92 AND FORWARD! by Linden Malki

Happy Birthday, Calvary/NorthPoint! Next Monday, October 9, is the anniversary of the founding of The Calvary Baptist Church of San Bernardino in 1925: 92 years ago.  San Bernardino was a very different place back in those days. The earliest inhabitants were the Serrano indians. In 1810, a Spanish  priest from the Mission San Gabriel  arrived on the feast day of  St Bernardine of Sienna, an Italian priest and Franciscan missionary who was a popular preacher in the early 1400's. The mission station known as the San Bernardino Asistencia was built in 1829.  In 1842, the Mexican governor granted a large part of the San Bernardino valley to the family of Antonio Maria Lugo, a former mayor of Los Angeles, who also had several other major rancho grants in the area.  The grants were honored in the  Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,  which ended the Mexican-American war with the cession of California to the United States.  In 1851, the Lugo family sold the Rancho to a large group of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), who  laid out a 1-square mile city  system with 8-acre blocks, which became the basis for the existing city street grid. The city was incorporated in 1854 with 1200 citizens, most of them Mormons. The Mormons were recalled to Utah in 1857, and the city was disincorporated. The valley continued to grow commercially.  There had been a trading route through Cajon Pass, the Old Spanish Trail, was  established 1829-30. The first orange trees were planted in 1857, and gold was discovered in the Big Bear area in 1860.  The California Southern Railroad, part of the Atchicson, Topeka and Santa Fe system, was built through San Bernardino in 1873. The orange groves became a major industry by the 1880's, and the city was reincorporated in 1886. The first Orange Show was held in 1911, and Valley College was built in

1926. The 1930 census showed a population of 37,481.
The 1920s were an interesting time in the churches; there was a lot of theological and sociologial ferment in the news reports of the period.  In San Bernardino, one of the oldest churches in town was the First Baptist Church founded in 1866. There were reports of discusssions going on within this congregation in 1925, and when the dust settled, FBC was not affiliated with any of the Baptist conventions, and a group of about 70+ good folks had established Calvary Baptist Church and affiliated with the Northern (later American) Baptist Convention.  Calvary/NorthPoint has had changes, good and bad, over the years; as has the ABC. 
Again, there is a lot we can learn about God from observing His Creation. One of them is the constant nature of change, within the stability of the larger system. The weather changes; all living creatures change as individuals but they stay pretty much the same within their basic design. Societies change, but consistent patterns come and go and come around again with different actors on the stage. Looking back at the last 20 years at Calvary/NorthPoint, we have had a lot of changes and challenges, and it's not over yet. We are seeing God doing amazing and unexpected things in our lives and in the life of our church but He is always the same God, loving and challenging His people, showing us new things and new looks at old things. The city has changed and we pray for changes for the better; the churches have changed and we pray for the wisdom and strength to meet the challenges. The one thing we know is that God doesn't change; how we see Him may change, but in the long run--the very long run--we will see what was really going on and how He was really working in our lives, our church, our city.