RELIGION/JOHN DART : Burgeoning Church to Greet Quayle : Lancaster: The former vice president will speak at Sunday’s dedication of the $3.3-million facility. The Rev. Paul Chappell’s Baptist congregation has grown from 13 to 1,600 in seven years.

Seven years ago, a young Baptist preacher arrived in the Antelope Valley to form a congregation, beginning with 13 people who first met in an old building in downtown Lancaster.

This Sunday, the Rev. Paul Chappell, now 31, and a congregation that averages 1,600 adults and children in attendance each Sunday, will dedicate a new, $3.3-million church facility with former Vice President Dan Quayle as pulpit guest speaking on family values.

The Lancaster Baptist Church is probably Antelope Valley’s largest Baptist congregation, and is among the three or four largest churches of any kind in the high desert valley, Chappell said in an interview Friday.

The pastor said that he could only speculate why Quayle responded favorably to his written invitation.

“I don’t have any political clout,” Chappell said. “I’m sympathetic to the viewpoints of the religious right on abortion and other social issues, but I’m not involved in any coalitions or running off to Sacramento every other week.”

Chappell said that Quayle may have heard about his fast-growing church from members or other pastors. “I know he’s preached for a few friends of mine” around the country, Chappell said.

“Several months ago, I wrote him a letter saying he had taken a lot of abuse (on defending traditional values), but that I wanted to thank him for being faithful to his commitments,” he said. “I added, ‘By the way, we built a new church and would be honored by your presence at the dedication in January.’ We got a call the following week.”

The church is also sponsoring a Sunday morning community breakfast featuring Quayle. “We expect between 300 and 400 people,” said Chappell, adding that, contrary to an earlier report, not all 400 of the $100 tickets distributed through community leaders have been sold.

Chappell said he could not discuss the amount of Quayle’s honorarium. The pastor said he was hoping ticket sales will cover the cost of sponsoring the community breakfast. “This is not a fund-raiser for the church,” he said.

The pastor said that the breakfast appearance was scheduled to accommodate residents who might prefer to hear Quayle speak outside a church service setting. But, in addition, services in the new 1,000-seat sanctuary, which opened the first week of December, are already packed.

“We were full last Sunday and most of our members have to sit in the overflow areas to make room for visitors,” he said.

The Mediterranean-style building sits on a 20-acre lot at 4020 E. Lancaster Blvd., about four miles east of its former downtown site. The $3.3-million cost, nearly half of which is paid off, includes street development expenses and $150,000 in city permits, Chappell said.

The church’s master plan calls for either expanding the present sanctuary’s seating capacity or building a larger one on the same land, he said.

It may be another year before expansion plans are outlined. “We want to give our members a breather on raising money,” he said.

Although Chappell received his pastoral training at Pacific Coast Bible College in San Dimas, which is aligned with the fundamentalist Baptist Bible Fellowship, the pastor and his congregation are independent Baptists unaffiliated with any denomination. He had been an assistant pastor at a Baptist church in Santa Clara before coming to Lancaster with initial support from other independent Baptist churches.

In accounting for the congregation’s rapid growth, Chappell credits “Christ-centered” teaching, the receptiveness of many previously “unchurched” residents new to the Antelope Valley, generous members and “what we like to see as God-honoring faith.”

When in 1988 the church held its first fund-raising banquet for a new church, 40 families gave a total of $50,000 in cash.

“The next Monday morning, I drove by what is now our lot and saw a for-sale sign that had just gone up that day,” Chappell said. The $50,000 was just enough for a down payment, he said.