How do you pick a San Diego Church? This site reviews San Diego Churches to help you find a church. Reviews look at what the church believes, their view on Scripture and the community. If you have attended a church that is listed feel free to add your own comment. View our highly recommended San Diego Churches

Moving to San Diego?

January 1st, 2007

Are you considering a move to San Diego. Learn more at Think San Diego about the region. Also check out the San Diego Blog and San Diego Bloggers.

San Diego Church Planters Bootcamp

June 30th, 2006

The San Diego Bootcamp & Church Conference is designed for Church Planters and Church Replanting & Renewal. In addition, healthy churches can learn how to replicate faster and more effective by our mutli-site experts with Church Replication. Come learn from multiple church planters from cities like Seattle, San Diego & New York. Leaders from Acts 29 and Redeemer NY, Harbor in San Diego and will share insight into getting your church on mission and much more.

Learn more: San Diego Church Planters Bootcamp & Conference for Churches

San Diego Classical Christian Education School

October 30th, 2005

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

Church Directories

October 28th, 2005

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.

Church Reviews for Local Cities

September 12th, 2005

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.

San Diego Church Directory

April 3rd, 2005

Another site directory of San Diego Churches for people to visit http://www.sandiegochurchesonline.com. They have over 100 sites listed in their directory.

San Diego Church Planters Gather

March 22nd, 2005

Next Thursday at 10am, there is a meeting for pastors who have a passion for church planting, mission, cultural engagement and God’s Kingdom here in San Diego. They will gather to discuss ways to work together and serve the San Diego community. Items include how the church can contribute in the conversation about San Diego, homeless ministries, homeless teens ministry, international ministry (orphanages, etc.), other ways we can work together and a variety of other information. Post a comment with your email address (it is not displayed publicly) to learn more. (Submit Events info)

Ranking Changes

February 27th, 2005

You may notice a few changes in how we list San Diego Churches as well as future rankings. Rather than the old 0-5 Star system, we’ve changed the ranking to the recommendation level system. We believe this should more clearly communicate to people reading the site. Our suggestion is people only attend Highly Recommended to Average churches. To be an average church, the minimum requirement is an Evangelical belief (The Bible is true, Jesus is the only way to salvation, etc.).

The second change involves the ranking.

Church Review
Scriptural View:
Beliefs:
Community:

These rankings will now be changed to the following:

Church Review
Scriptural View: What a Church believes, teaches and lives. Do they teach the whole counsel of the Bible? Do they preach exegetically (ie. From the Bible verse by verse, book by book) or topical messages. How do they interpret doctrine.
Missional View: How this church reaches out to the lost. Are they a church that embraces their calling to bear the good news of Jesus Christ? Do they focus on a local and international mission of spreading the Kingdom of God?
Community: Does the church foster community? Do they have elders in place to lead/serve the congregation? How do they counsel people in matters of life, marriage and sin? Is the community called to live what they believe?

We hope these changes assist you as you look for a church to attend. We believe these three criteria are central to a church fulfilling it’s calling as described in the Bible. As always, we appreciate your comments, suggestions and participation in the conversation. (Coming soon… Church Reviews Nationwide at churchreviews.org)

Kairos Prison Ministry

February 26th, 2005

A group went into Donovan prison last weekend to facilitate a prison ministry. For those of you who would like to find an area to serve, we’d encourage you to look into Kairos Prison Ministry. In February, support from 60 churches in the San Diego area as well as national and international participate in the ministry. To find out more go to their website at http://www.kairosprisonministry.org.

Comments Back up

December 21st, 2004

The comment function has been down for the last week or two. Sorry for any inconvenience, we believe we have these issues resolved.

Have a Merry Christmas.

About Us - San Diego Church Reviews

December 19th, 2004

San Diego Church Review & Guide is made up of several individuals who believe it is extremely important for non-christians, new believers and mature believers to find a church that is centered on the Bible. Amongst the reviewers we have several pastors, the editor of San Diego Christianity DMOZ, people with Masters in Theology and more.

If you would like to join us and write reviews, please feel free to apply, email: San Diego Churches. There are two criteria to accepting reviews:

(1) You can’t write a review of your home church.
(2) Further, San Diego Churches is not unbiased. Frankly, no one is unbiased. We all have a particular viewpoint in which we decide to value things by. So all applicants will be asked a few questions to help understand these biases. A few biases in which we evaluate churches by.

a) Does the Church believe scripture is true?
b) How do they interpret Scripture?
c) Does the church have a heart of mission both locally, culturally and worldwide?
d) Does the church desire to glorify God and worship Him, rather than people?
e) Does the church have a community that lives out an active involvement and desire to disciple/hold people accountable and grow them?

These areas are the areas in which we value churches. Some people may not agree with these. We would encourage you to add your comments under the churches in which you disagree. We also would encourage you to start your own website to review churches based on the standards you see fit. We recognize some people may be upset with reviews of particular churches. Our desire is not to make people upset but to pursue God and hopefully, the Pastors of these churches will prayerfully consider any areas that are evaluated as settling for less than the Glory of God.

Twelve Marks of a Missional Church

December 10th, 2004

Missional? Is that a Real Word?

A church that is not missional is not really a church. A church exists by mission as the sun exists by burning. When the sun loses its burn it ceases to be the sun. When a church loses its mission, it ceases to be a church. Missional is an adjective describing all of the activities of the church body as they are brought under the mission of God (missio dei) to bring salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “The world has hated them [My followers] because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You [God] should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one…As You [God] sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (John 17:14-16, 18; emphasis added).

A missional church understands it has been sent into an irreligious world to proclaim the Gospel of Redemption that is made possible by the Son’s sacrifice for our sins and the Father’s love for us. Every believer is sent into the world by God just as Jesus was sent into the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Submit Event

December 1st, 2004

Submit Events for Churches to gather or Church leaders. Email [email protected] to submit an event. Please do not submit events that relate to only one church. Events must be gospel-centered.

Orange County Church Reviews Launched

November 15th, 2004

We’ve launched a new site to review churches in Orange County. Visit our sister site at: Orange County Church Reviews.

9 Marks of a Healthy Church

October 5th, 2004

What exactly is a healthy church? How do we discern what church to attend. I ran across a great ministry that helps “local churches pursue, develop, and maintain nine of the most important marks of any healthy church. In identifying and promoting these nine, we are not intending to lay down an exhaustive or authoritative list. There are other significant marks of healthy churches, like prayer and fellowship. We want to pursue those ourselves as well, and we want you to pursue them with us. But these nine are the ones we think are most neglected in most local churches today, with the most damaging ramifications. So we think it is wise for us to concentrate on these nine and let other parts of the Body universal promote other important marks of a healthy local church.

Here’s a brief summary of what we mean by each of the nine marks. Read the rest of this entry »

Matthew’s House

October 4th, 2004

Website: http://www.matthewshouse.com

(Located in Oceanside)

Church Review
Scriptural View: 3/5
Beliefs: 3/5
Community: 5/5
Preaching: None
Worship: Contemporary
Service Times: Wednesday 7 pm, Thursday 7pm

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

Review: Matthew’s House (MH) is part of a growing house Church movement. Each week in different homes people gather together to ‘be the church’. This Church is highly missional and they desire to reach the neighborhood where God placed them. As I spoke to one of the Pastors, Rick Horton (Who doesn’t like to be called pastor) he shared with me stories of people who were neighbors, friends and acquaintances who participated in this gathering and ended up being saved.

Pastor Horton explained, “Over and over again we saw people who would say something or pray and ask God into their life. No one told them how to do it or explained the process. They just realized they wanted what everyone else was talking about.” During my visit to MH I met a number of people who had been Christians 6 months to one or two years. This church is focused on living out the gospel.

MH does not have formal preaching. Each week they gather and talk about the things of God and share what is going on in their lives and then bring up scripture to apply to it. I am uncomfortable with the lack of expository preaching of God’s Word. This is too important of an element to not have in a healthy church. (see: 9 Marks of a Healthy Church)

After gathering with them and talking to a handful of people, it is clear they hold to the Nicene/Apostle’s Creed. They hold scripture to be the inerrant Word of God. There are many things that MH is doing that mainstream churches can learn from, particularly their high level of community and outreach.

A great church of outreach and evangelism to their neighborhood but it lacks strong Bible expository preaching.

New Review & re-review

October 1st, 2004

The Mission Gathering review has been temporarily taken down. The Pastor of their church Rev. Richard McCullen contacted us. Based on some of his comments we will be investigating the matter further and either re-publishing our review or changing it based on what is discovered.

Also, I have had a chance to visit a House Church (also called cell Churches) and a review will be coming shortly. I would like to know if any of you have attended one previously. What was your experience? Post a comment.

4 Perspectives on the Church

September 8th, 2004

Over the next few weeks I plan on examining 4 trends that the church is seeing in America. These are:

The Emerging Church - This will look at church planting and why so many people are joining these new churches. Often these churches are moving from the modern traditions to express worship and encounter God. We will look at both the good and the bad.
The House Church Movement - A further reaction to the traditional church is a movement that is happening quietly in neighborhoods near you. People often in small groups of 10-20 are gathering together in homes to ‘do church’. It is here that an organic church is connecting each other to the loss of community in the mega-churches.
The Modern Church - These are the churches who continue to grow and represent the ‘modern’ ideals of entertainment and production to draw in the masses to hear the gospel.
The Dying Church - Each year across the country 100’s of churches close their doors for the final time. These are the churches that our grandparents attended. They have reached their twilight and now as the congregation has matured there is no youth to replace the empty seats swallowing the sanctuary. We will look at why they are dying.

If you have an example in San Diego county of any of these types of churches, please post them in the comment section.

School is Back

September 4th, 2004

Here are some reviews of some local ‘younger’ churches with a bent toward ‘postmodernism’ or ‘emerging worship’.

The Flood (emerging worship, 3 Stars)
Kaleo Church (emerging worship, 5 Stars)
The Rock (near campus, 3 Stars)
Mission Gathering (postmodern, 1 Star)
Coastlands Church (postmodern, 2 Stars)

Why should I attend church?

September 3rd, 2004

The New Testament repeatedly emphasizes the importance of local assemblies. In fact, it was the pattern of Paul’s ministry to establish local congregations in the cities where he preached the gospel. Hebrews 10:24-25 commands every believer to be a part of such a local body and reveals why this is necessary.

“And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

It is only in the local body to which one is committed that there can be the level of intimacy that is required for carefully stimulating fellow-believers “to love and good deeds.” And it is only in this setting that we can encourage one another.

The New Testament also teaches that every believer is to be under the protection and nurture of the leadership of the local church. These godly men can shepherd the believer by encouraging, admonishing, and teaching. Hebrews 13:7 and 17 help us to understand that God has graciously granted accountability to us through godly leadership.

Furthermore, when Paul gave Timothy special instructions about the public meetings, he said “Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13). Part of the emphasis in public worship includes these three things: hearing the Word, being called to obedience and action through exhortation, and teaching. It is only in the context of the local assembly that these things can most effectively take place.

Acts 2:42 shows us what the early church did when they met together: “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” They learned God’s Word and the implications of it in their lives; they joined to carry out acts of love and service to one another; they commemorated the Lord’s death and resurrection through the breaking of bread; and they prayed. Of course, we can do these things individually, but God has called us into His body-the church is the local representation of that worldwide-body-and we should gladly minister and be ministered to among God’s people.

Active local church membership is imperative to living a life without compromise. It is only through the ministry of the local church that a believer can receive the kind of teaching, accountability, and encouragement that is necessary for him to stand firm in his convictions. God has ordained that the church provide the kind of environment where an uncompromising life can thrive.