Restoration Abbey

Come and be still.
You were expected.

Restoration Abbey is a neighborhood church in San Marcos learning the slow work of being with — with God, with one another, with our neighbors. You don't have to have it figured out. You don't have to earn a place at this table. There is already one set for you.

Join us Sunday — 10am What to expect →
The communion table set with bread and a chalice before the stained glass.

A neighborhood abbey

Church is not a gathering of people who have it all together. It is what happens when ordinary people let themselves be found by God — and then stay at the table long enough to be changed by the company. We keep an old rhythm here: word, prayer, bread, and wine, week after week, in a building with a terracotta roof and a prickly pear growing through the tiles. Nothing about it is in a hurry. Neither is God.

What shapes us

  1. Deeply formed by being with

    Presence before programs. We learn God's company by keeping company.

  2. Together rather than perfect

    We would rather be honest in community than impressive alone.

  3. Uncomfortable for the sake of others

    Love rearranges things. We let it.

  4. Christ-centered friendship

    Friendship is not the warm-up to the mission. It is the mission.

  5. Practice our faith for everyday life

    Sunday teaches us what Tuesday is for.

Bread broken and handed into a child's reaching hands.

Being with

We are not here to fix you

Most of what matters in a life can't be fixed — it can only be faced, and it is better faced together. So we practice presence: sitting with scripture, with silence, with each other, with the parts of our stories we'd rather skip. Every week the bread is broken and handed over, to grown-ups and to children reaching on tiptoe, and every week the same thing is true: it is given, not achieved.

Life together at the Abbey →
  • Two people greeting one another in the doorway of the church.
  • Children in the Godly Play room beneath a Be Still and Know banner.
  • Children and adults gathered together in the congregation.
  • Musicians leading the singing on a Sunday morning.
  • Clergy at the front of the sanctuary during the liturgy.
  • The congregation gathered for worship.

Sunday, most weeks. Come see for yourself.

Our neighbors

Joined to a neighborhood

An abbey is for the people around it. We share our building, our tables, and our weeks with neighbors across San Marcos — learning alongside Universidad Popular, walking with immigrant families, showing up where we're invited rather than where we'd be impressive. Restoration is God's work, and it is already underway on this street. We would rather join it than run our own.

Meet our neighbors →
The Abbey's terracotta roof and bell tower against the hills.

Sundays at 10am.
The table is long.

Liturgy, bread, kids welcome and audible. Come as you are; leave less alone.

Plan a Visit