our story
PAST
After completing a church planting residency at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis under the leadership of John Piper, Tim and Abbey Cain were sent out to plant Kaleo Church in El Cajon. Arriving in January of 2009, the Cain’s began missional communities in their home, reaching out to the poor and homeless in the community. Abbey would prepare dinner every Friday night and they would invite all the homeless and needy people they encountered during the week to feast in their home. To this very day, Friday nights are feast nights, and all are welcome. After many months of pouring into their missional communities, Kaleo Church held its first service on September 12, 2009.
Kaleo Church added Wes Van Fleet as a Pastor in July of 2012. Wes is gifted at teaching, counseling, leadership development and raising up disciples. He has been a tremendous gift to Kaleo. Kaleo Church added Joshua Moffit as the third Pastor to co-labor alongside Tim and Wes in January 2023.
In July of 2017 Kaleo sent out our first full-time missionary family to Indonesia followed by another missionary family a few years later to the Philippines. God has blessed their faithful labor with a church plant in Indonesia in 2023. Both families continue to be involved in church planting, training pastors, as well as other leadership development to advance the gospel to unreached peoples.
PRESENT
God has been doing some really sweet things this past year at Kaleo Church. God has continued to bless our church by bringing new families and singles to join our church family. Our youth ministry has grown as we have seen many young people come to know Jesus! We continue to train and raise up new leaders within the church and support several missionaries and church planters both in the USA and internationally.
FUTURE
We would love to see God continue to raise up more Missional Community leaders and replicate Missional Communities into new neighborhoods in El Cajon and San Diego. In 2024, we are excited to continue preaching through 1 Corinthians and we look forward to seeing our various ministries continue to thrive. We pray that God will do a work in El Cajon and the surrounding area and that we would see many people come to know Jesus and join his eternal family.
OUR VISION
KALEO CHURCH EXISTS TO BE A CHRIST-TREASURING FAMILY, FORMED BY THE GOSPEL, AND SENT ON MISSION TO THE WORLD THROUGH THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR THE GLORY OF GOD.
A People Formed By The Gospel
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this; that one has died for all, therefore all have died: and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sakes died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
Jesus’ finished work on the cross changes us. No longer are we condemned to live for ourselves; now we are free to live for the one who loved us and gave himself up for us. No longer do we have to be controlled by our feelings and circumstances; now the love of Christ is able to control us. At Kaleo, we are committed to doing everything we can to live in the light of this new and better reality.
A People Formed into a family
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-20)
In Christ you and I have been adopted into one massive, beautiful, and diverse family. The local church is meant to be a reflection of that family as we get to experience a little foretaste of heaven where people from every tribe and tongue and nation will gather around the throne of God to worship. Being the family of God is not merely an ideal that we are after but it is a reality that God has already accomplished in Jesus and now calls us to live out in our local churches. At Kaleo we are committed to doing everything we can to live out our new identity as family.
A People sent into the world
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)
“As the Father sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21)
For Jesus, being sent by the Father was at the very core of who He was. In John, Jesus often called himself the “sent one” and everything he did was part of finishing the work that God the Father had sent him to accomplish. So in John 20:21 when Jesus says, “As the Father sent me, even so I am sending you,” he is basically telling us that he wants mission to play just as central of a role in our lives as it did in his. You and I have been given a new identity. We are now “sent ones;” missionaries who have been rescued so that we might “Proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light.” At Kaleo we long for the good news of the Gospel to so overwhelm us that we find ourselves compelled to call others to join us in worshipping our great God.
dependent on the power of the spirit
“For all who are led by the Spirit are sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8)
We are made a family through the Spirit (Rom. 8:14). We treasure Christ through the Spirit (II Cor. 3:18). We love one another through the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-25). We are sent on mission through the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). Without the Spirit you and I could do nothing! Christian maturity doesn’t come as we become more and more independent but rather as we die to ourselves and learn to live our lives more and more dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit. At Kaleo we are committed to pursuing lives of humble dependence upon the Spirit knowing that when we are weak then he is strong.
for the glory of god
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:34-36).
All that we have comes from God and all that we do is through his power. Therefore it is all to be done for his glory! One day “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14). Because we believe that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him we are committed to proclaiming God’s glory by seeking and finding our greatest joy in our Savior Jesus Christ.
We believe the Bible gives us a clear way to glorify God by proclaiming the gospel, which forms a community, that leads us to mission, all by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Read the Kaleo Church Philosophy of Ministry and Membership Booklet
OUR LEADERSHIP
WE BELIEVE THAT THE ELDERS OF KALEO CHURCH HAVE BEEN APPOINTED BY GOD TO LEAD AND SHEPHERD THE FLOCK OF KALEO AND TO CARE FOR THE CHURCH THAT JESUS BOUGHT WITH HIS OWN PRECIOUS BLOOD.
to do this we are committed to the following:
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Exhorting God’s people regularly to love Jesus and keep him first in their life.
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Preaching God’s word and proclaiming the whole counsel of God.
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Urging those who don’t know Jesus to come to put their trust in him and receive the eternal life that he offers and join his family.
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Baptizing those who do receive Jesus in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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Regularly administering the Lord’s Supper for the encouragement and edification of God’s people.
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Trusting in the sovereign grace of God in and over all things through a Reformed understanding of the gospel and theology.
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Protecting the flock from wolves as well as using church discipline when necessary as a means of calling people to repentance.
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Regularly meeting to pray for one another, the church and the lost.
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Regularly confessing our sins and considering the interest of the church more important than our own interest.
Our elders subscribe to the Treasuring Christ Together Network Affirmation of Faith.
Read the Elder Affirmation of Faith.
We are confident that Jesus himself will build his church and are thankful for the privilege he has given us to serve his precious bride. We will do our best to love her well, just as our Savior has loved us so very well.
Meet our leaders
Deacon
Deacon