Our History

In the early months of 1959, Harold Nickel walked into Narramore Hardware in Lakeside, with the intention of convincing Mr. Narramore that he needed to buy some fire extinguishers. The conversation turned from fire extinguishers to things of the Lord. Mr. Nickel was a pioneering - and bivocational - church planter for the Conservative Baptist Association of Southern California, and was working on several church plants at the time. Mr. Narramore said that he was interested in starting a new church in the Lakeside area. As a result of this conversation, four families decided to meet one Sunday to worship the Lord in the home of the Narramores, with Mr. Nickel as the pastor. Rosalie Nickel faithfully worked alongside her husband, encouraging the families as they worshipped together.

Soon others became interested, a larger place was needed, and a small room above the Lakeside Theater was rented. The congregation continued to grow and thoughts turned to a church site where a suitable building could be erected.

Their faith was convincing and four acres on Mapleview Street in Lakeside were purchased, thus the name MAPLEVIEW BAPTIST CHURCH. The little room above the theater was bulging at the seams and larger temporary quarters were found, this time in a storage room behind the hardware store.

About this time, Mr. Nickel said that perhaps it was time to find a permanent pastor. The Lord sent Pastor Jack Lockhart, his wife Betty and their four children, including Dana, who was born the first Sunday Pastor Jack served as pastor at Mapleview.

In June 1959, the church congregation filed a written request for a New Church Call and affiliation with the Conservative Baptist Association of Southern California. This application was accepted in June of 1960.

The congregation continued to grow and the time soon came when it was necessary to take a step of faith concerning a permanent church building. In the latter part of 1960, ground was broken on the Mapleview site and the building began to take shape. With very little cash, much faith and trust in the Lord, and many hours of volunteer labor, Mapleview Baptist Church grew to become a beacon calling the people to come worship the Lord here with us. The first service was held on Easter Sunday in April, 1961.

Here is a brief timeline of milestones at Mapleview up to the present:

1969 - First service in new sanctuary building

1977 - Dave Harris becomes Senior Pastor

1984 - AWANA club started

1985 - John Redman becomes Senior Pastor

1991 - Alpine Christian Fellowship church plant under Ed Gross

1997 - Ron Thomas becomes Senior Pastor

2007 - Current mission statement adopted

2016 - Jonathan Bones becomes Senior Pastor