A cry from the streets.
Years of street ministry in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, Baltimore, Colorado, Mexico, the Philippines, and Tokyo taught the same thing over and over. People meet Jesus outside all the time. What they almost never have is a church down the street that knows they are coming.
What we believe about the city
San Diego is not a mission field for one church. It is one field. Fifty churches praying for the same block are not competing. They are the same church, finally standing in the same place.
The people we meet on the streets do not ask which denomination we belong to. They ask if anyone will still be there next week. A church on their own block can answer that. A visiting team cannot.
What we do
We put every neighborhood in the county on one map and ask churches to claim the ground they are already standing on. We go to the streets in those neighborhoods to pray, worship, feed, listen, and tell people about Jesus. We walk everyone who wants a church to one on their own block, and that church picks it up from there.
Freedom, small groups, and training
Some people we meet want more than a service time. They want to be set free from something that has held them for years. Every church on the map that offers prayer and freedom ministry is marked, and anyone can ask for an appointment through this site. Each church runs that on its own terms, with its own limits and its own guidelines, and the ask goes to them rather than to us.
A new believer needs more than a seat on Sunday. They need a small group, a living room, a handful of people who know their name and will answer their questions. Not every church has one ready, and not every church can start one this year. So we are asking people too. If you would open your living room to a few of the people we meet on the streets, tell us and we will help you get it going.
Anyone who wants to learn to pray for strangers, share the gospel plainly, and care for people on the street can be trained. Trainings are posted on the events page and open to every church. When there is a good one near you that we are not running, we will point you to that one instead.
Our differences
Collectively we are Baptists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Charismatics, Anglicans, Calvary Chapels, non-denominational churches, Catholics who have been set free by Jesus and know it was never only for us, house churches, Spanish-speaking congregations, and churches that meet in gyms. We are not pretending the differences are gone.
We are setting them down long enough to serve one city, and we expect to find they weigh less than we thought.
Your yes
Claiming a neighborhood is one yes. Two more are welcome. What we are really asking is whether you are open to working with the other churches on your ground. None of us is holding up this city alone, and we are stronger standing together than we are standing near each other.
ReceiveThe one yes
When an outreach team meets someone in your neighborhood who wants a church, they send them to you. You welcome them, reach out within a week, and get them into a small group where they can learn and be known.
Serve togetherOptional
Join the other churches on your ground to meet one real need at a time. A school, a shelter, a family, a street.
SendOptional
Put your own people on the streets of your neighborhood on a rhythm.
And I have other sheep that are not of this fold.I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
John 10:16
Where this came from
Jonathan's sister moved to heaven ten years ago. Somewhere inside that grief the Lord made himself personal: healing his heart, walking him out of bondage into freedom, and out of freedom into promise. That is the story he tells on the sidewalk. It is also why he cannot stand to watch resurrection life break out on the street with no steady way to get people into a church.
One Church San Diego is his answer to that.