Dr. Frederick K. C. Price, the long-time pastor of Crenshaw Christian Center in Los Angeles, has died, Black News Alerts has learned. He was 89.
What We Know:
- Apostle Frederick K.C. Price is the founder of Crenshaw Christian Center (CCC) in Los Angeles, California. He began CCC in 1973 and shepherded it into a ministry of world renown, with services held in the 10,000-seat FaithDome. In 1978, Apostle Price received instruction from God to begin a television broadcast and, as a result, Ever Increasing Faith Ministries (EIFM) began broadcasting in five major television markets. Thus, the television broadcast soon after became global.
- The news of his COVID-19 infection broke via a Facebook post from Minister Baltimore Scott, the staff administrator for Crenshaw’s New York operations. The post asked for Christians worldwide to pray for healing for Price.
- The Los Angeles church was founded with just 300 members in 1973, but Price was a pastor before that. Crenshaw Christian Center currently employs 180 people within 14 divisions including a preschool, elementary school, middle school, and high school. There are also 16 Helps Ministry or auxiliaries and organizations of the church with roughly 1800 volunteers. One distinct part of the church’s network is the Fellowship of Inner-City Word of Faith Ministries, which was renamed to Fellowship of International Christian Word of Faith Ministries. Its purpose is to spread the gospel to urban and metropolitan areas in the U.S. Price envisioned it would be used to strengthen inner-city outreach efforts and help them keep Christians in inner cities on the straight and narrow.
- Price stepped down from ministry in 2008 and handed the Center over to his son, Rev. Fred Price, Jr. In 2017, Price, Jr. stepped down from the role of senior pastor and relinquished his responsibilities to Price, Sr. and his mother, Betty Price. The church leadership on record said that Price, Jr. would remain engaged in the ministry and follow God’s ‘restorative’ process. In 2018, Price, Jr. returned to the helm of the church and declared that he was ‘no longer sleeping in the valley of the shadow of death.’
- It’s been widely known and also reported by Christian Post that Price was a proponent of the prosperity gospel, and was described by many as a “darling of white evangelical prosperity preachers” and branded a “religious Uncle Tom.” In 1992, a group of black ministers gave him a recording of a controversial sermon on race preached by Kenneth Hagin Jr., the son of his mentor, Kenneth Hagin, who died in 2003. Hagin Jr. was caught telling his congregation that he did not believe in race-mixing, and had taught his daughter from her kindergarten years that she was not to date blacks. In response, Price’s focus on development in the black community increased and he went on to teach a series on racism and published Race, Religion & Racism, Vol. 1: A Bold Encounter With Division in the Church in 1999.
- Despite the controversy that sometimes surrounded Price and his ministry, Faith leaders from across the world have recognized the impact and power of his voice and ministry. Tributes from around the world poured in on Friday night celebrating the leader and recognizing the true impact he had on lives.
- A visionary and prolific author, Apostle Price was the author of some 50 books on faith, healing, prosperity, and the Holy Spirit. How Faith Works is a classic on the operation of faith and its life-changing principles.
A devout husband, Apostle Price was married to Dr. Betty Price for 67 years. They are the proud parents of four children, ten grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
This is breaking news report and will be updated with additional information as required.
