Carlton Oaks Baptist Church in Santee's Carlton Hills district traces its origins to an Easter Sunday gathering of 17 congregants at Carmen's Café on March 29, 1959. The Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated church constituted with 38 charter members that October and built its permanent home on Carlton Oaks Drive by 1961, steps from the trails and campgrounds at Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve on Fanita Parkway. A fire gutted the sanctuary on October 22, 1980, but the congregation rebuilt and dedicated a replacement structure just 60 days later on February 17, 1981. Both English and Spanish-language worship services run on Sundays, expanding the church's bilingual reach across the 92071 ZIP code. Fellowship programming overlaps with Carlton Hills Boulevard's broader worship community, including Pathways Community Church at 9626 Carlton Hills Boulevard. The 1981 post-fire reconstruction was completed in a 60-day rebuilding effort, and the mortgage was fully retired by the October 27, 1985 burning ceremony — a 26-year arc from first service to debt-free ownership.