SAN FRANCISCO—What do Jews for Jesus, U.S. President Warren G. Harding, the Jesus Movement, and SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg all have in common?
If you said a connection with First Baptist Church in San Francisco, you are correct. You also understand something of the unique diversity that has characterized the congregation for nearly two centuries. First Baptist celebrated that diversity and God’s work through it at its 175th anniversary observance Sept. 21-22.
“The main focus of the celebration over the weekend was on God’s faithfulness,” First Baptist pastor Ben Day said. “We’re the oldest Baptist church in California, probably one of the oldest Protestant churches in the whole state, and we really wanted to give a picture of God’s faithfulness not just to our church, but to San Francisco and the Bay Area.”
The two-day anniversary celebration included a block party, a museum displaying historical artifacts, and worship services Saturday and Sunday. Along with Day, speakers included former First Baptist pastor Ryan Blackwell, San Francisco mayor London Breed, and James Westbrook, North American Mission Board Send City missionary for San Francisco.
First Baptist has a rich heritage. Chartered in 1849, the congregation opened the first Protestant church building in California in 1849. Its building housed the first free public school in San Francisco and was destroyed amid a massive earthquake and fire in 1906. The church met in a tent for three years while it rebuilt, ministering to the community all the while.
When President Harding died in San Francisco in 1923, First Baptist pastor James West conducted a private funeral service for the First Lady and Harding’s family. By mid-century, First Baptist’s weekly attendance eclipsed 1,000. The Jewish evangelism ministry Jews for Jesus was started by a First Baptist member. The church participated in a 1960s ministry that led evangelist Lonnie Frisbee to Christ and helped spur a revival known as the Jesus Movement.
The church began cooperating with the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980s through its relationship with Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (now Gateway Seminary). Iorg was among First Baptist’s members when Gateway’s primary campus was in the Bay Area.
But can First Baptist’s rich heritage translate into continued effective ministry in a city notorious for liberalism and sin?
Absolutely, says Day. The three baptisms First Baptist observed during its anniversary celebration underscored that reality. One new believer came from a skeptical Roman Catholic home. Another grew up in a broken home replete with violence and drugs before coming to Christ in prison. The third was born in Iran and fled to the U.S. for religious freedom.
The baptisms “were a picture of the diverse people God reaches” through First Baptist, Day said, noting that approximately 250 worship at First Baptist each Sunday. “God’s not done reaching the people in San Francisco. He’s not done bringing people from other places to our city. God’s not just bringing them here, but He’s softening their hearts in many ways, making them receptive to the gospel.”
Westbrook, pastor of Realm Church in San Francisco, told First Baptist in its Saturday anniversary service that “this was the church we wanted to grow up to be” when his church was planted in 2019.
“If we could replicate the gospel principles and how this church is committed to God’s people and to a city,” Westbrook said, “we wanted a church that looked like that.”
Port Wilburn, mission strategist for the Bridges Bay Area Association, noted that “a multitude of nations have been touched by First Baptist San Francisco.”
“First SF has been ‘on the wall’ loving, serving and engaging their neighbors for an amazingly long time,” Wilburn said. “I was so encouraged to be a part of the [anniversary] festivities and hear all that the Lord has done and is still doing with and through this congregation of believers who have yet to be deterred by what would appear to be one of the most challenging mission fields in the nation.”
First Baptist’s community engagement led to a declaration by Mayor Breed that Sept. 21, 2024, was First Baptist Church Day in San Francisco.
“I appreciate the fact that there is a spiritual community of San Francisco,” Breed said, “a spiritual community of San Francisco that is not just praying for the city, but praying for the city’s leader so that we have strength to do God’s will.”
