MONTCLAIR, CA — “Converting” a building to a new use is a common enough occurrence, but when the building in question is being “converted” from a porn shop into a Pentecostal church, the word and process take on entirely new meanings.That’s precisely what’s happening in Montclair, CA, now that two years of prayers on the part of Pastor Urias Mendoza and his wife, Heather have paid off in real estate.
Actually, the building itself, like so many pagan temples during the Byzantine era, will be destroyed and covered by the new Mision El Redentor Pentecostal Church.
The Mendozas purchased the Mills Avenue property with the former Apple Adult Book Store XXX in April of 2006 with the intent of leveling the structure and replacing it with their 100-member dream church.
“We’re in our final stages,” Pastor Mendoza told the Daily Bulletin, “and there are just a few T’s to be crossed and I’s to be dotted, and we can finally being tearing down the walls.”
Those walls, as far as the Mendozas are concerned, have seen more than their share of “sexual perversion,” and will be of no loss to the local community when they fall. As far as the pastor is concerned, that will all change once the new church has been erected and become “a place that will invite people and create a sense of family.”
Montclair’s community development director is thrilled that the tax-exempt church will occupy the old adult business property. “They took a huge negative,” he assured the Daily Bulletin and turned it into the opposite spectrum.”
After two years of holding services at a local high school, Mendoza’s wife believes that being able to put a church on the ex-bookstore’s previous location was a “sign from God.”
“People question why we bought this land,” she observed. “Because it sits on the site of the adult bookstore. We say, ‘Why not? Why not redeem this property for the Lord?”
