UC San Diego Chapter
Chapter One

Our Story

April 2023 · The first altar

A prayer gathering of one

Watch Altars began at UC San Diego's Nuevo West graduate housing as a small prayer gathering, at first just one person keeping watch before God, calling it a "watch altar," a place to keep watch in prayer.

From one to three

The gathering grows

One became three as students joined to keep watch together, praying, worshipping and seeking the Lord for their campus and generation.

Beyond UC San Diego

Three campus chapters

The same call to keep watch spread to two more campuses, and chapters were established at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz.

Today · Three chapters

UCSD, Berkeley & Santa Cruz

What began with one now gathers across three University of California campuses, still built on the same simple call to keep watch, minister to the Lord and make Jesus Christ known.

Worship night

“We never set out to build an organization. We set out to keep watch, and God built a family.”

From the first watch at Nuevo West, 2023

Where we’re going

Vision & Mission

Our Vision

To make Jesus Christ known, obeyed, and glorified by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our Mission

To proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His Kingdom, making disciples who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, bear witness to His dominion in all the earth.

Gather

Worship & prayer weekly

Grow

Discipleship in the Word

Serve

Teams using their gifts

Send

Into culture & the world

What we hold to

What We Believe

We believe that the Most High rules over all creation, all nations, all kingdoms, all rulers, all institutions, all generations, and all human affairs. His throne is established in the heavens, His Kingdom rules over all, His counsel stands, and His dominion is everlasting. No throne, power, ruler, nation, system, culture, economy, technology, or territory is outside His authority.

Therefore, Watch Altars:

  • confesses that God is King over all the earth.
  • teaches that human authority is accountable to divine authority.
  • prays, serves, and builds with the fear of the Lord.
  • bears witness that the living must know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men.
Daniel 4:17Psalm 103:19Proverbs 21:1Isaiah 46:9 to 10Acts 17:26 to 27Revelation 11:15

We believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, Savior, King, Head of the Church, ruler of the kings of the earth, firstborn from the dead, image of the invisible God, heir of all things, and the One in whom all things consist. He is to be known, obeyed, proclaimed, worshiped, and glorified in all things.

Therefore, Watch Altars:

  • exalts Christ above every name, gift, leader, platform, and institution.
  • proclaims Jesus as Savior and Lord, not merely as teacher, example, prophet, or helper.
  • calls people to the obedience of faith under His Lordship.
  • measures ministry fruit by whether Christ is made known, obeyed, and glorified.
Matthew 28:18Acts 2:36Philippians 2:9 to 11Colossians 1:15 to 20Hebrews 1:1 to 4Revelation 19:16

We believe that the Holy Bible is the inspired Word of God and the final authority for doctrine, faith, worship, holiness, discipleship, leadership, ministry, family, ethics, and obedience. The Scriptures are profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, that the servant of God may be complete and furnished unto every good work.

Therefore, Watch Altars:

  • submits every teaching, prophecy, practice, structure, and decision to Scripture.
  • teaches the whole counsel of God and rightly handles the Word of truth.
  • rejects deception, error, compromise, and doctrine that does not agree with the truth of Christ.
  • forms disciples whose minds, affections, conduct, and calling are governed by the Word of God.
2 Timothy 3:16 to 172 Peter 1:20 to 21Psalm 119:105John 17:17Matthew 24:35Acts 20:27

We believe that salvation, forgiveness, redemption, deliverance, eternal life, and entrance into the Kingdom of God come only through repentance and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Through His blood, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and intercession, people are delivered from darkness and translated into the Kingdom of the Son of God.

Therefore, Watch Altars:

  • proclaims the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ as central.
  • calls sinners to repentance, faith, forgiveness, and new birth.
  • ministers deliverance from darkness by the authority of Jesus Christ.
  • teaches that salvation is by grace through faith, unto good works prepared by God.
John 3:16John 14:6Acts 4:12Romans 10:9 to 13Ephesians 2:8 to 101 Corinthians 15:1 to 4

We believe that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth who reveals Christ, convicts the world, regenerates believers, sanctifies the people of God, empowers effective witnesses, produces holy character, guides the Church, and glorifies Jesus. The work of Watch Altars must be carried by the Spirit and not by flesh.

Therefore, Watch Altars:

  • seeks intimate fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
  • depends on the Spirit for witness, wisdom, discernment, boldness, and power.
  • nurtures the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit in holiness, and according to the biblical order.
John 14:16 to 17John 16:8 to 14Acts 1:8Romans 8:141 Corinthians 12:7 to 11Galatians 5:22 to 23

We believe that the Kingdom of God is the reign and rule of God revealed in Jesus Christ, proclaimed through the Gospel, demonstrated by the Holy Spirit, and embodied through righteousness, peace, joy, obedience, justice, mercy, truth, love, and power. The Kingdom is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, Watch Altars:

  • proclaims the Gospel of the Kingdom in obedience to Christ.
  • teaches believers to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
  • demonstrates the Kingdom through Spirit empowered witness, holiness, healing, deliverance, good works, and obedience.
  • bears witness that the kingdoms of this world belong to our Lord and to His Christ.
Matthew 6:10Matthew 6:33Matthew 24:14Luke 17:20 to 21Romans 14:17Revelation 11:15

We believe that God calls His people to be holy, set apart, pure, obedient, humble, watchful, and fully yielded to Him. Those who bear the name of the Lord must depart from iniquity and become vessels unto honor, sanctified and fit for the Master's use, prepared unto every good work.

Therefore, Watch Altars:

  • calls believers to present their bodies as living sacrifices.
  • teaches purity, humility, repentance, discipline, and the fear of the Lord.
  • refuses to separate gifts from character or power from holiness.
  • cultivates consecrated lives, homes, ministries, and leaders.
Leviticus 20:26Romans 12:1 to 22 Corinthians 7:11 Peter 1:15 to 16Hebrews 12:141 Thessalonians 4:3 to 7

We believe that the righteous live by faith, and true faith is expressed through obedience to Jesus Christ. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, receives the promises of God, trusts the character of God, acts upon the command of God, and works by love.

Therefore, Watch Altars:

  • teaches believers to live by faith and not by sight.
  • calls people to hear and do the Word of Christ.
  • trains disciples to obey in secret and in public, in spiritual life and in daily work.
  • recognizes that obedience is evidence of love for Jesus.
Habakkuk 2:4Romans 1:17Hebrews 11:1Hebrews 11:6John 14:15James 1:22

We believe that the Church is the body of Christ, the household of God, the pillar and ground of the truth, a holy temple in the Lord, and the people sent to make disciples of all nations. Disciples are formed by the Word, the Spirit, fellowship, prayer, correction, service, obedience, and love.

Therefore, Watch Altars:

  • builds disciples, not audiences.
  • teaches obedience to everything Christ commanded.
  • equips saints for the work of ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ.
  • multiplies faithful people who are able to teach others also.
Matthew 16:18Matthew 28:18 to 20Acts 2:42 to 47Ephesians 4:11 to 162 Timothy 2:2Colossians 1:28 to 29

We believe that God's people are a royal priesthood called to minister to the Lord through worship, prayer, intercession, thanksgiving, spiritual sacrifice, and surrendered lives. Prayer and worship are not merely ministry activities. They are priestly expressions of a people given to God.

Therefore, Watch Altars:

  • keeps watch before God in prayer and intercession.
  • ministers to the Lord through worship in spirit and truth.
  • cultivates spiritual altars in lives, homes, campuses, cities, and nations.
  • teaches that the fire upon the altar must be kept burning before the Lord.
Exodus 19:5 to 61 Peter 2:5 to 9John 4:23 to 24Romans 12:1Hebrews 13:15Revelation 5:9 to 10

We believe that the rule of God results in righteousness, mercy, compassion, truth, justice, and good works. Those who have been redeemed by Christ are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, zealous for good works, and called to let their light shine before men that the Father may be glorified.

Therefore, Watch Altars:

  • practices good works as fruit, not as replacement for the Gospel.
  • serves people with compassion, generosity, righteousness, and faithfulness.
  • cares for the vulnerable, strengthens the weak, and seeks the good of people.
  • teaches believers to glorify the Father through visible obedience and good works.
Micah 6:8Isaiah 58:6 to 12Matthew 5:16Matthew 25:35 to 40Ephesians 2:10James 1:27

We believe that God's purpose is that all nations, peoples, tribes, tongues, families, and generations know Him, worship Him, and come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Therefore, Watch Altars:

  • prays, sends, goes, teaches, plants, and multiplies for the sake of nations and generations.
  • bears witness from local places to the ends of the earth.
  • seeks the worship of Jesus among every people and sphere of life.
  • lives for the knowledge of the glory of the Lord in all the earth.
Genesis 12:3Psalm 22:27 to 28Habakkuk 2:14Matthew 24:14Acts 1:8Revelation 7:9 to 10

Read the full Statement of Faith

Our complete doctrinal statement and foundational documents are available to read and download.

View documents
What drives us

Our Values

Hover each value to see how it shapes our community day to day.

Devotion

Jesus first, always. Worship and prayer are the engine of everything we do.

Truth

We pursue truth honestly, in Scripture, in the lab, and in our own hearts.

Family

No one walks alone. We belong to one another across colleges and years.

Service

Gifts are given to be given away, to the campus, the city and the world.

This is who we are. Come be part of it.

The best way to understand Watch Altars is to experience it. Join us this Friday, there’s a seat with your name on it.