North Coast Church

North Coast Church is a megachurch located in Vista, California, roughly 30 miles (48 km) north of San Diego.

History

The church was founded as a Bible study in 1976 in a Carlsbad home.[1]

Between all 6 campuses there are 56 worship services offered every weekend.[2] Instead of a single large sanctuary, the campuses feature separate worship venues (live and video venues), each of which holds less than 1000 people, and all of which can be in worship at the same time with the same sermon but different atmosphere, music and feel.

The church is built around a small group lecture/lab model that digs deeper into the topic of the weekend message. Since 1985, attendance in these small groups has equaled 80-94% of weekend adult attendance.[3]

The church also places a high emphasis on community service - averaging nearly 2 service projects per day[4] and periodically, cancelling all worship services to send out worshipers to work on charitable projects throughout the community instead of attending church that weekend.[5]

The church moved in a new building in 2010 after spending 20 years in an industrial complex.[6]

Criticism

In July 2020, several Instagram users shared anonymous allegations of mistreatment on the @NorthCoastChurchAbuse account.[7] These stemmed mostly from former students in North Coast Church's Student Ministries ranging from Middle School through High School. However, the majority of the allegations were from the 11/12 program led by Chris Hilken.[8] Chris Hilken privatively apologized to a subset of former students, which was then leaked online.[9]

References
  1. McGlone, Ashly (March 26, 2010). "North Coast Church opens new Carlsbad campus". North County Times. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  2. "Main campus". North Coast Church official website. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  3. Lowry, Lindy. "Larry Osborne: We've Confused Leadership With Discipleship". Exponential website. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  4. "Ministry Forum Larry Osborne". Fresno Pacific University. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
  5. "North Coast Church's Weekend of Service benefits community". Village News. May 15, 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  6. Ross, Cigi (October 20, 2009). "VISTA: North Coast Church to open new location next year : Local". North County Times. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  7. Bonner, David (2020-07-27). "A Closer Look at the North Coast Church's Chris Hilken. Questionable Behavior By a Questionable Pastor". Wondering Eagle. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  8. "Staff Directory". North Coast Church. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  9. Bonner, David (2020-07-28). "Chris Hilken's Apology to Those Formerly Involved in North Coast Church". Wondering Eagle. Retrieved 2020-12-02.

News articles

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