Mapleview Baptist Church sits on the corner of Mapleview Street and Pino Road in Lakeside, a community in the East County of San Diego, where it has gathered for worship since 1961. The congregation describes itself as a group of caring, Christ-following individuals who want to discover God one verse at a time, walk with Him one step at a time, and share His love one person at a time. What sets Mapleview apart from many neighborhood churches is the depth of its teaching ministry: a public statement of faith that runs through more than a dozen doctrines, a six-week Systematic Theology course recorded for the broader public, a book-by-book archive of sermons, and an active program of short-term mission trips and career missionaries in places as far apart as Israel, Brazil, Vanuatu, and Kodiak, Alaska.

A Hardware Store, Four Families, and a Lakeside Church Plant

The story of Mapleview begins in early 1959 in a hardware store, not a pulpit. Harold Nickel, a bivocational church planter with the Conservative Baptist Association of Southern California, walked into Narramore Hardware in Lakeside intending to sell fire extinguishers. The conversation turned to matters of faith, and Mr. Narramore mentioned his interest in seeing a new church planted in Lakeside. Four families agreed to meet for worship in the Narramore home, with Nickel as their pastor and his wife Rosalie faithfully working alongside him.

As interest grew, the group moved out of the living room and into a small room above the Lakeside Theater, and later into a storage room behind the hardware store. Four acres were purchased on Mapleview Street, giving the church its name. Ground was broken late in 1960, and the first worship service in the new building was held on Easter Sunday in April 1961. In June 1960 the congregation was formally affiliated with the Conservative Baptist Association of Southern California, the regional body that today belongs to a national association of about one thousand churches called CBAmerica and is part of the Pacific Church Network of Southern California, Hawaii, Guam, and Seattle.

Highlights from the church's timeline include the opening of a new sanctuary in 1969, the launch of an AWANA children's club in 1984, the adoption of the current mission statement in 2007, and the calling of Jonathan Bones as lead pastor in 2016. In 1991 the church helped plant Alpine Christian Fellowship under Pastor Ed Gross. Along the way, senior pastors have included Jack Lockhart, Dave Harris (from 1977), John Redman (from 1985), and Ron Thomas (from 1997).

A Wide-Ranging Statement of Faith

Mapleview publishes a detailed doctrinal statement covering the Bible, the Trinity, God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, humanity, salvation, Satan, the last things, the church, baptism, the Lord's Supper, the sanctity of human life, and human sexuality and marriage. The church holds the Bible to be the infallible, inerrant Word of God, written by men who were divinely and uniquely inspired, and the supreme authority in all matters of faith and practice. It affirms one living and true God eternally existing in three equal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The statement affirms the virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, substitutionary atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension, perpetual intercession, and personal, premillennial, imminent return of Jesus Christ. It teaches that the Holy Spirit regenerates the lost, indwells every believer, baptizes them into the body of Christ at salvation, and seals them unto the day of redemption, and that some spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues and miraculous healings were temporary. Salvation is described as wholly by grace, received by faith in Jesus Christ through the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, and not the result of works, baptism, or church membership.

Christian baptism at Mapleview is understood as the immersion of a believer in water as an outward expression of faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior. The Lord's Supper is observed as a memorial of Christ's death, with the bread and cup understood as symbols rather than the literal body and blood of Christ. The church also teaches that life begins at conception, that marriage is the spiritual and legal union of one man and one woman for a lifetime, and that the practice of homosexuality or efforts to alter one's gender are inconsistent with its biblical witness.

Sundays at Mapleview

Sunday is the center of the church's weekly rhythm. Bible studies for all ages begin at 9:00 a.m., followed by the main worship service at 10:30 a.m. Sunday school and youth classes for kids and teens run from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., and nursery care is provided during the Bible study hour and the worship service. Childcare and children's church are available during the 10:30 service; preschool-aged children stay in their classroom throughout the service, while kindergarten through fifth graders begin in the sanctuary with their families and are then dismissed to children's church for a Bible lesson, games, and snacks. A cry room off the lobby is available for parents who prefer to keep infants and young children with them.

The 9:00 a.m. Bible study hour offers several adult electives meeting across the campus: Life of David, a men's and women's study in the Friendship Room; Genesis, a women's study in Room A; 1 Timothy, a co-ed study in Room B; The Book of Acts, a men's study in Room E; 1 Peter, a women's study in Phileo Place; and Called to Serve, a class for active-duty military, veterans, first responders, and their spouses in the Library. A weekly bulletin can be downloaded before each Sunday.

Monday mornings at 9:30 a.m. bring the church's weekly prayer meeting. Wednesday evenings from October through May are devoted to Faith and Family, running from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. with Kids Club, Junior High Youth Group, and adult men's and women's Bible studies meeting at the same time.

Children and Youth

Children's Ministry at Mapleview is led by Samantha Simpson, who has served in the department since 2018 and became director in 2020. The ministry aims to assist parents as they train their children in the knowledge of God's Word and to lay a foundation for each child to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In addition to Sunday school at 9:00 a.m. and children's church during the 10:30 service, Kids Club meets on Wednesday nights from October through April at 6:00 p.m. for preschoolers through fifth graders, with games, Bible teaching, and time with friends. Registration is handled online.

The youth ministry, directed by Matthew Fletcher, meets twice a week. High school students gather on Tuesdays from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., and junior high students meet on Wednesdays from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., the same night as Kids Club and the adult studies. Families with questions about either group can reach the youth director at youth@mapleviewchurch.com.

Men, Women, and Discipleship

The men's ministry grounds itself in Proverbs 27:17 - "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" - and meets for fellowship on Wednesday nights at 6:00 p.m. in Room A, with a Sunday-morning Bible study through the book of Nehemiah at 9:00 a.m. in Room E. The women's ministry gathers under the theme Becoming Joyful and Encouraging: Women of Faith and Love, with three regular studies: the Book of Genesis on Sundays at 9:00 a.m. in Room A, the Book of Esther on Sundays at 9:00 a.m. in Phileo Place, and a Wednesday night study at 6:00 p.m. in Room B. A monthly Circle of Friends meeting is held on the third Saturday of each month at 9:30 a.m., with the location announced each cycle.

Discipleship is treated as a serious, structured pursuit at Mapleview. The church teaches the OIA method of Bible study - Observation, Interpretation, Application - and publishes downloadable worksheets for each step. A discipleship covenant, a discipleship training packet, and an inductive Bible study course originally prepared for YWAM Barcelona's Discipleship Training School can be downloaded. Bobby Carlucci and Johnny Byrd serve as contact points for anyone wanting to be plugged into discipleship.

Teaching extends well beyond the walls of the church. A six-week Systematic Theology course recorded in 2025 walks through topics including Prolegomena, Theology Proper, Angels and Demons, Hamartiology, Pneumatology, and Eschatology, with follow-up Q and A sessions. A second six-week course, Boots-On-The-Ground Christianity, recorded in 2026, covers ethics, epistemology, worldviews, and practical Christian living. Both courses are available as audio wherever podcasts are streamed, and the sermon archive itself stretches across dozens of Old and New Testament books, plus topical studies, guest speakers, and inductive Bible study materials.

Around the World from Lakeside

Mapleview has a long history of sending short-term mission teams and supporting career missionaries. Recent short-term trips include Kodiak, Alaska in 2022 and Brazil in 2024. The church partners with missionaries in several regions of the world:

• Ed and Dana Dickinson serve with Operation Mobilization in Israel. Ed previously served locally with the San Diego Hebrew Mission and hosted a Mapleview team in 2015.
• Dan and Kathie Stowell have a long history as members and missionaries of Mapleview. Dan serves with Brazil for Christ, pastoring a church in Patacas, Ceará, and specializes in biblical counseling. The Stowells hosted Mapleview teams in 2005, 2011, and 2017.
• Duane and Janet Abuhl serve on the island of Vanuatu with Training Beyond Borders ministries. Duane pastors Leweton Community Church in Luganville and supports local ministers on neighboring islands. They hosted teams in 2007, 2013, and 2019.
• Jon Breuninger works with SEND International, planting churches among remote Native American villages in Alaska and Northwest Canada, primarily serving youth on Kodiak Island. He hosted a Mapleview team in 2012.
• Ruthie Burton takes the gospel to children in Northern Brazil and reaches out to the deaf community, developing Christian materials for children through the EBEC ministry.
• Mark and Carolyn Williams serve with Dynamic Church Planting International in Oceanside, California, equipping leaders to plant churches worldwide.

The church also supports missionaries in countries in the Middle East and Asia where public identification as a Christian missionary is dangerous, and partners with the Pacific Church Network of more than a thousand churches.

Supporting the Ministry

The church's teaching on giving is built around four words: deliberately, regularly, and cheerfully, grounded in 2 Corinthians 9:7, 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, and 2 Corinthians 8:1-7. Mapleview offers four ways to give: placing a gift in the offering box in the church lobby, mailing a contribution to the church office, texting the dollar amount of a donation to 619-627-0271, or making a secure online donation. The office is open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., closed for lunch from noon to 1:00 p.m., and can be reached by phone at (619) 443-6467 or by email at office@mapleviewchurch.com.

For those driving in for the first time, the church is located at the corner of Pino Road and Mapleview Street in Lakeside. From Highway 67 North, exit onto Mapleview Street and continue about a mile to the third light at Pino Road, then turn left. From Highway 8 West, exit at Lake Jennings, turn left, continue as the road becomes Mapleview Street, and turn right on Pino Road. Sermon recordings are available on the church's podcast, and a campus map, weekly bulletin, and membership handbook can be downloaded.