baptist Church in Westminster, which was our host church for the next four years. Our first worship service was held on February 20. Our Sunday School was established with help from experienced teachers from our mother church. As the Lord provided personnel, various fellowship groups were formed: A.O.K. for the high school age, R.O.C.K. for the college age, R.A. for the junior and junior high boys, and G.A. for the junior and junior high girls, and fellowship groups for the different adult languages (English, Cantonese, and Mandarin). Through our Vacation Bible School (VBS) and the neighborhood surveys, a number of people joined our church. To train personnel for service, the Church Training Program (CTP) was started a year later. As the mission grew, there was a need to find our own property.
We moved to our own church facility
The Lord led us to the Hazard Avenue property in Westminster in April, 1981. He blessed the mission by enabling the people to honor Him by giving 100% of their pledges for the building fund. Again, the first assembly at the new property was a prayer meeting. Our first worship and Sunday School sessions followed shortly after the sanctuary and parking lot were completed. Initially, there was not enough classrooms, so a number of Sunday School classes met in tents on the parking lot. A year later, the Lord provided an education building with enough classroom space. As our church grew from a congregation of 150 to 450, it was mutually agreed with the mother church that we should become an independent church. We were incorporated on July 23, 1993, as the First Chinese Baptist Church, Westminster.
We acquired our present property in 1994
The Lord miraculously provided the Fountain Valley property, which is 4.17 acres as compared to the 1.25 acre Westminster property. Again, His presence was with us, enabling our people to sacrificially give 100% of two pledges for purchasing, remodeling, and debt reduction of the property. Our first prayer meeting was held on November 16, 1994, and our first worship service on the following Sunday. The Sunday School and other programs were started a month later because the remodeling was not completed. We were incorporated as the First Chinese Baptist Church, Fountain Valley, on January 1, 1995. After settling into our present home, we look forward to preaching, teaching, and ministering the Word of God to the people in this neighborhood.
We praise the Lord in how He has nurtured this church to where it is today. We know that if we continue to love and worship Him and love fellow Christians and care for others, our church will continue to grow.
