Gracepoint Church - Revision history

JohnKim: /* Formation of Berkland Baptist Church */

2022-08-24T18:21:17Z

‎Formation of Berkland Baptist Church

JohnKim: /* Noteworthy Milestones */

2022-08-23T22:43:41Z

‎Noteworthy Milestones

JohnKim at 22:35, 23 August 2022

2022-08-23T22:35:58Z

JohnKim at 22:35, 23 August 2022

2022-08-23T22:35:08Z

JohnKim at 22:34, 23 August 2022

2022-08-23T22:34:45Z

JohnKim: /* Noteworthy Milestones */

2022-08-23T22:20:54Z

‎Noteworthy Milestones

JohnKim: /* Formation of Berkland Baptist Church */

2022-08-23T22:03:57Z

‎Formation of Berkland Baptist Church

FlashBoredom: /* Noteworthy Milestones */

2022-07-26T04:01:35Z

‎Noteworthy Milestones

FlashBoredom: /* Noteworthy Milestones and the formation of Gracepoint Church*/

2022-07-26T02:56:02Z

‎Noteworthy Milestones and the formation of Gracepoint Church

FlashBoredom: /* Noteworthy Milestones */

2022-07-19T15:59:33Z

‎Noteworthy Milestones

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 s to approximately 2006
-Rebekah (Becky) Kim and her Husband Paul Kim, former members of UBF, founded Berkland Baptist Church sometime in the early 1980s with the aim of ministering to the University of Berkeley (UCB) campus. The original church building was located geographically near the border of Oakland, CA and Berkeley, CA and thus the name Berkland Baptist was derived from there.
+Rebekah (Becky) Kim, former members of UBF, and her husband Paul Kim founded Berkland Baptist Church sometime in 1981 with the aim of ministering to students at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) campus. The original church building was located geographically at the border of Oakland CA and Berkeley on Alcatraz Avenue and thus the name Berkland was derived from there.
-Paul took a sort of "back seat" to ministry, despite being the head Pastor, while letting Becky run most of the ministry operations as she saw fit. There's no way to know the true reasoning behind all this without asking them, but from observation it appears partly due to Korean Culture and partly due to personality quirks and the ambitious goals of one of the spouses. Most members who were present at the time did affectionately refer to Becky Kim as their spiritual mother. And to Berkland as their spiritual family or spiritual home. Their target was Korean American students attending U.C. Berkeley, and later broadened to Asian American students.
+Paul took a sort of "back seat" to ministry, despite being the head Pastor, while letting Becky run most of the ministry operations as she saw fit. There's no way to know the true reasoning behind all this without asking them, but from observation it appears partly due to Korean culture and partly due to personality quirks and the ambitious goals of one of the spouses. Most members who were present at the time did affectionately refer to Becky Kim as their spiritual mother. And to Berkland as their spiritual family or spiritual home. Their target was Korean/Korean American students attending U.C. Berkeley, and later broadened to Asian students.
 There may be room for theological debate if the usage of 'spiritual' family or home or mother and father is biblical. Regardless this is ingrained into the culture of BBC from those times.

@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 == Noteworthy Milestones ==
-'''1981''' - Becky and Paul move to Berkeley and starts Berkland Baptist Church with five members, them plus their mom, daughter, and Becky's brother. With the help from the Southern Baptist Convention, they use a building on Alcatraz Avenue as their church building. They start reaching out to UC Berkeley students. Ed and Kelly Kang join Berkland.
+'''1981''' - Becky and Paul move to Berkeley and starts Berkland Baptist Church with five members, them plus their mom, daughter, and Becky's brother. With the help from the Southern Baptist Convention, they use a building on Alcatraz Avenue as their church building. They start reaching out to UC Berkeley students. Ed and Kelly Kang join Berkland sometime during the 80's.
 '''1991''' - Becky and Paul move to Boston to plant BBC Boston, to minister to Harvard, MIT, etc. Ed Kang and Kelly Kang take over as the head pastor at BBC Berkeley.

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 '''A far more thorough history can be found here in 3 parts:'''
 http://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2019/02/history-of-gracepoint-ministries.html?m=0
-http://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2019/03/history-of-gracepoint-ministries_28.html?m=0
+Part 1: http://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2019/02/history-of-gracepoint-ministries.html?m=0
-http://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2019/04/history-of-gracepoint-ministries.html?m=0
+Part 2: http://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2019/03/history-of-gracepoint-ministries_28.html?m=0

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 UBF --> Becky --> BBC --> Ed --> GP
-'''A far more thorough history can be found here:'''
+'''A far more thorough history can be found here in 3 parts:'''
 http://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2019/02/history-of-gracepoint-ministries.html?m=0
 http://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2019/03/history-of-gracepoint-ministries_28.html?m=0

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:34, 23 August 2022
Line 6:		Line 6:
	'''A far more thorough history can be found here:'''		'''A far more thorough history can be found here:'''
	http://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2019/02/history-of-gracepoint-ministries.html?m=0		http://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2019/02/history-of-gracepoint-ministries.html?m=0
		+	http://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2019/03/history-of-gracepoint-ministries_28.html?m=0
		+	http://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2019/04/history-of-gracepoint-ministries.html?m=0

@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 == Noteworthy Milestones ==
-'''1990s''' - Becky and Paul move to Boston to plant BBC Boston, to minister to Harvard, MIT, etc. Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang take over as the head pastor at BBC Berkeley.
+'''1981''' - Becky and Paul move to Berkeley and starts Berkland Baptist Church with five members, them plus their mom, daughter, and Becky's brother. With the help from the Southern Baptist Convention, they use a building on Alcatraz Avenue as their church building. They start reaching out to UC Berkeley students. Ed and Kelly Kang join Berkland.
-'''Approx. 2001-2002''', After an all nationwide (or global?) meeting of BBC leaders , the decision is made to shuffle around multiple pastors and staff to different campuses. The exact reasoning is probably only known to Pastors and leadership members who were in attendance. Some of the moves include Pastor Chris Pak moving from BBC Boston to take over as head pastor at BBC Silicon Valley and Pastor Daniel / YB Im moving from BBC Silicon Valley to BBC Los Angeles. Pastor Andy Pak, the bother of Pastor Chris Pak, went to England to pursue / finish his PhD. Though I can't recall if it was in relation to this huge shuffle of staff. Many pastors and staff moved across the country and sometimes across the globe to take over or replace pastors at other BBCs. It would take a complex flow chart and a photographic memory to document all the moves from so long ago.
+'''1991''' - Becky and Paul move to Boston to plant BBC Boston, to minister to Harvard, MIT, etc. Ed Kang and Kelly Kang take over as the head pastor at BBC Berkeley.
 '''Approx. 2006''' - Ed sends a letter to Becky, indicating that he is breaking off from Berkland. The contents of the letter are not made known to the congregation at the time. They may have never actually been made public, but the contents were leaked at some point later on. The explanation given AT THE TIME to all BBC members was that Becky and Paul went somewhere (Europe?) and saw a lot of old grand church buildings. While impressed with the majesty of those buildings, they also decided they didn't want their own church to stagnate like their ancient European counterparts . Thus instead of seeking power and trying to become the heads of really large, but perhaps ossifying church organizations, they wanted to empower their pastors to go out and start their own ministries and churches. Always with the goal in mind that they will try to reach as many people for Jesus.
@@ Line 41: / Line 43: @@
 [[Leaked letter from Ed to Becky]]
-'''2006'''- formation of Gracepoint (GP) church.
+'''2006'''- formation of Gracepoint (GP) Fellowship Church.
-Almost all of the former BBC churches changed their names at this time. BBC Silicon Valley became Bridgeway church. BBC Davis (located near UC Davis in California) became Waypoint Church for some time while remaining affiliated with the Berkeley Branch, from now on referred to as Gracepoint, GP, or Gracepoint Berkeley. Waypoint eventually changes its name to Gracepoint Davis. I cannot emphasize enough how confusing the names get. Berkland Baptist Church in Berkeley and several other BBC branches cease to exist, though in practicality the biggest change was the name and most things remained the same.
+Almost all of the former BBC churches changed their names around this time. BBC Boston changed to Antioch Baptist Church. BBC Silicon Valley became Bridgeway church. BBC Davis (located near UC Davis in California) became Waypoint Church for some time while remaining affiliated with the Berkeley Branch, from now on referred to as Gracepoint, GP, or Gracepoint Berkeley. Waypoint eventually changes its name to Gracepoint Davis. I cannot emphasize enough how confusing the names get. Berkland Baptist Church in Berkeley and several other BBC branches cease to exist, though in practicality the biggest change was the name and most things remained the same.
 (Other editors will have to fill in the blanks in this section).
-Various BBC churches globally became specifically affiliated with particular former BBC branches. Other wiki editors will have to fil in this part.
+Various BBC churches globally did not join the split and stayed affiliated with former BBC branches, especially churches near Boston. Other wiki editors will have to fil in this part.
 I have no knowledge of what became of BBC after that, I assume Becky and Paul continued to use the name and BBC may still exist in the Boston Area and the East Coast. A google search shows that Becky was at least at one point a chaplain associated with Harvard University.
@@ Line 55: / Line 57: @@
 It was not publicized, but there were in hindsight hints that there was more to the schism than what was publicly announced to all the church members. One of these was a hand shake and nod agreement that former BBC churches would not start new church plants at the locations where another former BBC already existed, for a certain number of years. This was not meant to be public knowledge but rather an agreement between all former BBC churches. The statute of limitations on that agreement has since expired, but the original duration was unknown.
-GP begins a rapid expansion at some point to various college campuses. including at locations of other former BBC churches.
+GP begins a rapid expansion at some point to various college campuses. Including at locations of other former BBC churches.
 For reference, this website is sort of a snapshot of a list of potential future Church plants from around 2021:

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 Rebekah (Becky) Kim and her Husband Paul Kim, former members of UBF, founded Berkland Baptist Church sometime in the early 1980s with the aim of ministering to the University of Berkeley (UCB) campus. The original church building was located geographically near the border of Oakland, CA and Berkeley, CA and thus the name Berkland Baptist was derived from there.
-Paul took a sort of "back seat" to ministry, despite being the head Pastor, while letting Becky run most of the ministry operations as she saw fit. There's no way to know the true reasoning behind all this without asking them, but from observation it appears partly due to Korean Culture and partly due to personality quirks and the ambitious goals of one of the spouses. Most members who were present at the time did affectionately refer to Becky Kim as their spiritual mother. And to BBC as their spiritual family or spiritual home.
+Paul took a sort of "back seat" to ministry, despite being the head Pastor, while letting Becky run most of the ministry operations as she saw fit. There's no way to know the true reasoning behind all this without asking them, but from observation it appears partly due to Korean Culture and partly due to personality quirks and the ambitious goals of one of the spouses. Most members who were present at the time did affectionately refer to Becky Kim as their spiritual mother. And to Berkland as their spiritual family or spiritual home. Their target was Korean American students attending U.C. Berkeley, and later broadened to Asian American students.
-There maybe room for theological debate if the usage of 'spiritual' family or home or mother and father is biblical. Regardless this is ingrained into the culture of BBC from those times.
+There may be room for theological debate if the usage of 'spiritual' family or home or mother and father is biblical. Regardless this is ingrained into the culture of BBC from those times.
 As told by the original founders and early members - the church initially had humble beginnings, with only Becky and Paul, their daughter and few others being present at the first service.
@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 Over time the number of members grew. The nomenclature of BBC and it's affiliated organizations becomes confusing and difficult to follow over time, even for long time members, as they have started multiple churches and ministries with various names and acronyms.
-Some of these include ABSK - Asian Baptist Student Koinonia and (before or later?) Koinonia. That's not a typo, at one point the official student organization was just called Koinonia. If the goal was to shock and awe or just confuse, I think it worked.
+Some of these include KBSK and ABSK - Korean Baptist Student Koinonia and Asian Baptist Student Koinonia. At one point the official student organization was just called Koinonia.
-As best I could tell, ABSK was the official on campus organization at UCB and other college campuses. BBC was a church that most of its members 'just happened' to go to. During the 80's - 90's, there was a rapid expansion of BBC / ABSK to various campuses outside of UCB, including UC Davis, Silicon valley (Stanford, SJSU, etc.), Los Angeles (UCLA, USC, etc.), Seattle, New York, Boston. (This is not a comprehensive list.). BBC also expanded to start missions / church plants globally, including in Korea, Tashkent -Uzbekistan and Japan. (Again, not a comprehensive list).
+ABSK was the official on campus organization at UCB and other college campuses for a while. BBC was a church that most of its members 'just happened' to go to. During the 80's - 90's, there was a rapid expansion of BBC / ABSK to various campuses outside of UCB, including UC Davis, Silicon valley (Stanford, SJSU, etc.), Los Angeles (UCLA, USC, etc.), Seattle, New York, Boston. (This is not a comprehensive list.). BBC also expanded to start missions / church plants globally, including in Korea, Tashkent-Uzbekistan and Japan. (Again, not a comprehensive list).
 BBC had a focus on developing home grown talent, recruiting many college students to either become staff or pastors, get married to other members within the church and moving to other college campuses to plant new branches of the church. It was and is likely still not uncommon for core members to have full time jobs while performing ministry activities for BBC / Gracepoint.

@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 There is a parallel set of events that occurred behind the scenes, of what is now colloquially referred to as, "the schism," that many people within the church were not privy to. The most important context is what was included in the letter. In summary, Ed was laying out a set of critiques to Becky and stating that he would be breaking off from BBC and heading his own church.
 '''2006'''- formation of Gracepoint (GP) church.
@@ Line 52: / Line 54: @@
 '''2006-present'''
 It was not publicized, but there were in hindsight hints that there was more to the schism than what was publicly announced to all the church members. One of these was a hand shake and nod agreement that former BBC churches would not start new church plants at the locations where another former BBC already existed, for a certain number of years. This was not meant to be public knowledge but rather an agreement between all former BBC churches. The statute of limitations on that agreement has since expired, but the original duration was unknown.
 GP begins a rapid expansion at some point to various college campuses. including at locations of other former BBC churches.