OUR HISTORY:
It all began in an old orange grove, in a two-story house where the parking lot is today. The Southern California Baptist Convention and Pomona First Baptist Church shared in the organization. On December 18, 1949, with pouring rain, the first worship service was held, led by Dr. George Downing. It became an official organization on April 30, 1950 with 68 charter members. Paul and
Janet (nee Flora) Hodges were among them, as well as her parents, Ron and Mildred Flora. Virgil Ledbetter was called as first pastor and he served until February, 1958. In November, 1951 the first sanctuary (now Fellowship Hall) was dedicated. John Harms was the second pastor from June, 1958 to December, 1959. Dr. George Vanderlip served as interim pastor until June, 1960 when Rev. James Kilgore was called as the third pastor. The church began to grow and found a place in the ministry in the community. In 1961 at the Portland Convention, Mr. Robert Smith were commissioned as our first missionaries to the Congo. Also, in 1961 plans began for a permanent sanctuary which was completed in May, 1963 and dedicated on June, 1963. Work was then started to remodel the initial building into the Fellowship Hall. In August, 1963 the church service was broadcast over KNX “Church of the Air”. And in the Fall it was featured on the “Sunday Morning Chapel”. A full hour of our worship service was broadcast on “Great Churches of the Golden West” TV show, on March 8, 1964. Staff members were added during Rev. Kilgore’s ministry, and the Nursery School was opened in September, 1964 with Edith F**g as the first director. However, it seemed the rapid growth of commitment to expenditures and mortgages were too much and the church came apart at the seams. The congregation held on by pure faith and grit. They persevered by holding worship services in the Fellowship Hall because they could not afford to light and heat the sanctuary. At one point, $3000 was borrowed from a member just to keep going. Then, the congregation began to grow again. Dr. Ed Irvin served as our fourth pastor and left in 1974. Frank McCullough was called. Under Pastor McCullough’s spiritual leadership, Claremont First continued to grow and flourish as the third church built in Claremont. When they began there were only two churches in Claremont - - the Catholic and the Congregational Community Church (now UCC). On October 14, 1984 our mortgage was burned as part of the worship service and a celebration was held. An important part of our church has always been American Baptist Women’s Ministries begun in 1957 with Edna Tacke as President and grew to four circles and a thriving White Cross unit. A big farewell party was held for Pastor McCullough upon his retirement on August 30, 1995. Many former members and dignitaries attended a service and luncheon. The church was packed and Fellowship Hall over-flowed onto the breezeway in paying tribute to our beloved leader. Our Interim Pastor called then was Rev. Joe King. He was succeeded by Rev. Dick Walker who retired just shy of ten years. At that time the church had decided to enclose the breezeway and upgrade some facilities. The construction lasted many months and during that time our interim pastor was Rev. John Coddington. He led us through a difficult period when the Southwest Region was breaking off from the American Baptist Convention and eventually became Transformation Ministries. Richard Ketchum was called from Portland, Oregon in April, 2008. He resigned in September, 2012. Our Interim Pastor is now Dr. Bob Wallace. Throughout our church history we have strongly supported missions and given generously. We have also been home to many retired missionaries who became church members. Current missionaries which we support are Dan and Sarah Chetti serving in Lebanon and Lori and Matt Mann serving in Laos and Thailand. We celebrated our 60th anniversary for three Sundays in April, 2010. We will continue to celebrate our past and look forward to helping others in the future. We were led by Rev. Joel Fairley from 2014-2022 as he guided us through the trials of the pandemic. Our current pastor is Rev. Nicholas Quient.
