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Crenshaw Christian Center is a ministry in South Los Angeles, California pastored by Pastor and Dr. Fred K. Price, Jr. and founded by his father, Dr. and Apostle Frederick K. C. Price. It is located on the site of the old Pepperdine University campus, which lay vacant for years before being sold to Crenshaw Christian Center. After the purchase, Apostle Price oversaw construction of a new sanctuary, called the "FaithDome", which at the time was the largest domed church in the United States, seating over 10,000. The church had greatly expanded from the time of its previous location at 9550 Crenshaw Boulevard in Inglewood, California, but still required three services for its growing congregation until the building of the FaithDome.
The campus also includes the Frederick K. C. Price, III Christian Schools, named in honor of Apostle Price's first son (now deceased, not the present Pastor Price). The Price High Knights compete in Men's and Woman's Varsity basketball and Men's football.
In 2007 the Apostle Price, who was then pastor, filed a defamation suit after the ABC television network aired a segment of their 20/20 investigative journalism program about certain of the largest, well-known Christian ministries in the U.S. Titled "Enough!", it was about how these ministries appeared to be misspending their congregants’ tithes and offerings. It attempted to illustrate that Apostle Price was one of the ministers who had become overly wealthy as a result of misusing his congregants' monies. To this end, the program broadcast a portion of a Sunday service at Crenshaw Christian Center in which Apostle Price, casting himself as a fictional character for the sake of illustration, made statements from his character's point of view about having great riches. 20/20 failed to state the context of those statements, thus allowing them to appear to be statements being made directly by Apostle Price himself. ABC later apologized on air and in writing.
Crenshaw Christian Center East
"CCC West's" sister church, Crenshaw Christian Center East, originally opened in New York in May, 2001. It was located in the historic building at 1 West 96th Street on the corner of Central Park West in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, which had formerly housed the First Church of Christ, Scientist. In 2003, the Christian Science congregation, which had moved to the Second Church, put the building up for sale, and it was purchased by CCC in 2004.
The building, which can accommodate 2,200 people, was constructed from 1889 to 1903, and was designed by Carrère & Hastings – who had just won the competition to design the New York Public Library – in a style reminiscent of the churches of Nicholas Hawksmoor, a combination of English Baroque and French Beaux-Arts detailing. The building features stained-glass windows by John LaFarge. The window over the front door was named "Touch Me Not" and based on John 20:17, depicting Jesus encounter with Mary Magdalene outside the tomb.
The original church had "gold chandeliers, marble floors and curved pews made of Circassian walnut," and elevators called "moving rooms" because they were large enough to hold 20 people.
The church was designated a New York City landmark in 1974, and is a contributing property to the federally designated Central Park West Historic District.
In June 2014, Crenshaw Christian Center sold the building to 361 Central Park L.L.C. for $26 million. The new owner plans to convert the 47,000-square-foot structure to condominiums.