Celebrating Christian Light

Members of the Christian Light Missionary Baptist Church held a fundraiser and benefit concert on Jan. 27 to support the church and its programs.

Christian Light was founded in 1950 and more than 150 people turned out to the event, which was organized by 20-year-old Brian Horne, a minister in training.

“We’re doing a gospel night of praise — everybody is coming and some will be singing and playing instruments,” said Horne, a 2015 Long Beach High School graduate who came up with the idea for the event. “We have people coming from Brooklyn, Queens, Far Rockaway, Westbury and Uniondale, all over.”

Members said that Christian Light was founded by the late Rev. Jesse James Evans, the pastor at Christian Light for 50 years when he died in April 2000 at age 87.

“A lot of people came to Christian Light because of the founder, the Rev. J.J. Evans,” said Vivice Garrett, a church minister. “We try to keep his legacy alive.”

“Long Beach was different then — there were barely any African Americans out here,” added Deanna Cruse, one of the church’s founding members. “There’s a lot of history behind the church. It’s always been a safe haven for a lot of people. Rev. Evans was the type … if you didn’t have a place to stay or anything to eat he saw to it that it was done. And we still keep that up nowadays.”

The church, located at 620 Park Place, has between 150 and 200 members, and the street was officially renamed J.J. Evans Boulevard in 2003.

“This is the largest African American church in Long Beach,” said Horne. “We’re getting bigger as we speak. We’re getting back to getting out and reaching out to our brothers and sisters who are not in the church. The work is outside — what we do here is we train and we equip a lot of young people to know as much about Jesus as possible, that way when they go to school or walk down the blocks, they can be fishers of men and bring them into the church. There’s a lot of community outreach.”

Cruse and Garrett said that the church, whose pastor is the Rev. Isaac Melton Jr., provides a number of youth outreach and other programs.

“We teach them to respect their elders, we teach them that you can’t be a good leader if you can’t be a follower,” Cruse said.

“I would like to thank the community for their overwhelming support of our fundraiser and Love and Unity Benefit Concert,” Melton said. “The concert highlighted many anointed and gifted psalmists and musicians. The entire day embraced and exhibited the love and unity that is essential in all that we do. Again, I would like to say thank you to our fantastic community for their support and for the hard work and dedication of all the members of the Christian Light Missionary Baptist Church.”

The fundraiser also featured a food sale that included chicken and fish dishes prepared fresh at the church to help raise money.

“Did you put your order in yet,” Garrett asked a reporter. “You’re not leaving the table without something on your plate.”