Maranatha Chapel meets on fifteen rolling acres in the Rancho Bernardo neighborhood of San Diego, between the inland hills and the coastal sprawl of the city's north county. On a typical weekend the glass doors of the sanctuary swing open for three services that together draw roughly three thousand people to worship, hear Bible teaching, and sit under the verse-by-verse exposition of Scripture that has defined this fellowship since 1984, when a young Bible teacher named Ray Bentley began a Wednesday study with thirty people in a recreation center. Today Maranatha serves close to seven thousand people each week across its weekend services, its Wednesday Encounter night, and nearly one hundred Growth Groups meeting in homes throughout the area.
A Wednesday Study That Became a Church
Maranatha Chapel was established in August 1984. Ray Bentley started with a midweek Bible study in a recreation center, gathering thirty people around an open Bible. Within three months the fellowship had outgrown the room and moved to Sunday morning services held at a local junior high school. By the end of 1986, still without a building of its own, the church had grown to more than eleven hundred attenders, requiring three Sunday morning services plus an evening service just to seat everyone.
On March 17, 1990, the congregation dedicated its first home, four and a half acres in the Rancho Peñasquitos community. Growth did not slow. By the summer of 1996 the church had broken ground on the current fifteen-acre site in Rancho Bernardo. The new building was completed in the fall of 1997, providing a three thousand seat sanctuary, a full Sunday School complex, and a three thousand square foot bookstore and cafe that anchors daily life on campus.
Ray Bentley continued to lead the church he founded for nearly four decades. He died on January 4, 2022. A memorial tribute and a complete teaching archive remain available through the church, and daily devotions continue to be published under his name. The Maranatha family today includes his father Buck, his brother Gregg, his wife Vicki, his daughter Annie, his son Daniel, and seven grandchildren spread across two generations of ministry at the chapel.
The Campus at 10752 Coastwood Road
Visitors pull into a parking lot framed by three large buildings. The big glass doors mark the entrance to the sanctuary where the adult services take place. A two story building houses classrooms for children's and student ministry. The third building, the fellowship hall, hosts additional classrooms, group events, and the Tuesday morning Men's Training Camp.
Between the buildings sits a center courtyard called Solomon's Porch. On weekend mornings tents are set up under the open sky for complimentary coffee and donuts, and a welcome station offers first-time guests a place to ask questions and find their way. Signs that read Just Ask are posted across the campus, and the bookstore and cafe in the main building is staffed throughout the day to help anyone who needs directions, study materials, or a Bible of their own.
Three Services Built on the Bible
Saturday evening worship begins at six o'clock. Sunday morning worship gathers at eight thirty and ten thirty. Each weekend service runs roughly ninety minutes and follows the same simple pattern: a time of congregational singing, a brief introduction and announcements, a single Bible message of about forty minutes, and a closing song. An offering bag passes through the pews during the announcements, but giving is described as an act of worship for regular members and is never presented as expected of any guest. The service is free to attend, and no one is asked to dress up.
On the first weekend of each month the worship gathering sets aside time for communion and prayer for healing. Every service, regardless of the weekend, ends with the congregation reciting the Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6:24 to 26. Teaching follows the through-the-Bible format that Ray Bentley established in 1984. Messages move through a particular book of the Bible chapter by chapter and verse by verse, with the pastor drawing application for everyday life. Visitors who do not own a Bible can pick one up at the bookstore before the service, and the church encourages everyone to bring a Bible and read along.
Encounter on Wednesday Nights
At six thirty on Wednesday evenings the church gathers in the sanctuary for Encounter, a midweek worship and teaching service that draws high school students, young adults, and seasoned members together in the same room. The service is led by a rotation of pastors including Drew Bogue, Lucas Silva, and John Cook, and a Bible-based message is at the center of every gathering.
On the first Wednesday of every month Encounter takes the shape of a worship night, setting the teaching aside to focus the evening on singing, prayer, and waiting on the Lord. High school students join the sanctuary after their own five thirty Living Room gathering in the student building, and many in the young adult community coordinate their week around Encounter as well. Tuesday mornings at seven o'clock, a smaller group gathers in the sanctuary for the church's weekly prayer meeting, where members bring the requests of the congregation and the surrounding community before the Lord.
A Family of Pastors and Ministry Directors
Daniel Bentley was appointed senior pastor in January 2022. He had grown up at Maranatha, joined the staff as a janitor in 2001, and served eight years as high school pastor before planting a church in Parker, Colorado. Ten years later he returned to Maranatha as executive pastor and then stepped into the senior role. He and his wife Jill have four children.
John Cook serves as executive pastor. He and his wife Lynne joined the Maranatha family in 1999, and he joined the pastoral staff in 2010. A former attorney and pharmaceutical executive, he oversees operations and strategic planning and helps Pastor Daniel with staff leadership. The pastoral team also includes assistant pastors Doug Dorsey and Glenn Hirashiki. Dorsey leads a Thursday noon study in the bookstore, and Hirashiki leads the Monday Night Bible study.
Around the pastors sits a working staff of ministry directors. Vicki Bentley directs the women's ministry. Drew Bogue leads young adults. Lucas Silva leads high school. Jack Schlotman leads junior high. Beth Tondro directs children's ministry, including the church's Awana program. Martin Sanders oversees Growth Groups, Kenny Kagawa leads the media team, and Troy Dewey leads the men's ministry. Todd Hostetler serves as the Next Gen pastor. John Wickham and Kayla Weisman lead the worship team, Jared Burke oversees local outreach, and Jonathan Elliott directs the Connections ministry that helps newcomers find their place.
Kids Church and the Largest Awana in the Region
Maranatha's children's ministry runs at every weekend service and on Wednesday evenings. Children from nursery through fifth grade are grouped by grade, with separate rooms for nursery, preschool, kindergarten through third grade, and fourth and fifth grade. The rooms are organized around a simple mission: Know God, Show God. The ministry is high energy and fun, with Bible teaching reinforced through music, games, and small group time.
On Wednesday nights the children gather from six thirty to eight for Kids Church. Saturday evening worship at six o'clock also offers an all-ages children's class for parents who prefer a quieter weekend service. Parents check children in a few minutes before each gathering through the Maranatha Chapel app, and classroom locations are posted on the welcome map given at the entrance.
The children's ministry at Maranatha runs what it describes as one of the largest Awana programs in the country. Awana meets on Wednesday nights during the school year and combines Scripture memory, game time, and small group discipleship for children from two year olds through fifth grade. The team includes a director, early childhood director, K through third director, fourth and fifth grade director, music coordinator, resource room director, and volunteer coordinator, all working together to support the volunteer teams who serve each week.
Thrive in Junior High, Connect in High School
The junior high ministry, called Thrive, gathers on Sunday mornings at eight thirty and ten thirty in room C206 on the second floor of the classroom building. On the first Sunday of each month the students join the adults in the sanctuary for communion. Wednesday nights from six thirty to eight the group returns to C206 for games, worship, a message, and small group time. On the first Wednesday of each month Thrive joins Encounter in the sanctuary for the monthly worship night. Jack Schlotman pastors the ministry.
The high school ministry, called CONNECT, runs a layered weekly rhythm. Students meet Sunday mornings in room C204 during the second service for a combination of fellowship, worship, and Bible teaching, with the first Sunday set aside for high schoolers to join the adults for communion. Wednesday nights begin at five thirty in the student Living Room, flow into Encounter at six thirty, and close with an optional post hang from eight to nine. Lucas Silva serves as high school pastor.
Each year CONNECT organizes one domestic and two international mission trips for students. Summer camp in July, often in Utah, brings the entire group together for a week of teaching and retreat. Beyond the weekly schedule the high school group hosts service projects, broom ball nights, holiday parties, beach days, and day trips throughout the year, with the goal of helping students cultivate a relationship with God through Jesus Christ that lasts long after graduation day.
The Young Adult Years
Maranatha's young adults ministry gathers everyone from eighteen to twenty-eight. The core weekly meeting happens on Wednesday nights during Encounter in the sanctuary. On the first and third Mondays of each month the group also gathers at six thirty for House Church, an evening of shared meal, conversation, and study in a more intimate setting.
The ministry is led by Drew Bogue, with Faith Schmucker on the team. The stated aim is to connect people with God, with the Word, and with one another. The Bridge Community, the small group network that supports the ministry, is described as a gift to young adults in the region who want to learn to follow Jesus together. Throughout the year the group schedules Nights of Joy, a series of worship and fellowship nights set apart from the regular Wednesday rhythm.
Beloved Women, Tuesday Mornings and Evenings
Beloved Women's Ministry is the women's arm of Maranatha Chapel. Vicki Bentley serves as director, and a teaching team leads the multiweek Bible studies that meet twice on Tuesdays throughout the school year.
The flagship study gathers on Tuesday mornings at nine thirty and Tuesday evenings at six thirty in the fellowship hall. Each study runs roughly nine weeks and uses a printed curriculum that costs about ten dollars, with free childcare available during both sessions. Past studies have moved through the women of the Bible, the theme of mountains and valleys in Scripture, the practice of prayer, prophecy and the portraits of Jesus, the letter to the Colossians, the book of Revelation as a picture of the bridegroom, the letter of James, and the letter of Jude. The teaching notes for each study remain available for women who want to revisit a season or pick up a missed week.
Beyond the Tuesday study, Beloved hosts Beloved Activ, a community of women who gather for movement and connection on San Diego trails, followed by coffee and conversation. The ministry runs an annual Beloved Women's Conference with guest teachers, and conference messages are archived online. A small team of women serves as the Women's Ministry Childcare team, providing care for children during each Tuesday study.
Training Camp for Men
The men's ministry at Maranatha Chapel gathers under the name Training Camp. Troy Dewey serves as men's pastor. The group meets at six forty five on Tuesday evenings in the fellowship hall for worship, fellowship, and a verse-by-verse Bible study that walks through books of the Bible one chapter at a time. Past series have moved through the letter of James, the gospel of Mark, the prophet Daniel, Jonah, Nehemiah, and the letters to the seven churches in Revelation.
The name Training Camp comes from the idea that the Tuesday evening is where men train for the field. The stated aim is to grow in knowledge of God's Word, deepen personal worship, apply Scripture to daily life, build relationships with other Christian men, develop a devotional prayer life, and get involved in what God is doing in the church and the surrounding community. Discussion guides for each Tuesday are posted online the same week so men who miss can catch up.
For men who want to serve, the Handymen Ministry meets on the second Saturday of each month and sends out teams of two or more to pre-approved jobs. The team serves widows, single moms, and people with disabilities by helping with light home repairs, plumbing, electrical work, landscape, and similar projects.
Midweek Adult Studies and the Marketplace
Two ongoing midweek adult studies serve the broader congregation outside the Tuesday women's study and the Tuesday men's camp. The Monday Night Study meets at six thirty in Jacob's Well for worship, fellowship, and Bible teaching led by Glenn Hirashiki, with some weeks set aside as dinner nights. The Thursday Noon Study, led by Doug Dorsey, meets from twelve to one in the bookstore and offers a midday Bible study for working adults and retirees who prefer a weekday midday gathering.
Maranatha Marketplace Ministry connects believers who feel called to serve God through their careers. Marketplace meets four times a year on Saturday mornings at eight o'clock in the fellowship hall, drawing working adults together for a guest speaker, a question and answer time, and table discussions designed to encourage a Kingdom mindset in the workplace. The ministry also connects members with small groups, discipleship relationships, and mentorship opportunities between gatherings. Jared Burke oversees the ministry.
A Hundred Growth Groups Across the County
Growth Groups are the small group arm of Maranatha Chapel. The church maintains close to one hundred groups meeting in homes, online, and on campus across north county San Diego and beyond. Groups are led by trained lay leaders and organized around sermon based studies that follow the same passages Pastor Daniel works through on the weekend.
Sermon based study notes are produced for each weekend message and posted online the same week. Growth Group leaders have access to additional tools, including archived audio of Ray Bentley's verse by verse teaching on Romans. Each year the church adopts a church wide study, with recent years moving through Chip Ingram's works and a multiyear walk through the letter to the Romans using the NavPress Life Change study guide.
Each Growth Group leader passes through a four week training workshop offered periodically, and the church maintains an online group finder where newcomers can search by location, day of the week, and stage of life. Martin Sanders serves as Growth Groups pastor and walks prospective leaders through the process of launching a new group.
Care for the Hurting
The Care Ministry supports Maranatha's mission of loving God, loving people, and following Jesus by walking with individuals and families through the joys and challenges of life. Care offers prayer, biblical encouragement, and practical help, and serves as the umbrella for three streams of support.
Biblical counseling is the first stream. The ministry offers free counseling for individuals, couples, and families rooted in Scripture. Counselors are not licensed mental health professionals and do not diagnose, but they work to apply the Bible to the situations that bring people through the door. The ministry is grounded in the conviction that all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.
Support groups make up the second stream. GriefShare is a thirteen-week program that runs multiple times a year and offers both group discussion and a workbook for daily devotions through the grief journey. DivorceCare is a thirteen-week, video-based program that meets on Wednesday nights, with a special Hope for the Holidays workshop in late November for those facing their first Thanksgiving and Christmas after separation. Hearts for Heaven is a monthly Bible study and luncheon for widows of all ages, meeting on the third Monday of each month. United Marriage is a nine-week course designed to strengthen communication and oneness for married couples. A Strong Cord is a four-week class for couples in their first decade of marriage. Pure Desire is a support group of men pursuing sexual purity.
Helping Hands is the third stream. The Heartfelt team makes handmade felt hearts distributed during Sunday services, hospital visits, and everyday encounters as tangible reminders of God's love. Divine Quilts gathers twice a month on the second and fourth Mondays to teach and sew quilts that are donated to baby dedications, crisis pregnancy centers, and other recipients. The Care Ministry also connects families with Umbrella Ministries, a faith-based outreach that supports mothers who have suffered the loss of a child.
Local Outreach Across San Diego
Maranatha's local outreach is led by Jared Burke, who directs a network of partnerships serving the surrounding region. Foster the City equips and supports church members to come alongside foster families with practical support. Operation Christmas Child partners with Samaritan's Purse to fill shoeboxes year round, with a church-wide packing party each fall and a year round sewing ministry called Skirts of Love that meets the second Saturday of each month from nine to noon in the fellowship hall.
Journey of Hope is the church's refugee ministry. Maranatha partners with Emanuel Faith and World Relief to tutor refugee children, teach English to children and adults, and walk alongside newly arrived families. Reach Out: Pen Pals maintains correspondence with inmates in California's prisons and jails. The Sonshine Team visits seniors in assisted living, independent living, acute care, and memory care facilities across the region, leading weekly worship services and hosting special events like the Christmas Angel Tree each December. Speak Up for Life partners with local crisis pregnancy centers, with a monthly prayer meeting that gathers on the third Saturday of each month. The Juvenile Prison Outreach sends teams weekly into the San Diego Juvenile Probation Center alongside Shadow Mountain to share the gospel with young people.
Missionaries Across Six Continents
The church's global outreach reaches partners in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific region, and the Americas. Each region is paired with an outreach coordinator and supported through prayer, communication, and giving.
In Europe the church walks alongside Mike and Rachel Neglia at Calvary Cork, an expository Bible teaching church in Cork City, Ireland; Jeff and Naomi Cuozzo, who have planted a Bible teaching church in Bath, England, and run Tikvah, a discipleship program for Israeli young adults after their military service; and Martyn and Sian Whittaker, who minister in St. Pierre du Perray south of Paris and run children's clubs, family outreach events, and pastoral visits to local hospitals and care homes.
In the Pacific region the church partners with Clif and Roxanne Olson of Wycliffe Bible Translators, who are translating the Bible into the Gumawana language of Papua New Guinea after completing the New Testament. In the Americas the partners include Bentley Stone with Youth With A Mission in Kona, Hawaii; Brian and Liz Crawford and Joseph and Sarah Ryan with Chosen People Ministries, a mission to the Jewish people based in New York; Tim and Stacey Chou with the Navigators in San Diego; Jason Mills with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes as North County Director; Haley Lewis with CRU in Santa Barbara; Isaac Nelson with Athletes in Action, working a global network of leaders in more than eighty-five countries; the Malloy family with the National School Chaplain Association; Alex and Marta Gorelik with Voice of the Children in Cuba; the Booth family with Lazarus Mission in Nicaragua; and Sarah Hill, who leads one of the largest student ministries on the island of Kauai.
Maranatha Christian Schools
The Maranatha family of schools extends the church's ministry to the next generation. Maranatha Christian School serves students from preschool through twelfth grade on a seventeen and a half acre site approximately two miles west of the chapel on Maranatha Way off Camino Del Sur. The school describes itself as providing an innovative twenty-first century learning environment that encourages students to be inquisitive, think critically, and become self-motivated learners equipped for college and beyond.
Maranatha Christian Schools Early Education, known as MCS EE, recognizes that the early years shape the brain's most rapid development. The preschool program uses hands-on curriculum in literature, art, science, math, and music, with STEAM activities built into the regular schedule to encourage age-appropriate development across every area of learning.
Maranatha Bible College is the church's own institute for deeper study of Scripture. Its mission is to create places where believers can grow in their devotion to Christ through the in-depth study of his Word in an intimate, practical, and academic way. Prospective students are invited to pray about studying with the school as a next step in the abundant life that God has planned.
What Maranatha Believes
Maranatha Chapel describes itself as a Christian fellowship of believers in Jesus Christ. The church affirms belief in one God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It confesses that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is fully God and fully man, born of the virgin Mary, who died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, who bodily rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, where at the right hand of God the Father he is now our High Priest and Advocate.
The church holds the Bible as the foundation and standard for living, authoritative as the rule of faith. Maranatha teaches that worship is spiritual, seeking to be flexible and yielded to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Worship is also to be intelligent, with great emphasis on Bible teaching and exhortation to search and verify the Scriptures for truth, echoing Acts 17:11. And worship is to be fruitful, looking for the fruit of the Spirit named in Galatians 5:22 to 25 as evidence that the church has truly been worshipping him.
Maranatha Chapel is a non-denominational evangelical Christian church in informal fellowship with Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. The association is described as a sharing of philosophical and spiritual values and the participation by pastors in intra-church conferences. The church notes that it is not a denominational church, nor is it opposed to denominations, but it does not agree with the overemphasis on doctrinal differences that have led to division in the body of Christ. The stated vision is to love God and love people, anchored in Mark 12:30 and 31, and to make disciples of all nations as Matthew 28:19 and 20 commands.
Baptism at Lifeguard Tower 32
Each summer, Maranatha celebrates baptisms in a service that gathers at the beach. The evening opens with food at five thirty, and baptisms begin at six thirty at Lifeguard Tower 32. The church describes baptism as an outward sign of what has happened on the inside, a public commitment to Jesus that mirrors a wedding ceremony. Those being baptized are asked to bring a towel and a change of clothes, and a Certificate of Baptism signed by the pastor who baptized them is available afterward. The yearly gathering reflects the covenant community Ray Bentley and his successors have built at Maranatha, a fellowship rooted in the Word, anchored in the neighborhood, and reaching out from north county to the rest of the world.