You are sitting in the backseat of your car as your mom drives you to school on a foggy morning. You peer out the car window and you see a sign, “Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.” You ask, “Hey mom, do you know what that sign is for?” She replies, “Oh, just a sign for the seminary. That is it’s full name.” “Ew, cemetery, creepy,” you reply. “Not cemetery dear, Sss-em-i-nar-y--like for Seminary Drive.” As the sign disappears behind you, you might wonder what goes on at the seminary on the hill above Strawberry Point.
What is GGBTS?
Since 1959, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (GGBTS) has sat in the middle of Strawberry in Marin County, CA. Most of the residents on the other side of the freeway from MVMS know of this peaceful neighbor community, who resides along Seminary Drive. Did you ever know there was actually a Seminary there?
GGBTS is a Southern Baptist residential graduate school training ministers and missionaries. For 57 years, it has educated thousands of people who have earned Master's and Doctorate degrees. In that time there have been six Seminary presidents.
Closing Up?
Alas, the graduating class of May, 2016 will be the last. After over 8,000 graduates, everyone, even the employees, are expected to be gone and off the seminary grounds by June 30th, 2016. The seminary is closing up shop on Strawberry and moving to Ontario, CA, a suburb of LA. Also, a satellite campus for commuters will be placed in Fremont. Both campuses will be taking on a new name, “Gateway Seminary” since the seminary will not be right next to the Golden Gate Bridge any longer. Six decades as a member of our community will come to an end.
Why is it closing, you may ask? The answer is it simply cannot afford to stay here. Almost 60 year old buildings and rocky roads filled with potholes make maintaining a nice campus very difficult. Expensive repairs only do short term good. It came to the point where the seminary needed major renovations. To pay for the renovations, they tried to sell off a small piece of their property. When the sell was blocked by the County Zoning board--in response to the protests of community neighbors--the seminary had no choice but to move.
A long history and a large part of the Strawberry community will soon end its time here. Good bye Golden Gate Seminary.
Fun Facts:
- The Current President of the Seminary, Dr. Jeff Iorg is the Chaplain for the SF Giants.
- The plot of land the seminary is built on was originally going to be the land where the United Nations site was going to be built.
- Many after school soccer and lacrosse kids team's practice on the Seminary’s green field, and families from all over Strawberry come to let their kids play on the seminary’s kids play ground. People also walk their dogs all over the park-like campus.