ALLEN TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH (Oakland, California)

Picture from SFGate Blog

From https://www.allen-temple.org/about-atbc/history

Allen Temple Baptist Church was organized in 1919 as a Northern Baptist mission by the Reverend J.L. Allen. The Church was originally located in a store front on the corner of East 14th and Seminary Avenue in East Oakland. 

There were 21 original members and the modest congregation conducted services on borrowed folding chairs for seating. The Church subsequently moved to a house on 85th Avenue and was known as the 85th Avenue Baptist Church. Seven years later after J.D. Wilson and R.H. Thomas served sacrificially as mission pastors under the Northern Baptist Convention, the membership changed the name to the Allen Temple Baptist Church. 

During this period, the congregation and their pastors began to forge an identity in the area of social justice through active involvement in the NAACP and the Marcus Garvey Movement. Under the leadership of Pastor G.W. Wildy, the church broke ground on a small chapel on October 29, 1939. During the Wildy administration, great pastoral work was done to foster Christian fellowship across racial lines.Allen Temple continued to mature under the polished and disciplined leadership of Pastor A.L. Carpenter. During the tenure of his successor, the Reverend C.C. Bailey, on July 17, 1960, the church broke ground on a 550 seat sanctuary and educational facility. Pastor Bailey was a distinguished young pastor who broadened the congregation’s witness in the larger community as he led the effort to bring an Opportunities Industrial Center (OIC) to Oakland which provided vocational training for the unemployed. He also partnered with the Oakland Public Schools to provide an Adult Education Neighborhood Center at Allen Temple. 

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Through the dynamic, visionary leadership of Reverend Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr., Allen Temple grew to a membership of 5,500 and developed a large array of holistic community ministries focused on redeeming and transforming the whole person and whole community. To administer this ever-growing ministry, Pastor Smith, Sr. assembled a strong pastoral staff, which included as Co-Pastor the Reverend J. Alfred Smith, Jr.. During this administration, the congregation constructed a 1,200 seat sanctuary to accommodate two Sunday morning worship services. Also, the Church secured all of the property on the square block it occupies and dedicated a 64,000 square foot Family Life Center in April 1999. 

In February, 2009, Reverend Dr. Smith, Sr. retired after 40 years as Senior Pastor of Allen Temple. It was the pleasure of a united Church to name Dr. Smith, Sr. as Allen Temple’s Pastor Emeritus and to call a son of Allen Temple, the Reverend Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Jr., to serve as Senior Pastor. 

The Church continues to grow and excel under the leadership of Pastor Smith, Jr.. Under the Smith Jr. Administration in March 2010, the Church installed a daughter of Allen Temple, the Reverend Jacqueline A. Thompson, as the first woman Assistant Pastor in our history. The Church has also seen the birth and use of technology as a ministry tool and witness, including a retooled website and the launch of our cyber-church. 

As our Church mission states, Allen Temple and her 70 ministries continues to evangelize, educate and enlist all who would come into our community.  

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