MissionCalifornia

Aaron and Adrian Lindsey lead Believe Church in Calabasas. They gather across three Sunday services and welcome everyone, churched and unchurched alike, into soul-stirring worship and honest teaching. Aaron and Adrian recently launched a weekly prayer guide written specifically for immigrant families, giving anyone in their congregation words to pray over themselves and their loved ones when life gets hard. It's thoughtful, practical ministry reaching a part of LA that needs a healthy, hopeful church.

Pastor William Zepeda leads Iglesia Bíblica de Morgan Hill, reaching the Spanish-speaking community of the South Bay and South Valley. The church grew out of a 2019 plant and is now part of the Morgan Hill Bible family. William and his people hold to a heart of loving selflessly, thinking biblically, living humbly, and serving generously. It's vital, often overlooked work, reaching Spanish-speaking families across the Bay with the gospel. Their longing is to see the people of the San Francisco Bay lean toward Jesus.

The Jones family is planting Neuma Church in the South Bay of Los Angeles. In 2023 they felt called to step out in faith, a journey that led them to Redondo Beach. The South Bay is full of beauty, success, and activity, yet many people feel spiritually dry, disconnected, or lonely. Families are busy but fractured, and lives that look full often feel empty within. What's missing isn't another event, it's an encounter with God and a place to belong, which is exactly what the Jones family is building toward a fall 2026 launch.

Gabe and Kari Garcia lead New City Church in Oakland. They moved there in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, to plant in one of the most unchurched, post-Christian cities in America. Now entering their fifth year, weekly attendance is up 40 percent, baptisms are at an all-time high, and participation in groups and spiritual formation keeps deepening. They live that growth out block by block, through a real partnership with Oakland Unified schools and frontline justice work alongside Love Never Fails. They're poised to expand their reach and help reproduce churches across the East Bay.

Kerry Kaufman leads Realm Church in Oakland's Temescal district, established in 2019 as a community of imperfect, authentic, diverse people investigating and enjoying the kingdom of God. God has been moving Realm outward this season. One of their leaders is on a mission trip in Kenya. One of their teens is spending time before college volunteering with Mercy Ships in Sierra Leone. And a young man Kerry baptized last year has started a pastoral residency with the goal of planting churches in the Bay. That's multiplication in real time.

Jason Wigand leads Redeemer Church in Castro Valley. Redeemer launched weekly Sunday services on March 1 of this year. This summer they celebrated their first baptisms and welcomed their Core Team into membership as Redeemer's first official members. Their small groups have been a highlight, and heading into summer they ran a Small Group Smash Up, mixing people across groups to deepen relationships. Looking ahead, Redeemer is exploring affiliation with the Evangelical Free Church of America.

Troy Lanning is planting Seasons Church in Beaumont, one of the fastest-growing cities in California. He came to the network through a board call, carrying the conviction that God is with us in every season of life, and that our faith is defined not by the season we're in but by the One who walks with us through it. Four values carry the mission: Truth Holds Us, Community Carries Us, Change Forms Us, and Mission Moves Us. Troy also carries a specific burden for families raising children with special needs, a group he calls one of the most unreached in America. Their launch team has grown to 46 people as they prepare preview services ahead of a fall 2026 launch.

A new church plant is preparing to launch on the Westside of Los Angeles, with the team currently in a pastoral residency ahead of weekly Sunday services planned for October 2026. Here's why the Westside matters. There are over half a million people there, including three major universities and one of California's largest community colleges. But on any given Sunday, fewer than 5,000 people are in church across that whole area, since most of LA's evangelical witness is concentrated in the Valley or around Hollywood. Shoreside's vision is the flourishing of all people in Los Angeles, for the glory of God and the good of the city.

Caitlin and Joel Rhodes-Karahadian co-planted West Valley Neighborhood Church in Cupertino in late 2023, building a hyperlocal neighborhood church for the nations in Silicon Valley. This season they leaned into how faith intersects with work, through a series called Working for Good. Despite real spiritual opposition, God prevailed, and people let go of ways they had idolized work. A grant sent three of their people to a Work and Worship conference in Southern California, and Caitlin has watched them grow as followers of Jesus who see their work as one of the ways God forms them.

Brothers Dr. Sam Perli and Pastor Immanuel Perli planted Hue Church in Santa Clara in 2023. The name is short for Heaven Upon Earth, and that's exactly the burden they carry: to see a broken world made right, starting in the heart of Silicon Valley, reaching tech workers, engineers, and families who came in suspicious and stayed. In two years they've seen 36 baptisms and grown to more than 120 people weekly, with a following past 42,000 on Instagram. Kids' ministry space had become their biggest bottleneck, especially after losing access to a house next door they'd been using. A recent grant let them renovate and expand to fit 40 to 50 children, including a downstairs room where parents can see their kids. Danny Strange visited in person to see the finished work. Now Hue faces its next test. The event center where they gather is being torn down for housing, and they need a new home to keep this growth going.

Raymond and Rachel Hudson planted Our City Center in Berkeley in 2021 on one conviction: the gospel belongs in the hardest soil. Berkeley is one of the most post-Christian cities in America, and they set out to build a church that felt present and alive in the middle of it, starting small with outdoor gatherings on a patio and beach baptisms before signing a lease at 3201 Shattuck, raising $200,000 in four weeks, and launching that October. Since launching, Our City Center has reached more than 188,000 people, with 350+ salvations and over 230 baptisms. Their Dream Team has grown to 175 active volunteers, many of whom first walked through the doors as people the church was reaching - Now they're the ones doing the reaching.

Redemption Church is led by Chris Davis in San Francisco, just east of Alamo Square. Chris planted it back in 2013, which makes Redemption one of the more established works in our network, and it shows. They exist to connect people to Jesus and to one another in one of the most unchurched regions in the country. The growth has been real. They are running 220 a week now, a 27 percent jump year over year, with 15 baptisms this year and seven small groups carrying 15 to 20 people each. More than 150 volunteers are mobilized and serving. What stands out to me is how tangible their love for the city is: free haircuts for those in need, an Easter carnival that served over 200 families, ongoing care for the elderly and single mothers in the neighborhood.

Jake and Kaelia Vayda lead Create Church in San Diego. They launched publicly on October 13, 2024, with 355 people in the room, one of the largest church launches in urban San Diego. For the next year they ran portable setups in North Park, setting up and tearing down every week, before finally moving into their own building. Their first Sunday in the new space drew over 290 people. In a single weekend they added live streaming, expanded their kids' rooms from one to five, and launched a new middle and high school ministry. Jake and Kaelia bought a home two blocks from the church. They aren't just leading in San Diego, they're living there, turning good intentions of connection into action.

Chris and Suzy Parks launched Presence Church in San Jose on September 7, drawing on Paul's words to the Corinthians: a simple presentation of the gospel, depending on the power of the Holy Spirit. Sunday attendance has held steady near 110, and internal giving already covers half their monthly expenses. Presence has also adopted its host school. Chris's team handed out pizza to students, prepared 130 teriyaki bowls for staff, and is now serving the school's graduation. One staff member mentioned that some kids only come to school because they know a meal is waiting. That same instinct to show up has carried them to Rosarito, Mexico, where they're partnering with Kingdom Builders Ministry, which has already planted 63 ches. Presence hopes to help build the 64th within the year.

Matthew Perry leads Love Church, a brand-new San Diego plant built to help people experience the love of God through Jesus. God is already moving. In just three weeks of gatherings, 20 people gave their lives to Jesus, more than 100 joined, and dozens of new families connected.

Joe Jewell leads Vintage Church in Livermore, where he and his core team gathered for the first time on July 27, 2025. It's a young plant, but the mission is already clear and bold: for God's glory, for Livermore's good. They already run community groups, a men's ministry, and Alpha, alongside a real discipleship pathway, and they have a planter of their own already in the pipeline.