THE HISTORY OF THE SOLID ROCK CHURCH OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST

In the late 1960’s a group of devoted SDA Christians who lived in Far Rockaway would travel every Sabbath for worship at Mount of Olives SDA Church in Brooklyn, since there was no Seventh-day Adventists Church in the Far Rockaway area.

In 1974 Pastor Robert Lister, the pastor of Mount of Olives Seventh-day Adventist Church, noticed the distance it took his members in Far Rockaway to travel to attend church in Brooklyn.

He soon discovered that there was no SDA church in the Far Rockaway area; he immediately decided to take steps to remedy the situation. During June and July of 1974 the foundation was laid for the proposed venture. Almost a year was spent preparing the area for the crusade that would take place during the summer of 1975.

Once the tent went up,  Pastor Lister and his associate, Evangelist William McNeil along with many other dedicated workers began the work of preparing "a people to meet our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

When the tent came down 42 souls had made a decision for Christ and were baptized. This group became known as the "Solid Rock Mission" because it had been born of the Solid Rock Bible Crusade.

Now the new mission faced the task of finding a place of worship so they could gather together with their new found faith. The first Sabbath’s worship was to be held in a Jewish temple located at 53-07 Rockaway Beach Blvd, however the Friday night before,  the rabbi of the temple called Pastor Lister and told them that the temple could not be used by the worshipers the next day.

The pastor and his colleagues then took up the yellow pages with faith and pray and started calling way into the night trying to find a place to worship for the mission’s first Sabbath.

Finally the Lord blessed their efforts when the assistant pastor of the Church of God in Christ, located at 14-25 Beach Channel Drive, agreed to let the worshipers use their church that Sabbath morning and each Sabbath thereafter until they could secure a place of their own.

Shortly afterward the Mission found a place of their own in a vacated Social Service center at 73-05 Rockaway Beach Blvd. For a period of approximately two years, the Mission remained at that location.

The mother church of Mount of Olives continued to give the Mission lots of nurturing and support and Elder Clarence Wildon of the Mount of Olives Church faithfully served as the Mission’s Spiritual leader.

In the spring of 1977 Pastor Doc Smith became the first official pastor of the Solid Rock Mission. During the summer of 1977 Pastor Smith conducted an evangelistic effort which proved to be spiritually reviving for the Mission as more souls were won for Christ.

On December 2, 1978, Solid Rock Mission became Solid Rock SDA Church. The church relocated to the King George Lodge at 63-15 Rockaway Blvd.; the move was to be temporary as the search for a permanent home never ceased. The 70’s proved to be a decade of establishment and new beginnings for Solid Rock SDA, but as always satan never sleeps, so God’s people must always be on alert.

One Sabbath morning in the fall of 1979 the believers arrived at the sight of the King George Grand Lodge for the usual worship service only to discover that during the night it had burned to the ground. A striking blow to the new church, however our story does not end here, for we all know that what God has put together, no being, physical or spiritual , can ever break apart.

During the next few weeks the worshipers attended sister churches in the surrounding areas. Good news came very quickly when a letter was received from Elder Sam Stoval,  concerning the Northeastern Conference Building Committee finding a building on 52nd street and Rockaway Beach Blvd.( the present building you worship at today). The letter stated that there was a good chance of getting the building if the church could raise $23,000 by the end of the year.

The prayer, fasting and sacrifice that took place within the small congregation was heart touching. With an abundance of faith in God and much determination the campaign was underway. Pledges and commitments were made. Fundraisers were conducted. Donation came in from family,  friends,  neighbors and sister churches throughout the Northeastern conference. The support was overwhelming. As always the Lord blessed the faithful group and the goal was reached.

The closing for the building was scheduled for February 26, 1980. It was on that date that Solid Rock became proud owners of their own church building. So it was with a strong powerful arm that the Lord led Solid Rock into a new Decade.

During August of 1980 Pastor Benjamin and the Solid Rock Church combined efforts with Pastor Smith and the Mount Sinai Church and conducted a crusade which brought 41 more souls to Christ.

In 1981, Pastor Willard Hall became the pastor of Solid Rock he conducted 2 tent efforts one in 1982 and one in 1983. Those who were baptized are still in the church today. In 1985 Pastor Lawrence Mason became the new pastor of Solid Rock and as a result of his stewardship program the church was able to realize some of its dreams for church beautification, which continued after his leadership and straight through the decade. In the 1980’s the church was known as the miracle Temple, due to it’s resiliency to overcome odd trials and financial burdens.

The 80’s was a big decade for Solid Rock as a church itself but,  what was to come was only going to get better. The 90’s were what I like to say is the decade Solid Rock truly got involved and became a church for its community, now demonstrating Christ.

In January 1990, Pastor Stephen Williams became the new pastor. Under his leadership the homeless shelter program was established and is still in operation today. In the summer of 1992 he conducted the Black Heritage crusade that not only educated the community and the church family but 32 people were baptized as well. This was also when the church was introduced to information technologies, aka computers.

Under Pastor Williams, the first Church banquet was established and it was held in the Church’s fellowship hall. It was during that era that it was elected that the mortgage be burnt.

In 1993, Pastor Morris came into the church and with that continued Solid Rock’s era of community services. Under his leadership Solid Rock had it’s first Diversity Day, and the Youth Choir was started. However bigger and better things were yet to come; with much hard work, prayer and dedication, the momentous event of the Mortgage burning was held in 1994 and a ceremony was held to celebrate the occasion that the church was out of debt and paid off. As we all know joy cannot come without sorrow and sorrow did come on October 25, 1997, when the church was flooded, but that did not slow the members down.

In 1998 Pastor Maxwell Ferguson came into leadership and promoted and expanded leadership in the church. In their efforts to serve the community in 1998 under the leadership of Pastor Ferguson the church acquired their own Van to service it’s members as well as others in need and in August of 1998 the restoration of the church after the flood was celebrated.

Now enter the 00’s or 2000’s , in which Pastor Baldwin Barnes celebrated 25 years of ministry with the Solid Rock family and under his time the Family tree was launched, which is displayed in the church lobby today. Getting into the present day, in 2006 Pastor David Cuke came to lead the Solid Rock family. He currently is with us now and is very dedicated and involved with the Solid Rock Church family. He is a "man with a vision"  and now under his leadership,  Solid Rock is launching God’s House 1st project-renovation and expansion projects for the church, with the motto of “Solid Rock being the lighthouse of the Rockaways".

Submitted By: Sis Velmore Morrison