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In
1852, a group of pioneers organized a Baptist church
in Franklin town, a small community situated along the
north bank of Santa Rosa Creek, a short distance from
the old Carillo Adobe. Their visionary dream was evident
in the fact that First Baptist Church was the first church
in the State of California (a claim that is disputed
by FBC San Francisco, but is hard to verify since, last
time we checked, everyone from 1852 is now dead). The
church built its first sanctuary in 1873 in a way that
showed the creativity of our founders. The entire building
was built from one single redwood tree. That historic
building is now preserved by the city of Santa Rosa as
home of the Ripley museum--Believe it or Not! (seriously
it is the Ripley museum, you can take our word on that).
Meanwhile, the church moved on to bigger and better things.
Congregational growth required relocation to our present
day facilities on the corner of Sonoma Avenue and Yulupa
in 1957. Continued growth required a larger hall than our
old sanctuary (present day chapel), so a new sanctuary
was built and dedicated in March, 1969.
Today, it seems most Californians don't care for church
(at least 96% don't attend church anywhere). In the spirit
of our pioneering fathers, we are pioneering doing church
for people who don't like church-- learning how to express
worship to a timeless God in contemporary ways. The building
may be historic, but our worship is very much alive and
growing.
We are so alive and growing that we feel we are experiencing
a new beginning in our church. To reflect this new beginning
we decided to change our name to New Vintage Church. New
Vintage represents who we are in a variety of ways. A Vintage
year for wine is the birth year, and we believe we are
experiencing a new birth. It is also a way to describe
a special year -- a year to be remembered. That is our
desire for everyone who comes to New Vintage Church. Lastly,
the popular connotation of Vintage is 'old' and we are
strongly rooted in the unchanging gospel, but we are communicating
it in very contemporary (or new) ways. Therefore it seems
almost a necessity that we be called New Vintage Church. |
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