Bethel Church California

In the period of 1993 - 1997, Pastor DR. Niko Njotorahardjo, Senior Pastor of Gereja Bethel Indonesia (GBI) Jln. Gatot Subroto, Jakarta - Indonesia, was led to plant new churches to maximize the church growth. The vision is to plant new churches and build houses of prayer for all nations (Isaiah 54:2-3 and 56:7). It was about the time when GBI also started to send out missionaries to cities and nations outside Indonesia.

Bethel Church California was founded in April 2005 by Pastors Billy & Sonny Lesmana
in San Francisco as a part of the mission and outreach of Gereja Bethel Indonesia.
Prior to starting Bethel Church California, Billy & Sonny Lesmana have been ministering
in music department, young professionals and couples ministries for over a decade since 1991 in Jakarta. They entered full-time ministry and were both ordained as ministers in 1997 before being sent out as missionaries in 1998 to plant and edify churches in New Zealand, Canada and also in major cities in the United States like Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Francisco.

Bethel Church California is a local church affiliated with and operate under the spiritual coverings of Pastor DR. Niko Njotorahardjo (Senior Pastor of GBI Jln. Gatot Subroto – Jakarta) and Pastor Djohan Handojo (Senior Pastor of Bethany Church Singapore).

Bethel Church California, through its pastors and leadership team, has a strong spirit of prophetic prayer and worship to penetrate through society by imparting Christ’s love.
Our mission is to build a church with a strong atmosphere of prayer and worship, and disciple every member to release them into ministry to fulfill the Great Commission.
We currently hold a morning Sunday service in Sunnyvale and another evening service
in South San Francisco. We are a Spirit-filled, prophetic prayer & worship, and Bible preaching local church ministering and serving the communities of the greater
San Francisco Bay Area.

Started out ministering to mostly college students in 2005, Bethel Church California
has grown to over 130 active members comprising of various age-groups from toddlers
to married couples on the weekly Sunday services. The members are mostly immigrants from Indonesia that consists of about 70% working young professionals and families, with the remaining percentage being children and students.

In 2006, Bethel Church California has restructured the church’s ministry and has appointed and delegated leaders for the 5-fold ministry. The pastors and leaders of Bethel Church California are confident that with the unique culture and upbringing that they have, this church will be a distinctive addition to work together with the churches throughout the Bay Area. The church also emphasize strongly on small groups ministry, teaching classes to empower members, and functioning as an influential worshipping church in the area.

Bethel Church California is also compelled to build a church without walls, which is to take the love of Christ beyond the four walls of the church to impart the love of Christ that includes participating in local food bank, volunteering and serving orphans and abused children in a local organization to sending Bibles to third-world nations and sponsoring needy children. The pastors and leaders understand that the sole reason
the church exists is to meet the needs and heal the hurts of people from all walks of life, right from the streets of our city.