A Message from our Lead Pastor

On behalf of the pastoral team, I am delighted you are visiting our website. That means you must be seeking meaning and spiritual connection in your life. We are a good place to begin.

Seattle First Baptist welcomes inquiry, tries to live with the questions, and respects the exploration of meaning behind doctrine. As historic American Baptists, we follow no creed, but live out our faith trying to follow the way of Jesus Christ, loving and caring for our neighbors.

We welcome all those who seek to worship and learn together. We practice soul freedom-we respect and protect your right to approach God in your own way. We are an autonomous church community but associated with other sister American Baptist Churches in the Evergreen Association of American Baptist Churches USA in order to learn together, learn from our differences, and do ministry in our communities.

The high point of our week is a classic worship service with choir, hymns, and a world-famous Aeolian Skinner organ, Opus 1216, installed the summer of 2007. We have a children's choir, bell choirs, and instrumental and vocal soloists. Our all-volunteer choir of over 45 voices performs three annual concerts as well as weekly anthems.

Our second gathering point is a Wednesday night community dinner at 6:00 p.m. followed by a program, choir rehearsal, and other regular meetings.

We empower individuals to discover their gifts. All of us are called; all of us have ministries in our daily life. Our educational classes and retreats help us develop those gifts and the confidence to live out our faith in the many places we find ourselves through the week.

We reach out to our community to lobby for equal rights for GLBTQ persons, prepare dinners for homeless shelters, support the Duwamish who work for rightful tribal recognition, send mission groups to Burma and Tijuana, collect socks and school supplies for the homeless, present Seattle Jazz Vespers on first Sunday nights to showcase local bands, and offer a labyrinth walk on the second Sunday nights of each month.

You are welcome to participate in our worship Sunday mornings at 11:00 a.m. We embrace all persons of any culture, history, racial and ethnic group, and sexual and gender minorities. Women stand shoulder to shoulder with men. Children have a part in worship.

This may be a place you find a home and begin to spread your wings. I encourage you to make yourself known and share with us our rich heritage, ministry, and witness on First Hill. God has called you by name, and you are God's own. Come to claim your rightful place in the communion of saints!

— Rev. Tim Phillips, Lead Pastor