October 3, 1999
Rev. Donald Ng
This past June when I was flying to Des Moines to attend the American Baptist Biennial meetings, I picked up a United’s inflight magazine. There was an article titled, “A Walk on the Wild Side.” It was a guide to San Francisco’s new Barbary Coast Trail—a 3.8 mile walk that explores areas where the gold rush brought the Wild West and the Far East together for the first time. You may have noticed the bronze medallions, emblazoned with a miner and clipper ship, marks the path at every street corner.
As a newly arrived San Franciscan, this article caught my interest. I read on and discovered to my pleasant surprised the mentioning of Waverly Place. Listen to two paragraphs.
“A few steps from Grant Avenue at Waverly Place, the sound of a brass gong reverberates out onto the street. Waverly is an eye-catching, two block lane often referred to as the “street of the painted balconies.” Look up to see a colorful collage of painted porches and overhanging cornices in green, yellow, red, and gold. In the 1800s, Waverly was the site of bloody tong war battles between rival Chinese groups vying for control of lucrative opium and gambling operations.
Down Waverly, tendrils of incense emanate from the balcony of Tin Hou Temple, a Taoist place of worship and the oldest Asian temple in North America. The walk up a narrow stairway into the temple is well worth the effort. Inside, multicolored tassels dangle from the ceiling and an antique red-and gold altar cradles the statue of Hou, Queen of the Heavens and Goddess of the Seven Seas. A stern, elderly Chinese matron in a black silk blouse offers you a scroll that tells the story of her goddess.”
Waverly Place is a street on the tourist’s list of places to see. Many times when I am running errands in the afternoon in Chinatown, I will noticed tour guides stopping a group of tourists on the corner of Waverly Place and Sacramento and pointing out to them our white marble cornerstone.
Chinese Baptist Church
Property of the
American Baptist Home Mission Society
of New York
Erected in 1888, Destroyed by fire in1906,
Rebuilt in 1908.
Waverly Place is also the two-block lane where God has called a group of American Baptists together for ministries and mission for almost 120 years. And in deep faith in God’s plan for our lives, we believe that as long as God continues to gives us the strength to share the Gospel and that there are people who have yet to hear about Jesus, Waverly Place is also the two-block lane where a group of people called the First Chinese Baptist Church calls home.
Recently, I discovered an organization called Partners for Sacred Places. It’s a group that is devoted to helping Americans embrace, care for and make good use of older and historic religious properties. You see in the east coast, there are many older churches, synagogues, temples, and meetinghouses that face slow deterioration or sudden demolition. The lost of these buildings threatens America’s diverse cultural heritage, as well as the community service programs which have found a home in these buildings.
Partners for Sacred Places did a study of 111 congregations in six U.S. cities. They found that the average congregation offers four types of services, from food pantries and shelters to day care and after-school programs. For every congregation member served, more than four non-members benefit.
The work of older city churches is labor-intensive and expensive. The congregations each provide an average of 5300 hours of volunteer support a year. And the average congregation provides more than $140,000 in subsidies for community programs.
Although FCBC was not a part of this study, don’t these findings sound familiar? The Friday Night School, the Saturday afternoon tutoring, the six weeks of summer day camp, the leasing of our facilities to City College for English and citizenship classes, and our Sunday morning church school classes for children and their parents are all primarily supported by our volunteer members and subsidized by our mission giving. Praise God!
While Partners for Sacred Places are raising money to save these dilapidating buildings, we at FCBC are going forward in faith that the $1 million dollars that will take to retrofit for earthquake seismic improvements, to engineer for full accessibility in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and to renovate for new classrooms, will come in. Unlike many city churches where there are only a handful of members holding on with their dear life, we are strong and full of vision to welcome the new millennium for Christ.
Right now, the church building is like an empty shell. You can notice in the pictures that the ceilings and walls are down. The old carpets are ripped up. The smelly bathrooms are gone. It’s only a shell right now.
But when Darren the on-site foreman showed me the gigantic wooden beams that are holding up the building and the old square nails that were used to build the church in 1908, I am reminded of all the saints who have gone before us. And we are today’s saints, the sisters and brothers in Christ today. For now we are filling the halls of the Lau school, the YMCA, the CEC, old St. Mary’s, and even with our cars, we are filling up St. Mary’s Garage. In our enduring faith in eight months, we will return and fill the halls at Waverly Place again.
The continuing vitality of FCBC is simply our deep faith in God’s plan for our lives. There are no gimmicks. There’s no one easy answer. Only deep faith in God. The writer of Hebrews spoke about this.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. (Heb. 11:1-3)
You know, there will be a new addition to the tour guide’s itinerary next year. This is what it may say.
In May 2000, a few steps from Grant Avenue at Waverly Place, the sound of voices singing “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” reverberates out onto the street. When you look up at the corner of Waverly and Sacramento, you will see through the windows, children and their teachers learning Bible stories and how they apply to their lives. Look up and see the colorful stained glass windows of green, red, yellow, and blue that tell the stories of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd and that we come to God’s living water. Look up and marvel at the salvaged 1906 earthquake and fire-burned bricks and know that the faith of their ancestors told them that God’s work still needs to be done. In 1888, Waverly was not only the site of bloody tong war battles, but also the witness of Jesus Christ who died for their sins so that they may have everlasting life.
On Waverly, the Tin Hou Temple is not the only place of worship. On the corner of Waverly and Sacramento, stands the First Chinese Baptist Church, the second oldest Asian American Baptist church in North America. When you come into this accessible and renovated vestibule, it will be well worth the effort. Rather than incense filling your noses, your whole soul will be filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit of love and acceptance. Inside, the unique sunken sanctuary with new carpet and pews invites you to come as you are and worship God. There won’t be “a stern, elderly Chinese matron in a black silk blouse offering you a scroll that tells the story of her goddess,” but there will be friendly and welcoming ushers and deacons offering you a Bible that tells the life-giving story of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!
“A Walk on the Wild Side” in San Francisco is not just an interesting sidewalk stroll of the Barbary Coast Trail. When you walk on the side of the street on the corner of Waverly and Sacramento, be ready to experience a wild, life-giving and faithful journey with God that you will remember as long as you shall live.