Barabbas Road Church in San Diego – Our Story (Part 2)

Barabbas Road Church in San Diego did not start in a building. Barabbas Road Church began with the transformation of Pastor Matt Smith’s heart. God transformed Matt from a person who grew up despising Christians into a person who loves God and is passionate about making disciples for God. This passion and desire led Matt to the youth pastor position at First Baptist Church of Clairemont in 2006.

As the Youth Pastor, Matt would simply preach the Gospel to the teenagers every week. As matt was preaching the Gospel each week, God was stirring up a desire inside Matt’s heart to pastor his own church someday. Eventually, Matt approached the head pastor of FBCC and expressed his desire to pastor a church. The head pastor gave Matt permission to use one of the classrooms at the church to start a Sunday night church service. This is where Barabbas Road Church started its first service, in a small classroom on a Sunday night at FBCC.

As the church started to meet on Sunday nights, God slowly started growing the congregation of 10. Once the church reached six months old in 2007, the church grew to 20 people and they had to move from the classroom to the main sanctuary of FBCC. After meeting for over a year, the church grew to around 50 people. Since the church was growing, the leaders talked to the head pastor at FBCC and decided that it was time for them to start looking for a new building to meet in. This led Barabbas Road Church to the Soledad Club in 2008.

After a few years, God continued to bless the church as it grew to 100 weekly attenders. Once the church reached 100 people it was too big for the Soledad Club, so they had to start looking for a new place to meet. In 2010, Barabbas Road Church moved into its current home at Pacific Beach Middle School.

This is the story of how God formed Barabbas Road Church in San Diego. It started with God transforming one heart, which eventually led to the transformation of many more hearts for the glory of God. God continues to bless the church as around 250 people meet to worship at Pacific Beach Middle School every Sunday morning. As hearts continue to change for Jesus Christ at Barabbas Road Church, the mission does not which is “to make ‘disciple-making’ disciples through the personal investment of our lives.”