After 28 years, Northgate Christian Fellowship founder and Senior Pastor Ken Jensen will be handing over his position to Executive Pastor Larry Davis. Nonetheless, Jensen will remain as teaching pastor on Sunday mornings.

Jensen, who moved to Benicia in 1990 to start the church, said a number of factors influenced his decision. First was the overall health of the church, which Jensen said is especially strong.

“Northgate’s the healthiest and strongest it’s ever been in our history,” he said. “I wanted to make sure that whenever this transfer took place, it would be at a point where the church is at its best.”

Contributing to this, Jensen said, has been a very healthy pastoral staff. Additionally, Jensen felt it was time for the next generation to take over leadership of Northgate.

“I just know now, well into my 60s, that I’m not the guy who’s at that pace anymore,” he said. “I just realized it was time for that next generation of leadership to be able to take things to the next level to keep Northgate moving forward.”

Finally, Jensen just felt that it was the time to transfer leadership.

“I truly believe that God already has that next generation of leadership in place here at the church,” he said.

Jensen said he grew up with a strong Christian background with a family who frequently attended church, but his initial plan was not to be a minister. He had intended to be an architect, but he said his faith became much deeper in college.

“More and more, I began to pursue my own relationship with God and my desire to share my faith with other people,” he said.

In the ‘80s, Jensen was on the pastoral staff of Bethel Christian Church in San Francisco. At the end of that decade, Jensen said the church was experiencing a number of younger families and couples trying to buy their first home but they could not afford any properties on the Peninsula. As a result, they bought homes in the East Bay and drove in.

“Many of them continued to commute back into the city on Sundays for church, but their involvement became harder and harder in terms of ministry and the life of the church,” Jensen said.

As a result, Jensen explored the possibility of planting a “daughter church” in the North/East Bay Area. He and his wife Betty explored five different communities, including Benicia. After having lunch on First Street and driving around the city, they decided that was where the church would be located.

“It just felt like home,” Jensen said.

The goal, he said, was for Northgate to be a church for “unchurched people,” i.e., those with no church background or perhaps were turned off by church based on a prior negative experience.

“We wanted to be a grace-filled community where people could come as they were and find that relationship with God that they’re looking for,” Jensen said.

Northgate began operating out of Jensen’s living room with a congregation of 12 adults and five children as they drew up plans for what the church would look like. In 1991, the church became public as it attained its first space at the old post office at West 2nd Street— now Benicia Fellowship Church. Over time, Northgate saw its congregation grow to the point where it had to relocate. The church then rented space out of a warehouse in the Drake Industrial Park but then began to outgrow that space. In the early ‘00s, the IT Corporation donated 20 acres of land off Lake Herman Road. After going through a permitting process and annexation, the new campus opened in 2005 where it has remained ever since. A new auditorium building was opened in 2016.

Jensen has had a galaxy of gratifying experiences as senior pastor, including overseeing people’s first public declarations of faith through baptisms and the church providing help to those in need. One moment that stood out for Jensen was last October when Northgate became a donation center for victims of the Wine Country Fires.

“To see a whole community rally to drop off needs and supplies that could be distributed where it was needed was incredibly gratifying,” Jensen said.

Additionally, one of the most fulfilling things for Jensen has been just seeing people’s faces on Sunday mornings.

“What’s most gratifying is on a Sunday morning is to stand up in front of people and see the faces of people whose marriages have been restored, whose families have been reunited, people who have overcome addictions, people whose lives have been broken, being restored,” he said. “Every Sunday, as I look down to see what God’s doing in people’s lives and to know that I had some small part in that, that’s probably the most gratifying thing of all.”

At the end of June, Jensen will be handing the baton over to Davis, who is already a well-established member of the church. Davis came from Chandler, Ariz. in 2010 to serve as the youth pastor. He took on various other roles along the way and was instrumental in several in several programs, including serving as coordinator of Northgate’s Easter egg hunt and Trunk or Treat events.

“He’s a visionary but with the ability and skills to build a vision not just cast it,” Jensen said.

Additionally, Jensen said Davis is a very generous person and a great father to his four children.

“I’m very confident in his leadership and his vision for Northgate moving forward,” Jensen said. “That’s what makes this such an easy decision. I know under his leadership, Northgate’s gonna continue to fulfill his mission.”

Davis will take over as senior pastor by the end of June. Jensen and his wife Betty will continue to attend Northgate with Ken continuing to serve as teacher pastor. Jensen is grateful for his staff and is especially grateful for Betty for all she has done.

“She’s been just as much a part of this as me,” he said. “There’s no way that I would have been able to do this without her.”