Campus Fills God’s House

As part of our three-year Daring Faith campaign, we want to fill God’s house with worshipers. Saddleback Buenos Aires certainly brought in a crowd this month during a special visit by Pastor Rick. A line wrapped around the building to hear a word from Pastor Rick, Pastor Tommy Hilliker, and several other members of our staff.

Buenos Aires Pastor, Sebastián Ojeda did an outstanding job hosting Pastor Rick, and brining in 1,398 members from the community. For video highlights from Pastor Rick's September visit to Buenos Aires, click HERE. To read more about recent growth at our international campuses, click HERE. 

Following suit, members from our new San Diego campus are also making big strides to meet the "F" goal, by boldly committing to serve at the campus launching next month! From attending pre-launch gatherings to joining training programs, locals are coming out to show their support for the new Saddleback San Diego campus. God’s hand has been in the process every step of the way, including providing a campus facility at Canyon Crest Academy in Carmel Valley.

To celebrate their new “home,” Saddleback San Diego volunteers hosted an appreciation breakfast for 125 teachers at the school. This was an incredible opportunity to demonstrate the heart of the Saddleback family and their openness to serve people in the community.

Also this month, Saddleback San Diego Pastor Jeff Gonzalez had the privilege of baptizing four people at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. Saddleback Church is now within 200 people of our 45,000^th baptism! As the first baptism for the San Diego campus, they hosted a free BBQ for 80 people following the event, and were able to bring one teen to Christ on that same day! College students from UCSD, SDSU, CSUSM all came out to join the fun.

From breakfast blessings to beach baptisms, this momentum has led to local small groups and several UCSD students making a commitment to join Saddleback San Diego. “With the launch of our San Diego campus, it gives a home to many people who’ve been meeting in the So Cal area,” says Saddleback Marketing Manager, Christan Parreira.

In a greater effort to reach the community, Saddleback San Diego hosted the Family Fall Kickoff at Canyon Crest Academy on September 24. The evening gathering featured free food, live music, a fun zone, and a chance for people to invite their friends and neighbors to the new campus.

Those wanting to make a deeper commitment were encouraged to join one of the training events including Small Group Host Training, Ministry Break Out Training, Core Gathering, Setup Training, and Saddleback Kids (SK) Leader Training. Hosted by Saddleback San Clemente on September 10, the SK New Leader Orientation was available for those wanting to serve in our Children’s Ministry.

“We were fortunate to have two San Diego leaders attend the SK orientation,” says April Calmes, Children’s Ministry Director at San Clemente. “Both were very excited for their new mission to connect kids to God and others. I am very happy to report that one leader even took the next step in the process by coming back the following day and get herself fingerprinted for SK approval.”

Following the success of this training event, other Saddleback members joined SK training orientations at our campuses in Rancho Capistrano and Aliso Viejo.

More residents are standing up to serve just in time for the official San Diego campus launch on October 23. Don’t miss the big event when Pastor Rick visits Saddleback San Diego. For more information, visit saddleback.com/sandiego.