When Josh and Kim Hotsenpiller first arrived in San Diego, shortly before long-time friend and ministry partner Shawn Kennedy, it was the summer of 2003. All they owned was what they could fit in the back seat of a Volkswagen Jetta. Recently married, Josh and Kim were fresh out of college and full of a dream to start a church that would be a place for people of all walks of life to find the hope, grace, and freedom found in a healthy relationship with Jesus Christ, a place where people knew that their existence mattered to God and to others.

In September of 2003, Existence Church launched its first service on the campus of UCSD. Twenty thousand flyers were mailed out and ten thousand flyers were hand delivered; two hundred chairs were set up in expectation of the hundreds of people who would walk through those doors. When the service began and ended there were a total of two new people!

In March of 2005, Existence Church leased a warehouse on Miramar Road, one of the busiest roads in San Diego. People from all over the US donated funds, equipment, labor, and more to transform that industrial warehouse into a dynamic church building in only a few short weeks. The first service after the remodel two hundred and fifty people showed up.

In the past years, the story of Existence has been full of bending roads, unpredictable blessings, and, through it all, the joy of watching God take what was only a dream and turn it into an even better reality.