Helping Hands—Near and Far
Rev. Don Ng, Former Senior Pastor (1998-2015)
Celebrating a church anniversary is throwing a birthday party for God! People come near and far to remember the day so that we won’t forget. Marking the church anniversary every 5 years teaches every new generation of partygoers the heroes, stories, and traditions worthy to be shared.
This weekend, we commemorate the 135th Anniversary of First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco! If you count back, we were born on 1880! Since no one here was born then, we realized that celebrating church anniversaries has helped us to remember it’s party time again.
In 1880, American Baptist missionaries reached out to mainly Chinese men who worked in San Francisco with the goal of earning enough money from menial labor to eventually retired comfortably back in China. As the result of the Chinese Exclusion Acts and world wars, the Chinese became the purpose of mission endeavors of denominational home mission societies including the American Baptists. For almost 80 years, FCBC was a missionary-led outreach post. But soon in the 1940s beginning with the first generation of American-born Chinese, FCBC became a family-oriented church and the emergence of new leaders.
For the past 55 years, FCBC is increasingly mission-focused partnering with mission agencies locally as well as internationally to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ around the world. Our church is wonderfully blessed with gifted and dedicated leaders, sacrificial givers, a collaborative spirit, and a conviction to live out Jesus’ command, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). Inasmuch as the missionaries of old extended helping hands to our faithful fore-bearers, we are ready to carry on the commission to extend our helping hands to all—near and far!
Happy birthday, God for blessing your people, FCBC to be your helping hands!