Senior Pastor
Don Ng
125th Church Anniversary
The opportunity to celebrate a significant anniversary usually requires steadfastness and long-suffering. Surely, there are “one-year anniversaries or 5-year anniversaries” which we enjoy. But only those who have endured through many years of faithfulness would be able to participate in the kind of anniversary we joyfully commemorated in 2005! None of us today were present in the founding of our church in 1880, one hundred and twenty-five years ago. But all of us who know God in Jesus Christ and have chosen to live out our discipleship at First Chinese Baptist Church share this historic legacy of 125 years.
The year of our Lord 2005 will be remembered fondly as our 125th Church Anniversary on the theme, “Abounding in Thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7). Under the able leadership of Anna Quan Wong, the Anniversary Committee coordinated and implemented a fabulous celebration. Imitating old panoramic pictures of church groups, we took time on June 19th to sit outside on our sidewalk for a new digital portrait of our church family when over 450 people were present. Small wooden replicas of our church building and our two stained glass windows in the sanctuary manufactured by Cat’s Meow were popular mementos that sit beautifully on our coffee tables and fireplace mantles at home. A 160 page history book, Abounding in Thanksgiving—125 Years of Faith and Witness with the above portrait, a timeline of historical dates, reflections from our Pastor Emeritus Rev. Dr. James Chuck and Sunset Ministry pastor, Rev. Larry Jay, five chapters chronicling our 125 years plus many photographs capturing our history was edited and designed by Joy Shih Ng. An anniversary hymn written by George Lai and an anniversary praise song composed by Charles Yong led both our voices and hearts to sing thanksgiving to the Lord.
The Anniversary weekend, October 7-9 began with a dinner and service of dedication of church leaders and teachers on Friday. On Saturday, an open house with crafts, food demonstrations, walking tours of Chinatown and church home tours with a new Journey of Faith self-guide brought old and new friends to a homecoming. As permanent exhibits of our church history, Jon and Joyce Ng designed and created five artfully framed displays around the church for all to see. Later that day, the banquet at the Empress of China Restaurant with almost 500 people was accented with congratulatory greetings, choirs singing, challenging messages, and great food around the tables. On Sunday, we gathered outside on the sidewalk for an outdoor worship to proclaim God’s Good News and his blessings. On one end of the street, the church hand bell choirs rang out and on the other end, church members who learned Chinese drums under Layton Doung’s direction thundered out a joyful noise to the Lord! We shared another fellowship lunch at the Four Seas Restaurant that reflected our commitment to each other as the Body of Christ.
God’s providence can be seen happening all the time. No one would have imagined that the city decided to improve our street in 2005. As I write this report, workers have just installed a number of Alleyway Improvement bronze monkey foot print medallions on our sidewalk. Anticipating our anniversary year, three medallions were sponsored by our church with one marking, “FCBC 125th Anniversary—1880.” Whenever we come to worship and then are sent out into the world for ministry and missions, we are reminded to continue God’s kingdom work as others have faithfully done so years ago. Celebrating a significant anniversary as we did last year may only happen infrequently in our lifetimes, but being faithful enduring the challenges and rejoicing in the blessings will lead us to many more anniversaries to come. Thanks be to God!
New Ministries
2005 was also a year of launching new ministries. Fueled by the passion of building a strong financial foundation for the church, Joel Jang spearheaded the new Gifts Planning Committee that led to the first planned giving/deferred gifts seminar on November 6th. On the theme, “Generations to Generations,” we invited Rev. Rick Barlow of the American Baptist Foundation to assist us on receiving planned gifts to support youth and young adult ministries, seminarian scholarships, and missions.
The Missions Committee became a standing committee of the church in 2005 which means that members will be nominated and elected to serve on behalf of the congregation to advance the cause of missions both at home and overseas. The vision of becoming an active “missional” church led by Steven Ng has led to what we hope will become a major opportunity for our church to reach the world for Christ. One example of this commitment is the January 2006 Thailand Mission Discovery trip involving eight members traveling to Bangkok and northern Thailand in order to become mission advocates upon their return.
The needs of our world can also be seen very close at home. The new Social Action Network led by Diana Ming Chan is focusing on pressing issues that confront our lives daily: homelessness, child prostitution, community youth, etc. By partnering with other social service organizations, we hope to make a difference in the quality of life in San Francisco.
As the Body of Christ
One of the enduring strengths of our church is our continuing commitment in being a “bicultural, bilingual, and multi-generational” congregation. We strongly affirm the diversity of convictions that each of us holds—sometimes these views are held very close to our hearts. We strive toward this rich display of God’s creation by offering four worship services on Sundays, a myriad of fellowship groups and Bible studies based on language, age, and interests.
Although we uphold often different distinctives, we must also affirm our unity in the Body of Christ. God does not want it any other way. For the first time on April 30th, an All-Church Retreat Day was held in the Marin Headlands with ABSW New Testament professor, Dr. Judy Siker as our guest speaker. We plan to continue this event when the church family comes together for study and fellowship. After a number of years of church picnics on Saturdays, we returned to a Sunday Outdoor Worship and Church Picnic on August 28th at a new site, Ortega Park in Sunnyvale. These and other joint church gatherings are essential to our church’s unity and shared vision for our ministry and missions.
Staff Transitions
After serving ten years as the Pastor of Chinese-speaking ministries, Rev. Kin K. Mak submitted his resignation in August that took effect on November 15th. We thank him for his faithful service to the church and particularly for programs such as evangelism training, mission education, and pastoral care. We send our blessings to Pastor Mak, his wife, Angela and their two daughters as he serves God in a new place.
To build a more integrated ministry with our lease with City College teaching English classes during the weekday evenings and with our Friday Night School, Jane Lam was called to serve as the new Community Outreach Worker beginning on June 1st. Our hope and plans are to grow these ministries and to develop a worship service for these new friends.
The growth of English-speaking young adults led us to call Lauren Ng as our new Assistant Pastor beginning on July 1st. In addition to staffing and preaching at the new 9:30 English Worship, Pastor Lauren assists the Xplorers young adult fellowship, leads Bible studies, and is organizing a new post-college group.
The ongoing work of the church requires many gifts and abilities. While we are sad to see colleagues leave us, we are also inspired to see so many who give sacrificially to God’s work. In addition to the pastoral staff mentioned above, we are very grateful for the effective ministry that is provided by Pastor Chris Otani, our Minister of Christian Education. We have seen a number of candidates for Baptism and church membership in this past year due to the life-changing ministries of Christian education. Thanks to our bookkeeper, Marian Hom who along with our Finance Committee keep our finances correct and up to date. Deep appreciation and thanks to Wendy Lin, our church administrator who carries out the day by day operations of our church with a high level of professionalism. She coordinates the work of our janitorial service, equipment maintenance contracts, and ordering of supplies.
Noteworthy
Every year is filled with examples that God has been good! In all the reports that follow, you will be able to read the host of activities and programs that reveal how God was the central reason why we celebrate today. I hope that you will take a few moments to read how so many people are involved in the work of our church. While you might be involved in one aspect of the church, there are many others who are using their gifts and talents in making Jesus Christ known.
Other developments that are worth noting in 2005 are that the 9:30 English Worship moved from the Recreation Center to Culbertson Hall at Cameron House at the beginning of the summer. When the Chinatown YMCA closed for their upcoming new building construction, the Chinese and English adult Sunday school classes moved to Cameron House at the beginning of 2006. We are pleased to have such wonderful partners in our community to be able to expand our ministries beyond our own church building.
The Say Amen! Gospel Ensemble, directed by Joy Shih Ng was selected by the ABC Biennial Program Committee that invited a 25 voice choir to sing in Denver in July. At this same convention, our Pastor Emeritus Rev. Dr. James Chuck was awarded the Luther Wesley Smith Christian Higher Education Award for excellence in teaching.
God’s Mission Continues
I have tried in a broad brush stroke painted a big picture of the major developments in 2005. But we know that ministry happens with people one by one. In the exciting days coming up to the anniversary weekend, I found a disheveled middle-age couple sitting on the pew outside my office. They were both deaf. The woman wrote this note to me:
“We (are) deaf. We just ask you (because) we’re so frustrated to find money. We need help. We’re very upset today. We need $4.50 each. Both of us (need fares) for Caltrain to Menlo Park. We stay with family until Nov. 1st. They accept us to stay there. We’re hungry (and need) some food (on our) way to Menlo Park. We had been (in) hard times. Please help us. We love Jesus.”
The parentheses are mine for easier reading. From the Deacons fund that we receive after the Lord’s Supper every month, I gave this couple on your behalf enough money for their Caltrain tickets and food to eat. I had a few granola bars which I eat when I’m hungry in the office and gave them to this couple too. When we are able to minister to the least of these, we know why we remain faithfully in Chinatown.
We “abound in thanksgiving” to God for Christ Jesus is Lord. In our discipleship rooted and built up in Christ, we pray that we will continue to serve at First Chinese Baptist Church for another 125 years!