First Baptist Church San Francisco: See update below
Established in 1849 First Baptist San Francisco is the oldest evangelical church in California. But three years ago FBCSF was ready to close the doors. Membership had dwindled to fewer than 75 and their downtown location, just blocks from Haight/Ashbury was seen as a liability.
But pastor Ryan Blackwell came to San Fransisco with a vision to grow First Baptist into a congregation that would minister to the people of downtown. And the church that nearly closed is now a thriving congregation. On a recent Sunday more than 300 people worshiped together at the historical church, then made plans to take the gospel to the streets of San Francisco. A former street person told how the church had reached out to him and how knowing Jesus had changed his life.
The church depends heavily on interns from Golden Gate Seminary, across the Bay, to meet the needs of their people and of downtown San Francisco. That's where Erin's Hope Foundation is helping First Baptist by funding the seminary education of one intern so they can work full time for First Baptist. Bringing the Good News to San Francisco's downtown. This is one of the mission projects we believe in at Erin's Hope.
This is an on-going mission project of Erin's Hope Foundation. The current intern at FBC San Francisco is Samantha, a student at Golden Gate Seminary. Pastor Ryan Blackwell commented that “she has been doing an amazing job. She works with our children’s ministry, has a passion for global missions, and has been assisting our staff team in raising up more volunteer leaders in all of our ministries. We have been very impressed by her passion for Christ and are so excited she is growing (and) learning in this setting. Thank you so much for your care for our church and this city, even though we are many miles away.”
UPDATE ON FBC SAN FRANCISCO FROM PASTOR RYAN:
Our community group ministry has grown and we are in the middle of a really exciting men’s discipleship program. On top of this, we are taking our first “out of country” youth mission trip this summer and just launched a new global mission strategy that focuses on unreached peoples in China, North Korea, and India. The intern sponsored by Erin's Hope Foundation, Samantha, has been a really vital person with all of this. Samantha continues to serve in all of our children’s ministry activities but she is also overseeing volunteer health and recruitment and serving on our missions strategy team. I cannot say thank you enough for your resources that allow her to spend three days a week serving with our church. This has been such an amazing help during this important building season in the life of our church. I have attached some photos from a recent mission trip that Samantha went on.