bayarea1 Video Channel
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Joined: October 01, 2010
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Bay Area Fellowship is a testimony to the power of God and His desire to reach people in Corpus Christi, Texas. In September 1997 a young pastor named Bil Cornelius came to Corpus Christi with a great vision to start a church that would use modern methodology to reach people with God's timeless message of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Armed with very little in the way of resources, Bil and his wife Jessica diligently worked to form a core group that initially met in their one bedroom apartment. Although these early meetings consisted of less than 10 people, Bil was undeterred in his belief that God would some day turn them into a church of thousands. After several meetings they graduated to a home of one of the core group members and then in December of 1997, the church of 15-20 people began meeting in the local dance studio "Fonzie’s Dance City."
Committed to reaching more people for Christ, Pastor Bil and the church committed the majority of their resources to sending out a direct mail piece to over 70,000 homes in the Corpus area which invited them to Bay Area’s first community service on January 18th, 1998. The service was held at Ella Barnes elementary school and over 200 people attended! Over the next 16 months the church grew to over 300 people in regular Sunday attendance. Furthermore, many of these attenders were committing their lives to Christ for the first time!
Needing a little more space due to the growth, Bay Area Fellowship “graduated†from their elementary school and moved to Grant Middle School in spring of 1999. The church continued to grow over the next 18 months to over 600 people with the majority of those not knowing Christ previously. With the extraordinary growth (as well as the tiresome demands of setting up and breaking down church each weekend in a rented facility) came the need to find a bigger and more permanent meeting space.
In the summer of 2000, the Moose Lodge property on S. Padre Island Dr. became available for purchase. Closing the deal in August of 2000, Bay Area hired a contractor and began making renovations on the 2 buildings which had previously belonged to the Moose Lodge. In December of 2000 Bay Area held its first meeting on the new property in the smaller of the two buildings (which seated about 300) and in March of 2001 held the first services in the larger building in a newly renovated 750 seat auditorium. Within a month the church grew to over 1000 in weekend attendance. Over the next two years the Church continued to make facility renovations, adding a premiere pre-school area (Tiny Town), children’s church (Reign Forest Café and Savior Island), and student ministry space(element).
From March of 2001 to summer of 2003 Bay Area grew from 1,000 to almost 2,500 in regular weekend attendance. Busting at the seams and running 5 services, the search for land to build a new facility became mandatory. After much prayer and searching, the church made an offer on 100 acres of land at the intersection of Weber Rd. and Crosstown Extension (Chapman Ranch Rd.). The owner accepted and in January of 2004, Bay Area closed on the property and began drawing plans to build a 95,000 sq. ft. facility that would house a 2,500 seat auditorium as well as supporting space for all children’s ministries, student ministries, and offices.
On Easter Weekend 2007 Bay Area had its first services in the new facility and welcomed over 10,000 people! Since the church’s beginning, thousand of people have accepted Christ and many of those have been baptized and assimilated into small groups for discipleship and fellowship. Now that the building is complete Bay Area plans to continue its mission of reaching the unchurched people of Corpus Christi. Furthermore, the church will continue to fund and advise church planters in the United States and around the world with the goal of planting 100 churches by the year 2018. Please stay tuned…