Los Angeles Southern Baptist Association Information

The Los Angeles Southern Baptist Association (LASBA) was organized on September 5, 1943 at Prairie Avenue Baptist Church in Hawthorne California. Rev. W.W. Brister was responsible for calling the meeting and acted as the moderator during the organization. There were representatives from five churches present; Bell Gardens, Bethel, Long Beach, West Los Angeles, and Prairie Avenue. Monthly meetings began at Bell Gardens on October 3, 1943. By the end of the first year the Association had grown to nine churches. The first nine LASBA churches were BELL GARDENS, SAWTELLE (West Los Angeles), LONG BEACH, BETHEL (East Los Angeles), and PASADENA. The Bell Gardens church, also that first year, organized three missions that became churches, EL MONTE, LOMITA, and BURBANK. The Hawthorne Missionary Baptist Church was organized on 6/11/44. The first Superintendent of City Missions was Rev. JOHN W. WILLIAMS. After one year the first annual meeting of LASBA was held at the First Southern Baptist Church of Pasadena on September 12 and 13, 1944. GREENLEAF AVENUE Baptist Church in Whittier also joined LASBA in 1944 (after the first annual meeting) followed by First Southern Baptist of COMPTON, Gage Avenue Baptist in Bell Gardens, TRUETT MEMORIAL of Long Beach, and BROADMAN Baptist of Huntington Park in 1945. C.A. BUTLER served as Superintendent of City Missions from 1945 to 1947 followed by MILTON E. CUNNINGHAM from 1947 to 1951. In 1949 LASBA opened the BAPTIST BOOK STORE at 6606 Rita Avenue in Huntington Park. That location would also become the first LASBA office in 1955. LASBA churches participated in the first BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE in downtown Los Angels in 1949 also the HOLLYWOOD CRUSADE in 1951. CALIFORNIA BAPTIST COLLEGE was founded and began on September 14, 1950 at the First Southern Baptist El Monte site. By 1951 the Los Angeles Southern Baptist Association included 51 CHURCHES including it first Spanish church, PRIMERA IGLESIA BAUTISTA DE SUR in East Los Angeles (1950). C.A. BUTLER returned as the associational Superintendent from 1952 to 1954. He was joined by a co-director of missions ED HARNESS, who served the Association from 1952 to 1956. Ethnically the Association continued to grow with the addition of FIRST CHINESE of Los Angeles, SLAVIC BAPTIST in Hollywood, and the second Spanish church, BETHEL SPANISH in 1952. That year, five churches withdrew to help start the ORANGE COUNTY ASSOCIATION.