A Baptist Work That Grew from a Side Building in National City
Bible Baptist Church sits a few minutes off the Plaza Boulevard exit of the 805 freeway in National City, California, at 2432 East 18th Street. The church currently marks forty-two years of God's faithfulness, a banner that points back to the small Filipino Bible Baptist Mission that first met in a borrowed room on the side of Calvary Baptist Church in the same town. From that modest beginning, the congregation has grown into a multi-generational Baptist church with a Filipino-American heritage, three language ministries, and a school on its grounds.
From Missionaries to the Philippines to a Mission in San Diego
The story starts with American Independent Baptist missionaries. The church credits the United States with helping deliver the Philippines from more than three centuries of Spanish rule and from four years of Japanese occupation during the Second World War, and it points to the Bible-believing Baptist missionaries who arrived after independence as a still greater gift. Rev. Fred and Mrs. Lorene Null were among those missionaries. They landed in the Philippines in 1953 and spent a quarter of a century planting twenty-five Bible-believing Baptist churches there. After a stroke and open-heart surgery made a return to the field impossible, the Nulls settled in San Diego. With roughly seventy thousand Filipino-Americans in the area, Pastor Null began laying the groundwork for a mission that would reach them, and the Filipino Bible Baptist Mission of National City was born in that small side building at Calvary Baptist.
Pastor Larry Obero and the Road Through Chula Vista
In 1982, Larry Obero walked through the doors of the mission. A former United States Navy sailor who had come to faith through a shipmate, Obero was already surrendered to preach when he and his wife Myrna arrived. He was among the fifty charter members when the mission was constituted as a church, and he served under Pastor Null until the pastorate was passed to him. By 1992 the congregation had outgrown its home, so the Filipino Bible Baptist Church merged with Grace Baptist Temple of Chula Vista (pastored by Ken Johnson) and took the name Filipino and American Bible Baptist Church, with Obero as pastor. Ten years later, in May 2003, the Lord moved the body back to the very property in National City where the mission had started, this time occupying the entire Calvary Baptist Church campus rather than the borrowed side room. Obero shortened the name to Bible Baptist Church so the body would not be read as only a Filipino-American church, and average attendance grew from the charter fifty to around five hundred. In 2008 the church sent Carlos Serrano and his family out to plant Bible Baptist Church of Delano, California, and several years later Serrano returned to San Diego to serve his home church again. In 2018, after thirty-five years of ministry, Pastor Obero retired and passed the pastorate to Serrano.
Encounter Christ, Become Family, Find Peace
Three phrases frame the life of the church: Encounter Christ. Become Family. Find Peace. The mission that grows out of them is simple and threefold. The church aims to reach people with the gospel of Christ, which has the power to save; to reflect Christ's love and the truth of the Bible; and to reproduce more believers and faithful Christians through soul-winning and discipleship. Senior Pastor Carlos Serrano's standing invitation to newcomers is to come and be a guest. In his own words, the gathering is a place where Christ is exalted, the Bible is preached, the message is relevant, the music is God-honoring, and the people matter.
A Sunday Built Around Three Hours
Sunday mornings begin at 9:00 a.m. with an open prayer time, followed at 9:30 a.m. by Growth Groups, the adult Sunday school hour. A dedicated Tagalog Sunday school class meets at 9:30 in the fellowship hall for members and friends who prefer instruction in Tagalog. The morning worship service begins at 10:30 a.m., and a second worship service gathers at 5:30 p.m. Those services are the public face of the week: music led by Music Director Jay Dela Cruz, biblical preaching, and a welcome team ready to point first-time guests to the right classrooms for their children.
Wednesday Nights at Seven
The midweek service meets on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. Childcare is available during that service for children two years old and older, the same age group that is cared for during the Sunday services. The nursery is open every service for children under two. Wednesday night is also the night the youth ministry and the church's bus ministry are most visible, with Youth Pastor David Cabal overseeing both.
English, Spanish, and Tagalog Side by Side
Bible Baptist Church is intentionally a three-language church. Jose Mercado serves as the Spanish Ministry Pastor and leads a Spanish service connected to the church, with details linked through the Servicio Español page. Johnny Costanilla is the Tagalog Ministry Pastor and a pastoral assistant, walking alongside Filipino-American members and the wider Tagalog-speaking community; while there is no dedicated Tagalog worship service, the Tagalog Sunday school class at 9:30 a.m. in the fellowship hall gives that community a regular gathering in its own language. Together, the Spanish and Tagalog ministries make the church a place where several of the largest language communities of south San Diego County can hear the Bible taught and sing in their heart language.
The Academy Next Door
The National City campus is also home to Faithful Ambassadors Academy, the Christian school run in connection with the church. Elaine Serrano, the pastor's wife, serves as the school's administrator, and the academy is linked from the main menu under Our Academy. The school extends the church's Bible-centered teaching into the weekday lives of its students and makes the campus a place where families, children, and teachers move through the same property from Monday to Sunday.
Twenty Articles of Belief
The statement of faith lays out twenty sections, and the throughline is a supernatural Bible and a supernatural Christ. The church confesses the verbal, plenary inspiration of the sixty-six books of Scripture and teaches that the Bible is the only complete and final revelation of God, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard for every human conduct, creed, and opinion. It affirms one true God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal in every divine perfection. The Holy Spirit is confessed as a divine person who convicts of sin, seals, teaches, sanctifies, and empowers the believer. The statement also affirms a literal Genesis creation, the fall of man into sin, the virgin birth of Christ, the substitutionary atonement of His death, the necessity of the new birth, and the free offer of salvation to all who repent and believe. Justification is by faith alone, baptism is the immersion of a believer in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the Lord's Supper is observed by the members of the church after solemn self-examination. The church holds to the perseverance of the saints, the bodily resurrection and visible return of Christ, a literal thousand-year reign, the autonomy of the local church under Christ, the cooperation of like-minded churches in missionary work, and the grace of tithing as a continuing practice of the New Testament church. A separate salvation page walks a visitor through the same storyline in plainer language: the start, the fall, the cost of sin, the good news of what God did about it, and the call to admit, believe, and call on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What to Wear, Where to Park, and How to Give a First Gift
Visitors regularly ask three practical questions, and the church has answered each of them. There is no strict dress code. Many staff and members do wear their Sunday best, including suits for the men and dresses for the ladies, but anyone is welcome just as they are. Childcare is provided at every service, with a nursery for children under two and a children's program for ages two and up during the Sunday services and the Wednesday 7:00 p.m. service. A welcome team member will walk first-time guests and their children to the right rooms. Parking is available on the main campus, and if the main lot fills up there is an overflow lot across the street at 2503 East 18th Street. Guests are not expected to give; the offering boxes are primarily for members, and the church's strongest request is simply that newcomers come and visit. Those who wish to give can do so in person at any weekly service, by mail to 2432 East 18th Street, National City, CA 91950, or through the online giving page, and services are also available to watch on the church's YouTube livestream.
A Pulpit and a Team Behind It
Senior Pastor Carlos Serrano preaches and leads the church. Alongside him, Jose Mercado pastors the Spanish ministry, Johnny Costanilla pastors the Tagalog ministry and serves as a pastoral assistant, Elvin Noynay serves as a pastoral assistant, David Cabal directs the bus ministry and the youth ministry, and Jay Dela Cruz leads the music of the gathered church. The church's phone line, (619) 267-3761, and the email address hello@biblebaptistsd.org are the everyday ways to reach the office. Online, the church keeps an active presence on Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube, where its livestream and sermon archive live under the handle BBCofNC.
Where the Church Is Now
From a borrowed side building in National City, through a decade in Chula Vista, and back to the same property in National City where the work began, Bible Baptist Church has been shaped by missionary vision, Filipino-American heritage, and a steady succession of pastors who cared more about reaching the next family than about keeping the name tidy. The 42-year banner, the 5:30 p.m. Sunday service, the Spanish service next door, the Tagalog class in the fellowship hall, the Wednesday night study, the school on the grounds, and the livestream on YouTube together describe a congregation that is still, in its own words, proclaiming the gospel in National City and its surrounding areas.