Mosaic Court

On January 3, 1943, thirty-five charter members of Bethel Baptist Church began meeting in a rented storefront at Brady Avenue, Los Angeles, California. Members brought their own chairs to the first service. By 1958, two more "missions" or services were established in Baldwin Park and Monterey Park. In 1969, at the age of 24, Thomas A. Wolf ("Brother Tom") became the senior pastor of the then-named First Southern Baptist Church of East Los Angeles. At that time, the small number of people still attending were predominantly Caucasian/Anglo and elderly in an area that was becoming more diverse with Hispanic, Armenian, and Asian families moving into the locality. The churches' new make-up was…