El Cajon Wesleyan Church

Our Story

ECW has deep roots within the El Cajon community. We were founded in 1925 under the leadership of Reverend James Spencer with 25 people at the first service. The church was located on Peach Street in what was then the heart of El Cajon. Over the years, the church grew in size, so that by 1960 we needed to move to a larger location. We purchased the property where the church is currently located in 1961 and by 1965 we had built a chapel, fellowship hall, and classroom space.

In 1979, the pastor, Bill Bedsole, challenged the congregation to meet the needs of children in the community by building a two story education building, which could be leased to a local school. This building has since been completed and San Diego Christian Unified School District has a school on our campus which at one time was a junior high school and is currently an elementary school.

In 1991, the church decided to expand its outreach to children and families by opening a daycare center to facilitate growing demands of working families for quality, affordable childcare. El Cajon Wesleyan Preschool opened its doors in September of 1992 and has served over a thousand children and their families since that time. It continues to be a beacon in the community for quality childcare.

In the late 90’s, the church built the current worship facility which houses a large sanctuary that allows us to host concerts and community events, one of which is our neighborhood elementary school’s (Meridian Elementary) fifth grade promotion .

We are part of the worldwide Wesleyan denomination with World Headquarters in Fishers, Indiana. The Wesleyan Church has nearly 400,000 constituents in 5,000 churches and missions in 80 countries of the world. Formed in 1968 resulting from the mergers of several like-minded groups, dating back as far as 1843, The Wesleyan Church has its roots in John Wesley’s Methodism.

For information on the history of the Wesleyan denomination go to: www.wesleyan.org.