{"id":6700,"date":"2025-10-15T17:17:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disciplescef.org\/blog\/?p=6700"},"modified":"2025-10-15T17:25:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:25:28","slug":"god-living-purpose-one-another-national-city-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disciplescef.org\/blog\/god-living-purpose-one-another-national-city-ca\/","title":{"rendered":"Living God\u2019s purpose with one another in National City, CA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"On Tuesday evenings, Casa de Oraci\u00f3n Christian Church<\/a> (also known as CdO Church<\/a>) hosts discipleship classes. A day later, it has young adult gatherings and throughout the week, its members come together for Bible study. Sundays are for worship, with three services in Spanish and one in English.<\/p>\n

But even vibrant places of worship need help sometimes. With our building and funding services<\/a>, CdO Church has found a new home that provides enough space to journey with those seeking God\u2019s love and presence\u2014especially young adults in the Hispanic community.<\/p>\n

Freedom, change, and new possibilities<\/h3>\n

\"\"CdO Church started off as a family operation when Lead Pastor Xose Escamilla and his father Jose launched it in 1990.<\/p>\n

A year later, congregants started gathering at Central Christian Church in San Diego, CA, where worship services were initially only offered in Spanish. In 1993, Central Christian Church closed and donated its facility to Disciples Seminary Foundation<\/a> (DSF), who then leased the property to CdO. The building had major repairs done in 2020, so DSF worked with us on a building evaluation<\/a> the following year to identify any other problem areas, of which there were few.<\/p>\n

As Casa de Oraci\u00f3n\u2019s weekly worship service attendance swelled to 600 folks, it soon became clear that a larger property was needed. So when First Baptist Church of National City put its property up for sale in 2023, Pastor Xose and his leadership team jumped at the opportunity to settle into a new home. Due to the large asking price, they partnered with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Pacific Southwest Region<\/a> to qualify for our property purchase loans<\/a>. This funding, in addition to our Holy Places Grant<\/a>, which helps new and established Disciples congregations build their first house of worship or their first church building, supported their acquisition of the property.\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cCasa de Oraci\u00f3n had waited and prayed for years to purchase a permanent house of worship,\u201d recalls Rev. Rosario Ibarra, a member of our Building and Capital Services Advisor team. \u201cIt was a pleasure to partner with Pastor Xose and the leadership team to finally find a place where Casa may continue serving and reaching out to the community, sharing God’s love, and making a difference in the lives of many families in National City and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Helping people encounter God<\/h3>\n

With a place to call its own, the average worship attendance for the congregation\u2019s Sunday services have grown to 1,000. Pastor Xose attributes this success to various factors, from practicing a very structured way of doing ministry to one-on-one invitations, but the most important one is centering on Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cPeople are not looking for a particular church with a particular name. In fact, they’re not even looking for churches. They’re searching for something deeper than that,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe don’t promote the church, denomination, nor certain ideologies. We just promote Jesus by the way we live our lives, how we act, and how we treat people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"He goes on to clarify that the community of faith\u2019s mission is about following the gospel as well as acknowledging the Great Commandment and Great Commission. For him, the faith community\u2019s message isn\u2019t religious, at least in the institutional sense. Instead, it\u2019s about experiencing one\u2019s personal relationship with the living God through Jesus.\n<\/p>\n

<\/sp><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe highly emphasize discipleship, which means teaching people about the faith that they have embraced\u2014and not only understanding their faith, but understanding why they believe it. That makes a big difference. In other words, it’s not blind faith,\u201d Pastor Xose points out. \u201cI would compare it to the blind man who was questioned by the religious elites. He said, \u2018I don’t know a lot of things you’re asking me right now, but the only thing I know is that once I was blind, and now, I see.\u2019 People may join a faith community and all they know is that they felt better after doing so, but it goes further than that. It’s not enough to just know that something made you feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is where the discipleship programming comes in. Each of its six levels has ten lessons each, with one lesson being taught per week. The topics range from the sacraments of baptism and communion to what Bible verses and chapters are.<\/p>\n

Seeking purpose and direction in God<\/h3>\n

\"\"Many of the folks at CdO are Millennials and Gen Z. They come with a lot of questions about their faith and are even encouraged to ask the ones \u201cthey aren\u2019t supposed to ask.\u201d At the weekly young adult life group meetings, led by others aged 18 years old and above, participants are provided with a space to feel comfortable. Eduardo \u201cLalo\u201d Olivares describes the young adult ministry, called 40:31 after Jeremiah 40:31, as informal and \u201cless church-y.\u201d He is the worship ministry leader and is part of 40:31\u2019s leadership team.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI think as a church gets older, the younger generations tend to be sidelined. In our case, everyone is invited to be part of this movement,\u201d Lalo adds. \u201cChildren participate in our youth ministry, but they are invited to help the teachers as well. They don\u2019t have to wait until an older age to serve. This allows them to feel part of the community. We have young adults helping in the nursery, cafe, security, and worship ministries.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"CdO makes 40:31 accessible for young adults, offering them rides to and from the life group meetings. It\u2019s also a place where participants don\u2019t have to feel othered because of who they are. Most of its members, and those of the wider congregation, come from Mexico, with others originating from Central and South America.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think about my identity at church, but at school or when I started working, people would consider certain traditions that I had as \u2018so of my culture.\u2019 When I would go to Mexico, people there thought I was so Americanized,\u201d Lalo admits. \u201cHere we aren\u2019t ignoring where we\u2019re from and we\u2019re not keeping that from uniting us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

CdO\u2019s dream for the future<\/h3>\n

With its commitment to the Great Commission as its guide, Casa has launched communities of faith across the Pacific Southwest Region, one of which has an average worship attendance of 300. Three others range from 60 to 80 attendees. Earlier this year, it took this commitment further by founding Vision 5-500-5, a plan to baptize 500 people and plant five faith communities in the next five years. The church has already baptized 74 people in this year alone.\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe are very grateful that Disciples Church Extension Fund<\/a> was there to sustain us. Because of its support, a vital ministry in this region was able to continue,\u201d Pastor Xose says. \u201cOtherwise, we don\u2019t know what would have happened if we didn’t have a place to meet, especially with the size of the congregation that calls this church their home.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Is your faith community looking for a place of worship that better fits its members and ministries? Your regional Building and Capital Services Advisor can <\/em>assist<\/em><\/a> you.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday evenings, Casa de Oraci\u00f3n Christian Church (also known as CdO Church) hosts discipleship classes. A day later, it has young adult gatherings and throughout the week, its members come together for Bible study. Sundays are for worship, with three services in Spanish and one in English. But even vibrant places of worship need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[40,38,202,201,204,200,203],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nLiving God\u2019s purpose with one another in National City, CA - Disciples Church Extension Fund<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With our building and funding services, CdO has found a new home that provides enough space to journey with those seeking God's presence.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/disciplescef.org\/blog\/god-living-purpose-one-another-national-city-ca\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Living God\u2019s purpose with one another in National City, CA - 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