From Twenty-Somethings to a Brea Boulevard Beacon
The story of Fullerton Free begins the way many church stories do, with a handful of young adults willing to give up comfort for the sake of a calling. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, a small group of 20-somethings moved to Fullerton to see how God might use them to start a church in North Orange County. They pooled their resources, gathered their courage, and began to worship together. The First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton grew from that seed into a community that now fills a corner of Brea and Bastanchury every Sunday morning. Today, the church carries the everyday name Fullerton Free (or EvFree Fullerton) but holds onto its founding identity: a congregation shaped by sacrifice and shaped to send.
The mission statement still echoes the spirit of those first years: "Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Fullerton Free is a loving community, united in sacrifice, and living like Christ for the glory of God." A four-point vision calls the church toward radiant peace, revolutionary kindness, prophetic engagement, and the kind of Christ-shaped appeal that surprises rather than demands.
Sundays on the Brea Boulevard Campus
Sunday is built around three intentional moments: a corporate worship service for the whole church, a Community Hour for smaller groups, and a Spanish-language service that runs alongside both.
The English worship service fills the Worship Center at 9:30 AM. Each week gathers the church for community, singing, generosity, and the study of God's word. A rotating slate of teachers and different expressions of music keep the gathering fresh, and there is a designated moment to greet first-time guests and offer a small welcome gift. Prayer is available after the service for anyone who would like it.
At 11:00 AM, the lobby empties out as the congregation walks across the campus into Community Hour - smaller Sunday communities and Bible study groups that meet in various locations on site. Guests who do not know where to go can stop by the Connect Wall just outside the Worship Center, where volunteers wearing white name tags will point them toward the right room.
A third gathering opens at 12:00 PM in the Chapel, where the Ministerio En Español leads worship in Spanish under the banner "Cristo revelado PARA nosotros; en nosotros; por nosotros." Attendees are invited to park at Rolling Hills and Brea Boulevard, just across the street from the Chapel.
Worship is also livestreamed through fullertonfree.tv and Vimeo, and sermons are archived going back to 2017. The current teaching series, Becoming God's Family, walks through Exodus with visiting and resident teachers.
Kids, Students, and the North Campus
Children, middle schoolers, and high schoolers all have their own rhythms on Sunday. Families checking children in for the first time can stop at any of the kids' check-in stations, marked by large gold feather flags in the Family Room and on the plaza near the Worship Center. The kids' ministry is built around three classrooms that meet at both 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM: nursery (birth to 24 months, with a nursing room available), Young Kids Church for 2-year-olds through kindergarten, and grade-level rooms for 1st through 5th, including a space called The Loft for preteens in 4th and 5th grade. Children with special needs who want to be included in Sunday school with their peers have access to additional support.
At 11:00 AM, the action shifts north across Rolling Hills Drive to the North Campus. There, middle schoolers gather in the MSM Room at 11:00 AM and high schoolers fill the High School Amphitheater for worship, teaching, and small group time. Wednesday nights mirror the Sunday rhythms: middle and high school students return to North Campus at 7:00 PM for another hour and a half of small groups, games, and teaching. Fourth and fifth graders add their own Wednesday night from 7:00 to 8:30 PM in The Loft.
Two Vacation Bible School weeks and a year-round schedule of Sunday programming extend the kids' ministry further, and a Kids Crew handbook lays out pathways for parents to engage their children's faith at home between Sundays.
A Whole Day for Special Needs
Special needs ministry is one of the most distinctive things Fullerton Free does, and it shows up almost everywhere on the campus. The ministry's mission is simple: "every human being is created in the image of God, uniquely made to reveal Christ." The room names alone tell the story - Circle of Friends for preschool through high school students, Fellowship of Friends for adults 18 and older with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities, plus a dedicated Inclusion team to support children joining regular Sunday school with their peers.
Programming stretches well beyond Sunday morning. Friday Night Live offers monthly social evenings for adults 18 and older with intellectual disabilities. Katie's Club welcomes teens and young adults ages 14 to 22 for group activities during winter, spring, summer, and Thanksgiving breaks. Rainbow Express runs an inclusive four-day summer day camp on campus, and two adaptive sports leagues - GoalStars (soccer) and HoopStars (basketball) - draw players with disabilities for league play each spring or summer.
Parents have a space of their own. Haven of Hope is a Sunday community for parents of kids with special needs that meets at 11:00 AM, and a separate Moms of Special Needs Kids Bible Study gathers twice a month on Mondays during the school year. The church also serves as the host site for the Night to Shine prom, a Tim Tebow Foundation event that the church has helped bring to its community.
Accessibility is woven into the facility itself. Elevators in the A, B, C, and D buildings on the main campus (start at the Connect Wall for directions) and another elevator on North Campus make most of the campus reachable for those who use them.
Communities, Bible Studies, and Adult Life
Fullerton Free works hard to keep its size from feeling overwhelming. The main way it does so is through communities - small groups that meet on Sunday mornings at 11:00 AM and on weeknights in homes around the area. There is a community for nearly every season: Sunday Communities for adults of all ages, weekday small groups of about ten people that run in ten-week sessions, dedicated men's and women's ministries, College & Young Adults ministry for ages 18 to 30, The Adventure for singles in their 30s and 40s, Senior Adult Bible studies, a mentoring ministry that pairs members across generations, and MomCo gatherings for mothers from pregnancy through the school years.
Three weekly Bible studies anchor the women's ministry in its current year-long curriculum, a study of the Psalms called Deep Calls to Deep. IgNite meets on Tuesday evenings in the Fireside Room, and The Pursuit meets on Thursday mornings in the Commons with childcare available. A separate Moms of Special Needs Kids Bible Study meets twice a month on Monday mornings.
Men's ministry centers on bimonthly Saturday breakfasts at 8:00 AM in the Family Room and a Wednesday night Bible study that meets in the Fireside Room, both working through the same Psalms curriculum as the women's ministry.
Two weekly rhythms tie communities together across ages. Closer Walk is an intergenerational gathering on Wednesday mornings at 10:00 AM that begins with breakfast, moves into singing, and ends in Bible study. Restorative Community Yoga meets Monday evenings at 7:00 PM in the Family Room for a coed session that weaves stretching, scripture meditation, and prayer into a single hour.
Care, Counseling, and Support Groups
Care ministries step in for the harder moments. Pastoral counseling is available to church members by calling the office during weekday reception hours. Hospital visits and crisis care are arranged through the same front line. The Bridge Academy Collective, a licensed community mental health organization the church has partnered with, provides culturally relevant therapy for individuals, couples, and families dealing with mental health concerns, relationship challenges, and other life disruptions.
For ongoing peer support, Fullerton Free opens its North Campus to a slate of weekly and monthly support groups that the wider community is welcome to attend. The Third Option, a relationship skills program for dating, engaged, married, or separated adults, meets on Tuesday nights both in person and on Zoom. A Grief Support Group meets Tuesday evenings; a Family Hope group for families of those with mental health conditions meets on the first and third Thursdays; a Parkinson's Support Group gathers the first Monday; an MS Support Group meets the first Wednesday; and a Caregivers' Support Group meets the third Thursday. Programs through the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Orange County use the same space.
Recovery work happens through a Thursday evening Women's Recovery Group held in North Campus Room 160.
Local Outreach on Brea and Beyond
The church's local outreach is direct and practical. A food distribution that runs out of the church office Monday and Thursday between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM stocks shelf-stable proteins and personal care items. A clothes closet opens the same hours and accepts clean, gently used clothing, with current high-need items including new socks and underwear, bras, umbrellas, and unisex long-sleeve shirts.
OC United, a non-profit foundation Fullerton Free launched to broaden its partnerships, organizes volunteer opportunities in foster care, homelessness, and local neighborhood schools. Love Fullerton, one of OC United's signature programs, sends teams into the city for service projects in Jesus' name. Solidarity, another partner non-profit, focuses on building relationships with minority and immigrant populations in Fullerton.
A Farmers Market runs every Saturday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM in the Commons parking lot, drawing neighbors and local vendors to the campus.
From Brea Boulevard to the World
Fullerton Free's global reach is one of its defining features. More than 50 missionaries are deployed around the world, working in preaching, teaching, evangelism, administration, literacy training, compassion, development, and Bible translation. Each year, the church runs a slate of short-term mission trips that send members to serve alongside these missionaries. Intercede, the monthly digital prayer update for the church's mission partners, keeps the congregation in touch with their work between trips.
The same impulse to reach beyond the church shows up closer to home through the church's facilities. The Chapel hosts weddings for six-hour blocks up to twelve months in advance, with an on-site wedding host and recommended premarital counseling. Memorial services and bereavement care are coordinated through an Alongside team and a Bereavement team, and the campus is also open to outside conferences, graduations, and community luncheons.
Fullerton Free Preschool
Fullerton Free Preschool is a ministry of the church and a state-licensed, non-profit childcare center occupying rooms on the first floor of the A building. The program is play-based, Christ-centered, and built around whole-child development. Classrooms are led by loving staff who weave Bible stories and prayer into the daily rhythm.
Admissions begin with a tour of the classrooms followed by a non-refundable $50 waitlist fee. The preschool admits students of any race, color, or national and ethnic origin. A Parent Handbook, calendar, and tuition schedule are published each school year, and the office can be reached through preschool.info@fullertonfree.com.
Sports, Pickleball, and the Open Campus
The Fullerton Free campus hosts more than church programming. A set of pickleball courts sits open most days of the week (courts close at 9:00 PM out of respect for neighbors), with indoor pickleball typically available for open play on Thursdays from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. A men's basketball league adds a spiritual element alongside its competitive schedule. The Pathfinders hiking group organizes hikes of varying difficulty throughout the year. The same gym and fields that host these groups also host the GoalStars and HoopStars adaptive sports leagues.
Beliefs
Members of Fullerton Free affirm a classical evangelical statement of faith that includes the full inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture in its original writings; one God eternally existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, crucified and bodily raised; the present ministry of the Holy Spirit to convict, regenerate, indwell, and empower believers; salvation by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ; the personal, imminent, premillennial return of Jesus Christ; the bodily resurrection of all the dead to either everlasting joy or everlasting conscious judgment; the church as the body of Christ united by faith; and the ordinances of believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper, observed as memorials of Christ's death and resurrection.
OnRamp classes walk newcomers through the story of the church and the substance of its beliefs in more depth.
Getting Started and Staying Connected
First-time guests can fill out a Start Here form, stop by the Connect Wall on Sunday morning, and pick up a welcome gift. Visitor parking is in the parking structure behind the Worship Center, with accessible spaces in the main lot and Parking Attendants available to help. The Fullerton Free app puts ministries, sermons, and event details in one place, and Direct Connect serves as the church's online directory. A weekly eNews email keeps subscribers current on coming events, teaching series, and serving opportunities.
Giving is available digitally through PushPay, by cash or check in the Worship Center lobby on Sundays, or by mail to the church office at 2801 Brea Blvd, Fullerton, CA 92835. Office hours run Monday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM.