History of the Church
(Presented at homecoming 2006 and updated in January 2007)The Warner Avenue Baptist Church (WABC) was started in late 1963, early 1964 by Dr. Edwin Greene and a few people.
At first, the church was called the Southwest Baptist Church, until it moved into the present site at 7360 Warner Avenue, Huntington Beach, California.
During the early years of the church, we received a lot of help and encouragement from the Southwest Baptist Conference. During this time, Roger Youngquist, the brother-in-law of Victor Carlson's wife Lorraine was the Executive Secretary of the Conference. His daughter Tricia was the church organist and also led the choir.
The George Carlson Family and the Victor Carlson families were among these first members. One picture of the early church shows in addition to those mentioned above, Tom and Marion Joubert, Don and Marion Bowman with their Daughter (now Jan Crowell) and Henry and Ramona Cook. I think the Norman Lowry's are also in the picture
Pastor Ed's garage (in the tract near Warner and Newland) was the site of the first meetings. Pastor Ed had an Oldsmobile car, and one of the early church families was named Packard. Pastor Ed used to say that he took the Oldsmobile out and put in four Packards. (Some of you may be too young to remember that a Packard was at one time a luxury automobile).
While meeting in Pastor Ed Greene's home, Bob and Donna Hopkins, who were living in Santa Ana, led the youth group.
Dr. Greene (Pastor Ed) had been an earlier pastor at College Avenue Baptist Church in San Diego, and had moved to Orange County and was helping the Wycliffe Bible Translators in those early days. On a recent visit to College Avenue Baptist, I was able to see a much younger picture of Dr. Greene, hanging in the honored past pastor's gallery.
The search for a permanent building for the congregation ended with an agreement to first share, and then purchase, the present building and grounds. At the time, the Sanctuary which had been constructed in 1906, and the caretaker's house and the fellowship hall were owned by the Methodist Church which is now located on Heil near Murdy Park. This Methodist church was moving to the new building there in 1965.
In the early days, the church building was occupied by a congregation known as the Wintersburg Community Church. Wintersburg included a rail depot near Warner Avenue and the present rail tracks.
Prior to obtaining full occupation of the facility, WABC used these buildings on Sunday and Wednesday evenings. At that time, Sunday morning Sunday School and Church was held in a rented class room at the Ocean View School that was located where the Charter center now stands on the South West Corner of Beach and Warner.
Victor Carlson, brother of George Carlson and Henry Friesen visited Ken and Jan Williams who were living at the time in the mobile home park just south of the church on Gothard street. Ken and Jan Williams joined the church at this time (1965) and as of 2006 are the only members from that time that remain at Warner.
Shortly after gaining full occupation of the facility, WABC was incorporated as a corporation in the State of California. Then later, the property adjoining to the East was acquired, resulting in a total footprint of about ? acres.
Included as charter members of this incorporation were Ken and Dorothy Fuller who lived in the Koledo Park neighborhood just south of the church. They have since moved to Los Alamitos, but visit the church on occasion. Ken's sister Betty has moved to our area, and is a member. Betty serves with Ida Young as Church Librarians.
For many years, the church was served by community water well located where the grass area is to the East of the fellowship hall. This well served seven homes in what was the former Wintersburg community.
Also, at one time there were tents on this grass area that served as Sunday school classrooms. Ken Williams taught Sunday school for a while in those tents.
Also shortly after moving in, a baptistery was constructed in the sanctuary, and the beautiful mural that is behind the baptistery was painted by Pastor Ed Greene, his wife Fanchon, Marion Joubert and Mrs. Broadlick. Mrs. Broadlick owned an art supply store down the street on Gothard, where she also taught art, and Pastor Greene and Fanchon were her students.
The Lord provided a fine servant in the form of Lloyd Hartin, who helped us replace the old floor mounted furnaces with a new forced air unit located in the attic.
Brother Hartin also installed a new roof on the sanctuary with the help of his son. At this time Lloyd was in his seventies.
Because of the age of the buildings, the church custodial service has been an important and sometimes difficult job. The first custodians were Larry and Joyce Hanson who along with their children lived in the house next to the church, and served until they moved to Arkansas.
Later, Elzie Jordan and his wife served as custodians and occupied the same house.
We even had a two-piece band in those days as Pastor Greene played the trumpet, accompanied by Henry Cook on the French horn.
Choir ministry has always been a part of worship at Warner Avenue Baptist Church.
Wally Mulligan was one of the early choir directors. Other choir directors have included Tom Ashbey, Jim Friesen, Charles Gray, Cheryl Stephens and Warren Sager. Presently Jonathan Stevens leads the choir.
The founding of the church included a great step of faith (or presumption, whichever you choose) in that the eleven original families signed up for an approximately $100,000 loan for the purchase of the original property.
Pastor Greene remained until 1970.
During Pastor Greene's leadership, two youth Pastors were called.
The first was David Wood and his wife. Dave is presently (2006) the president of SEND International Ministries.
Allen Keyser and his wife Emily were called as youth pastor later. They have since served in Papau New Guinea.
Linda Berry served as official church secretary during Ed Greene's pastorate.
Bert Orman was called as interim pastor then, and was called as full time pastor soon after. Pastor Bert Orman had retired as pastor of a much larger church in Moline Illinois, so that he could bring his handicapped daughter to California for better care. This beloved daughter, Joan, blessed us all for a number of years before the Lord took her home in a drowning accident.
During Pastor Bert Orman's time at Warner, Ramona Warren served as church secretary.
One of our early families was the Howard Stephens family. Howard, a true servant spent long hours sorting out our finances and paying bills. This brought us the added benefit of fellowship with Fumi Shioya, whom Mrs. Stephens (Merrilee) brought. Fumi is severely handicapped and remains ready to bless all visitors to here home in the retirement hospital on Florida street. She has outlived Howard and many others, and may well outlive me. We look forward to seeing Howard when we are called home.
Also in those early days, we were blessed by the fellowship of a pioneer in this area, Marion Speer. Marion was a good friend of Walter Knott and many of the historical artifacts in the Western Trails Museum at Knott's Berry Farm were gathered by Marion. These include the spikes from the old Red Line Railroad on Huntington Beach, which Marion asked me (Ken Williams) to get for him when they tore up the line.
Mr. Speer has a street named for him, which is located between Slater and Talbert on Beach Boulevard.
This of course brings us to remember Tom Joubert who earned the name 'Paper Tiger' during his time with us.
This came about as he headed up a multiple year paper drive, which centered at the Speer residence for many years. Many children were sent to camp by the funds from this project.
Also, since Tom and his wife Marion bought the home of Don and Marion Bowman (Jan Crowell's parents) this provided the link to a longtime Partnership with Tom and Jan Crowell of Wycliffe Translators. We were introduced to the Crowells just after they had completed summer survival camp in Mexico.
This partnership inspired Doyle Tallman who was one of our youth members at the time to become a missionary. Doyle was brought to our church by the Victor Carlsons, and now he and his beloved wife Penny have been partners with us for almost as many years as the Crowells. Their daughter Juanita is a Navy Pilot as a training for later service with Wycliffe I suspect.
Pastor Bert Orman remained our pastor until December of 1978, and has now preceded us (along with his beloved wife Kay) into the presence of the Lord.
The Jordan's were followed as caretakers by Jon and Debbie Friesen who also lived in the house until they moved to Eden Street in Westminster on the same street as our present pastor.
Henry Lord served as pastor in 1979, followed by Emmett Moorefield as an interim pastor in 1980.
In 1980, Ed Leion became our pastor and served until 1985.
During this time WABC was helped greatly both by counsel and by financial aid by a sister church (Lakewood Baptist) in Long Beach.
Prudence (P.J.) Messimer served as secretary during Ed Leion's pastorate.
After Pastor Leion, the church called Steve Orman in December 1985 and Pastor Steve has been our pastor from then until now.
For many years, Pastor Steve's sister Sharyn served as pianist and organist, and during that time she married Jan Williams' brother Warren Sager. Both served in many capacities until Warren retired from the Post Office and he and Sharyn moved to Tennessee a year or two ago. Sharyn was also the church secretary during this time.
The church finally discharged all debt and burned the mortgage on June 4 1989.
Stuart Kilgour moved into the caretaker's home after the Friesen's moved away, and served as caretaker and custodian. Later, Stuart married Lisa Orman, Pastor Steve's daughter and they have lived in the custodian's house until the present, and have five children. Stuart and Lisa were the custodians for these years until Lisa's aunt Sharyn moved to Tennessee.
At that time, Lisa became the church secretary for her father Pastor Steve, and Stuart became heavily involved in employment and school.
The custodian and caretaking duties then were divided between Pastor Steve's son Justin and Kyle Stevens for the indoor work, and Stephen Weston for lawns and grounds.
Our church presently is largely constituted of home school families and focuses heavily on discipleship training and the discovery and exercise of individual ministry. We include the study of character and Christian Living Principles in our training time.
Scripture memorization is considered essential to affecting a Holy empowered lifestyle here.
Our music focus, which we consider to be an important part of worship, is largely traditional music, and that which is derived from scripture.
The Lord has blessed us in a remarkable way with a fine Pastor/Teacher, and many self-directed young people who take the ministry of passing on the gospel very seriously. The 20 year and older and teenagers are constantly teaching the younger ones 'The Way' both in word and in splendid example.
Of true noteworthiness, are the astounding gifts of musical ability that the Lord has given the young people. We are truly grateful for the 22-member orchestra that God has provided. This orchestra was formed up three or four years ago by Warren Sager, and is presently led by Jonathan McIntire. As previously mentioned the choir is currently directed by Jonathan Stevens.
This is a quick view back of our history, and if time permitted, we could probably fill a thousand pages.
There would be mention of fine fellowship with saints such as Mildred Craighead and Elizabeth Eldridge and many, many others.
I remember a retired plumber, Charlie Potts who was a large man with a large voice, who came to know the Lord under Pastor Ed Greene's ministry. As I recall, it was at a men's retreat at Forest Home that Charlie was saved, along with another man by the name of Williams. These men so strongly felt the urge to be baptized that they insisted that we go to the lake (11 pm on a November night) on the grounds and break through the skim of ice and baptize them.
I don't know how Pastor Greene managed with the cold water and 300 pound Charlie, but I witnessed that he did. The fellowship and praise time later in the cabins was a lot warmer than the cold water.
We cannot forget dear Henry Friesen, who planted rose bushes from grafts in a strip of ground adjacent to Warner Avenue. These bushes later qualified for large compensation, when the city widened the street.
Only in recent years did the Ken Williams family learn of a strange related co-incidence. The Slater family who owned the land West of the church across Gothard street (Where the Ocean View School is now) graveled an area as an overflow parking lot for the church. One morning the Williams family was just getting out of their car in this lot when a car driven by Rose Amos and occupied by several Sunday school children rolled briskly by, narrowly missing Christi Williams (Ken and Jan's daughter) and came to rest against a tree. The brakes had gone out on Mrs. Amo's car. In reviewing this incident later (probably four years ago) Robert Schultz, Christi Williams' husband said 'Hey, I remember that; I was in the Amos car!' Robert's family had moved away for a number of years and we did not know him until in his twenties, he came back and courted our daughter and married her!
I would appreciate anyone that would like to take a copy of this outline and add to it anything they remember that I missed. Then if you will provide that to me, I will make a more comprehensive collection of it.
Bless You,
Ken Williams
Kennethr.williams@verizon.net
714 968 9033