COMPTON, CA (November 5, 2010) – A dedication service and open house for the Centro Hispano de Estudios Teológicos (CHET) new building will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday).

“These are exciting days,” says Ed Delgado, the school’s president.

Renovation has been ongoing since April 14 and some minor work remains, Delgado says. “It feels like an extreme makeover – we just didn’t do it in a week.”

Since its founding in 1989, the Covenant’s Hispanic training center has rented space from Primera Iglesia del Pacto in Bell Gardens. Increasing enrollment and the church’s needs for the current space led CHET to purchase a building, which previously was home to Compton Covenant Church.

The first classes (accompanying photos) in the new building began September 13. “The place has been packed out with students,” Delgado says.

After observing several classes on the first night, board chair Rich Martinez observed, “The professors and instructors were not just conveying subject matter to their students, but also bringing them into God’s love and care just as Jesus did with his disciples.

“I thank God that CHET’s students are not just being equipped with intellectual knowledge of God’s word, but are receiving Christ’s love and Holy Spirit’s power in ways that bring them and others closer to our creator and the fulfillment of his will on earth,” he added.

Delgado said earlier this year that locating in Compton provides students “a wonderful laboratory for ongoing contextual ministry in the midst of a changing demographic. While neighborhoods throughout our country and world often make such transitions, churches have found this hard to do. By participating in such a community transition, CHET can become a model for other Covenant ministries.”

Since the school was formed in partnership with North Park University, CHET has grown from 25 students to more than 500, and has served more than 5,300 individuals, Delgado says.

CHET students and graduates serve as pastors, church planters, missionaries, lay counselors and trained laity in Evangelical Covenant churches as well as other evangelical churches throughout the United States, Latin America and beyond. The school also operates several satellite campuses and offers online courses.