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Three Diverse Churches Find Their Common Bond in Christ

By April 17, 2015No Comments

TracyCA_inlineTRACY, Calif.—Three diverse churches in the Bay Area of San Francisco met for a joint worship service. “This was no simple task,” says Pastor Tim Heinrich of Crossroads Baptist Church.

Meeting with Crossroads Baptist was a congregation that communicates through American Sign Language and one that speaks Spanish. All three churches—Crossroads Baptist Church, Deaf Baptist Church of Fremont, and La Roca Iglesia Biblica Bautista Independiente of Hayward—are church plants with Baptist Church Planters.

Steve Little, president of BCP, posed the worship service idea when he attended a California Association of Regular Baptist Churches conference. The concept was three churches, three languages, and one purpose.

On Sunday, April 12, 118 people from the three churches united in worship at the school gym where Crossroads Baptist meets. Children from Crossroads welcomed everyone in all three languages. Then the congregation, led by worship teams from each church, sang songs in all three languages; lyrics were displayed on PowerPoint in both English and Spanish. Prayer and Scripture reading were given in ASL and interpreted in English and Spanish. Special music was presented by the congregation of the Spanish-speaking congregation; Little’s wife, Becky; and two bilingual ladies from Crossroads. Steve Little spoke on the Great commission. Every part of the service was interpreted for all in attendance.

The children from all three churches enjoyed a lesson and activities together. In the afternoon, the three churches heard a report from David Whipple, administrative vice president of BCP. He talked about the various ways BCP is helping plant churches and mentioned opportunities to be involved at various levels.

Heinrich says, “All day, members of each congregation worked on communicating with their brothers and sisters in Christ, embodying the early church, which came together from many cultures and languages, and found their common bond in Christ.”