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(Paul) “I have been all things to all sorts of people that by every possible means I might win some to God. I do all of this for the sake of the Good News.” I Cor. 9:22-23 (Ph)
The History of Del Aire Baptist Church
The history of Del Aire Baptist Church began in February 1945, under the direction of the Los Angeles Baptist City Mission Society. Reverend Eugene Crow came to this area to organize a new church under the leadership of Dr. Arnold Boal, Director of Church Extension. When Del Aire was planted it was the only church in the area.
Two army barracks were purchased as meeting facilities. As our church was being built, the Watts church was being closed so we inherited from that church two pianos, brown hymnals, black choir robes and seats that were from an old opera house. This was Del Aire’s humble beginning.
On June 10, 1945, the first service was held with Rev. Crow as Pastor. The first organized meeting of the church was held about two months later on August 3rd with 40 charter members. The first church members were baptized in September. On Labor Day Sunday there were 376 in Sunday school. Our church was composed of various denominations. In February 1950, Pastor Crow resigned to become Director of Evangelism for Southern California.
In the same month, Marvin C. Andersen from Scottsdale, Arizona became our pastor. During his pastorate in 1950, a new sanctuary was built. Other additions included a new church office, the Fireside Room and a new kitchen. We initiated our first missionary program in 1955 providing support to Ted and Beth Livingston as missionaries to Japan. We continued until this until they returned to Hawaii for further study.
In September 1960, we held our 15th Anniversary celebration on Sunday followed by a potluck dinner at 1:00 P.M. At this time we had received over 800 members since the founding of the church. There were 464 on the current roll at this time. We had grown from two army barracks to 5 buildings and 5 lots valued at well over $100,000.
The church operated on an annual budget of $32,360.00. In addition to the pastor, the church employed a full-time Youth Director, Fred Williams. Two Sunday morning services were required to accommodate our membership. In 1963, the San Diego Freeway was completed and many of our members relocated to other areas because of the Aerospace industry. In 1964, we started our 20th anniversary-building program. This resulted in enlarging the sanctuary to form the Narthex and remodeling the church exterior and landscaping. In 1965 Pastor Marvin Andersen resigned to go to the First Baptist Church of Hollywood.
Reverend Kenneth Weston with his wife Kathy and their two daughters became our third pastor on August 14, 1965. During his tenure as pastor, we were a growing and active church. We celebrated our 24th Anniversary on April 13, 1969. We began hearing about the Century Freeway (105 Freeway) and the possibility of having to relocate. Early in 1970, Pastor Weston resigned and relocated to Washington State. Our pulpit was filled with great ministers. Rev. Kenneth Losh was a great help to us and served many Sundays and was available to us in times of need. We greatly appreciated his help.
Dr. Harold Shaw and his wife Lillian came to us as Interim Pastor in October 1970. We were so grateful to them for coming and ministering to us and helping us in many ways.
The church had 215 active members. The average morning worship was 142; 120 in Sunday School and 50 attended the evening service.
In September 1971, Reverend Harden V. Rowland and his wife Vivian, assumed the duties as our fourth full-time pastor with a background that included service in Hawaii, and several churches in California. Under Pastor Rowland’s leadership, the church was refurbished and several visitation programs were instituted.
In January 1975, we received a blessing in the person of Allan Erselius who served as Youth Director-part time after Fred Williams resigned. During this timeframe several men assisted in maintaining our Youth Ministry, primarily Roger Jump and Steve Alexander, who were both students at the Covina Seminary. Also, we had leaders from our own Sunday School who did much work with the youth when we had no youth director.
Also, in 1975 Del-Aire had a total membership of 199, with an active membership of 112. The members were supportive of the various ministries and physical needs of the church during this crucial time.
During Pastor Rowland’s ministry here at Del-Aire, we started supporting a Haitian National Minister, Rev. Lucien Narcius and his family. A Hispanic ministry was also started and progressed from a department of the church to a self-supporting church. Pastor Willie Najera became the first pastor of the new church plant. He and his wife, Olga and their three daughters were a real inspiration to our church.
During this time Del Aire maintained sound biblical doctrine. However, the church suffered the loss of many families due to the construction of the San Diego freeway. The church maintained a solid position in the community.
The church lost the parsonage due to the freeway construction and it maintained full cooperation with the American Baptist Churches of Los Angeles. The church was concerned that they would have move due to the construction of the new freeway. The church property was valued at $260,000 at that time.
Rev. Rowland retired in September, 1981. During this period of transition Rev. Ken Longmore served as the interim pastor.
In December of 1981, Rev. Charles Davis and his wife Letitia and their children Michael and Stacy became the pastor of Del Aire Baptist Church.
In 1985, there were 86 members on the active church roll.
After serving 4 years Pastor Davis resigned. During this interim period the Rev. Joe Guthrie served as our Interim Pastor for one year, followed by Rev. Don Lawson under the Leadership Dr. Henry Campbell.
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ev. Mark Tubbs joined us in July of 1987, becoming the 6th pastor of Del Aire Baptist Church. During Pastor Tubb’s tenure the membership began to increase and a number of ministries were implemented within the church and the community. His wife Ann had an active role in our music and youth ministries, as well as provided support for young mothers. Mark and Ann were proud parents of Loraina Marie, and twins Kevin and Marcus.
In 1990 the church membership grew to 130 members. During this time the church and the community were going through a great transition. With god’s help, we will still be here on the corner of 119th Place, working for him in 1995.
Pastor Mark Tubbs joined us in 1987. Pastor Tubbs increased membership and began a number of positive ministries within the church and community. We thank his wife Ann for her ministries dealing with the music department, the youth group, as well as a young mother’s support group. They came to us from Portland, Oregon and were a blessing to our church. They are the proud parents of Loraina, and twins Kevin and Marcus. In 1990 there were 130 members on the active church role. Pastor Tubbs led us on several mission trips.
Under his leadership, we revised our constitution and set up a Ministry Council. We also started small group Bible studies, and with the help of Keith Vars, and Greg Franklin set up AA groups and a group for teens. In 1982 Pastor Tubbs and Ann relocated to Oregon.
In March of 1994, La Monte King became the 7th pastor after serving briefly as Youth Director and interim pastor. Under King’s pastorate, the Diaconate was organized and re-instituted. A championship basketball team was also formed in 1998. Pastor King was a dynamic preacher and teacher, with the special blessing to speak the ancient pages of the Gospel in a modern and applicable method. Pastor King resigned in February 2000.
On March 1, 2000 John L. Jefferson, Youth Pastor from Park Windsor Baptist Church became our interim Pastor. Pastor Jefferson has guided the Del Aire family through a crucial time, in the shadow of former Pastor King’s resignation. On October 21, 2000 the call was extended to John L Jefferson to become the 8th Pastor of Del Aire Church.
Pastor Jefferson came to serve Del Aire along with his wife Luetricia and their children Christopher, Callie, William, Emmit and Tiffany. Pastor Jefferson presented a plan for the restructuring of Del-Aire Baptist Church organization and the development of a balanced 5 fold ministry. The church moved forward under the power of the Holy Spirit, and the church continued to see a significant decline in its membership but yet, insurmountable spiritual growth. Del-Aire has embarked upon, A New Day, A New Path, and A New Direction.
In light of the continuous exodus of members in addition to limited funds the church agreed to enter into partnership with Volunteers of America and the Los Angeles County Office of Education through recommendation of Rosemary Giles a former co-worker of Pastor Jefferson to establish a Early Head Start, and Head Start Program was established on the campus of Del Aire Baptist Church. As results of this venture it provided much needed additional funds to support the ministry of Del Aire Baptist Church as well as provided a means of outreach to our community.
In November of 2006, after much prayer and deliberation the Leadership of Del Aire Baptist Church established a partnership with Crescent Bay West Los Angeles Association, of the California Southern Baptist Convention and to continue our partnership with the American Baptist Churches of Los Angeles. Pastor Jefferson begins a long series of meetings with the Director of Missions Ted Knapp. As a result of this on September 10, 2007 Del Aire Baptist Church agreed to support the new strategy plan “Walking Into Impossibilities”.
Under this plan, Del-Aire has experienced exponential growth; focusing on building kingdom minded Disciples of Christ who are “Fully Functioning” and “Faithfully Following in every aspect of ministry. Del-Aire is striving to reach the lost of community, many strives in were made in the area of spiritual growth the Church experienced steady numerical growth.
On March 17, 2008, under the vision, plan Del-Aire adopted the slogan “Whatever It Takes” (W.I.T.), Del-Aire Baptist began renovating our facility with the help of the students at The University of Texas at Lubbock, the Lubbock Baptist Association and the First Baptist Church Of Lubbock Texas, along with many contractors, Garcia Bentley, Matt Wise, Owl Plumbing, and the support of our sister churches; Park Windsor, Gardena Valley Baptist, and Iglesia Baptista Calvario, the entire church facility was painted, the sanctuary was remodeled and 63new window were installed.
New carpet throughout the entire facility, new chairs replaced the old pews, new pulpit furniture was purchased, and the stage was widening which included an accessible handicap ramp. A new audio video system was installed, and two 60 inch Panasonic monitors were installed. All this was done to the glory of God and our membership of 30 members. The total cost of the whole project estimated at 140,000.00, this was accomplished through pray and the commitment of the faithful remnant of Del Baptist Church, and Easter Sunday Morning March the 24th 2008 the Del Aire Family entered into its newly renovated facility with great joy and excitement as we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
On January 4, 2009, Pastor Jefferson preached “Eyes on Canaan” Mind on Egypt. In which he informed the congregation of Del Aire Baptist Church that we can no longer look back or be concerned with how things use to be but we must focus all of our energy on the Great Commission and the Great Commandments. Throughout the 2009, the Leadership in corporation with the LAX Urban Extreme and the Healthy Church Group of the California Southern Baptist Convention work tirelessly into revising our current structure and strategy.
As a result of this our mission statement was revised to reflect our new strategy. Church Vision, we the members of Del Baptist Church will strive to build a lasting legacy of “Fully Functioning” “Faithfully Following” Kingdom Minded Disciple of Christ. As a unified body of Christ our new strategy focused on seven areas worship, evangelism, discipleship, ministry, fellowship, pray and leadership development. DABC has committed to being diverse in the ministries to children, youth, young adults, and mature adults.
As a family of faith under the new strategy we will strive towards building a loving, nurturing, community of faith for each stage of life leading each person to a high level of spiritually maturity. We will continue to work towards building a multi-culture, multi-ethic, multi-generational community of faith who worship God in English. God has blessed Del Aire Baptist Church to minister in the Hawthorne Del Aire community in the Los Angeles South Bay Area for our 65 years.
As a unified congregation, we are now moving forward with our new mission statement and focusing on the five purposes of DABC (Worship, Evangelism, Discipleship, Ministry, and Fellowship). We are, by faith in God, pressing on towards nurturing spiritual maturity in each DABC’er at each life stage of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Our current Philosophy of Ministry expresses who we are and who we seek to reach:
God has faithfully willed this church to minister in the Hawthorne/Del Aire/Lawndale/ Lennox/ South Inglewood area for 65 years. Although we have strong Anglo roots, our heart and focus is on reaching as many people as possible regardless of ethnic and economic background for the love and sake of Jesus Christ.
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