About us
Carlsbad Coast Church was planted in 2025 by a small team of families and young adults who wanted the kind of church North County didn't quite have yet — warm, honest, Bible-teaching, and unafraid of people's real questions.
In early 2024, a group of about 20 of us — pastors, teachers, surfers, engineers, nurses, students — started meeting in a living room in Olde Carlsbad to pray about what it would look like to plant a church here. We weren't trying to start something different for the sake of being different. We were trying to be faithful to something old: the actual teaching of Jesus, gathered in community, in the specific place we live.
By Easter of 2025 we were renting a school auditorium. By the end of that summer, we moved into our current location on Carlsbad Boulevard. We're still small. We're still figuring things out. But every Sunday, a few more people walk in — and some of them stay.
Three commitments shape everything we do:
Who we are
The people who teach, pastor, counsel, and generally make Sundays happen. We are small on purpose and available on purpose.
Lead Pastor
Ryan grew up in Carlsbad and spent seven years pastoring in the Bay Area before planting Carlsbad Coast Church with his wife Maddie and a small team in 2025. He preaches most Sundays, still surfs before sunrise when he can, and believes most people outside the church were never actually pushed away — they just never got a clear invitation. He and Maddie have two kids and one loud dog.
Coast Kids Director · Women's Ministry
Maddie leads Coast Kids and helps shape our women's ministry. Before Carlsbad, she was a second-grade teacher in Oakland — and it shows in how she runs a kids service. She cares deeply about parents feeling seen, and about kids learning the Bible in a way that actually makes sense to them.
Pastor of Teaching & Young Adults
Luis oversees our young adults ministry and preaches about a third of the year. A former software engineer at a San Diego biotech, he came into ministry later than most and reads every doctrine book like it is an engineering spec. He is married to Ana and they have a newborn son named Miles.
Director of Counseling & Premarital
Sarah is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and runs our premarital counseling program plus pastoral counseling sessions. She works with couples, individuals, and grief. Twenty years in practice, a deep belief that the Bible and the best of modern psychology are not at war, and a quiet way of asking the question you have been avoiding.
Worship & Production
David leads Sunday worship and runs our production team. A jazz-trained pianist who grew up at a large church in Torrance, he writes about a third of the songs we sing on Sundays. He is married to Priya, a nurse at Scripps, and they just had their first kid.
Coast Youth Pastor
Elena has worked with middle and high school students for a decade and makes the absurd claim that 7th grade is her favorite year of life to pastor. She runs Wednesday night youth, our annual summer camp, and does more coffee runs than anyone else on staff.
We'd love to meet you — in person at 2350 Carlsbad Boulevard, or online at 9 AM Pacific.