But God has been faithful through it all!

We began 2020 with one focus, it was that God had Xtra for our church and the city. God clearly laid one thing on our hearts, that 2020 was going to be a year in which we would need God’s Xtra oil, His Holy Spirit. The year started off with an increasing number of people attending weekend services, serving in Hope Crews, participating in 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting, and involved in closer community through City Groups. We began the year planning to increase our online engagement, looking to purchase new cameras and lighting, positioning ourselves to be equipped to stream our services live.

2020 accelerated those plans.

We didn’t expect a pandemic, who did? But as the pandemic hit, our leadership crew adjusted and moved forward in an incredible, Xtra kind of way. Our production crew, worship crew, and social media crew were crucial to the pivot from mainly in person services to fully on line services. We can’t say enough about the volunteer crews that serve our church and its city. We began pre-recording our services from our lounge in week one, then we moved our recordings to Downtown Works, we also recorded separately from homes and lastly God took us to The Ratner building. At the Ratner God solidified an amazing recording studio called, Studio 710, there we made plans to begin live streaming our services and re-broadcasting them for a second service at 5pm.

In a very short time God provided the financial resources to purchase camera and live streaming gear thanks to our financial partners. In one month our crew learned how to live stream. That’s what Xtra oil does. By the end of the summer, even though our church felt like we had no home, God provided a space at The Ratner building for us to rent that would allow us to have access 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Meaning, no set up and tear down, space for city groups, workspace, band rehearsals, and space for events. We have been at LC Studio since September 1st. LC Studio is great for in person services and for on line services.

God’s been faithful and has asked us to be faithful. That’s why we continued to serve the people of our city in the best way we could during this unprecedented time. Our efforts to serve those most in need focused on engaging with our city partners. We increased our efforts to financially or physically support these organizations; Urban Street Angels, Generate Hope, Refuge for Women, Just In Time For Foster Youth, Hope For San Diego & Feeding San Diego. We filmed a teaching series called, “Hope. Here. Now.”, highlighting these organizations.

The highlight of 2020 for us is that even though most of the world seems to go from a state of shutdown to re-open, God doesn’t, He is always at work. He doesn’t shut down. God moved in the lives of people in a powerful way. Lives were changed in 2020 here in San Diego. Our mission to create experiences to help people fall in love with Jesus and follow Him has never been stronger. With your help and partnership we will continue to do that.

Until Everyone Knows.