MISSION STATEMENT
We are committed to helping
each person fully know the love of God through His Word
and become a follower of Jesus Christ, and experience
Him working through them to accomplish His will.
OUR STORY
This is our church.
This is our home.
This is
our family.
This is life...as God intended.
Where
the lost, weary and broken can find true joy and peace.
We started on different roads, but were brought to a
common avenue towards life through Jesus, and through
this church.
It began with a calling upon Pastor
Hoonie’s heart to plant a church in the midst of trying
times. Surely there were easier roads to take, but God’s
calling burned in his heart and there was a cry for
discipleship that could not be ignored.
So when
news came that Pastor Hoonie would plant a church...we
each took time to pray and seek where we would grow the
most. At the end of those prayers, one by one, each of
us took a step of faith to join.
Sharing our
lives in fellowship and the Word was important to us,
and it would be strengthened if we lived closer to one
another. So we began to pray for the means to allow
Pastor Hoonie and his family to relocate to the
Peninsula. We asked God to help us recognize the place
that He had prepared for our church. And He did in full
measure. Pastor Hoonie and his family moved into Morgan
House in 2013, and a year later we held our church
dedication service as Avenue Baptist Church.
God’s Word was clear-- to make disciples. We knew we
wanted to reach college students and young people who
were seeking the meaning of life, and sensed that God
was leading us to worship outside of Morgan House.
Walking by faith, in October 2015 we relocated our
worship service to the Palo Alto/Stanford area.
We press on and trust that God will continue to go
before us, and write the story of our church.
OUR PASTOR
  |
Pastor Hoonie C.H. Kim was born in Seoul, Korea, grew up in Brooklyn, New York and eventually moved to Northern California. He and his wife, Grace, have three children, Noah, Mercy and Joy. They have been serving together, dedicating and sharing their lives at Avenue Baptist Church since the beginning of the church. He enjoys classical music, cooking up some authentic Italian dishes, has a love of cycling and is always up for a great cup of coffee. But if you were to ask him about his true passion and the source of his joy, he would say to you, “I’m most passionate about teaching the Bible, discipling leaders and worshiping the Lord with the talent that He gave me to glorify Him!” And his motivation? “My motivation is going deeper and knowing God’s love and His heart for me.” Pastor Hoonie Kim has been serving in the ministry for over twenty years and his life prayer is that he would remain faithful to God and that the Lord would use him until every ounce of his energy runs out [Colossians 1:28-29]. |
OUR DISTINCTIVES
Avenue Baptist Church is committed to loving the Lord
our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with
all our mind. We believe that in order to love and honor
God, we need to study His words diligently so that we
can understand His heart for us.
At Avenue
Baptist Church you will find that we value the
expository teaching of God’s words through preaching,
worship, Bible studies, and discipleship training. (Matthew 22:37-39)
When God looks at us He looks into our hearts and cares about each and every individual soul. He never sees us as part of the crowd but as one soul. In Luke 15, we are reminded about God’s passion for the one lost soul through the stories about a good shepherd and a prodigal son. While leaving the rest of his flock to go and find the one lost sheep, the good shepherd searches until he finds it. And through the profound story about the loving father who earnestly waits day and night for the prodigal until he returns back home. We too want to reach each soul for Christ.
We believe that when each person commits their life to Jesus, God does not simply attach each person loosely to the edge of God’s family, but completely! The local church is all about expressing our thankfulness and gratitude through our love for one another just as how God loves His people. We love God through the body, the spiritual family God has given us here. (John 13:34-35)
When each person becomes a follower of Jesus Christ, He bids us to be a disciple. Discipleship is an absolute privilege, which molds and shapes our identity and causes us to live a life like Christ.
Just as Jesus showed His disciples their Sea of Galilee, where to reach and serve, we at Avenue Baptist Church will strive to make a difference in the places that God has positioned each of us to serve Him however and wherever is pleasing to Him. So as we come alongside each other may God reveal His activity so that we can humbly submit to accomplishing His will in our communities.
Avenue Baptist Church desires to make disciples of all the nations. We are mission-minded people who are compelled to share the Good News and show it through our lives. We are committed to going and sending our resources and people wherever God calls us. (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8)
We are also a praying church. One very important way to measure the health and the growth of a church is by how much a church prays. When God’s children pray, we believe He hears us and reveals His direction. So we wait on His words to guide and direct us.
OUR MINISTRIES
Brief Description of Current and Future Ministries
ABC Kids is our ministry for infants and children up to the 5th grade. We want to minister to our children’s spiritual needs, teaching them simple lessons from the Word to speak to their young minds and hearts. We pray that each child would come to a real saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and raise them up to be the next generation of faithful Christians.
BASECAMP is our ministry for students 6th to 12th grades. We believe in young people for Christ, and training them to navigate their teenage years with the Word. We also want to prepare them well in advance of when they attend college, going through various topics that they might encounter with their peers.
We have a passion for the college campus to encounter Christ, and are blessed to be surrounded with many students who have come from all over the world to study. College is an exciting time, to discover who you are and ask the big questions about life. We encourage you to spend this pivotal time to find your identity in Christ and get grounded in the basics of Christianity. We want to help young people minister to their generation and set apart their lives for His glory.
We believe God has a purpose for us in the workplace. For folks working in the Valley, especially those that have relocated to work here, the temptation to build our entire lives around our work is strong. God calls us to put Him at the center of our lives and our workplaces, and experience a true fruitfulness that only comes when we turn to Him, a full one hundred eighty degrees. Avenue Baptist Church is no stranger to the start-up culture, being a “start-up church” as well. :) We want to guide you to have a healthy work life that is rooted in the Word and faith which remains strong in the face of social pressures to be silent and let our values slip. As long as we are faithful God will use us at any point in our career whether you’re the new hire out of college or the seasoned professional. Our coworkers need to see faith at work in our lives through our excellence to given responsibilities, integrity on and off hours and willingness to have conversations about what we believe.
If you’re raising a family in the Bay Area we understand how financially and spiritually tough it can be. These days it’s hard to find time to slow down in this fast-paced culture and spend quality time raising our kids with love and biblical discipline they need to grow strong. We believe it’s the parent's’ role to model God’s heart for our children, and while it may seem daunting, we want to help you, parents first. Whether you’re raising your first child or in the battlezone with teens, these principles still hold the same, and encourage you to come. Also if you or your spouse are not yet believers, but are seeking, we are also here to provide some guidance and how to walk this journey, and want to support you.
AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH
is a member of the largest Protestant denomination in the world,
the
Southern Baptist Convention.
We partner with other Southern Baptists through the
Cooperative Program to educate young pastors, provide relief
during times of disaster, and send missionaries all over the
world. As a Southern Baptist church, we affirm the Baptist Faith
and Message 2000. For more
information:
www.sbc.net.
OUR
PARTNERSHIPS:
•
California
Southern Baptist Convention (CSBC)
•
Ethics and Religious
Liberty Commission (ERLC)
•
International Mission Board (IMB)
•
North American
Mission Board (NAMB)
•
Baptist
Global Response (BGR)