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Founded 1969
The founding: The suburban church era opens with Blackhawk. The church — legally Blackhawk Baptist Church, Inc., today Blackhawk Ministries — was founded in 1969 and first led by Dr. David Jeremiah, newly arrived from Cedarville College; it began in two side-by-side modular trailers on East State Boulevard. Jeremiah's biographers credit his twelve Fort Wayne years (1969–1981) with growth from seven families to some 1,300 members before he left to found the San Diego ministry that became Turning Point. In 1973 the congregation planted Blackhawk Christian School beside the church — the school is treated in the Schools section. The ministry now occupies a large campus at 7400 East State Boulevard, where the congregation describes its constitution and statement of faith as baptistic and evangelical, under an elder board of laymen who must themselves meet the biblical qualifications for the office.
Sources:
- Blackhawk Ministries / Stand for BCS, elder-board letter (standforbcs.com) — founded 1969, first led by Dr. David Jeremiah, the two modular trailers on East State Boulevard, the 1973 school.
- Blackhawk Ministries, constitution and by-laws pages (blackhawkministries.org) — the legal name Blackhawk Baptist Church, Inc., the East State Boulevard campus, the elder-board polity.
- David Jeremiah biographical profiles — the 1969–1981 pastorate and the growth figures, attributed here to those profiles.