Gathering a community around its church

Though the church’s congregation includes some 300 contributing families, Ellis said the church’s role in supporting community members has made a wider swath of the San Mateo community feel included in the church, a phenomenon he attributes to many activities members of the congregation host there.

“If you ask the community how many belong to this church, they say 2,000,” he said. “We are seen as a much larger entity.”

The church’s buildings, which include a sanctuary that can hold 375 people and several offices, have served the community well, said Ellis, who has led the church as pastor for 31 years. However, Ellis said its offerings have long outgrown the single-family-home-sized lots where the church currently stands.

For the last six years, Ellis has been working on plans to move the church to a Hayward site where the community can expand its sanctuary to hold some 700 people and offer a gymnasium, meeting spaces and classrooms, a library and even a small restaurant. Having presented the project — which also includes a 61-unit senior affordable housing development — to the Hayward Planning Commission in April, Ellis is hoping members of the church’s new community in Hayward as well as those who identify with the church in San Mateo understand the move will afford it even more service opportunities, such as before- or after-school programs and care for seniors.

“It’s all about service,” he said. “That’s our goal, it’s to reduce the financial and physical burden of the marginalized.”

Though the church has offered services and resources in San Mateo for nearly 92 years, Ellis said the shift to the new location at 29831 Clearbrook Circle was aimed at ensuring the organization can thrive for the next century. Ellis said shifting demographics have played a role in making its current site unsustainable, as several members of his congregation have moved to the East Bay in search of affordable housing over the years. Ellis said a growing number of families — up to 33 — have been commuting from Hayward to San Mateo for Wednesday evening or Sunday morning services, adding that others come from cities as far as Tracy or Patterson.

With only nine parking spaces available to members behind the church facilities and a squeeze for spots on nearby streets, Ellis said the church has been limited in offering services and expanding its programs in its current location.

“For one to be able to drive to your church and get a parking space, it’s going to be very different,” he said.

Ellis said a small portion of older members still live near the church’s current location and, once the church moves to Hayward, he plans to offer bus service to and from San Mateo for weekly services so they can attend without worrying about driving. He said he is also working with community organizations and venues to continue offering annual events on the Peninsula.

Though he faced some pushback from the congregation after he first proposed the move, Ellis said many who initially expressed concerns have come to see how the shift will benefit the church, especially after he presented the plans to Hayward officials last month.

“They’re saying, ‘you know I see it now,’” he said. “The church is not the building anyway, it’s the people.”

At the Planning Commission’s recommendation, Ellis is working on scaling back the church’s original proposal, which included a 39,500-square-foot church building and 15,100-square-foot gymnasium to make way for more open space on the site. But he is working on a tight timeline — having sold the property where the church currently stands, Ellis will have to vacate the San Mateo site before the end of June of 2019 and is hoping the project can be approved by the end of the year.

Using the sale of the church’s San Mateo properties and loans, Ellis said the church will be able to foot the bill of the move to Hayward, which he estimates to cost $10 million. He is in the process of selecting a developer to build the senior housing on a portion of the Hayward site, which he said would be leased out to a provider and could help make the resources like the gym open to the Hayward community at little or no charge.

As plans for the new location continue to take shape, Ellis said he is not only looking forward to expanding the church’s work but also welcoming new members into the church’s fold.

“That was the vision, to say to Hayward: ‘We’re coming to you to do what we’ve done in San Mateo but on a larger [scale]. Not larger for the sake of size, but larger for the opportunities to serve,” he said.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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