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Ofari Hutchinson:
Gross Overkill on a Supervisor’s Seat
Tower
of Faith Breaks Ground on $11 Million Community Center Complex
Pastor says
event marks the realization of a dream 20 years in the making
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer
COMPTON – The
journey is finally nearing completion for The Rev. Dr. Reuben P. Anderson
and his congregation.
Twenty years ago, Anderson looked out his office window and contemplated “a
community whose dreams had been shattered.”
It was at that moment that Anderson, head pastor of Tower of Faith
Evangelistic Church and chair and CEO of Tower of Faith Community Development
Corporation, said he received a vision from God.
That vision led him to the expansive abandoned lot on Rosecrans Avenue
that formerly was home to the Compton Drive-In Theater. Once a popular
nightspot, the location had been closed down for years, and the land
lay blighted and unkempt – a constant reminder of what the community
had lost.
“…I realized that the vision was to help rebuild the community’s
broken dreams by providing needed services that would inspire the residents
to dream and build a better life for themselves and a better community,” Anderson
said.
It is his congregation’s aim to “restore the hopes and
dreams that were so much a part of that icon,” the drive-in.
Likening his church’s voyage to that of King Solomon and his
followers in their building of the First Great Temple, Anderson and
the Tower of Faith family Saturday, April 26 broke ground on an $11
million community center complex on five acres of land at 2111 E. Rosecrans
Ave.
The nearly 15-acre plot was dedicated 13 years ago in 1995. Problems
with the previous city administration prevented Tower of Faith from
obtaining approval for its plans until more recent years, according
to Executive Director Mary Edwards.
Over the years, the plans took many shapes and forms, but the mission
and the vision remained intact.
In May 2006, Tower of Faith in conjunction with Lennar Home Builders
completed construction of the Montage Gated Community on 9 acres of
the original 14 acres of land obtained by the church, Edwards said.
The community features 65 single-family homes.
“That was phase one of a three-phase community vision,” said
Edwards.
The 42,500-square-foot community center complex is phase two. It will
offer a 15,000-seat auditorium, a banquet and fellowship hall, a bookstore,
12 multi-purpose rooms for classes, a technical center and office space.
The new space will bring with it additional services available to the
community. Edwards said offered will be college resource services including
job and internship placement, computer training classes for children
and seniors, health-related classes and job and career development,
training and placement. These will be in addition to services currently
offered like the emergency assistance program, which provides families
in a bind with food vouchers and utility bill payments, and parenting
classes.
“It’s here to lift up the name of Jesus, and it’s
here to impact our community,” Anderson said of the future center.
Elder Kevin McNamee, executive director of church ministries, described
the project as God’s will in the construction of “an edifice
that’s going to change the city of Compton in a way that has
never been done before.”
“Every single resident is going to benefit from that which God
is going to erect here,” he said.
Plans for phase three are still in the works. Edwards said the church
aims to obtain from the city a portion of the land directly across
the street from the center to construct a senior center and commercial
retail space.
On hand at the ceremony to serve as guest speaker was Bishop Charles
E. Blake of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, who was recently
elected as bishop of the Church of God in Christ worldwide.
He described Tower of Faith’s journey as “an example to
all of us to not be discouraged.”
“We’re here today because of a dreamer,” Blake said
of Anderson. “If
you dream a dream, that dream is God’s will, and if you keep
on holding on to that dream, that dream will come to pass.
“Dr. Rueben Anderson is an example to all of us not to be discouraged
when a dream is delayed.”
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