Essentials
Welcome to Local
Our Heart:
Love God, Love People.
Our Vision:
San Diego for Jesus.
Our Mission: Our what.
To build a House of God that looks like the Heart of God. Reaching everyone for Jesus by bringing Jesus to everyone.
Our Purpose: Our why.
To see lives changed by the power of Jesus and to empower those people to help others experience the same life change.
Our Mandate: Our how
Win souls, make disciples.
What We Believe
1. WE BELIEVE IN GOD
We believe in a personal, present, and purposeful God, who is not distant from creation but deeply involved in it. He is both transcendent (above all) and imminent (near to all), meaning He is powerful enough to rule the universe and relational enough to care about your life.
Jeremiah 29:13-14
“If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you, says the Lord.”
“God isn’t just in control of everything, He’s committed to you in everything.”
2. WE BELIEVE IN JESUS
We believe that Jesus is the Son of God, fully God and fully man, who lived the life we couldn’t live, died the death we deserved, and rose again to give us a life we didn’t earn. He is not just an example to admire, but a Savior to receive.
Romans 10:9
“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart… you will be saved.”
“Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good but dead people alive.”
3. WE BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe the Holy Spirit is God’s active presence in the life of the believer, guiding, convicting, empowering, and transforming us from the inside out. He is not a force to use, but a person who leads, and He produces both power for purpose and fruit for character.
John 14:26
“But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative, that is, the Holy Spirit, he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”
“The Holy Spirit doesn’t just help you live for God, He lives in you so God can live through you.”
4. WE BELIEVE IN SALVATION BY GRACE
We believe that salvation is a gift from God, not a reward for good behavior. It is received by faith, not achieved by effort. Grace means that God gives you what you could never earn and keeps you with what you could never sustain on your own.
Romans 10:9
“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
“Grace is not God lowering the standard, it’s God meeting it for you.”
5. WE BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS TRUTH
We believe the Bible is the inspired and authoritative Word of God, reliable, relevant, and necessary for life. It doesn’t just offer suggestions; it sets direction. It is not just information to consider, but truth to build your life on.
2 Timothy 3:16–17
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”
“The Bible isn’t just a book you read, it’s a truth that reads you.
“We believe in:
A God who is present
A Savior who is powerful
A Spirit who is active
A grace that is sufficient
And a Word that is final”
Belonging
The kingdom of God is a cross cultural experience.
“Belonging is the alignment of your beliefs and your behaviors with the culture of the Kingdom.”
At Local, we don’t just want you to belong to a church culture.
We want you to belong to the Kingdom culture first.
Because if you get the Kingdom right, everything else aligns.
1. Spiritual Practices” “I practice the presence of God.”
Belonging to the Kingdom starts with personal devotion.
Because you don’t drift into Kingdom culture—you develop into it.
This is where your private life aligns with heaven.
Prayer
Scripture
Worship
Time with God
“You don’t belong to God publicly if you don’t pursue Him privately.”
2. Kingdom Culture “I live by heaven’s values.”
This is about adopting the values of Jesus.
Not just believing them, but living them.
Forgiveness over offense.
Generosity over greed
Humility over pride
Faith over fear
“Kingdom culture isn’t what you agree with, it’s what you live out.”
3. Local Culture: “I build what God is doing here.”
Because belonging to the Kingdom expresses itself through a local house.
You don’t just attend, you participate.
You take ownership
You build relationships
You serve
You give
“You don’t belong to a house you only observe, you belong to a house you help build.”
What We Are Building
The 4 pillars of Local.
At Local, we’re building more than a church service. We’re building a home. And every home needs a foundation. These are our Four Pillars, the rhythms, values, and spaces that define who we are and shape where we’re going.
1. Sundays
This is where we come alive.
There’s nothing like Sunday at Local. It’s the front porch and the family table. It’s the place where the gospel is preached loud and clear, worship is lifted high, and everyone, no matter what, is invited to take a step toward Jesus.
We don’t do Sundays to fill seats, we do it to fill hearts. Our Sunday gatherings are a collision of spirit and strategy, passion and presence. From the moment someone parks to the final “Amen,” our goal is that every person would feel seen, known, and loved.
Why Sundays? Because we believe that in a loud and fractured world, the Church should still be the most hope-filled, life-giving gathering on earth. Sundays set the tone for the rest of the week. They awaken purpose, stir faith, and remind people that God is still writing their story.
2. Team
The heartbeat of this house.
Local doesn’t run on talent or hype. It runs on Team, ordinary people with extraordinary passion, building God’s house together. Our team isn’t a crowd of helpers, it’s a community of leaders. People who believe that serving isn’t a chore, it’s a calling.
From camera crews to kids’ leaders, from greeters to production, our Team is the living, breathing picture of what it means to be the Church. We don’t just serve to make Sundays happen, we serve to make miracles happen.
We say it like this: “If you want to experience church, come on Sunday. But if you want to build the church, join the Team.”
Because when you serve, you don’t just find your gift, you find your people.
This is not volunteerism. This is ownership.
This is where you stop attending and start becoming.
3. Collectives
Where church feels like family.
Local is not built on rows. It’s built on circles. Because while Sundays inspire us, Collectives connect us.
In a city full of isolation and performance, we believe real life change happens in community, in living rooms, coffee shops, and backyards where people are known by name and loved without condition.
Collectives are where we ask the real questions, have the honest conversations, and grow deeper with God and with each other.
We laugh, cry, pray, learn, and grow. Together.
Our vision is not to be a church with groups. Our vision is to be a church of groups.
Because you don’t just need a crowd you need a community.
And you’ll never find your place until you find your people.
4. Generosity
We don’t give to get, we give to build.
At Local, we believe generosity isn’t what we do, it’s who we are.
We give not out of pressure but from a place of purpose.
We believe in tithes and offerings, not as a transaction, but as a declaration:
God is first. God is faithful. And we’re in this for the long haul.
Tithing
Tithing is giving the first 10%, is a principle rooted in Scripture, long before it was a church practice. It’s not about the money, it’s about the heart.
And offerings, above and beyond, are how we respond when faith calls us to stretch.
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven…” Malachi 3:10 (NIV)
We give because the Church is God’s plan A for reaching people.
We give because vision needs fuel.
We give because we believe in a future worth investing in.
Makers
The ones who build the future.
We call them Makers. Because they don’t just attend church, they’re building it.
Makers are the backbone of our generosity. They give $100 or more each month through recurring giving. Not randomly. Not reactively. Intentionally. Consistently. Faithfully.
Makers allow us to dream forward, plan with confidence, and build a church that San Diego can count on, not just for Sundays, but for schools, families, neighborhoods, and the next generation.
We say it like this: When you subscribe to a service, you benefit. When you subscribe to Local as a Maker, the whole city benefits.
We believe Makers are modern day miracle investors.
They don’t just see what is, they sow into what could be.
To be a Maker is to say:
“I’m not waiting for someone else to do it. I believe in this, and I’m all in.”
Part 4: My Next Step
Matthew 7:24-27
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”