Tabernacle Baptist Church!
126 Years Old!
Quite a History! 1896 to 2023!
Seattle was a boom town in 1896! The population was 60,000 and it was growing each year. The city was still rebuilding after the terrible fire of 1889 that destroyed 65 city blocks. The Great Northern railroad had made Seattle its terminus in 1893. Grover Cleveland was the president of the United States. William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan were running for election. The Klondike Gold Rush was only a year away. The Seattle Times published its first issue in 1896!
Pastor S. C. Ohrum
It was that year, 1896, that a group of 40 people from the First Baptist Church of Seattle decided to start a new church under the leadership of Pastor S. C. Ohrum, who was a young man from Boston, Massachusetts.
The first offering was for foreign and home missions. The moderator of the church was Mr. Roger Sherman Greene, who was the Washington Territories District Court Judge. He had served in the Civil War, leading a Volunteer “Colored” regiment. He was instrumental in upholding the rights of Chinese immigrants and women. Their first location was a temporary building on the south east corner of Jefferson and Boren.
Roger S. Greene,
A few years later, in 1903, Pastor John Dean built a church building on Capitol Hill at 15th and Harrison that housed the church for 72 years. In 1932 the church was one of 17 churches that started the Union Gospel Mission in downtown Seattle.
In 1975, Pastor Don Opfer led the church to move north to a little white chapel in the Maple Leaf district of Seattle.
In 1983 Pastor Tom Ruhlman led a merger with North Seattle Baptist Church in Shoreline with their Pastor Charles Lind, and moved to their building at 16508 8th Ave NE in Shoreline.
Pastor Forrest Johnson
Mention should be made of Pastor Forrest Johnson, who came to Tab in 1944 and pastored the church for 25 years. He brought in Howie Stevenson to work with youth and music in the early 1950’s. Howie went on to lead worship for Charles Swindoll for 15 years in California.
Pastor Johnson was instrumental in promoting an aggressive missions program, sending dozens of members of the church to the foreign mission field. Being a mover and shaker he helped the church start Camp Gilead, a Christian camp in Carnation, Washington, that still flourishes today.
Pastor Tom Ruhlman
Pastor Tom Ruhlman, our current pastor, has served at our church since 1980.
He has mentored many associates, taught most of the books of the Bible, has been involved in local schools and sports, has served on the Camp Gilead and Baptist Network Northwest boards, spoken at many local senior homes, spoken at many Christian camps in the Northwest, and has ministered in a dozen foreign countries.
The full-time pastors of Tab:
S. C. Ohrum 1896 - 1902
John Marvin Dean 1902 - 1910
Luther Little 1911 - 1914
R. W. McCullough 1914 - 1916
Rowland Edwards 1916 - 1918
F. E. Dark 1920 - 1923
Frederick A. McNulty 1924 - 1927
George Lorimer 1927 - 1943
Forrest Johnson 1944 - 1969
Donn Jackson 1969 - 1972
James Miller 1973 - 1975
Donald H. Opfer 1975 - 1979
Tom Ruhlman 1980 - Present