About

What To Expect

 

Worship services at Saints' Rest are Spirit led and Spirit filled. We encourage you to come worship with us and bring someone with you. We start with devotion, prayer, then study of the Word led by our Pastor at 9 AM, Which is then followed by a period of Praise and Worship that begins with prayers of forgiveness and thanksgiving by the Music Ministry as we invite God's presence into our Morning Worship Experience.  Our Pastor gives a Bible based message that you can take with you and help in your daily life. Services are usually two hours afterwhich you can stay and fellowship with us. You are also welcomed to visit us every 5th Sunday for fellowship and lunch after service. If you have children we have a nursery and children's church. Children up to the age of 12 can attend. We have age appropriate Bible lessons, singing, dancing, arts and crafts, and many other fun things.

We hope to see you soon!

Our Story

 

Saints' Rest was organized July 24, 1972 by Pastor Seymour Metters and 280 members. The first worship service was on August 6, 1972 at Thompson's Funeral Chapel, 9900 E.14th st, Oakland, CA. Services after that were held at The Veterans Memorial Building in Oakland, CA until property was acquired at 5600 E. 14th Street Oakland, CA. The church's property expanded with acquisition of real estate adjacent to the church, as well as a large parcel of land donated by The Gulf Oil Corp. of California (now used as the parking lot).

On October 27, 1978 Pastor Metters was called home to be with the Lord. On February 2, 1979 Pastor James E. Lawson Sr was called from Bastrop, Lousiana to be Pastor of Saints' Rest. The church continued to grow and on October 30, 1983 the church moved into it's new building at 1401 57th ave Oakland, CA, constructed from ground up. In 3 years the mortgage was completely paid off.

August of 2000 Pastor Lawson Sr. resigned due to health conditions. He was called home to be with the Lord in August 2003. For about a year Rev. Bobby Mitchell served as Interim Pastor until Rev. James E. Anderson was elected Pastor on February 24, 2002.

Saints' Rest church family went through a very traumatic experience during 2005 - 2012. The very thread that was intricately interwoven into the fabric of Saints' Rest strong family oriented church family was slowly being ripped apart. Many long time members along with their families left to unite with other local churches in the area while countless others stop attending service regularly. Saints' Rest no longer resembled their true identity. The place with people that were "warm, kind, hospitable, family-oriented and where their services were always Spirit-filled." People from far and near expected this, respected Saints' Rest Pastors and church family for this attribute down through the years.  Therefore, after much prayer the Saints' Rest Leadership Team made a "MAYDAY" distress call to the one man they felt God had "tailor made" for such a time as this and asked Pastor James E. Lawson, Jr. if he would accept this monumental challenge.

Pastor Lawson was also Senior Pastor at the Greater Faith M.B.C. during this same time period. In 2015 the membership of Greater Faith M.B.C. in a collective expression of love for God and Pastor Lawson decided to follow Pastor Lawson to help him with the task of fixing what was broken up at Saints' Rest MBC. This wasn't as hard as people outside the situation thought. It was very easy because the members of Greater Faith MBC never forgot about the friendship that existed between Pastor J.R. Richardson and Pastor James E. Lawson Sr. Pastor James E. Lawson Jr. honored their relationship when he accpeted Greater Faith's call. Greater Faith honored their relationship when they decided to follow Pastor Lawson Jr. to Saints' Rest MBC. Pastor James E. Lawson Jr. often reminds us that "Love is what love does." 2016 Pastor Lawson Jr. was officially elected Pastor of Saints' Rest. Our membership has continued to grow and our ministries have expanded with ever increasing outreach efforts to our community, our families and our friends.  We, The Saints' Rest Missionary Baptist Church, believe that under our Spirit filled and anointed leader, Pastor James E. Lawson, Jr. and our committed officers and ministry leaders, we will continue to grow as a local Body of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There are currently 9 charter members who still attend:

brother moy
sis moy
sis kelly

               GEORGE MOY                                         GLORIA MOY                                            ELIZABETH KELLY

real curry
rand
minnie

             WILLETTA CURRY                                       ROSALIE RAND                                         MINNIE HARMON

            FANNIE BERTRAND                                GERALDINE WALLACE                           DOROTHY BROWN

Our Beliefs

 

Bible. We believe the Bible, consisting of 66 books, to be the inspired Word of God, without error, the revelation of His will for the salvation of men, and the divine and final authority for all Christian faith and life.

God. We believe in one God existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God has always been and will always be the only God. There were none before Him and shall be none after him.

The Father. We believe that the Father created all things in heaven and on earth. He created human beings out of a love for us and desires a personal relationship with each of us.

Jesus. We believe that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life and died on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures. Furthermore, He arose bodily from the dead and ascended into heaven.

Holy Spirit. We believe that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to convict men, making them aware of their sin and the salvation available through Jesus. He regenerates, guides, instructs, and empowers the believer for godly living and service.

Man. We believe that man was created in the image of God and sinless, but fell into sin and is therefore lost and subject to judgment. There is nothing man can do to save himself from this judgment, but he can accept the death of Jesus as punishment in place of his own eternal death by acknowledging God and accepting the free gift of salvation.

Salvation. We believe that the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ provides the only way of justification and salvation for all who believe. Any who attach additional works of man as a requirement for salvation are false in that they infer Jesus’ death is insufficient in and of itself to save and that human beings somehow have the capability to save themselves.

Accepting the Sinner, Denouncing the Sin. We believe that no sin is too big for God to forgive. Therefore, as Christians we should be open and eager to share the Gospel with everyone regardless of their sin or affliction. However, making Jesus Lord of our lives means striving towards holiness and turning from our sinful ways. Therefore, while being open to all sinners, Christians ought not accept, ignore, or promote any sin as permissible.

Non-Essential Elements. We believe the above tenets make up the basis of Christian faith on which all Christians believe and agree. We have intentionally omitted any statements regarding areas of legitimate disagreement (i.e., baptism, predestination, end times) on which agreement is not essential for salvation.