We have spent a long weekend in San Francisco visiting with pastors, and also taking some time to visit with our son Calvin and our daughter-in-law Alexandra.
Grace Church of Marin
On Saturday morning, I had breakfast with Rod Miles the senior pastor at Grace Church of Marin. This church is six years old and is located in the upscale community on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge known as Marin County. An amazing 30% of the people that live here are self-employed and the average income is almost $100,000.00/yr. This makes the cost of living and raising a family here very expensive. The Miles are parents of three teenage boys and are very involved in the community.
Grace Church of Marin averages around 130 in attendance at their Sunday worship services. Rod shared some stories of some men in the community that have recently trusted Christ, and have gotten involved in the Church. Rod is very appreciative of the financial investment that Spanish River made to Grace Church, and also of the coaching he received from David Nicholas in the early days of his church. He hopes that Grace Church will be able in the near future to have the same kind of impact for other bay area church plants.
City Church of San Francisco
On Sunday morning we drove into downtown San Francisco to worship with City Church of San Francisco. City Church is led by church planter and Senior Pastor, Fred Harrell, and Mike Hayes who serves as the Executive Pastor. City Church began in February 1997 and has grown to a congregation of around 1600 attendees. They partner with ministries throughout the city and the region ranging from homeless shelters, to AIDS hospices, and women's crisis centers.
Christ Church East Bay
City Church is also active in new church development globally, nationally, and locally. Spanish River has partnered City Church to plant several churches in the Bay area. One of those churches is Christ Church which hold services in Berkeley and Rockridge. On Sunday evening we attended the service in Rockridge. The senior pastor Bart Garrett was away on vacation, so the service was led by Jonathan St. Clair. Bart and Jonathan came to the East Bay Area in 2005 to start this ministry with the help of SRC. The church is growing and is actively engaged in serving their communities.