commencement

Commencement Speaker

Dr. Bruce Templeton

Bruce was called to be the Senior Minister of First Christian Church, Huntington Beach (FCCHB) in 1988 after ministering in Indiana, Virginia and Kentucky. Since then the church has grown almost 10x its size to averaging clue to 3,000 each weekend. Most recently, he led the church through a $22 million capital campaign to completely renovate the existing campus and led the merger of Fountain Valley Christian Church with FCCHB. After 25 years of ministry with FCCHB Bruce will be retiring in September and relocating back to Kentucky. Bruce is a dynamic teacher and preacher of God’s Word. His messages are filled with humor, practical means for sharing God’s word and living out the Christian life.

Bruce graduated from Kentucky Christian University in 1977 with a Major in Bible and minors in Greek and History. He later returned to KCU to get his Master of Ministry degree in 1986. In 2003 Bruce was given an Honorary Doctorate degree from Hope International University.

Bruce served on the Hope International University Board of Trustees from 1988 – 2009. He is an active member of the Kiwanis Club of Huntington Beach and serves as Chaplain of the Huntington Beach Police Department.  He’s a member of the Single Action Shooting Society, (SASS) and competes around the country under the alias, Colton Cross.

Bruce and his wife Connie met at Kentucky Christian University. They have been married for 37 years and have one son, Curtis, (Kristi Templeton, HIU ’99), who currently serves at FCCHB as Connections Pastor. Bruce spends the rest of his free time causing trouble with is two granddaughters, Haley and Lexi.