A Reflection: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Top: The very first service at Marshall Elementary in April 2010
Bottom: last service at Creekside on March 23, 2025
Looking Back
Indelible Grace Church held its first service on April 4, 2010 at Marshall Elementary. In the 15 years of our existence, we have primarily met at a public school in Castro Valley. When schools closed during the pandemic, we met at San Felipe Park in Hayward. When schools resumed reservations again in 2022, we were thrilled we could use Creekside Middle School because even before the pandemic, we were worried about outgrowing the space at Marshall Elementary. We have seen God move and provide for us time and time again.
We are grateful that the schools in the Castro Valley Unified School District have been our home all these years. The district allowed us to use the spaces we needed to do ministry on Sundays. The gospel was preached, the sacraments were administered, our little community grew, ministries were added, and - most importantly - Jesus was worshiped.
While we thank God for CVUSD, renting a public space came with its challenges. Setting up and tearing down our AV system and chairs every week was tiring. Having to put away a chair and tear down immediately after service made post-service fellowship time awkward. Storage was limited. Our nursery was a science classroom at Marshall and a wrestling room at Creekside. Moreover, we were at the mercy of the school district. When the schools closed during the pandemic, it meant we had no meeting space. In 2023, when the district informed us of a new policy in which holiday weekends were unavailable for reservation (they’ve since made an exception for churches), it meant scrambling to find another meeting space.
The Lord works in mysterious ways. When we were forced to search for an alternate meeting spot in late 2023, we came upon Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (ask the staff if you don’t know the story!). What was just going to be a rental space on a few holiday weekends ended up becoming much more.
Over the past year, the elders and staff of IGC have been meeting with the pastors of Good Shepherd - dreaming and praying about what a partnership could look like. By the grace and provision of God, we will be moving into the Good Shepherd North Campus (formerly Grace Lutheran Church) this Saturday. Our first official service there is this Sunday, March 30. Lord willing, we will be able to call the campus of GSNC our home for at least the next several years.
Service at Good Shepherd North Campus in December 2023
Looking Ahead
The prayer of our leadership is that this new season of our church will not just be about having a building. What good is a building if we don’t steward it well and if everything about our church stays the same, but with less setup? We don’t want our Sundays to be more convenient - we want our church to be more devoted to the Lord. We want this new season to be marked with a holy expectation that God would move among his people, that IGC would be revived and rebuilt, and that the Spirit would bend and break and use us for his glory in the East Bay.
In processing this transition with the elders, one of them reminded us of the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness and worshiped in the portable tabernacle (Exodus 25-40). Surely it was grueling for the Levites to set up and tear down every element whenever the Israelites moved. And yet, it was worth it because the glory of God was with them in the tabernacle. Solomon’s temple replaced the tabernacle when God’s people settled (1 Kings 5-8). It was more than breathtakingly beautiful; it was the place where God’s presence resided. But it was also the place that God’s presence left (Ezekiel 10), due to the disobedience, idolatry, and passivity of the people.
This sad episode in the history of the Israelites is a sobering reminder to us: it doesn’t matter where we meet if God is not there.
It is our prayer that this new building will be a place where God meets with us. And that in this space we would be all the more devoted to the teaching of the Word, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2:42).
May our church’s knowledge, love, and hunger for God increase. May we dream bigger about what our church and ministries can do - things that weren’t as feasible at a public school. May we consider ways we can get involved in the community that weren't as possible before, and may we reflect God's heart to the people of Hayward (and beyond) in our midst. Ultimately, may God do his good work in and through us, and may he get all the glory.
Pastor Wade & Tracy Ong