Common Ground

United to Walk with Jesus & See His Kingdom Come
Young Adults & College Ministry of FCC You can find a list of our home groups under the “Home Group” tab above.

Common Ground is the Young Adult's Ministry of Foothills Christian Church, purposed for ages 18-30. We meet Thursday nights at 7pm in a coffee house atmosphere, featuring a beautiful live worship & a powerful message from God's Word, relative to living well in modern culture. Our ministry brings those together in many life stages from Freshman in College to those beginning Careers to Newly Married

Couples and even those starting their Family with young children. Whatever you are doing in life, Common Ground helps create a safe atmosphere where you will find hope, love, the transforming presence of Jesus, and community. Throughout the week, Home Groups provide an opportunity for more intimate worship, deeper friendship building, and practical encouragement & tools in walking with God. Have other questions or are another ministry wanting to connect? We'd love to hear from you! Foothills Leadership:

Young Adults/Young Families - Pastor David Matranga
Senior Pastor - Mark Hoffman

09/10/2021

Y'all ready for Tuesday? Get your tickets, let's listen to great music and help the Pregnancy Care Center of South East San Diego buy a new ultrasound machine!

06/17/2021

Don’t forget that tonight is our last Common Ground until July! We won’t be here next week so we can serve at 🙌🏼

Join us at 7 to hear a message from David and to worship with us! The prayer meeting is at 6 and we would love to see you there.

04/07/2021

Meet Matt:

“I was in a punk rock band in eight grade. I did a lot of like, attempting to scream. I would sing for our band and I wanted to learn guitar, so I was learning guitar from a friend. One of our leaders at Friday night group asked if I wanted to lead worship with him at Friday night group…

I’ve been at the church since I was in my mama’s womb. It was Father’s Day of 1996 and my grandpa said, If you could do just one thing for me...come to church with me. I found this place called Foothills.’ So, my mom went to church and she really really enjoyed it. She started coming, and gave her life to Jesus. She was dating my dad at the time...He was raised catholic, so when he came in and saw Hank and the drums he was like, ‘No flippin way!!’ [My dad] was a drummer, so he was very attracted to music. So he started coming and got saved. When I was two years old, my parents got married here. My dad eventually auditioned for the band so I grew up listening to him practice worship music.

[When I was in] 4th grade, we were struggling financially. So, my dads mom bought us a house in Missouri, and was like, ‘you should come out here and spend time with us, and it’s cheap’, and my dad was like, ‘okay!’ We move out there and my mom and I only stayed for seven months. We did not like it. We moved back, but my dad stayed for another year and a half. So, that was tough. No dad around for that whole time, just mom and me.

We got plugged in back here again, so then that was 6th grade… My friend said, ‘You should come to junior high group!’ I came with him to Friday night, and he was like, ‘Deuces! I’m going to core’, and I was just left in the courtyard. Somebody was like, “Oh do you need a junior high group? We can get you plugged in”, and that’s how I met some of my closest friends. In seventh and eighth grade, I was in leadership core. I think that helped me a lot because I was very shy as a kid.

My first junior high camp, I did not want to go to camp. My parents were like, ‘this is going to be really good for you’. What I think is so cool about that story is that I was crying leaving to go to camp because I was so scared, and I came home crying because I didn’t want to leave because that was the first time I met with God.

Camps and Future Quest kinda got me on the path of like...maybe I don’t want to be punk rock, and I really want to lead worship? I’m not an edgy kid, I'm pretty goody two shoes. High school came around and I started leading worship at the mission and the chapel at the high school.

I remember coming to Common Ground, and like people were on fire, and people were there intentionally. Common ground really helped me make my own faith.”

03/03/2021

Meet Bri:

“I was five years old I remember… my dad choked my mom. It was really bad. I remember vividly going upstairs and stopping the whole fight. At the age of six, my parents got divorced so I had to go through the court and custody thing. I was little so I didn't know what was going on. After that, my dad's lawyer told him the wrong date and he didn't show up for the custody date so they gave the whole custody to my mom. Once my parents got divorced, my mom started to become an alcoholic which is sad because she would barely be home and my sister would take care of us while my mom would party and drink.

In middle school, we would see my dad on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. My sister invited my dad to church and he started going to church. He was trying to get better and be a better person. He wanted to get back with my mom but she was over it. She was already in the party scene and was done with my dad, but my dad was getting closer to God. On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, the days I could see my dad, he introduced us to church. It was nice to be exposed to that. My dad would tell us what was right and wrong and tell us to go get an education. It was nice hearing that just three days a week.

In eighth grade in the summer, we stopped hanging out with my dad for probably a month...we stopped going with him for the weekends. It was kind of weird. Like, why hasn't he called us? I was curious, so I called him, and I was like, ‘ Hey dad I want to hang out with you. I miss you. I haven't seen you in so long’ I don't know why... he went off ‘Oh now you want to call me?? I am working right now. I'm so busy. Don't call me ever again’ He was yelling at me. That made me really sad. He was some light in my life. I never called him again.

I went to public school and was exposed to worldly stuff. I started to slowly progress into my mom and I didn't like that because I was against all of that. I was just like partying and drinking and all of that. I always had that feeling that what I was doing was wrong. Is this all people do? Is that what fun is? I was always so convicted by that. Why couldn't we ever go out without alcohol consumption? I had depression and anxiety. I was all over the place. I was very lonely. I had this friend...he was an actual chrstian. In high school he would always invite me to church and I was always like ‘Oh yeah!’. But I would never follow through. Throughout school, he would always invite me. I had other priorities, so I never went.

I go to Cal State San Marcos and live in the dorms. That first semester was my lowest point in my life. I felt so depressed and so lonely and homesick. My routine was consistent and draining.
I was so confused. Why am I not happy? I was also talking to this guy. He was a part of me being so depressed. Worldy guys just want s*x. I wanted a relationship and to take things slow. We were not on the same page.

Right across from my college there was a church, and I would go and take my roommates. I went to a worship night. We were getting food and I remember this lady coming toward us. I kinda looked at her and she was looking at us. When she came up she asked to pray for me. She started to explain my whole life story and everything I was going through. I just started crying. I found peace for once. I went back to my dorm thinking about how I had found peace there. I started praying every day consistently. I started praying for direction every day. I started to see little changes in how I moved.

My friend from high school DMd me and asked me to hang out so we hung out. We caught up from highschool, and he asked ‘when did you commit your life to Jeusus?” I asked him what that meant, and he explained committing your life to Jesus. Even though he explained it to me, it went from one ear to the other, but that question was playing over in my head. I ended up looking up ‘committing your life to Jesus’ videos on youtube and watching testimonies and “how to videos”. I remember I was in my dorm in my bathroom and I broke down and committed my life to the Lord.”

There is so much more to Bri’s story! If you see her smiling face, don’t hesitate to get to know her better and see what God has done in her life.

02/25/2021

Meet Amara:

“I was about 10 years old and already felt like my faith was on trial. My parents split up when I was a baby, and my mom and step dad got married when I was pretty young. Growing up, my mom and step dad were Christians which was a blessing, but my biological father, who I still have a relationship with, is not a Christian. It was interesting because I had people at home who were encouraging me to follow Jesus, and then I would visit my dad who would almost make me defend my faith as I was getting older... but it was also really good because having parents that have different spiritual beliefs really made me solidify what I believe about God and learn how to love people that disagree with me. Facing that was so impactful in my life and is still very applicable now, especially in college where you meet people who have all kinds of different beliefs. From day one I've had to deal with someone who disagrees with me, but we still love each other.

I came to Foothills in 6th grade. As I have gotten older I have consistently attended Foothills and am now in my senior year of college. During these past few years I have been trying to figure out God's call on my life and Common Ground has been one of the places I've always known I can go to receive Biblical teaching and always have people around that are pushing me toward honoring God with my decisions. I've always felt comfortable receiving prayer for guidance, ministry time is definitely a favorite of mine. Worship is also a time I treasure because I love to sing, and I feel like we are more open to both communicating with the Lord and receiving wisdom from Him in that space.

I love to be active. I like to be outside a lot. Whether that is being in the ocean, or playing soccer, or singing music... I also love to learn! At my school, I study Applied Health Science, and I have a minor in Worship Arts. I think the combination of studying how our bodies were created, studying the Creator, and learning more about how we can create music and praise God with that is the coolest thing. Really, in every area of life we can find the Lord... there is always some way we can point to our Creator!”

02/18/2021

Meet Declan:

“Well, I suppose one thing is, I am high functioning autistic, which does play a part in my Common Ground experience. I don't remember how I started going there but I was that guy who would sit by himself and would want to be a part of interactions, but not really sure as to how to do that. Eventually I stopped going because I liked the messages, but that was it. Then at homegroup, someone challenged me to go back saying to me that God was moving there. Dragging my feet, I came back, but by then I knew more people, was more comfortable, and was a little more mature. Eventually I started mingling in conversations. It didn't always work, but sometimes I was able to contribute.

I asked to be part of the prayer team. Start small, right? I also set up chairs, and I like doing that. So many testimonies start: ‘I started setting up chairs and now I'm doing this’.

Realizing the gift Holy Spirit gave me of teaching, Search the Scriptures came about because David Matranga asked during the months of lock down how we could add to Common Ground. What's a way I can apply my gift of teaching without necessarily giving a message from up there? It's going well. There are nine people a part of the group.

Another thing is if there's a retreat or if there's a talent show, go do that. People still probably know me as the Fox in Socks guy. At a talent show, I did a dramatic reading... a dramatic recitation rather... of Doctor Seuss's Fox in Socks. It was pretty hilarious.

The way my mind works is I liked seeing how little things make up the big picture. I do not always see the big picture very well and get stuck in the details... By the time I got to grad school, I had to do a historiography paper, maybe about the crusader states! I did that, I got hooked, and that's where I'm at now. I want to be a history professor. I want to be that light that won't—or at least I'll try not to—work some agenda, but present what happened, good and bad. To offer as fair an analysis as possible.”

This is Common Ground.

01/27/2021

Community—>Discipleship—>Purpose

This is our why: doing what we’re made for in community and giving God the glory He is due.

Stop by tomorrow at 7pm to worship with us!

10/01/2020

Our masks are on, the coffee is brewed, and we’re ready for you!
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Join us tonight at 6:30 for (always free) cold brew and tea, and we’ll worship together at 7. Oh, did we mention the free Fanta floats afterwards? Don’t miss out!

09/22/2020

Freedom Conference Info!
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Instead of our regular meeting this Thursday, we will be joining our church in attending the first night of the Freedom Conference. The start time will be at 6PM, and Thursday is totally FREE for members of Common Ground!
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This is a 3-day event that will give you the tools you need to walk in the freedom Jesus bought for you! If you’d like to attend the rest of the conference, you get a crazy good deal as a member of Common Ground and registration is only ~$10~ for Friday night and all day Saturday.
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Check the link in our bio for the registration link (Friday and Saturday only) and for all other conference info.
Who’s joining us?! We promise you won’t regret it 🙌🏼

09/17/2020

Who wants tots?! 🤚
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Join us tonight at 7pm for worship and the Word. Tater tot bar to follow! Did we mention the tots are FREE? 🤤

Address

365 W Bradley Avenue
El Cajon, CA
92020

Opening Hours

7pm - 9pm

Telephone

+16194427728

Website

http://commonground.foothillschurch.org/

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