Solana Beach Presbyterian Church sits at 120 Stevens Avenue in Solana Beach, California, on the corner of Stevens Avenue and Lomas Santa Fe Drive, where it has gathered since 1959. The congregation belongs to the Presbyterian Church (USA) and is part of the Presbytery of San Diego. Its stated vision is to become "a growing community of fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ," shaped by culture values of celebration, gratitude, hope, integrity, authenticity, compassion, humility, and community.
SBPC is a church with two distinct languages, two Sunday services, a long-running preschool, and a senior center that welcomes anyone in the wider community. Its best-known rhythms are a sermon-based small group ministry that runs three sessions a year, an annual Community Serve Day that sends the whole congregation to projects across San Diego County, and a global missions program that has built more than 230 homes in Baja, Mexico.
Sundays at SBPC
A typical Sunday at SBPC centers on a single 10:00 AM worship service in the sanctuary, and the service is also livestreamed online. The order of worship follows a familiar arc: a welcome, songs of worship, a pastoral prayer, a children's blessing and greeting, a choral anthem, scripture reflection, the sermon, additional songs of worship, and a benediction. Communion is celebrated regularly as one of the two sacraments recognized by the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the sacrament of baptism is offered throughout the year.
Music at the 10:00 AM service blends choral and contemporary sounds. Recent Sundays have featured "Build Your Kingdom Here" by Rend Collective, "Good Good Father" by Housefires, "Communion" by Maverick City, "All the Poor and Powerless" by All Sons and Daughters, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," and a choral anthem of "Ubi Caritas" composed by Victor C. Johnson. Worship Arts Director Aaron Burgett and Assistant Director Derren Raser lead the choir and band.
A separate Spanish-language Hispanic ministry gathers for worship every Sunday at 11:30 AM and on Wednesday evenings in the Hispanic Chapel, with about 80 adults and 40 children in attendance. The Hispanic congregation runs the Day Worker Meal Ministry, partners with Casa de Amistad on tutoring, and is supported by a separate board of deacons for Hispanic Ministries.
For those who cannot attend in person, the 10:00 AM service is livestreamed, and a library of past services is available. Each Sunday's message notes and small group questions are posted online so the same sermon text that shapes the morning service continues to form the small groups that meet throughout the week.
A Church That Grew From Seven People in a Hotel Court
SBPC's story begins in January 1944, when Geraldine Cox, Mary Buzan, Francis Nelson, and Florence Wilkens began a small Sunday School in Justice Court, part of the Solana Beach Hotel on the plaza. Their first service drew seven people. The group dreamed of becoming "a church for the community," and on March 31, 1946, the church was formally organized as Solana Beach Community Church.
The first chapel was purchased as military surplus from Camp Callan, the site that is now Torrey Pines Golf Course. As the congregation grew through the 1950s, leaders looked for a larger piece of land. In 1957, five acres were found at the corner of Skyline Drive, now Lomas Santa Fe Drive, and Stevens Avenue. A new chapel and fellowship building were dedicated there in January 1959.
The decade that followed reshaped the church's identity. In 1960 the congregation changed its name to United Presbyterian Church of Solana Beach. The first children's building went up in 1963, and in 1964 the Solana Beach Presbyterian Preschool opened its doors. In 1970 the church took its present name, Solana Beach Presbyterian Church. The 1970s and 1980s brought an expanded sanctuary and Debin Hall, a gathering place named for a member of the church family that still anchors student ministry and adult programming.
In 1995 the church purchased an additional two acres, which eventually became home to the preschool, the Hispanic worship center, and church offices. A 2014 building campaign completed a new children's building, chapel, and expanded outdoor spaces, turning the campus into a launching pad for ministry at home and around the world.
Vision, Mission, and Core Beliefs
SBPC's mission moves through five verbs that summarize the church's life: WORSHIP God in community with authenticity, diversity, and passion; BELONG with each other through faith in Christ and membership in his church; GROW in small groups through transformational relationships, study, and prayer; SERVE with uncommon generosity through time, spiritual gifts, and financial resources; and IMPACT the world by demonstrating the kingdom of God and inviting others to follow Jesus.
The Session has adopted a set of ten brief theological statements reflecting the Essential Tenets and Reformed Distinctives of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Together they articulate that scripture is the inspired word of God with authority in faith and life; that God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that human beings were created in God's image but are separated by sin; that Jesus was fully God and fully human, died for sin, rose again, and will return to reign; that salvation is by grace alone through faith; that the Holy Spirit transforms believers from the inside out and empowers witness; that those who trust Christ become members of his covenant community called the church; that all believers share in the priesthood of all believers and the work of ministry; that stewardship of bodies, gifts, and resources is a divine trust; and that baptism and the Lord's Supper are signs of God's grace within the community of faith.
Small Groups: The Heart of Discipleship
If there is a single program that defines SBPC, it is the sermon-based small group ministry. The church teaches that community is vital to discipleship, so every sermon's text is paired with a small group curriculum designed for adults to apply the message throughout the week. Each group has up to 14 members, meets weekly in homes or on campus, and is led by a trained volunteer facilitator who is an SBPC member.
Sessions run six to ten weeks in the fall, winter, and spring, with Summer Studies breaking the sermon-based pattern and inviting members to propose their own books, topics, or practices. A typical meeting lasts about two hours and includes light refreshments, discussion, a spiritual practice, and prayer. No homework is required. Some groups choose to be open to newcomers, and most close as they fill.
Those interested in joining fill out a small group interest form. The small group coordinator then matches them to an open group whose day and location fit. Members who feel called to lead must first be part of a sermon-based group, be members of SBPC, and have a conversation with the ministry leadership before stepping into the facilitator role. Recent Summer Studies have included a men's Bible study through Galatians and Ephesians, a women's introduction to homiletics using the Gospel parables, and a study on spiritual direction using David Benner's Sacred Companions.
Children, Preteens, and the Preschool
SBPC has invested in children and families for decades, and the heart of that work is the Children's Ministry Building and Solana Beach Presbyterian Preschool, both on the same Stevens Avenue campus.
Sunday morning children's programming, called KIDSunday, serves infants through sixth grade. Families begin in the 10:00 AM worship service together, then children are dismissed partway through the service to their classes. Infants are walked directly to the nursery by their parents; older children gather on the patio at their class sign and are walked by teachers to their rooms. Parents check children in at the lobby of the Children's Ministry Building before the service and pick them up promptly afterward. Masking inside the Children's Ministry Center Building is optional, and families are asked to keep children home for at least 24 hours past any symptoms.
Midweek, a preteen program called FUEL gathers during the week for discipleship aimed at students in the years just before middle school. MomCo supports mothers with young children, and a separate First Time Moms Group meets on the first Thursday of each month from 10:00 to 11:30 AM in Room 111 on the lower level of the Children's Ministries building for first-time moms with infants and expectant moms in their third trimester. Coffee and bagels are provided, no registration required.
The preschool has been part of SBPC since 1964 and shares the philosophy of helping children grow in a positive way in their awareness of God, themselves, and the world around them. Programs include a two-year-old class with a new late-start option for children who turn two between September and November, a three-year-old class, a Pre-K class, a five-day Pre-K Bilingual class taught in Spanish, and a Bonus Class for children who turn five by September 1 and have completed a full Pre-K year. The morning program runs 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM, with extended care from 7:30 AM and after care until 3:30 PM. Tuition assistance is available through the Rose Scholarship Fund. The preschool is licensed by the state of California (Facility #372-000608) and led by Preschool Director Carla Martinez, who has served the preschool since 1996.
Students and Young Adults
The student ministry, branded One Youth, brings middle school and high school students together for Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 8:30 PM in lower Debin Hall. One Youth Wednesday Nights are high-energy evenings of free food, games, friendship, and teaching. Middle school meets in Room 16 and high school in Room 13, and both groups are dismissed partway through the 10:00 AM Sunday service to gather for their own programming in those same rooms. The student ministry is led by Assistant Director of Middle School Ministry Micah Cunningham and Assistant Director of High School Ministry Katie Bowman, with an active Instagram presence at @one.youth.
A new Young Adults ministry launched recently to reach college-age adults and those in their twenties and early thirties. The group meets on Thursdays from 7:00 to 8:30 PM in the chapel, gathering for connection, encouragement, and meaningful conversations centered on Scripture and Jesus. Katie Bowman coordinates this ministry as well.
Music and Worship Arts
Worship at SBPC is shaped by a worship arts staff that includes Director of Worship Arts Aaron Burgett, Assistant Director Derren Raser, and Coordinator for Adult Discipleship and Worship Arts Kristi Kincheloe. Together they bring together unique and diverse voices, with a particular interest in helping old hymns feel new. Music videos produced by the choir and band are shared through a Vimeo showcase, and a separate YouTube playlist features Scripture meditations with narration and music.
Mature Adults and the SBPC Senior Center
SBPC's Mature Adult Ministry operates a Senior Center on the Stevens Avenue campus that is open to all seniors, regardless of church membership or city of residence. The center plans programs that encourage spiritual and educational growth, mental and physical wellness, and fellowship, with both in-person and Zoom options.
Wednesdays are the big day at the center. The morning typically opens at 9:30 AM with fellowship, mahjong, Mexican Train dominoes, cards, and a knit and crochet group, all running until 11:20 AM. Entertainment follows at 11:30 AM, and lunch is served at 12:15 PM.
Other recurring programs include the Memory Cafe, which meets on the first and third Friday of the month from 10:00 to 11:30 AM in the Ministry Center Hall; the Feeling Fit Club, which meets online by Zoom on Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:30 to 9:30 AM; and Silver Age chair yoga, held each Friday at 11 AM in Room 16. The Book Club meets in person at 1:15 PM on the second Wednesday of each month in Room 15, and Ginny's Sewing Fellowship gathers at 10 AM on the first and third Tuesdays. The center also coordinates health insurance counseling through HICAP and free legal services through Elder Law and Advocacy.
The Mature Adult Ministry is led by Minister of Care and Mature Adults Cindy Wright, who has been on the SBPC staff since 1989, and Coordinator for Mature Adults Elizabeth Arthur.
Serving the Local Community
Community Serve Day is one of SBPC's best-known rhythms. Once a year the church trades its Sunday sanctuary gathering for an array of service sites across San Diego County. People of every age fan out to partner organizations for projects that include gardening, indoor and outdoor maintenance, cleaning, and food preparation at senior centers, schools, parks, and housing nonprofits. Anyone can join, regardless of whether they attend SBPC, and projects are designed so that families, small groups, and individuals can find a fit.
Several ongoing ministries extend that same outward focus throughout the year. The Foster Hope Ministry serves foster youth, former foster youth, and foster families in North San Diego County, hosting a Christmas party, summer respite nights, and home setups for emancipated youth, and partnering with organizations like Just In Time for Foster Youth, Promises2Kids, and Safe Families for Children.
The Border Ministries sends a small volunteer team on the second Saturday of each month to Tijuana and Rosarito, Mexico, where they serve a pancake breakfast to children in the Carretas neighborhood near the old Tijuana dump, partner with two churches pastored by Enrique Marquez, and visit El Refugio, a home for about 180 abandoned elderly. Between the three feeding locations, the team feeds 150 to 200 children each month.
The Day Worker Meal Ministry provides monthly sack breakfasts and lunches to day workers waiting for work on street corners, serving more than 3,000 meals last year, and helps local Latino families with school clothes and shoes.
Casa de Amistad began as an SBPC ministry in 1997 and became its own nonprofit in 2001. It provides after-school tutoring and mentoring support to underserved students in coastal North County San Diego, pairing students in grades K-12 with volunteer tutors and accompanying high school students on their path to college and career. Casa now serves more than 230 students and adults each year. Volunteer tutors are asked for a weekly commitment throughout the academic year, and anyone over the age of 14 can apply.
The church also partners with the Solana Beach Host Families program to welcome international students from UCSD into American homes for three to five days at the start of each academic year, with Pathways to Citizenship to help qualified immigrants navigate the citizenship process, with San Diego Rescue Mission, which serves those experiencing homelessness without any government funding, with Ladle Fellowship, a Christ-centered soup kitchen, and with New Day Urban Ministries, which has been operating in the Grant Hills neighborhood of San Diego for 50 years. New Day operates a food pantry, a clothing room, replacement CA ID vouchers, prescription and eyeglass assistance, bus passes, and prayer and spiritual counseling.
Serving the World
The church's global partnerships began when an early group of members felt called to address the root problems that cause people to leave their homes in Latin America. Today SBPC supports long-term missionaries and partners across several continents.
Come Build Hope is the church's annual home-building trip to the Tijuana and Rosarito area of Baja, Mexico, in partnership with Amor Ministries. Each year the church builds between five and ten homes alongside Mexican families using locally sourced materials, and SBPC has built 232 homes and counting. Sponsorship levels include $900 for a slab foundation, $3,200 to bring a bus of volunteers, and $5,200 to sponsor an entire casa.
The El Salvador Partnership supports the Shamma Kids Child Development Center through Compassion International, where more than 200 SBPC members currently sponsor children. Children receive after-school meals and tutoring, medical checkups and treatment, and a consistent witness to Christ, and they can communicate with their sponsors through letter writing. The Ethiopia Partnership works with the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus and the Keep a Girl in School program. The church also partners with Plant with Purpose to reverse poverty and deforestation by transforming the lives of the rural poor.
SBPC supports a number of individual missionaries. Bela and Ildiko Dobos serve in Hungary. Ellie and Enrique Goolkasian-Lugo serve in community health evangelism in Mexico. Justus and Samantha Heyman serve as church planters in France. Ramiro and Wendi Marchena serve with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Abdiel and Alejandra Ortiz work in student ministry in Mexico and Latin America with COMPA/IFES. Paul and Pat Stock work in South Asia. Two missionary couples, B & L and M & V, serve among Muslim people groups, with a long-term SBPC commitment to witnessing to the gospel among those with little chance to hear and respond.
Care, Prayer, and Wellness
Care ministries at SBPC include a Care Resource Guide that connects members with deacon support, home communion for those unable to attend worship, loaned medical supplies, rides to Sunday worship, memorial receptions, encouragement cards, meals for the ill or recovering, welcome-baby visits, friendship visitation, mature adult care, prayer support, and a prayer chain. Prayer teams offer one-on-one prayer after Sunday worship in the sanctuary and on the patio. Grief support meets for those walking through loss, and pastoral care provides counseling and visitation through Associate Pastor Candice Richey Womack and Minister of Visitation John Illian.
The Wellness Ministry, led by Director of Wellness Melissa Bolt, offers resources for emotional, mental, and spiritual health. The ministry curates crisis resources including the 988 Lifeline and Crisis Text Line in both English and Spanish, as well as Mental Health America screening tools and a connection to the San Diego chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Wellness Nights bring the congregation together for panel conversations on topics like caregiving for aging parents.
The deacon board includes a separate group of deacons for Hispanic Ministries, led by Noemi Garcia-Sanchez, Filomeno Jimenez, Jpetul J'ernantes, and Cruz Saldivar, who serve the Spanish-speaking congregation in prayer, home communion, family crisis, financial crisis, and pastoral care.
Leadership and Staff
SBPC is led by Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Peter Dunn, who grew up at Malibu Presbyterian Church, played baseball at Azusa Pacific University, and earned his Master of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary and his Doctorate of Ministry at George Fox University. Associate Pastor Jamie Nelson serves alongside Associate Pastor Candice Richey Womack, who joined the staff in April 2022 as Associate Pastor for Adult Discipleship and is a board certified chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains. Pastor of Hispanic Ministries Jpetul J'ernantes oversees the Spanish-language congregation and Hispanic outreach.
The Session, the church's governing body, includes ruling elders with rotating terms, with Carol Childs serving as Clerk of Session. The current roster includes Jay Bass, Jim Blackburn, Karen Brailean, Lori Clarke, Lani Curtis, Mark Halling, Patty O'Conner, Allison Long Pettine, Stan Poey, Michele Sabourin, David Southcombe, and Gail Steel. The deacon board is moderated by Terri Carter, with Nicole Mione-Green serving as Executive Director of Casa de Amistad and Julie Watts and Sue Baker as contacts for the Solana Beach Host Families program.
Ministry staff include Jen Engelhardt as Director of Early Childhood, Children's, and Preteens Ministry; Aaron Burgett and Derren Raser in Worship Arts; Lisa Owens as Director of Mission Partnerships; Doug Peterson as Director of Media and Communications; Cindy Wright as Minister of Care and Mature Adults; Carla Martinez as Preschool Director; Kristi Kincheloe as Coordinator for Adult Discipleship and Worship Arts; Stephanie Ruffner as Coordinator for Early Childhood; Katie Bowman in High School Ministry; Micah Cunningham in Middle School Ministry; Sheila Clevenger in Communications and Media; Camilla Cristando in Hospitality; Melissa Bolt as Director of Wellness; John Illian as Minister of Visitation; and Elizabeth Arthur as Coordinator for Mature Adults.
Weddings, Funerals, Giving, and Membership
SBPC hosts weddings and funerals for members and the wider community. The church's care team, including Minister of Visitation John Illian, can officiate memorial services and help families plan receptions.
Throughout Scripture, the church teaches, believers are reminded of the importance of giving back a portion of what God has so generously provided. At SBPC, giving can be done in worship services, online, by mail, or through legacy gifts to the Kingdom Builder Foundation, which was created in 2007 to allow members and friends to leave enduring gifts whose interest is granted annually to support ministries at the church, in the community, and around the world. Online giving, stock transfers, and budgeted support for the preschool Rose Scholarship Fund and other ministries are all available through the church's online platform.
Anyone interested in joining SBPC is invited to a New Member Seminar, where new members make a profession of faith and join the church. Baptism is available throughout the year for infants and young children with the profession of their parents' faith, and for students and adults who make their own profession of faith. Infant and young child baptisms require that one or both parents be members of SBPC. The preschool offers a Rose Scholarship Fund for tuition assistance, and the church asks members to use the SHAPE assessment to identify their Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Passion, and Experience for service in God's kingdom.
The church also operates an active job board with current openings for those interested in joining the staff team.