East Hills Baptist Church

For about 2 years, from the ages of 15 to 17 years old, I attended East Hills Baptist Church located at 217 E. Birch St., Brea, CA. 92821. It is now called Brea Baptist Church, and looks extremely different than how it looked when I was a teenager. The pastors names were Mr. David Rader and Mr. Gary Drabek.

Next door was a small house that was converted into the teen Sunday School, when I attended.

There are 3 things I remember about attending this church.  "Lord, I Lift Your Name On High" was a song they sang almost every time I attended, that it is still in my brain in my 30s.  The song went something like this:

Lord, I lift your name on high.
Lord, I love to sing your praises.
I'm so glad you're in my life.
I'm so glad you came to save us.
You came from Heaven to Earth,
to show the way.
From the Earth to the Cross,
my debt to pay.
From the Cross to the Grave,
from the Grave to the sky.
Lord, I lift your name on high.

Another, was Pastor Rader's service and the church members were being fairly boring or lackluster.  He said something along the lines of, "You know, there was a Black woman in our group last week.  Remember her?  She was very vocal.  She said 'Amen' when she agreed with the sermon or Bible passages.  She sang loud with the music.  She felt the praises we were giving God.  She's not here this weekend, and that's a shame.  I want to hear you agree with God.  I want to hear you sing louder.  I want to know you feel the sermon.  It honestly makes me mad.  There's nothing wrong with being a fanatic.  A fanatic is a person who is a crazy fan of something.  Well I'm a crazy fan about God.  All of you should be, too!"

And the third thing I remembered from one of his speeches, something along the lines of, "You know, I've seen the snide looks and heard the whispers about some people not singing as great as you think they should.  But, they are up here singing their heart out to the Lord.  How dare you?"

Even though, I'm not practicing anymore, and of all the churches I'd visited in the past, I think I paid the most attention to Pastor Rader's sermons when I was a teenager.

Note:  This picture was taken from Google Maps.  I added a vignette and enhanced the color.