Sandals Church is a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

multi-site church A multi-site church is a specific church congregation which holds services at multiple geographical locations, either within a specific metropolitan area or, increasingly, several such areas. Characteristic A multisite church is a local church tha ...

based in Riverside,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It is affiliated with the

Southern Baptist Convention The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization, the largest Protestant, and the second-largest Chr ...

History

It was founded by Pastor Matt Brown and his wife, Tammy, in 1997. For the first 13 years of its existence, Sandals Church met in various locations throughout Riverside, CA, the longest of which was at the gym at

California Baptist University California Baptist University (Cal Baptist or CBU) is a private Baptist Christian university in Riverside, California. Founded in 1950 as California Baptist College, it is affiliated with the California Southern Baptist Convention, an organiz ...

. In 2010, Sandals Church purchased and moved to its own property at 150 Palmyrita Avenue in Riverside. In 2012, Sandals Church launched its second campus in the Woodcrest area of Riverside. Sandals Church has campuses established campuses in Moreno Valley, East Valley, Hunter Park, Downtown Riverside (Palm Ave Campus), San Bernardino, Banning, Woodcrest, Lake Arrowhead, Menifee, Eastvale, and Fresno. According to a church census released in 2023, it claimed a weekly attendance of 11,000 people and 15

campuses A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls. By extension, a corp ...

in different cities.

JC's Girls

Heather Veitch, a former stripper, was attending Sandals Church’s when it founded

JC's Girls JC's Girls (short for Jesus Christ's Girls, also called the JC's Girls Girls Girls Ministry) is an evangelicalism, evangelical Christian women's organization in the United States whose members evangelism, evangelize to female workers in the se ...

with the help of Matt Brown in 2005.

References

* {{coord, 34, 0, 15, N, 117, 18, 41, W, display=title Evangelical megachurches in the United States Megachurches in California Buildings and structures in Riverside, California Churches in Riverside County, California Evangelical churches in California 2001 establishments in California Christian organizations established in 2001 Organizations based in Riverside, California Southern Baptist Convention churches Baptist multisite churches Baptist churches in California