Daring Faith Accomplishments

We are halfway through our three-year giving campaign, Daring Faith. As our eighth, and most ambitious campaign at Saddleback, Daring Faith was launched in May 2015 to accomplish five God-inspired FAITH goals. In the process, we have impacted the world, stretched our faith, and honored God through our giving.

Here are just a few things God has accomplished through your Daring Faith in 2016.

F - Fill God's house with 40,000 worshipers at our weekend services by our 40th anniversary (2020).

Through our ongoing commitment to Fill God’s House, God has proven that his plan is always better and bigger than ours. Several key components of our “F” vision are to launch new campuses, strengthen all our existing campuses, strategically relocate some of our campuses, and find permanent buildings as church homes.

Prior to Daring Faith, Saddleback had 13 campuses in its church family. We witnessed growth in all of our locations, and followed God’s lead to add more campuses as part of our three-year Daring Faith campaign. As a result of the faith, generosity, and contribution of Saddleback members, we launched four new Daring Faith campuses in the past 17 months—bringing us to a total of 17 campuses!  

Kicking off our new locations was Saddleback Irvine North—our first Daring Faith campus and the first campus launched out of another campus. Last Easter, 147 members from our Irvine South campus committed to live missionally and plant this new campus. Today, Saddleback Irvine North is reaching over 800 people each week and is Saddleback’s fastest growing campus, and the fifth largest regional campus outside of Lake Forest. During this brief time, they’ve had 87 baptisms, 178 salvations, and continue to reach the community with events like Blocktober that brought in 3,500 to their campus alone! Read the full story here.

 Last Christmas, Saddleback South Bay was launched with members from our other neighboring campuses including Saddleback Newport Mesa, Saddleback Anaheim, and Saddleback LA. Saddleback Aliso Viejo was birthed out of Saddleback Rancho Capistrano, with a dream to have a local campus to reach Aliso Viejo and its surrounding communities.

In October 2016, we launched Saddleback San Diego with 1,650 people at the Grand Opening. As our fourth Daring Faith campus, Saddleback San Diego was seeded by a small group from Saddleback San Clemente. Together, they committed to begin this new campus that has drawn people from all over San Diego County. Read more about the launch here.

In addition to launching new campuses, many of our existing campuses have seen amazing growth by moving to other facilities. Among them is Saddleback Los Angeles that moved from the Palladium in Hollywood to Studio City. This enabled them to grow from an average of 500 people each weekend to now over 750 in just four months.

Saddleback Anaheim relocated from the City National Grove to a new building across the street, opening up thousands of additional seats and growing from 1,400 people to more than 2,200 each weekend.

Saddleback Irvine South’s relocation to their new facility was funded in part by the generous giving of Daring Faith. After two years of searching for a home campus, God provided a building that will give them the opportunity to keep reaching Irvine like never before.

When it comes to our international campuses in Hong Kong, Manila, Buenos Aires, and Berlin, they’re making huge strides to reach our goal of 40,000 worshipers. After three-years, our international campuses are growing by more than 35 percent.

Saddleback Buenos Aires is preparing to launch a fifth service. Saddleback Hong Kong’s efforts have led to a weekly attendance of 600 people, 207 baptisms, and 460 people completing CLASS, 60 small groups, and 250 people engaged in ministries. Saddleback Hong Kong moved into their new building on December 11, 2016. This new facility will enable them to reach to up to 4,000 people and will provide a Purpose Driven and Leadership Training Center to equip leaders from East and Southeast Asia.

To help beautify God’s house, Daring Faith gifts contributed to Saddleback Anaheim, Irvine South, Aliso Viejo, and San Clemente. These campuses broke ground on renovations including upgrades to their Worship Centers, patio areas, and office space.

Building on this momentum, our teams are diligently working towards launching the 10 remaining Daring Faith campuses. Next in line is Irvine Great Park, a growing area in Orange County where 16,000 new homes are currently being built. These people will need a church family to call their own! We’re also excited with the scheduled launch of Saddleback Espanol happening in spring 2017. Orange County is home to more than one million Hispanics, and Saddleback Espanol will reach out to this community with the love of Jesus.

Our campus launch team is currently looking at the growing area of Brea and Yorba Linda to launch a new campus there sponsored by Saddleback Anaheim. Other areas they’re currently assessing are the San Francisco Bay Area, Temecula, and Riverside.

When we reflect on this past Easter, we can give thanks for the 72,000 people that heard the Good News at our regional, international, and online campuses. This led to 1,845 new believers making a commitment to follow Christ. A significant moment in the 36-year history of Saddleback happened this October, when Pastor Rick baptized our 45,000th believer.

From launching campuses to baptizing believers, the scale of these big-step accomplishments is greater than we ever imagined. Tens of thousands of lives have been changed by God and his church.  

 A – Assist 250,000 needy people through our local PEACE Plan.

To help meet our Daring Faith goal of assisting 250,000 people in need, our PEACE Centers have given out millions of pounds of food through this God-honoring initiative. Additionally, our members have served the community through the 40+ ministries of local PEACE.

Since we launched Daring Faith in May 2015, we’ve expanded PEACE Centers in Irvine South and San Clemente. Anaheim and Rancho Capistrano are slated for expansion in 2017. These facilities––along with those in Lake Forest, Corona, Laguna Woods, and Rancho Capistrano––serve over 2,500 people each month.

Currently, the Mobile Food Pantry at Anaheim serves 70 families each month, making this campus a major resource and ideal location for a permanent facility. In the brief time our San Clemente Food Pantry has been open, an average of 30 families have been served each week. Saddleback Rancho Capistrano Mobile Food Pantry has served 2,000 people since it opened. They regularly teach 25 kids a week through Homework Club.

During the holidays, our Food Pantries provided a warm meal to over 7,200 people from the community. Leading up to these events, our members donated 29,000 pounds of food for the Holiday Food Drives.

Even before our 2016 Thanksgiving Food Drive was complete, we had served 886 families and 2,895 people. This year, all of our campuses participated in the Food Drive, including our newest campus in San Diego, which requested blue barrels to fill with donations. The barrels are then sorted by volunteers at the warehouse, and the goods are distributed to people who come to the Food Pantry. An operation of this magnitude requires over 3,000 volunteer hours to process and distribute food each month.

With help from Daring Faith contributions, resources available through the PEACE Center go far beyond the Food Pantry. Through this powerful program, over 2,000 people have accepted Christ, and this month—on one day alone—five people came to know God through the PEACE Center.

Because of the Daring Faith initiative, other signature ministries have been added to PEACE Center expansions including coaching, tutoring, legal aid, ESL courses, citizenship classes, computer instruction, and Homework Club which draws up to 40 kids each week at San Clemente alone.

Moving from food distribution to healthcare, the PEACE Center has ramped up its medical facilities in recent months by connecting with local hospitals and treating patients in need. Serving 9,000 people a year, the Medical Center will be expanding to four days a week, with referrals to Saddleback’s Counseling Ministry and the Daniel Plan.

In 2016, the Lake Forest PEACE Center added a patient waiting room, and expanded to six treatment rooms. Last month, they opened a Mobile Dental Clinic. Functioning three days a week, the Dental Clinic will be visiting other PEACE Centers to reach an even greater area of Orange County.

Also this year, all of our campuses participated in the All-Church Mercy Projects. Over the course of three months, campuses and small groups committed to serving together to help reach our communities, build relationships, and deepen fellowship. Nearly 7,000 members took part in our local PEACE Plan by helping with a local Food Pantry or by participating in other local PEACE ministries.

As a result of the Mercy Projects and Miracle of Mercy campaign, over 1,000 new small groups were formed and more than 35,000 study guides were distributed worldwide. Through this remarkable growth, we saw how the unity of our campuses built community and a desire to serve people through our local PEACE Plan.

This act of serving also gave a glimpse into the future PEACE Centers we intend to launch through Daring Faith. To help meet our goal of assisting 250,000 people in need, we hope to one day establish PEACE Centers at all of our campuses.

Other “A” achievements in 2016 included our Education Today Seminars, the GRIP event that delivered 850 holiday meals to schools, our Military Wives’ Baby Showers, and our Backpack Giveaway that blessed nearly 1,000 students at San Clemente’s back-to-school event.

In the midst of working toward our Daring Faith “A” goal, hearts are being transformed, lives are being changed, and souls are being nourished as we strive to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

I – Interconnect our growing fellowship through new technologies

Stepping up to help interconnect our growing fellowship through new technologies are our web team, tech team, IT department, worship team, and many other dedicated members who are helping fulfilling this initiative.

Just one month after we kicked off this giving campaign, over 600 members contributed towards Daring Faith technology. This led to our Tech Team hosting several meet-ups with over 100 designers and developers volunteering their time. During their first coding event, they discussed new software and programs that would connect people within the Saddleback community.

As a result of their commitment to Daring Faith, we’ve launched a new interactive website for Global PEACE, and are hosting dozens of Saddleback events via webcast including the recent Mental Health webcast viewed by 1,800 people.

To coincide with our goals for 2017, our skillful tech team has been busy developing an app for personal renewal that will offer daily devotionals to help you go deeper with God. App users will better understand the procees of personal renewal and will learn how to grow, sacrifice, and get right with God. The app can be used on its own, or in combination with the companion print guide, Going Deeper with God. 

Other exciting developments toward reaching our Daring Faith “I” goal include the rebranded and revised DriveTime Devotions app and website. As Saddleback’s second app to be developed entirely in-house, the app has gained tremendous traction since it was released on November 8. Numbers are increasing daily as members become aware of the new features. As of mid-November, there was a 219% increase in web traffic and 2,200 app installs.

This year, our tech team increased Internet bandwidth and streaming capacity for two-way communication during SALT meetings and other events. Our IT department also released an internal tool for live video and on-demand streaming from all campuses. This allows for our Multi-Site Team to review multiple weekend worship services and offer feedback, and simultaneous teaching from several campuses.

To meet both our “I” and “F” goals, our online campus is utilizing conferencing software to host Regional Online Meet-Ups. The strategy to further connect Saddleback’s online community allows members to simultaneously watch services together with other people in their regions—either online or in person.

Online gatherings are gaining momentum after successful events in Oakland, San Francisco, and Temecula, each drawing in over 100 people. The vision is to eventually host Online Meet-Ups in every state. There are currently 16,000 people who are part of Saddleback’s online community, with growth increasing by 30% from last year.

Technology and online sessions are also being used to train small group leaders. Taking a big part in the Daring Faith mission is Saddleback’s Worship Team that has hosted multiple tech training events to train about production and technical training. Members from all regional campuses were able to develop production skills falling under the umbrella of the Worship Team, including stage management, audio, lighting, and graphics.

It’s because of your commitment to Daring Faith that we’re able to interconnect our growing fellowship through new technologies.

T – Train 25% of our members to be global leaders in the church and ministry, in business and the community, and in the arts and media.

As part of our Daring Faith campaign, we want to train 25% of our members to be global leaders in the church and ministry, in business and the community, and in the arts and media. During the past year of Daring Faith milestones, God opened doors we didn’t even know existed!

One of the biggest doors, was the one he opened to a new building, located on the southeast corner of our Lake Forest campus. Exciting plans are already underway for our staff to relocate into the new building we purchased. This will free space for the Lake Forest PEACE Center to relocate from the portable structure into a permanent building as we continue to meet our “A” goal of assisting the needy.

Ultimately for a fraction of the cost, we will construct a much smaller building for the Global Training Center to be located at the original building site. With communication between all 17 campuses across four countries, it will be the hub for training through satellite, and will benefit not only the Lake Forest campus, but the church as a whole.

This new building is just one of many miracles God has delivered to help meet our “T” goal. Since Daring Faith began, we’ve launched the Master Teacher Training Program, trained over 2,000 members during monthly SALT meetings, and trained thousands more through CLASS, PEACE Practical, and Teaching to Change Lives. Also hosted this year were events for key ministries including Celebrate Recovery which drew in 3,600 to be trained as leaders. In 2016 alone, we’ve averaged 12 training events per month.

During our October 2016 Purpose Driven staff boot camp (PD Essentials), nearly 1,200 staff and local pastors were trained and equipped with the foundations for building a healthy church. Clearly, God’s hand is on this church, and his timing is perfect. 

H – Help take the Good News to the last 3,000 unreached tribes on earth.

Working toward our “H” initiative, our staff and members traveled to Rwanda for the All-Africa Pastors’ Gathering earlier this year. Over 150 church leaders from 29 different countries spent three days determining the next steps to catalyzing a nationwide movement of healthy churches. This led to 21 international partnering churches launching the Global PEACE Plan in African countries within the next year! They are all ready to transform lives in communities and plant churches where none exist.

Other big strides of Daring Faith were taken by our Global PEACE Team that trained 85 church members from 25 churches in PEACE Leadership. Saddleback also hosted the Finishing the Task Conference in December 2016, a gathering of 500 church leaders who pledged to take the Good News to the last unreached tribes.

Historic steps were taken during the month of May at the Global PEACE Church Gathering. This final frontier project of our global PEACE Plan brought together 100 Global PEACE Churches from 30 countries for strategic discussions and global commissioning by Pastor Rick. The event was filled with vision, planning, and action steps to help churches fulfill the Great Commandments and Great Commission.

Adding to the 26,000 members who have been sent on mission are 1,128 new people who traveled on 152 global PEACE trips since we launched Daring Faith 17 months ago. Every quarter, several hundred members attend our PEACE Practical gathering. The event mobilizes and empowers ordinary members to connect with serving opportunities around the world.

Riding on this wave of momentum is Saddleback Berlin that sent their first global PEACE team to Rwanda. Also mobilizing their members was Irvine North that sent their first PEACE Team to Berlin. Saddleback Kids also joined PEACE trips in Mexico, Rwanda, Manila, and Buenos Aires.

After nearly a decade, Pastor Rick brought the Purpose Driven Church conference back to the United States. Over 2,600 people attended PDC16, coming from all 50 states and 33 nations, united with a single vision to build healthy churches. Hundreds of online passes were purchased and nearly 70% of attendees were first-time visitors. To date, we have trained over half a million pastors through Saddleback Church.

While our Lake Forest campus hosted PDC16 here at home, overseas we had over 350 pastors in Zambia and Kenya participating in Purpose Driven training. In the wake of PDC16, the Purpose Driven Team held other PD events across the country including Purpose Driven First Look, the PDC RV-Tour, PD Essentials, and the Eurasia PD Conference. Our international campus, Saddleback Hong Kong has committed to training 4,000 church leaders in Asian countries in Purpose Driven strategies.

These are all mighty steps that equip churches to implement the five purposes, and then train other churches to reach those that have no Bible, no believer, and no body of Christ. Please pray as we continue to help take the Good News to unreached people groups.

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This past year, our church has done amazing things at home and around the world through Daring Faith. Your generosity has been a catalyst to advance God’s kingdom and reach one more for Christ. Thank you for being part of this vision to dream and dare to do big things, and for being part of the mission to share God’s hope and love around the world.

Read all our Daring Faith stories, and our December update at saddleback.com/daringfaith.