CHILDREN ’ S M IN IS TR Y AS S E S S M E N T REPORT Building Sustainable Ministries . One Church at a Time www.ministryarchitects.com Church of the Open Door of Glendora, CA September 15, 2015 By Annette Safstrom, Lead Consultant and Anthony Prince, Staff Consultant
[email protected] [email protected] BACKGROUND Church of the Open Door is an established, non-denominational church located in the beautiful town of Glendora, California. The church was founded in 1915 by Dr. R. A. Torrey who was also the first president of Biola University and is about to celebrate its 100th birthday. The church was located in downtown Los Angeles for 70 years until it relocated to Glendora, CA in 1985. The church moved to property purchased from Azusa Pacific University, and includes many different buildings, a newly renovated worship center and lots and lots of space. Church members describe their church family as “open,” “comfortable,” and “a really great community.” The membership of the church is around 485 and on an average week, 500 people attend one of the church’s two worship services. The church is lead by Ed Underwood who has been serving as the Senior Pastor for the past 19 years. Other pastoral staff include Associate Pastor David Anderson, Worship Pastor Tom Townsend, Missions and Discipleship Pastor David Schaller, Student Ministries Pastor David Newkirk, and Properties Pastor Jeremy Maclennan. Church of the Open Door offers Sunday school during the 9 AM worship service and children’s church during the 11 AM serve and currently, there are about 161 children, 0 – 5th grade on the rolls of the church.