Throughout the 2000s, leaders at City Church San Francisco began dreaming about ways to deepen spiritual and theological formation that brought the church and academy into vital partnership together. CCSF started Newbigin House of Studies out of this vision as a way to help members of their church community walk through a year of contemplative study. In 2011, a partnership with Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan began an exciting new venture into the world of formal theological education. This innovative relationship between the church and academy catalyzed programs for laity (the Newbigin Fellowship), students preparing for vocational ministry (the Newbigin Year), and pastors (the Ministry Fellowship). In 2020, during a time of pandemic and tumult (and many pivots!), all of these various programs became one under the Faith and Justice Fellowship. And in 2022, the Center for Faith and Justice was born. Today, we are building on over a decade of work in theological education to help people of Christian faith navigate a world of bewildering spiritual disorientation and fragmentation. 

We’re doing this work by seeking faith and learning justice, weaving two efforts together that are often seen as distinct or, worse, separate. If Cornel West is right that “justice is what love looks like in public,” and Jesus told us the greatest commandment is love, the work of justice may be the greatest call of faith in the world.