Awaken Church | BALBOA CAMPUS — Attraction in San Diego

The presence of God is heavy in this church. It'll take your breath away and bring you to tears. Come ready to encounter God!

Pastor Jurgen was the first pastor I heard at Awaken and I was eager to hear more. Pastor Leanne, Pastor John, Pastor Becky, all the campus pastors in training, and guest speakers have been incredible, speaking truth and leading by example. Living the word, not only preaching it. Because had never read the Bible, I didn't know the Bible, and encountered some shocking truths. Truths that might have made other people walk out of the sermon or leave a one star review. But being a truth seeker, I leaned in because I wanted to know where God stood in regards to the things humans argued about. And his word led to the evolution of my beliefs about many controversial things.

I have a complicated history with churches and religion. I was not raised in a faith filled home, my dad was raised muslim, my mom raised catholic and agnostic. Religion or even a relationship with God was not a priority to my parents who immigrated here from the Middle East and were merely trying to survive living in a foreign country on very little income. While I can't recall life without the awareness of God or Jesus, that awareness wasn't enough of a backbone to combat an atheist philosophy professor who made it his mission to convert every one of his students into a non believer. He was abused by catholic leaders as a child and used that to justify his argument against God. Thanks to the strength of his argument and my lack of biblical truth, I spent over five years living without God and experienced the worst depression and anxiety of my life. Born and raised in San Diego, I found myself desensitized and, even worse, naive to the new age and occult lifestyle. Searching for truth there only led to more confusion and pain. Oddly enough God showed up in any form I could receive him, and while he found me there, he certainly didn't leave me there. He pursued me, fought for me and led me to this church. This is the only church where I've felt completely welcome and accepted.

I'm coming up on my one year anniversary at Awaken church and I'm eternally grateful for the transformation that God knew would take place because of this church, the pastors, the leaders and the community of people are filled with the spirit of God. Every sermon is based on biblical truth. I've attended two of their conferences, both life impacting, worth the time and investment!!! In fact, eight members of my family have either been water Baptized or baptized in the Holy Spirit in less than three months because I was empowered enough to preach the gospel freely and boldly. What was missing from my life was the WORD of God, my identity in him, and a church family. Awaken has given me that and so much more. I don't know where I'd be if it wasn't for this church. But I know that because of God's eternal, unconditional love for me, because of this church and the truth it represents, I've created a generational trajectory shift in my life, and in the lives of my loved ones. And this is just...

I have never been so humiliated and ashamed of a church experience in my entire life. Moving from Colorado to San Diego and seeking a church community, I gave this church a chance 4 weeks in a row. While I could justify maybe trying again each week, this weekend sermon, 7/16, was a complete nightmare.

First of all, I say this all with two very important aspects to consider. Number one, I am a conservative and voted for trump. Number two, I am a prominent member of one of the largest Christian churches out of Colorado, Red Rocks Church, where I have built personal relationships with some of the nations top leaders in the Christian movement. Now let’s get into it…

In no way, should church and state EVER be so tangled in a message. I do not care what you believe, God does not use his temple or his disciples to make clear that what some people might believe is that of the devil. To decide as a speaker of the house of God that you will use this platform to claim that those of LGBTQ+ or democratic belief is that of demonic spirit, is not only abuse of power but a representation of communistic self preservation. The Bible says what people need to hear, and the way that God preaches his stance on those issue is best in His way, not when placed in a tone of judgement and isolation.

Secondly, I donate to my church, and volunteer through international organizations yearly. My entire life and finances are in the hands of God. The message at the beginning of each sermon only needs to be shared ever so often before it starts to feel suspicious…

I have a group of Christian friends that came into town and we decided to attend this sermon together, but what a mistake. Words so hurtful said, it brought some of the most spirit driven girls to our knees hoping God can make us feel clean. We felt so yucky and hurt for those that could have needed a safe space to find a relationship with God, finding they are condemned and judged.

I will end with three things to summarize.

This is cult, not that of a Christian movement. God is the one who judges, and despite what people might believe or what the Bible says, no one should be brought to tears in shame in the house of God. It is disgusting and not that of the faith I was raised in to love others as God would.

You can share the importance of the movie Sound of Freedom as this is incredibly moving and crucial for our society. Yet, without making it political and claiming political leaders as liar’s and creating tension. These types of conversations disrupt my ability to connect with God and creates abrupt tension. I can watch the movie and create my own opinion on specific political leaders outside of a church setting.

Please reference a dictionary for big word terminology before preaching. “Pediphelia’s” is not a word. It makes you look less educated when talking about big topics.

God loves each of you, and I do too.

P.S. They delete bad ratings here, which is also disgusting. Keeping this at 3 stars to try and...

We are a military family. Went I was a teenager I was saved in a church that believed in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. In my adult life I was bewildered at the people who told me that wasn’t real and that God “didn’t do that anymore”. Years later when my wife and I were married we tried to find a home church in multiple cities. We just never found one that really stuck. And as much as we tried to put our finger on why, we just couldn’t. But we just knew they were all missing something.

We moved to San Diego in summer of 2020. As a life-long resident of the South and Midwest, the last thing I expected was to find a church in California. But after speaking to some people in our neighborhood we heard about this church that was refusing to allow the government to force them to have service online or limit their capacity. A church where you could decide for yourself if you wanted to wear a stupid mask. So, we went to the Balboa campus of Awaken. Almost as soon as we sat down, we knew this church was different. What had been missing was here. We were blown away by the Praise and Worship team and Pastor Morgan preached about family and relationships with such passion and brutal honesty. We knew we were coming back.

It wasn’t much later when we first listened to Pastor Becky. Her message that day still resonates with me. When she described growing up in a church that didn’t believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and how her eyes were opened when she started attending Awaken… I sat there in my seat and wept like a baby. And so did my wife, who was raised in the same kind of church as Pastor Becky. And when I stood and received the baptism of the Spirit for the first time in decades, I felt the flames of renewal burning away the last barriers that I had built to my relationship with God.

Over the last year and a half, we have been so blessed by this place. We have been refreshed and our faith revived and our family has never been more blessed. Our teenage son, who I had despaired would never come to the Lord on his own, now has a passion for God and has made life-long friends through Awaken Youth and Emerge Men’s ministry.

Sadly, this will be our last Sunday at Awaken as we are moving overseas next week. But we are leaving so much better than we when we arrived. We are leaving armed to the teeth with Spiritual Gifts and we aren’t afraid to use them in a new place.

Thank you so much, especially to Balboa Campus Pastors Becky and John and to the lead Pastors Jurgen and Leanne. We will forever cherish our time at Awaken. God Bless.

Love, Michael,...