San Diego Church Reviews & Guide

Select one of the following Highly Recommended San Diego Churches:
The Fields Church (Carlsbad)
Kaleo Church (Mission Valley)
Crossroads Church (Chula Vista)
Covenant Reformed Baptist Church (Serra Mesa)
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.

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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.twelvetribes.com/

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

Summary: The Twelve Tribes of Israel believes they are the only ‘true’ disciples of Christ. All other Christians are no different than atheists, Buddhists or Muslims. In order for a person to be saved, they need to move into one of their communities, give up all their possessions to the community as well as agree (with no room for differing opinions) to their interpretation of scripture. We see this as legalism, works-based faith and as an error to the Christian faith.

Sadly, what caused the Twelve Tribes to ‘react’ to this extreme is true. They see that most Christians today are unwilling to live out the faith as Christ called them to. This faith includes love for neighbor, self-sacrifice and service to a common goal in the Kingdom of God.

Too much legalism and extreme interpretations for us to recommend anyone join the group.

A group plans to begin a San Diego Classical Christian Education School here in San Diego.

Here are additional church directory resources: ForMinistry: Find a Local Church, Christianity Today Church Locator, Baptist Church Directory, Net Ministries, Find a Church in the UK.

Website: http://www.all-souls.com/

Church Review
Theology: 2/5
Mission: 2/5
Community: 3/5
Worship: 2/5

Summary: All Souls’ Episcopal Church has a progressive interpretation of scripture. Their interpretations of issues (abortion, homosexuality, etc.) are not rooted in the Bible but have changed because the culture has changed. The gospel message has become a social gospel that leads them to do many good things, but they do not teach that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. The result is Christianity becomes more of a philosophy rather than a belief that God is not silent and has, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, communicated to us through the Bible.

A church not rooted in orthodoxy. We do not recommend people attend this church.

Website: http://www.sdcrc.org

Church Review
Theology: 5/5
Mission: 4/5
Community: 4/5
Worship: 3/5

Summary: San Diego Reformed Church is a solid church for people to consider. The service I attended had a guest preacher, who did an excellent job. Their worship style was more hymnal-based singing and traditional in flavor. There seems to be a transition at this church toward a more missional mindset to reach out the the community around them. (Being missional is often a challenge in Reformed churches.) The service had a large number of older (60 to 80 year old) people but there were several families as well.

A good church that teaches the Scripture and desires to reach out to their community. We recommend this church.

Website: http://www.faithcommunity.ws

Encinitas

Church Review
Theology: 4/5
Mission: 4/5
Community: 4/5
Worship: 3/5

Summary: The service I attended was called a ‘mini-service’ at 8:45am (their main service is at 10am) for people who server. Doug Baker did a great job preaching through the word and tying in the history and context of the passage. Faith Community is in the process of building a church campus and is raising money to do this. At the present time, they meet in a school. There were many things I liked about my experience at the church and based on the interaction and conversations, I would recommend this as a place for people to attend. (Their website is another subject though, clicking on ‘Calendar of Events’ almost shut my computer down.)

A solid church that taught from the scripture and has a heart to reach the community around them. We recommend this church.

Website: http://www.sonrise.net/

Church Review
Theology: 2/5
Mission: 2/5
Community: 3/5
Worship: 3/5

Summary: I attended Sonrise Community Church’s Unite service. An evening ‘postmodern’ service for people aged 18-30 years old. What struck me the most at this service was the preaching. In the service I attended, the pastor spent most of the time speaking about himself. He talked about his job as a news anchor, how he now gets paid well to work part time at Channel 8. He talked about how he “closed the deal” in evangelizing a Budhhist. (I’m glad he is evangelizing but part of this should be done in love not to ‘close the deal’.) Over half the message with about him. Read the rest of this entry »

How many of you have relocated to a new area and struggled to find a new church? It can be challenging to find a place to call home because often there is so little online that a church offers to really tell you their missiology, theology, worship and other aspects that are critical to a good church. It is in this spirit that San Diego Church Reviews & Guide is launching a new site for every city. The new website is called Church Reviews which will allow people to post comments, reviews and other observations about the churches they’ve attended.

Our passion is to support local churches that hold to the gospel with a firm hand and live a life of mission with the other hand. I believe it is rare to find a church that is concerned with proper doctrine as well as desires to be the ‘beautiful mess’ of the kingdom of God. Our goal is to use these discussions to help people find God-glorifying churches.

Website: http://www.dignitypacific.org/SanDiego/

Church Review
Scriptural View: 1/5
Beliefs: 1/5
Community: 4/5

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

Summary: DignityUSA is the oldest and largest national lay movement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) Catholics. The primary goal of this group is to change the position of the Roman Catholic Church towards the GLBT community. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Website: http://www.sdmaranatha.org

Church Review
Scriptural View: 2/5
Missional View: 3/5
Community: 3/5

Website Review
Site Usabilility: 3/5
Site Design: 2/5
Site Content: 2/5

Summary: Maranatha is a common church name (meaning ‘the Lord is coming’). This Maranath church is a Seventh Day Adventist Church. There are several distinctions that Seventh Day Adventists’ hold to that Christians should be aware of prior to selecting this church. The most obvious being that the churches meet on Saturday. Read the rest of this entry »

A couple change notes were requested:

Kaleo Church (Highly Recommended) moved to Mission Valley AMC Theaters.
San Diego Church (Recommended) moved to Dave & Busters.
The Resolved (Highly Recommended) is looking to move from a house to a building if anyone has an extra building in Pacific Beach. (Note August 12: The Resolved found a building to meet in, visit their website to get directions.)

If you have changes you’d like published, email [email protected].

Website: http://www.thirddaychurches.com

(House Churches Multiple Locations)

Church Review
Scriptural View: 3/5
Missional View: 4/5
Community: 5/5

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

Summary: The Third Day Church movement is a Charismatic house church movement that began here in San Diego and is now in eight countries. Here is an excerpt from their website about this movement:

On several occasions, history has provided the needed critical mass and the synergistic inertia to thrust the church into breaking out of its’ box and becoming the force in culture and society that God intended it to be. Today, the church, at the dawning of the 21st Century, has once again reached this “critical mass.” It’s something so big and so obvious that the winds of change demand we look hard at our forms and face the reality that a different church must provide a different response to a postmodern age. This Third Millennium (“a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day,” 2 Peter 3:8; Psalm 90:4), or this “Third Day” requires a “Third Way” of doing and being the church, even a third Reformation.

There are a lot of things that this church is doing that San Diego Church Reviews agrees with. They are highly missional, they desire to remove traditions that impede on the advance of the gospel and the active involvement of all people in the church to ‘be the church’ not just attend one. There are two primary areas of concern about Third Day Churches; staying within the bounds of Scripture and the belief of modern day prophecy. The home churches offer a place that is “free for people to do whatever they want” which can be liberating but also can lead to unbiblical practice. Second, the belief that a person can prophesy and ’speak for God’ is dangerous. Third Day offers Schools of Prophecy to help train people to use this gift which we believe is no longer necessary with the completion of the Apostolic period. Unfortunately, to truly know how Third Day conducts themself, someone would need to attend their church for a season to ‘test the spirits’ that are being used.

A facinating house church movement. This Church is not recommended for everyone and we offer a word of caution for people to investigate their practices before joining.

Website: http://www.saintgregorythegreat.org/

Church Review
Scriptural View: 3/5
Missional View: 3/5
Community: 3/5

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

Summary: A Catholic community that professes to be more ‘orthodox’ than many Catholic Churches. Suggest you examine this chart of difference between Catholics & Protestants.

A large, active Catholic parish.

After learning more about the church from the Senior Pastor, their review has been updated: New San Diego First Assembly review.

Website: http://www.escondidourc.org/

Church Review
Scriptural View: 5/5
Missional View: 3/5
Community: 4/5

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

Summary: Escondido United Reformed Church (EURC) is an excellent place to learn about the Christian faith. The church has a high view of scripture and preaches solid, Biblical messages each week. If you seek or currently are in need to find a church that teaches ‘meat’ rather than watered-down messages, this is the place for you. As we find with most Reformed churches is that they often lack in the area of cultural engagement. Many in this church attend because they were raised in a Reformed environment so the learning curve is not always easy for new believers, but I trust they will pour into anyone who decides to attend the church. EURC is a great place for families. They put a strong emphasis on training the children in the Bible as well. (This church is Presbyterian for those concerned about Baby baptism.)

A recommended, Bible-based church.

Many people who come to this site seek a Catholic church. Our primary thrust is to review San Diego Churches that are Protestants, but we do Catholic churches on occassion as well as other off the beaten path faiths.

For those of you looking for a Catholic Church in San Diego, here is a (offsite) list of Catholic Parish/Mission Websites in the Diocese of San Diego. We also reviewed one Old Catholic church you can check out: St. Francis and St. Taricicus Old Catholic Church