Our church's story began on March 9, 1980, when a small group of people met for Sunday afternoon worship in a home on North Torrey Pines Drive. Torrey Pines Baptist Mission was born that day under the sponsorship of Twin Lakes Baptist Church. During the mission’s first year, the congregation was led by several lay preachers and eventually moved into its first storefront at 5333 Jay Avenue and Rancho. Twin Lakes Baptist Church purchased 3.2 acres at the southwest corner of Cheyenne Avenue and Torrey Pines Drive (our current location) as a future site for the mission fellowship.  However, due to conflicts with the sponsoring church, Torrey Pines Baptist Mission was closed in May 1981. The ministry was reopened as Foothills Southern Baptist Chapel with many of the same members in July 1981, operating as a mission of First Southern Baptist Church.  Steve Davis served as bi-vocational pastor until July 1982. Under his leadership, the congregation secured a second storefront to accommodate the mission’s growth, and negotiations were begun with Twin Lakes Baptist Church to acquire the land originally purchased for the mission. These negotiations were completed under Interim  Pastor Earl Greene, a member of First Southern Baptist Church.

Our present pastor, Hoyt Savage, began serving the church in November 1982.  Our ministry and membership expanded in the storefront location, while the church continued praying for a permanent home. We broke ground for the Worship Center building on June 30, 1985. After multiple delays, construction began in January 1986 and was miraculously completed through a combination of paid and volunteer labor provided by our own church members and volunteer builders from Louisiana churches. 

On December 7, 1986, we celebrated God’s provision in our first Sunday worship service at our present location. We gratefully dedicated our building to God’s glory in February 1987. Foothills entered a new era of its history when we left the “mission church” status and constituted as an autonomous church on August 20, 1989. Our classroom and office building, referred to as the Multipurpose Building by our members, was completed in October 1996.  

Today our church continues to move toward the goal of balanced, healthy church life so we can better reach our community and develop growing, serving Christians. We expect God to continue extending His grace toward us in the coming years as He enlarges our vision, ministry, and fellowship.