Select one of the following Highly Recommended San Diego Churches:
The Fields Church (Carlsbad)
Kaleo Church (Mission Valley, SDSU, El Cajon)
Westview Church (North County/Carmel Mountain)
The Resolved Church (Bay Park)
Ethnos Church (La Jolla)
Faith Bible Church (Murrieta)
Harbor Presbyterian (Multiple)

Are we missing other highly recommended churches? Please let us know by adding a comment to this post. Our desire is to highly recommend churches that have a passion for Jesus Christ, worship God in spirit and truth, desire to live out the gospel and live a life of mission to the community around them. You can learn more about how we rank using the menu on the side.

Westview Church is a brand new Acts 29 church plant with a heart to reach the North County/Carmel Mountain area for Jesus. Pastor Jesse Winkler was formerly the pastor of a Mars Hill Church in Seattle, and formed a relationship with Kaleo Church and the Acts 29 network in San Diego to plant Westview Church. Westview holds a high view of Scripture and keeps the gospel central to all teaching and all of life. Their mission is to be changed by the gospel in Christ treasuring community and sent on mission for the glory of God.

Westview began meeting as a Gospel Community group in Jesse’s home in Carmel Mountain and launched a Sunday evening service which meets in the Taiwanese Lutheran Church in Rancho Penasquitos at 5:00 each week. Though Westview church places a priority on the corporate gathering of God’s people on Sunday where they preach exegetically through books of the Bible, they also see the great importance of being in community on mission throughout the week in Gospel Communities. These communities are the church in smaller gatherings (two or three families) which seek to serve the purpose of building each other up with the gospel in a more intimate setting and being on mission to our individual neighborhoods and regions. Westview also meets in even smaller Discipleship and Accountability groups which are three or four individuals meeting together to get into the nitty gritty of how the gospel applies to their every day lives on a more personal level.

Their website (westviewchurch.com) is very easy to navigate, and the Sunday sermon is uploaded to the website and iTunes podcast every week. The website also includes a church social networking site called cobblestone where the church can coordinate events, share prayer requests, and connect with each other.

Website: http://www.xroads.cc/

(Chula Vista)

Church Review
Theology: 5/5
Mission: 5/5
Community: 5/5
Worship: 2/5

Summary:Crossroads Church is located in the heart of historic downtown Chula Vista. This church is a true reflection of the community around them. Here you will find a diverse mix of race, age and financial status. With a mission to “lead people to and through a life changing relationship with Jesus and his family”, this church places a high emphasis on God’s grace and living in response to that. Adamantly rejecting moralism, Crossroads goal is to be Christ-centered and Gospel-centered in everything.

Pastor Matt Ortiz preaches verse-by-verse through both Old and New Testaments. There are also a variety of community groups that meet throughout the week. Impacting the community of the South Bay with the gospel of grace is the mission of everything the church does.

For those looking for a church in the South Bay that is strong both in doctrine and practice, this church is highly recommended..

Website: http://www.ethnos.us/

(University Town Center)

Church Review
Scriptural View: 4/5
Missional View: 5/5
Community: 5/5

Website Review
Site Usabilility: 4/5
Site Design: 4/5
Site Content: 3/5

Summary: Ethnos is a new church (2 years old) in the University Town Center area. Ethnos (like the name implies) is a community that reflects a vast cultural diversity. Ethnos has made an identity for itself as a place of multi-cultural worship, mult-language service, and a broader reflection of diversity, something most churches lack today.

Website: http://www.theresolved.com

(Bay Park)

Church Review
Scriptural View: 5/5
Missional View: 5/5
Community: 5/5

Website Review
Site Usabilility: 5/5
Site Design: 3/5
Site Content: 3/5

Summary: The Resolved is a church plant affiliated with the Acts 29 church-planting network which adheres to a Reformed tradition but also highly values the individual aspects of each community it shares the Gospel with. In line with this standard, The Resolved Church holds a high value of Scripture and strives to provide responsible teaching and at the same time contextualize it within the culture of San Diego. Pastor Duane Smets has several years of experience as both a student of theology and an evangelical preacher, which he puts to good use in leading the congregation of The Resolved toward its goals of developing a solid understanding of Scripture as well as a strong relationship with people of the city.

The plant has its roots in a Pacific Beach apartment in 2005, since then it has grown and now meets in central San Diego on Sundays. The core members of the congregation live and and commute from many different areas of the city, welcoming and connecting with visitors from all ages and backgrounds. On a given Sunday The Resolved puts on a low-key morning service featuring a thoroughly exegetical sermon, time spent in musical worship, as well as weekly serving of Communion. In addition to weekly worship services, The Resolved has community groups which meet during the week throughout the city, holds seasonal classes, a membership course and an ongoing process of leadership development. Various members of The Resolved also regularly organize and host different activities such as lunches, movies, game nights, a “Theology on Tap,” as well as the occasional opportunities for community service and evangelism.

The Resolved also strives to engage the city of San Diego and beyond through making use of the internet and the tools it provides. The church has a website full of information and resources that are valuable for regular members as well as curious seekers. Sermons are available to read and/or listen to through a sermon database as well as a weekly podcast after they are given. In addition, The Resolved makes use of a weekly news-mailer to provide extra leadership and guidance through regular pastoral journal/blog entries. The website does everything it needs in order to address the same mission as the members of the congregation: to make the Gospel and a community built around it as accessible as possible.”

A highly recommended church that holds to excellent theological and missiological positions.

Website: http://www.faith-bible.net

(Located in Murrieta)

Church Review
Scriptural View: 5/5
Beliefs: 5/5
Community: 4/5
Preaching: Expository
Service Times: 10:00 am

Website Review
Site Usability: 3/5
Site Design: 3/5
Site Content: 3/5

Review: There is much to like about Faith Bible Church. They adhere to Scripture by living out a lot of the things most modern churches have lost. For example, they hold to a plurality of elder model of church government with deacons helping run the administration. In addition they have done a great job laying out much of what they believe (doctrine), their philosophy of ministry and how this implicates our life as believers. As I’ve reviewed Churches and their websites I’m finding a connection between how much a Church communicates what they believe with their desire to honor God by living scripturally.

I have not attended a service at Faith Bible Church. I do have a friend who knows their college ministry leader and based on his comments, I believe this is a solid church for people to attend. From reading through their website beliefs, book recommendations and other materials I would encourage someone in the Murrieta area to check out this church. My only observation is their comments on missions being ‘elsewhere’ (Afghanistan) and not next door. (I say this because often churches that are ‘reformed’ can miss the mark on missiology.) But they do speak about their belief that evangelism is what the Church is about so this may be a non-point.

A church with a strong biblical position and a desire to live this out as a community. I recommend this church.