History of Gracepoint Ministries, Berkland Baptist Church, Antioch Baptist Church, and affiliated churches and ministries like Koinonia, ABSK, A2F, Kairos, etc. (Part 2)

See part 1 here.

BBC Berkeley's daily operations were directed by Ed Kang and Kelly Kang once Becky and Paul Kim started BBC Boston. Both churches referred to themselves as Berkland during this time. Somewhere around 1995 or 1996, Berkland bought a big warehouse in San Leandro and the Berkeley church started having Sunday service and other activities at this location. They still used the Alcatraz building too, since it was closer to campus and useful for smaller gatherings like prayer meetings and such.

The ministries that got started or were present during this time at Berkeley include:

• Joyland children/youth ministry
• College ministry (biggest by far)
• ImpACT which started out as an outreach summer camp and mentoring program for youth in Oakland schools
• Young Adult ministry
• International Student Ministry

The college ministry was getting quite large by this time (1995). My estimate would be around 200-250 students all together. It was getting increasingly hard to find a venue on campus that could fit everyone. Thus, it was decided to split the group into three separate "zones." They were arbitrarily named Zone A, B, and C and these zones started meeting separately on Friday nights at the Berkeley Campus. The main event that college students were invited to regularly were Friday night gatherings and to make it more manageable and to increase potential for future growth, three separate groups were created. I believe this was the precursor to what is now Koinonia, Praxis, A2F, etc.

Side note that is important: KBSK was the original name of the college ministry at the Berkeley Campus in the 1980's. It stood for Korean Baptist Student Koinonia. This got changed to ABSK, or Asian Baptist Student Koinonia. When BBC Boston was planted, they also called their college ministry ABSK. I did a quick google search just now and it looks they kept this ministry name and it's now at 18 different campuses.

An important event happened around this time. At one of the college ministry outings by Zones to the Northern California mountains, a college ministry "staff" member named William Lee died in a tragic accident. He was swimming in a cold lake after a hike and passed away due to cramps that inhibited him to swim. Some of the college students were also swimming and tried to save him. Everyone came back from the outing abruptly and met at the San Leandro building where they were told of this tragic news. This event catalyzed the focus in missions in Tashkent Uzbekistan and they named something in William Lee's honor. William Lee was held up as an example of sacrificial love and the college students were all commissioned to live up to his example and stand in his space that was now left vacant.

The Korean speaking Berkland church also used the San Leandro building and sometime after the William Lee tragedy, there was a scandal in the Korean speaking church. This church was pastored by Becky's brother, Pastor Andy Lee. An affair occurred between Pastor Andy Lee and one of the Korean congregation members. Not much detail was shared but this event was important as the Korean speaking ministry ended up taking ownership/usership of the San Leandro building. Berkland Berkeley resumed meeting at Willard Middle School. (There was also a short stint of Sunday service held at Thousand Oaks Baptist Church in Berkeley.) I believe Becky's brother, Pastor Andy Lee ended up moving to Boston shortly after. Here is a useful article about what happened and a seemingly reliable account of what happened to the church in the San Leandro location on Merced Street.

After BBC Boston started, more churches got started in various places, typically near a major college campus. Here are the ones that got started when Berkland was still under one umbrella. This was the general order with the year if known.

• San Jose/Silicon Valley (1993?)
• Los Angeles (1994)
• Tashkent, Uzbekistan
• Seoul, Korea
• Seattle
• Davis
• New York

The pattern was that a church got started almost every year. A team of people would be chosen, I'm not sure how, to go and start these churches. Sometimes, the team members would make sense, like someone got a post doc position somewhere or a job or something but other times, it would not make any sense. The congregation was just told that this is the church we are planting and these are the people who are going. I felt that many did not like their new "assignment." Also, church leaders were switched around from time to time for no transparent reason. Folks would serve at a church plant for 1-3 years and then abruptly be moved back to Berkeley or moved to another BBC location.

The church also started sending missionaries to Seoul and Tashkent Uzbekistan, more so to the latter. Short term and some longer term.

All this time, Becky was revered and spoke at many retreats at Berkland Berkeley as a special guest. She directed large mission trips during the summer, with over 100 students from the various Berkland churches (mostly Berkeley and Boston since those were the two biggest). She would lead Bible studies and give sermons that were 2-3 hours in length. She would openly rebuke some leaders during her Bible studies and they seemed honored to be "loved" by her in this way. Ed and Kelly Kang and most of the leaders spoke of her highly and looked up to her, almost as one who could do no wrong. She lived in Boston with Paul Kim and their two children but she would fly to the Bay Area quite often and also flew to Korea and Tashkent to help plant churches and direct the ministries starting there.

To be continued in Part 3. (Corrections and additions are welcome. Please comment.)
April 23, 2019: Andy Lee is Becky's brother and his full name has been added.
July 23, 2019: Slight correction in the original name of the college ministry per OlderNWiser comment. (Thanks Older N Wiser!)