Tower of Faith Evangelistic Church began as a gospel crusade ministry on February 14, 1972. Pastor Anderson felt a call from God to conduct Saturday night crusades in an effort to win young people to Christ and disciple them in their new found faith. After completing his Bible College and seminary training, he along with his wife, Nettie, his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Albert and Shirley Hartdige, along with the Starks sisters, Marvelle and Rosalyn, conducted crusades that attracted young people from all over the Southern California area. After several months of ministry, Pastor Anderson felt that God was leading him to expand his outreach. He rented a store front building in South Los Angeles that was currently being leased by his brother-in-law, (the late) Reverend Billy Sterling. Although it was a fledgling ministry, those were very exciting days. It was not long after Pastor Anderson had settled in this location that he was informed he had to move. Billy was being forced to give up his lease because the owner had other designs for the facility. Although it appeared that this would be the death-knell of his ministry, as events unfolded, it was proven that this was just God’s way of moving him into the city of Compton, the place where he would ultimately be assigned.

    In 1975, as Pastor Anderson was driving along Bullis Road in Compton, his attention was drawn to a Seventh Day Adventist Church at the corner of Santa Fe Avenue and Laurel Street. As it turns out, he was listening to the radio at the time and the pastor of that church was actually doing a live broadcast. As we know, virtually all broadcasts are transcribed. What can we say about God’s timing!! He called that pastor to ask if he could rent his church on Sundays to house his ministry. Although the pastor advised him that the board of directors of the church had made it a policy not to rent their church to anyone, God gave him favor and they agreed to allow him to rent the church at the whopping sum of one hundred dollars ($100.00) a month. God can be trusted to remember and meet all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Pastor Anderson’s financial resources were as meager as his need for a place to house his fledgling congregation. Through God’s marvelous provision, he was given the blessed assurance that what was being done was by God’s grace and all future needs would also be provided.

    In June of that same year, Pastor Anderson conducted a 30 day tent revival on the corner of Rosecrans Avenue and Bullis Road. Many souls were won to Christ but yet there was no permanent place for the growing congregation. In August, God miraculously provided our present location here at 4323 E. Rosecrans Avenue. Over the next few years, God’s favor permitted our ministry to grow in unprecedented ways. As experienced during the early church’s existence, “… believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.” (Acts 5:14). Following the leading of the Holy Spirit, we lengthened our stakes and stretched out the borders of the ministry. During this period, well over 2,000 people became members of our congregation. There was no room to expand the ever growing need to disciple those who were being saved and provide for their spiritual growth opportunities. In addition to that dilemma, the community in which our church was located had many social ills that needed attention. In spite of our overcrowded condition, an effort was made to meet those ever increasing needs. In the mid 1980s, the Christian Academy was established along with the Community Development Corporation being established in the 1990s to assist in meeting those social needs in and around our city. Soon, our present facility no longer had the physical capacity to meet the growing and expanding needs of both the church membership and the community at large. In order to meet the demands of our ever expanding ministry, God gave Pastor Anderson the word to secure the former Compton Drive In Theater. As it was at the beginning when he was forced to move from his first location and also when he had approached the pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and was told that their board had made it a policy not to rent their facilities to anyone, the owners of the theater property advised him that they had no interest in selling the site. Our faith was being tested once again. As we continued to put our trust in an unfailing God, we were eventually given favor with the property owners and the land was secured and dedicated in 1995.

    Then came the ultimate test of our faith. In 2000, the long anticipated development of the property we had secured at a great financial sacrifice was delayed – apparently indefinitely. We had a huge funding gap between what we had sacrificially given and what was needed to move forward. At the time, we did not realize that it was God who was timing the expansion progress and process. We continued to stand together in our steadfast faith in God’s promises, although the weight of the wait seemed unbearable. In 2005, we entered into a joint-venture agreement with one of the premier housing developers of our nation, Lennar Home Builders. This seemingly innocuous event was actually the hand of God guiding us to our present situation. This joint-venture produced 65 single-family residences which allowed the Community Development Corporation arm of our ministry to advance its work and the church to be able to gain a solid financial footing for the ultimate construction of our new home.

    On April 26, we will celebrate the groundbreaking for our new home!! What a mighty God we serve. In our new facility, we will be able to establish and perfect the many ministry programs that have been identified and expand our effectiveness in the vineyard that God has planted us. To just name a few of the ministry programs our new home will accommodate will be our Bible Institute for spiritual growth and development for persons of all ages, spiritual training through our men and women’s ministries for holistic life development, our youth ministries for education and character development, our celebrate recovery ministry for those individuals who are bound by compulsive additions, hang-ups and hurts, our seniors’ ministry through which our congregation may be provided continued spiritual growth opportunities and giving life experience ministry to those in our congregation that will one day take on future leadership, our ministry to singles and married couples by helping them to develop healthy relationships along with learning how to walk in a chaste and righteous manner before the Lord.

    With our future being as bright as God’s promises, we enter into this new phase of our faith journey with all deliberate speed in order to accomplish this great challenge. We adopted this passage in Isaiah many years ago as our focal point whereby we would not lose sight on our ultimate goal. It says:
 

 “And they shall call them The Holy People, the Redeemed of the LORD; and
   you shall be called Sought Out, a City Not Forsaken.”(Isa 62:12 - NKJV)

    Tower of Faith family, God has proven to us that He has never forsaken us. So now as we stand on the brink of our long awaited breakthrough, let us rejoice and take our bold stand as we make our sacrificial commitment to God in “Completing the Journey, Finishing Strong”.