Who We Are
Our Mission | Our Covenant | Our Vision | Our Values | Our History
Our Mission
Our mission is to glorify God in Seattle by making disciples of Jesus Christ who passionately love God, one another and our neighbors.
We will accomplish our mission by:
- Intentionally calling people into relationship with Jesus Christ;
- Faithfully growing disciples into spiritual maturity;
- Strategically sending member-ministers to witness in our city and world.
Our Vision
We see Seattle First Presbyterian Church becoming a community of disciples who passionately love God, one another and our neighbors.
Through these loving relationships, the Holy Spirit will transform our lives, community, city and world.
As one body united in Jesus Christ, this transforming community will reflect the social, economic, cultural, generational, and geographical diversity of the center city and greater Seattle.
A colorful mosaic of people will prayerfully and creatively shape and reshape the worship and work of the church in theologically faithful and culturally relevant ways.
All members will be missionaries, equipped for ministries for which God has gifted us, and sent to share the Gospel in word and action both locally and globally, including unreached peoples.
Guided by the Spirit, SFPC members and ministries will meet needs unique to the urban environment by engaging people, structures and systems for the sake of Christ. The congregation will gather in the marketplace of a multi-purpose facility uniquely designed to foster community and service to the surrounding neighborhoods.
SFPC will seek to become a model for other center-city churches, one that equips others for urban ministry for the 21st century.
Our Values
- Reformed Theology: We value learning and teaching theology that is Biblical, Evangelical, and Reformed.
- Cultural Relevance: We value “reformed and always reforming” approaches to worship and witness that are relevant to our urban context and surrounding cultures.
- Corporate Worship: We value gathering together weekly in Spirit-inspired corporate worship that employs an eclectic mix of language and form to glorify God.
- Caring Community: We value creating a covenant community in which participants deeply know, love and care for one another in mutually accountable relationships.
- Faithful Discipleship: We value practicing Christian spiritual disciplines through which God transforms us and equips us to follow Christ in every area of our life.
- Unified Diversity: We value developing a unified body that consists of, and ministers to, the diversity of people who live and work in the city center and greater Seattle.
- Member Ministry: We value supporting ministries that emerge from, and are sustained by, the God-given passions and gifts of members of the congregation.
- Equipping Leaders: We value developing leaders and staff whose role is to cultivate and coach member-led ministries.
- Numerical Growth: We value numerical growth and church planting, believing that a healthy church is a growing church, and a growing church is a healthy church.
- Unreached Peoples: We value expanding our ministry from Seattle, the U.S.A. and beyond, and prioritizing unreached peoples in our global missions.
- Joyful Stewardship: We value cultivating joyful and generous stewardship of our time, talent and treasure, including the tithe to God of our gross income.
- Financial Accountability: We value building an operating budget upon tithes and offerings, and investing those resources in ministries that fulfill the vision.
Our History
Seattle First is an old church experiencing a new beginning.
SFPC was organized in 1869 by a pastor who came by wagon train and canoe, and started with seven people. By 1940 it had grown to 8000 members, the largest Presbyterian Church in the world. The congregation was active in the city, sharing the Gospel, planting churches, shaping public policy and higher education, advocating for the poor and outcast, and founding Harborview Hospital and Union Gospel Mission which still care for our city today. While there was much to celebrate, like many churches, Seattle First membership and ministry steadily declined over many decades. By the turn of the century, it became clear that a new direction was needed. Church leadership began seeking God for guidance, with many friends of the congregation providing support and prayer. Their faithful efforts laid the foundation for the future.
Joined by new pastors, in 2006, church leadership began charting a new course, guided by our “Mission, Vision, Values.” We desire to be a community of faith not just in the city but of the city, reflecting the colorful mosaic of cultures, ethnicities and economies of the urban core and greater Seattle. Like Seattle First of the past, we are called to engage the city and the world, inviting people into relationship with Christ and serving those in need as God leads and equips us.
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