Church Members Pledge to Fight Eviction

Members of the All Peoples Lockhaven Christian Lighthouse Church have been told that they are being evicted from their Inglewood property because their doctrine is different from the Christian lending institution that bailed them out of financial trouble in the early 1980s. But congregation members say they will hold a lock-in before they let someone else take over their church.

Pastor Anthony Sanders said that the 300-member interdenominational church borrowed $70,000 from the Fullerton-based Church Development Fund in 1982. Because of declining membership, the church piled up debts and was trying to reorganize to meet the needs of a community that had changed from primarily white to black and Latino.

Under the terms specified by the Christian lending organization, Sanders said, the Lockhaven Church had to transfer the church property deed, valued at $2 million, into a trust held by the Church Development Fund. Sanders said the church board did not like the terms, but the agreement was the only way the church could stay afloat.

Six months after the loan was made, the church development fund canceled the agreement and attempted to acquire the property. The church filed a lawsuit to block the acquisition, but in 1994 a Los Angeles Superior Court judge awarded the property to the Development Fund. Lockhaven lost a court appeal in May.

The church, which has repaid the loan, argues that the deed should be returned to Lockhaven, but officials at the Church Development Fund say the property is theirs because one of the stipulations of the loan agreement was that the 104th Street church remain a part of the Church of Christ. The Church was founded in 1950 and was part of the Church of Christ until the 1980s when it became an interdenominational church.

“When the Development Fund made the loan they wanted assurance that the organization would remain a Church of Christ,” said Steve Cameron, attorney for the organization. “They have several doctrinal differences that exist that are not recognized in the Church of Christ.”

Sanders says he believes the organization is opposed to Lockhaven’s practice of speaking in tongues. He said Lockhaven does not want to be affiliated with the organization. Sanders said Lockhaven Lighthouse Church is hoping to work out an arrangement so that they can keep their church because it is being unfairly taken away.

“It feels like someone got tricked,” Sanders said. “What has happened is wrong.”