Our History

So we Your people and the sheep of Your pasture will give thanks to You forever; To all generations we will tell of Your praise. -Psalm 70:13

The ministry of Faith Bible Church is a testimony to God’s faithfulness in answer to the prayers of those who have sought to honor and glorify His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The church grew out of a weekly Sunday School class formed in the early part of 1948. The group was especially burdened to pray concerning an evangelical witness to the Japanese English-speaking population. This vision led to the formation of the Nisei Christian Fellowship in December 1948.

Further leading of the Lord culminated in the formation of a constitution on September 18, 1950, and the Fellowship was incorporated in the State of Washington as “Faith Bible Church”. This step was accompanied by the purchase of a family residence at 128 18th Avenue (the present location of FBC) in November 1950. On Sunday, February 4, 1951, the first meetings were held at the new location. The first full-time pastor was Reverend Lee Kirkpatrick who, with his wife, served the church from 1956-1972. Since then, Reverend Howard Inouye (1972-1976), Reverend Rod Higuchi (1976-1981), Reverend Raymond Gosden (1983-2002), Pastor Chris Hyde (Associate: 1996-2002), Pastor Glen Thompson (Associate Pastor of Family Ministries: 2008-2010), and Pastor Craig Swanson (2002-2022) have served as pastors. Pastoral Intern Mike Kurtz was promoted to Associate Pastor in August 2002 and then to Senior Pastor in October 2023.
In May 1981, an outreach to the Japanese-speaking community was begun. This ministry gradually developed until at the beginning of 1988 a weekly Worship Service was started. From 1993-1998, Pastor Gen Hashimoto served as Associate Pastor to the Japanese Language Ministries (JLM), Pastor Hitoshi Shinoda served from 2002-2006, and Pastor Seiya Asanuma served from 2010-2014. Pastor Kohei Takeda was called as Associate Pastor focusing on Japanese Language Ministries in November 2019.

Faith Bible Church is an independent evangelical fellowship and is not affiliated with any denomination.