In 1879, when King David Kalakaua granted a charter of incorporation for a Chinese church that would grow into the First Chinese Church of Christ in Hawaii, its founders focused on serving immigrants.

They taught English to malihini from China, helped the newcomers adjust to their new lives here, and opened the first free kindergarten in Hawai'i.

"We now have ... a very parallel vision to what they had 130 years ago," said Edson Lee, who serves as the church board's chairman and is helping organize tomorrow morning's anniversary celebration.

These days, the church campus on King Street, mauka of McKinley High School, is a lively place on Friday nights, typically packed with 50 to 70 teens, many of whom were born in China. They come to worship, socialize and sign up for the church's English-language tutoring.

Church board member Lois Mui said, "Some of them go to school across the street" (at McKinley). "They're recent immigrants, and they're struggling."

Lee said that through its growing youth program, the church is "coming full circle in serving our immigrant community."

When it was chartered as the Chinese Christian Church of Honolulu — also known as Fort Street Chinese Church or Fo Gai Food Yim Tong — pastors were brought in from China to help preserve religious tradition and language. By the 1960s, though, most congregants spoke English fluently and the pastor spoke no Chinese dialect. Getting back to its roots, it now offers services in Mandarin — with quick translation to Cantonese, via headsets — and English.

Tomorrow, the congregation will celebrate its 130 years and the 80th anniversary of its current sanctuary.

During its first 50 years, the church stood in the heart of Chinatown. The move to lower Makiki — a property described in the 1920s as situated on the edge of Chinatown — was prompted by households relocating to suburban-style areas.

"It got kind of risque back in the '20s," Lee said of the church's Fort Street area neighborhood.

In 1926, noted architect Hart Wood won an open design competition to build the church on South King Street, Mui said. His design, according to church officials, includes elements of Hawaiian regional architecture, which keep the sanctuary relatively cool throughout the year.

Contemplating the future, Lee quotes William Kwai Fong Yap, who a century ago served as a congregation leader and was instrumental in launching the University of Hawai'i. On the church's 40th anniversary, Yap said, "We have great hopes in the young men and women of the second generation.

"I hope the present generation will follow the example of the pioneers," Yap said, "be steadfast in faith ... and success is sure to follow."

Lee, of the fourth generation, said, "This can be applied today to our congregation."

As part of tomorrow's event, he said, the church's 300 members will be asked: "What can you do to fulfill this legacy in the next generation?"