The Lakeview Visitor

e-Letter

• Lakeview Baptist Church Meets in Lakeside School until new land is acquired and Worship Center is built! 

Lakeside Elementary School

14535 Old River Road 

Bakersfield, CA 93311 

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50th Anniversary Celebration News

• View Slideshow of 50th Anniversary Celebration   http://www.bakersfield.net/photography/slideshows/church

•  The following article is the "Fields of Faith" Article - Printed in the Bakersfield Californian Newspaper

Fields of faith: Church stands in farmland 

Lakeview Baptist Church's members say the long drive is worthwhile 

By MISTY WILLIAMS, Californian staff writer 

e-mail: mwilliams@bakersfield.com 

Posted: Monday July 4th, 2005, 9:30 PM 

Last Updated: Monday July 4th, 2005, 11:09 PM 

The dust-covered roads are quiet on this mercifully cool June morning. Tractors and trucks stand still amid the crops. On a recent Sunday, faint notes of praise break the silence above the cotton fields far south of Bakersfield. The choir at Lakeview Baptist Church is warming up for its 50th anniversary celebration. In a culture where convenience is often top priority, this country church survives because its families drive 30 minutes out of the way to be there. People would say, "There's a church on every corner, why the heck do you drive all the way out here?" explains Vickie Peters, who's attended Lakeview for more than 20 years. Her friends sitting nearby agree, it's the family feel and love that make the round-trip Sunday drive worth it. Like Peters, most trek from Bakersfield or Taft to their unlikely church near the corner of Copus and Old River roads. This day they stake out their seats on the lawn under the shade of a shimmering canopy and mulberry trees. 

The special outdoor service is kicking off their annual Starlight Crusade -- a four-day, old-fashioned revival full of testimonials, singing and home cooking. With around 250 members and 75 who attend on any given Sunday, Lakeview has come a long way from where it began. A World War II-era Quonset hut served as its first home in 1955. Soon after, members brought over a part of the old Maricopa school, where they still worship today. Then in the mid-1970s, the farmers began moving into town. Fields replaced houses. The corner grocery store disappeared. Church membership dwindled. By the time Patricia McClanahan walked into the church on a rainy day, there were only five people with a teacher using a chalkboard and pointer. "How bizarre is this?" the then-newlywed thought to herself. The group eventually started up home Bible studies in the towns, and that injected life back into the fading congregation, McClanahan said. "I did not want that church to close its doors. I didn't think it was supposed to," she said. "People feel so loved when they're here." 

Pastor Rick Prevost knows his church is unusual. Knows many wouldn't have survived such a blow. "I see churches close their doors when there's a lot of people around them," said Prevost, who's pastored Lakeview for 20 years. The church focuses on reaching out through home Bible studies, softball leagues and other events, he said. They gain a few families every year. New generations of long-established families stick around. Scruffy-haired teens who favor rock band T-shirts over ties sit among those who have attended for decades. They like the relaxed atmosphere where Hawaiian shirts and jeans mingle with dresses and khaki pants. People don't judge by appearances, said Billy Johnson, 16, who began coming with a friend in the sixth grade. "When I first came here, I was a short little fat kid," Johnson said. "This was the first church that opened their arms. They treat you like family." Jason Hillis credits those close-knit ties with keeping him in check as a teen. If Hillis didn't show up one Sunday, he could count on a phone call. The 30-year-old father of two said he knows Lakeview will lay the same moral groundwork in his daughters. "Without this church, who knows what I would be," he said. Hillis just hopes it doesn't lose those close connections as it grows. 

In coming years, the church will no longer call the small Copus Road chapel with its ceiling fans whirring quietly above blue-cushioned pews home. Instead, 20 acres of donated land near the entrance to Buena Vista Lake are opening wide Lakeview's future. Prevost hopes to begin construction on a new worship center there this year. Still a ways from town, the lake area is highly traveled by locals. They plan to reach out to summer vacationers, too. It will be sad to say goodbye to the buildings they've called home for so long, but the future is exciting, he said. "It's like our next assignment," the pastor said. "It's something we didn't really expect."