We started a Bible study in our home and invited others to join us. The Lord blessed this effort. Many people came to know the Lord and began to grow in Christ. As the Bible study grew, it became apparent that these new believers had no church home. Lorenzo felt led of the Lord to incorporate as a church and become their pastor. God confirmed this in many ways. In 1975, the Washington Christian Center was incorporated. Our first meeting place was our home in Washington, DC.

The Washington Christian Center was a nondenominational, multiracial, predominantly Black-American church that believed in the accuracy of God’s Word, as expressed in the Bible. We believed that no man was another’s superior and that we were all in need of God’s forgiveness.

There were several distinctive emphases that characterized our fellowship: the family, proper biblical self-esteem, care of the body, and evangelism. We believed in the great importance of teaching our faith to our children and helping them to grow in its hope and encouragement.

Our emphasis was designed to provide a model for the unbeliever to see what a relationship to Christ produced. If we proclaimed that Christ was the answer to life’s problems, the unbeliever should have been able to see the truth of this in real-life, everyday examples within our Christian community. It was our desire that our church would be made up of people who were longing to know God, striving to grow in His Word, and reaching to show His love to the world.