Central Coast, CA
Church in Santa Barbara
Background on the Church in Santa Barbara:
The church life in Santa Barbara began in the late 1997 when two families came together to pray and enjoy the Lord along with a few new contacts. Over the years more saints came and enjoyed the church life but eventually many moved due to their work situation or the leading of the Lord.
In 1999, the saints in Santa Barbara officially took the ground to meet as the church in Santa Barbara. Then in 2011, the church in Santa Barbara was designated a GTCA locality. Below is a chart showing the current number of saints meeting.
| Church | Adults | College | YP | Children | Total |
| Santa Barbara | 22 | 15 | 2 | 4 | 43 |
Campus Overview:
UCSB has a student population of about 26,000 (including about 3,000 graduate students). The Lord has blessed us with a Christian club at UCSB called “Enjoyers of Christ” since 2012. Through the club we have also been able to have two days of dinner and Bible study on campus on Monday and Thursday evenings. And the Lord has been blessing us with about 10-15 students who have been coming consistently to these Bible studies. The Lord has also blessed us with about 10-15 students who have been coming to several of the family’s homes on Friday evenings and Lord’s Day meetings. There are a core group of 5 students who attend all these meetings and help coordinate whenever they can. Last, but not least, the Lord has begun an increased frequency and sweetness of blending between the UCSB and Cal Poly SLO students such as on Saturdays or Lord’s days. Just this school year, there have been at least 5 times of blending/outings between the two campuses on Saturdays or Lord’s days.
Currently, the serving one-to-student ratio is about 1:5. So with more adequate care and support, we can foresee the Lord blessing Santa Barbara with at least four times the number of college students which we currently have (i.e. around 80 college students). And we believe the Lord can at least double the number of community saints as well .
Area Overview:
Santa Barbara County is a coastal region of approximately 442,000 residents, anchored by Santa Maria (112k), Santa Barbara (88k), Lompoc (44k), Goleta (33k), and Orcutt (32k). The area includes lifestyle towns like Montecito, Carpinteria, and Solvang. Its diverse economy is driven by UCSB, Cottage Health, Vandenberg Space Force Base, tech firms like AppFolio and Sonos, agriculture, and tourism. Housing remains a primary challenge and desirability indicator. The countywide median listing price is near $1.5M ($875/sq. ft.) with a median rent of $5,636. Markets vary significantly: Santa Barbara leads at $2.5M ($1,303/sq. ft.), Goleta follows at $1.2M, while Santa Maria ($709k) and Lompoc ($625k) offer more affordable options.
Conclusion:
For the past many years, the saints in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo have been blending together and share the same burden for the Lord's growth along the Central Coast area. To date, the brothers from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo meet weekly to pray and fellowship concerning this matter and we are very much burdened for this.
Church in San Luis Obispo
Location
San Luis Obispo (known informally as SLO) is located on the California coast roughly mid-way between Los Angeles and San Francisco on Highway 101. To the north of it are the nearby small cities of Atascadero and Paso Robles. To the south are the two small cities of Pismo Beach and Arroyo Grande plus one medium sized municipality called Santa Maria. The Santa Maria–to–Paso Robles corridor forms a significant segment within a large coastal region known simply as the ‘Central Coast’ (an informal term coined for the coastal areas generally lying between Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara). The corridor mentioned here spans roughly 70 miles along Highway 101 from northern Santa Barbara County well into San Luis Obispo County.
Population, Demographics and Housing
SLO’s population is roughly 50,000. It is known as a college town and tourist destination but also is used by some state agencies and private firms for their regional offices. Santa Maria is significantly larger than SLO in population (111,000). The other cities are generally in the 30-40,000 population range. SLO county is smaller and more rural than Santa Barbara County. Demographically, in SLO county the White (non-Hispanic) population is approximately 71%, Hispanic/Latino is 15% and Asian is 6% (mixed race and other groups make up the remainder). SLO homes have a typical price range of $850,000–$1.2 million. The median price for a home in Santa Maria (40 minutes south of SLO) is around $618,000.
Major employers and economic anchors
California Polytechnic State University, Cuesta College, Cal Trans, PG&E Diablo Canyon Power Plant (nuclear power plant), healthcare systems, wine and agriculture sectors, Allan Hancock College and Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Early History
The church in San Luis Obispo began its history in 1986 as one of the 100 cities targeted for migration. Initially, three families moved to the area from Southern California in response to the call for migration. In 1988 a third family from Southern California also moved there to strengthen the testimony in SLO. Shortly thereafter, due to challenging circumstances, the church lost most of the families that had migrated to SLO (six families reduced to just two). Despite being very small, the remaining saints continued onward by meeting in homes, focusing on raising their children, caring for college students and supporting those college graduates who desired to attend the Full Time Training. Throughout this period of time the saints remained connected to and in fellowship with both the Southern California and the Northern California churches. The saints attended trainings and conferences while also coordinating continuously with both regions. In 2011 and again in 2012 SLO was designated as a GTCA city. From the church in SLO’s start until GTCA the saints there helped about 10 college graduates attend the Full Time Training.
GTCA in SLO
Both SLO and Santa Barbara were designated as GTCA cities in 2011. SLO was supported by and in coordination with the Northern California churches. GTCA helped SLO to have a fresh start with the campus work and community efforts. GTCA also helped to burden two families from Southern California to migrate to SLO in 2012 where they currently remain to this day.
Campus Work
SLO has a state university—California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly, SLO) and a community college—Cuesta College. Cal Poly, SLO currently has an enrollment of over 23,000 students with approximately 50% who are White and 25% who are Hispanic/Latino. Questa College has an on-campus enrollment of 5,200 with about 50% white and 34% Hispanic/Latino. Since GTCA, 15 Cal Poly graduates have attended the FTTA and 4 of these have gone on to serve or are currently serving full time on other campuses (plus a fifth who is graduating in June from FTTA-XB and is in fellowship about serving full time). The Lord’s Day noon on-campus outreach meeting typically has 8-12 students and 4 serving ones in attendance.
SLO Church Meeting Numbers
Currently, SLO has on average 12 saints at the Lord’s Day morning meeting (in person and via Zoom) and 11 at the prayer meeting (where students and community saints pray together). Unfortunately, currently there is no in-person community small group meeting due to the college work (though efforts are being made to have one).