Adventist Center to Stay in Newbury Park

A few years ago, Campus Crusade for Christ and Focus on the Family moved all or most of their operations out of Southern California to less expensive locations--namely, Orlando, Fla., and Colorado Springs, Colo.

Likewise, the domestic operations of World Vision will move from Monrovia to the Seattle-Tacoma area late this summer in a previously announced relocation.

One religious agency however, recently spurned offers from seven other U.S. cities--including Orlando and Lincoln, Neb.--and decided to stay in Southern California.

The Adventist Media Center, the radio and television arm of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church, will remain at its offices in Newbury Park, according to an Adventist magazine, the Pacific Union Recorder.

The center, which produces such television programs as “It Is Written” and “Voice of Prophecy,” has a yearly budget of $20 million and employs 135 people, said Ron Lindsey, vice president for finance.

The center’s board of trustees decided that while other sites might offer lower initial costs of operation, there were many unknown risks to relocating, said Glenn Aufderhar, president of the Adventist Media Center.

“When we moved to Newbury Park in 1972, this was a low-cost area,” Aufderhar told the magazine. “The same thing could happen elsewhere if the transition were made.”