Orange County Churches Review & Guide

www.saddleback.com

Church Review
Scriptural View: 3/5
Beliefs: 3/5
Community: 3/5
Preaching: Topical
Worship: Choruses
Service times: Sat. 4:30 & 6:30pm, Sun. 9:00 & 11:00 am, 4:30 & 6:30 pm

Website Review
Site Usability: 4/5
Site Design: 3/5
Site Content: 3/5

Review: I attended a service on Father’s Day of June 2004. Going to Saddleback church is an experience not unlike going to a resort on a vacation. As you turn onto “saddleback parkway” you drive up a winding road through a luscious landscape complete with rolling hills of green grass, palm trees, big red rocks and a waterfall. As you follow the signs and the parking attendants, they kindly help you find a place to park among the sea of cars that fill the lot. Sorry, no valet though.

As you walk onto the campus there are a number of large buildings. I wasn’t quite sure where to go so I walked over to a tent covered information booth. The person there explained to me that there were seven different “venues” to choose from. A “venue” is a “worship center” that conducts the service in a varying styles and settings. The “main worship center” is where the pastor of Saddleback Church, Rick Warren, speaks in person. His presentation is delivered on a live video feed to a large screen in each of the other six venues. Essentially what is different with each of the venues is the music and the decoration. There is a “rock-n-roll” venue, a “gospel choir” venue, an “island style” venue, a “saddleback with an edge” venue, “intimate younger” venue, a “Spanish” venue, and the “main worship center” venue. I decided to go to the “main worship center” venue because I wanted to see the famous Rick Warren in person.

The building is state of the art. There is a wall of glass that makes up the entrance. It is a good 50-75 yards long, has words and phrases frost-etched all across it and is inset with several glass doors. As you walk into the building there are at least a couple thousand seats to choose from. There is a main level of seating on the ground floor and then huge stadium like section of seating directed behind the ground-level seating. At the front is a huge platform with three large screens, one in the middle, two on each side. The two sides of the building are all windows. I sat down in the ground-level seating area and looked out the windows to see the sun reflecting off the mountains and the clouds hovering in the distance.

The service began with the musicians playing and the worship leader welcoming everyone and we all clapped for some reason. The music was top notch. Superb sound quality just as good if not better than a concert at the Verizon amphitheatre. There were all kinds of musicians, guitar, drums, a trumpet, a trombone, a violin, a keyboard, a group of backup singers and more. It was quite exciting. I kept turning my head to look at the screens and then at the stage and then back to the screens. I finally decided to just watch the screens because here were two guys on stage with these huge video cameras that kept running around filming everyone. But you didn’t see them on the screens. Instead, somehow they compile the live videography in real-time and project it on the screens into what looks a lot like a music video with different shots constantly changing back and forth.

After the music time everyone was quite pumped up! There was this intense sense of excitement in the air as Rick Warren walked out on the stage. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and khakis and as he began to speak it got real quiet in the building. While he was walking up to the microphone a row of men also walked in and sat at a line of seats behind him on the platform.

Pastor Rick began his talk by welcoming all the fathers and then proceeded with his sermon. His sermon consisted of reading a verse or two, usually from the paraphrase of the Bible, The Message and then he would immediately go on to explain how to apply that particular idea to our lives. This would take about three or four minutes for each verse. After each time he did this he had one of the men who were seated behind him come up and share about how they had applied what Rick had just talked to their lives about and how much better they were because of it. All this took about forty-five minutes. After the last guy shared, Rick said a few more words then the worship leader returned to lead everyone in another song and then we were all dismissed.

I cannot recommend this church as a good place for a Christian to grow the goal of becoming God-centered, Christ-saturated and Bible-intoxicated. From beginning to end the philosophy of ministry Rick Warren has written about in His book The Purpose Driven Church and expressed at Saddleback church is extremely man-centered. So much is done according to what people like and what is comfortable rather than focusing on careful exposition of Scripture and following it wherever it leads. I am not convinced that the strong focus on “purpose” from Rick Warren and Saddleback is healthy for Christians. What we need is to find value in making much of God, not Him making much of us.

www.hfcathedral.org

Church Review
Scriptural View: 2/5
Beliefs: 2/5
Community: 2/5
Preaching: Liturgical
Worship: Hymns
Service times: Mass- Sun.6:45, 8:00, 9:30, 11:15 am; 12:45 pm (Misa en Español); 5:00 pm & 10:00 am (Mass in sign language: At the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse Chapel). Sat. 8:15 am & 5:00pm. Weekdays 8:15 am, 12:15 pm.

Website Review
Site Usability: 3/5
Site Design: 2/5
Site Content: 2/5

Review: I attended a service in May of 2004. The church is located on Glassel street just before you get to the circle in downtown Orange. As you walk up the stairs to the church you see a bronze statue of a women holding some flowers to the left. You walk through large wood double doors and into the sanctuary. Inside, the building has a high vaulted ceiling and several wood pews to sit in.

The service began with several readings from the priest. Most of the readings were prayers or confession to God through Jesus Christ though one of the readings was directed to “mother God.” Sometimes everyone would respond together out loud and other times we would all simply stand up or sit down. There was a time of singing as a group from the hymnals placed in the back of the pews. After the time of singing there was a time of greeting the people seated near us and then the priest made several announcements about things going on during the week. After the announcements the Priest walked behind a large elaborately decorated table and proceeded to perform the transubstantiation ceremony to celebrate the Eucharist.

The people at church were friendly and there seemed to be a lot going on at the church during the week according to the priest’s announcements. I also overheard some people talking during the greeting time who apparently knew each other and were quite involved at the church.

Throughout the service there was a sense of awe, mystery, and significance in the actions we were completing. God is presented and revered as holy other and the partaking of the bread and the wine are considered precious gifts from God that are essential for life.

The service concluded with the priest stretching out his arms toward us and pronouncing a blessing for everyone. As I walked out to the parking lot there were tables set up where some women from the church were selling roses for men to give to their wives or their mothers for mother’s day. Even though my wife is not a mother I thought it would be a great idea to buy a rose for her, so I went ahead and bought one. The lady who sold it to me smiled very big and wished me well as I walked away.

Though the respect and fear of God in Catholic churches is to be commended I cannot recommend this church due to their lack of commitment to God’s Word. The Roman Catholic Church believes it possesses a higher authority than the Bible and therefore believes in unbiblical doctrines such as the meritorious nature of the sacraments, papal infallibility, transubstantiation, purgatory, indulgences, the immaculate conception of Mary, veneration of saints, and many other things. The priest’s mediation in the giving of external objects, bread and wine, is the primary purpose of the service rather than expositing of God’s Word so that Christians may come to believe in its truth.

http://www.porticochurch.com/

Church Review
Scriptural View: 5/5
Beliefs: 5/5
Community: 5/5
Preaching: Exegetical
Worship: Choruses
Service times: 10:00 am

Website Review
Site Usability: 4/5
Site Design: 4/5
Site Content: 3/5

Review: I attended a service at Portico in November. The meeting I attended was at the Ugly Mug coffee shop in downtown Orange where the church gathers on Sunday mornings. The Ugly Mug is a old-town house converted into a coffee shop and has sort of become the hip, indie, gypsy, artsy (and whatever other cool adjectives you want to fill in) hang out for many of the Chapman University students over the last few years. The main room packs out around 50 or more people on some nights when the coffee shop hosts poetry readings or live music.

Shortly after walking through the doors I was greeted by a couple of genuinely nice guys. They told me that they had just recently started having church together there at the Ugly Mug last month. We chatted for awhile and then the service began. Everyone took a seat and then one of the guys I had been talking to led us all in the singing of a couple popular worship choruses of petition while playing his guitar.

After the worship time in song, the Pastor, Jon Cochron explained that Portico believes in studying God’s Word by going through the books of the Bible and dealing with each verse. This week’s passage of study was Philippians 2:12-30. Pastor Jon passionately proclaimed that the command of verse 12, “to work out your salvation” is not a working for salvation but is rather the proper result of God’s saving work in our lives. He showed how verse 13 clearly states this salvation is because it is “God who works in you to will and to do His good pleasure.” Pastor Jon held out his forearms showing his tattoos which have the words “sola gratia” (grace alone) inscribed on one and the words “sola fide” (faith alone) inscribed on the other and explained that salvation is always by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus in Scripture. He was rigorous in pointing out that salvation is something God does in us and that the faith he gives us is shown true by the good works He enables us to perform. Pastor Jon followed the text closely teaching that good works are what enables us to shine like lights so that people might see Christ and be compelled to worship and love God through Him. As a group we looked at the three examples of such lights that this passage of Philippians refers to: Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus. It was pointed out how each example challenges us as Christians to be more than just what Pastor Jon called, “the frozen chosen.” Instead, he said we as Christians need to reach out and take the gospel to our neighbors and co-workers and everyone else with Christ’s love and good deeds. Pastor Jon spoke many other encouraging words and concluded his sermon with the serving of the Lord’s Supper. People intermittently walked up to partake of the elements while the guy I met at the beginning of the service led everyone in a few more songs of human petition and a couple of songs of declarative praise to God for who He is.

I would highly recommend this church as a great place to grow in your knowledge and love of God both because of their strong commitment to the study of God’s Word and because of their strong commitment to reach out to the neo-pagan culture of our day.

http://www.laicc.net/Content/Regions/OC/index.htm

Scriptural View: 0/5
Beliefs: 0/5
Community: 2/5
Preaching: Topical
Worship: Choir
Service times: 10:00 am

Website Review
Site Usability: 3/5
Site Design: 3/5
Site Content: 1/5

Review: The Los Angeles Church of Christ Orange County Region is part of the larger movement known as the International Church of Christ (www.icoc.org). The International Church of Christ demands “total commitment” from its members, called “disciples.” They originally came from an American religious movement of the early 1800s called the “Restoration Movement”, and represent a conservative wing of that movement. The independent “Christian Church” and “Disciples of Christ” are two church denominations that came out of the Restoration Movement along with the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, (Mormons). Though their name is similar, The International Church of Christ should not be confused with the United Church of Christ, which came from a different branch of the Protestant Reformation and holds very different beliefs than the Churches of Christ or Restoration movement as a whole. ICC believes the church has apostasized and sees itself as God’s movement to restore true “New Testament Christianity.”

ICC believes in following the Bible only and no “creeds of men.” Is that a creed? Any religious practice not specifically commanded in the Bible is termed “unbiblical” and is rejected by the International Church of Christ. A common saying among them is that, “We speak where the Bible speaks, and keep silent where it is silent.” Yet interestingly, Kip McKean, the World Missions Evangelist and head of the ICC, is the ultimate authority and source for ICC doctrine. Nothing any other ICC minister writes is published by the ICC or used without his approval. He alone claims to have the correct interpretation of Scripture, and anyone disagreeing is dismissed (see reveal.org for several testimonies).

ICC embraces a belief that one must be water baptized by immersion in one of their churches in order to be saved. They believe that the act of baptism actually saves a repentant believer and refer to Acts 2:38 as support for such a belief. The ICC holds that denominations and sects are sinful and not of God and that all non-ICC churches are not true churches. Because of this, there are never two ICC-affiliated churches in a single city or town and in order for one to be saved they must be a member of an ICC church and be baptized in their church. I spoke with Anthony, a member of the L.A. Church of Christ who said that they frequently re-baptize people who were baptized as Christians in Protestant churches.

ICC rejects the use of musical instruments during worship as deeming them unbiblical. Passages in the Bible describing the use of musical instruments in worship are ignored because they are descriptions and not commands.

ICC does not emphasize theological issues in its preaching or teaching; it has a utilitarian, results-oriented approach. The ICC tends to view serious theological study as a waste of time for most of its members. Gordon Ferguson, an ICC leader states, “Any religious group who strongly emphasizes doctrinal accuracy runs a risk of losing perspective and losing God. (Progressive RevelationBoston Bulletin, May 1988).”

Based also on Matthew 28:18-20, the ICC also believes in a system of discipling, which means that every member is assigned another member as a mentor, to whom he/she reports, confesses sin, and which he/she is expected to obey and emulate. In turn, each disciple is to actively be evangelizing, which means finding people for them to disciple. This activity is very important for making other disciples also contributes to the aquiring of your own salvation along with baptism and ICC church membership.

WARNING! I recommend that you avoid any International Church of Christ Church! They are extremely cultic. ICC sounds Christian but they severly distort the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Church Review
Scriptural View: 4/5
Beliefs: 3/5
Community: 2/5
Preaching: liturgical
Worship: hymns
Service times: 7:30, 9:00, and 11:00 am

Website Review
Site Usability: 4/5
Site Design: 3/5
Site Content: 2/5

Review: I attended a service in September. As I drove into the parking lot I found a space among a litter of Mercedes, BMWs, Hummers, and Cadillacs. Everyone was dressed pretty formal and acted very official.

The service was liturgical in format. Episcopal/Anglican churches attempt to take a “middle of the road” position regarding the differences between Roman Catholic and Protestant doctrine. This comes out a little bit in their liturgy. The service coupled readings and a time of preaching with a ceremony of the Eucharist. Throughout the service there was a sense of awe and wonder and a focus on the total “otherness” or transcendence of God. Perhaps it was merely the liturgy but there was a stark recognition of mystery and reverence during the church meeting.

The worship in song included singing a couple of hymns accompanied by an organ. Few people sang despite the God-rich words of the songs being sung. There seemed to be little emotion or joy in the singing. The singing was intertwined with segments of standing, sitting, reading outloud, and praying.

The sermon at St. James Episcopol was on Hebrews 2:1 “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” Apparently St. James had recently broke off from the Episcopal denomination over their embracing of homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle both for their members and ministers. So it was stated that this sermon was intended to address the justification for breaking away. The sermon was very passionately delivered with much conviction. It was not expositional but rather focused of trumpeting sola scriptura (belief in the authority of the Bible alone).

The service concluded with some business matters. Due to their breaking off of the Episcopal church, the denomination was requiring that they relinquish their building. Yet, the bishops at St. James were announcing to the parish that they were determined to fight that demand legally since they thought hey owned the building since it was payed for by their church’s tithe. I found this whole reasoning sort of odd since church is not about a building and tithe is not a payment but a gift offering unto God. But perhaps there is more involved than I know.

It is great that St. James Episcopal is taking a strong stance for a confidence in the authority of the Bible! I see this as a great step in the right direction. However, I cannot yet recommend this church because there are many other doctrinal beliefs St. James embraces where this confidence has not yet been applied (the total sinfulness of man, the unmeritorious nature of the sacraments, egalitarianism, veneration of the saints, and inerrancy to name a few). In addition, St. James cultural sensitivity and mission seems pretty limited to the upper class.

Website: http://www.cefconline.org/

Church Review
Scriptural View: 5/5
Beliefs: 5/5
Community: 4/5
Preaching: Exegetical
Worship: Hymns & Choruses
Service: 8:00, 9:30 and 11:00 a.m

Website Review
Site Usability: 4/5
Site Design: 3/5
Site Content: 2/5

Review: I attended the a service in August. The people there were very friendly. Someone met me at the door when I first walked in and asked if I was new and helped me to find a seat. There seemed like there were a lot of things going on in the church and that it would be fairly easy to get more involved.

The service consisted in worship of song and of worship in the study of God’s Word. The worship of song was a blend of hymns and contemporary choruses led by a young man. The sermon was excellent. The study was from Ephesians 3:14-21, a prayer of the Apostle Paul’s. The study not only rigorously dealt with the text but rigorously gripped my heart stirring me not only to want to pray more but to pray with the glory of God in view. Pastor David Hegg, the preaching and teaching elder, leads in the study of God’s Word by going through books of the Bible and studying them verse by verse. Apparently this was his twenty-third sermon in Ephesians.

Corona EV Free is firmly committed to inerrancy both in their doctrine and their practice. The whole service was very God-centered and very biblically oriented, holding fast to the spirit and passion of the reformation. You kind of got the feeling that the whole service was about the Bible and that these people all gathered because they loved studying that book together.

The soundness and depth of biblical teaching and reflection is definitely Corona EV Free’s strength. However, they seem to be somewhat insensitive to cultural issues. While people were very friendly and I believe truly desirous of being missional, they lacked cultural (not racial) diversity and therefore cultural relevance. Most were dressed nicely, anyone who was not might feel out of place. The music (not the hymns or choruses) were reflective of the seventies music era when churches first started using pianos instead of organs.

I would highly recommend this church as a great place for someone to grow in their faith due to their strong commitment to the Word of God in all things.

Website: http://www.crossingonline.com

Church Review
Scriptural View: 2/5
Beliefs: 2/5
Community: 4/5
Preaching: Topical
Worship: Contemporary
Service: Saturday 5, 6pm Sunday 8:30, 10 and 11:30 a.m

Website Review
Site Usability: 3/5
Site Design: 3/5
Site Content: 3/5

Review: I attended a service in June 2004. After walking in I could not help but feel a little bit like I just walked into a store. The crossing is striking because they have television screens everywhere, probably at least twenty right on stage all stacked together, not to mention the two big projector screens on each side of this television monument. The stage and the building walls were also covered with exercise equipment (treadmills, a free-weights bench, bicycles, rock climbing gear etc.) From what I gathered, the crossing always teaches topical themes that they get from television, commercials, etc. When I was there the Gatorade slogan “Is it in you?” was their current theme, hence the sports equipment everywhere. I believe the series before the Gatorade one was “extreme makeover.” They always hang a big banner of the current theme on the side of the building, which you can see from the 55 freeway.

The worship time consisted of a band who led everyone in a few songs, a skit, and a brief talk from the pastor. The band sounded really good acoustically, which made it easy to sing along. Most all the songs were songs of petition focusing on human need. On the stage there were also televisions facing the band. The worship leader kept looking into her television monitor, so I took a closer look to see what was being shown on it. Somehow they had a live video feed of the band playing being displayed on those televisions. The same things was displayed on all the other screens in the room during the worship in song time.

The skit was about a man who sat down at his desk to spend some time with God but kept getting interrupted or distracted. At the end of the skit he opens the Bible and begins to read. After the skit, pastor Tim Celek gave a topical message on spending time with God. He quickly referenced a few verses and then talked about how spending time with God is like going to the gym. His main point was to use the “…analogy of physical conditioning to teach how discipline applied to your spiritual life can have the same impact as a rigorous training regiment can have for your physical body.” He concluded with prayer and dismissed everyone.

The crossing states on their website that they believe that the Bible is “inspired by God (and) is truth without any mixture of error.” This is much to be commended. However, this belief does not seem to exemplify itself in their preaching. The preaching and thrust of the church seems to communicate that they believe one’s own experience is a better source for communicating truth. There does not seem to be high concern for rightly interpreting the God inspired words of the Bible. In fact, they explicitly state that they the crossing is to be “a safe place to investigate Christianity without guilt or pressure.” This is difficult since the main message of the Bible is that all humans are guilty of sin and in need of the salvation of Jesus Christ. Which brings up another thing, the name of Jesus was never mentioned once in the entire service, which seems a curious practice for a Christian church.

The Crossing publishes their statement of beliefs online. For the most part it is a general evangelical statement of faith, though it has some funny language in different parts, like the “three personalities of God.” Yet, essentially they believe in the traditional affirmations of the Christian faith even though most of those convictions do not find their way to their service.

The Crossing is a church that seems to have lost their doctrinal distinctiveness in their worship service. The service as a whole felt very man-centered and the message was mainly that we need to be spiritual. I cannot recommend this church because it would be very difficult for one to truly grow in their knowledge of the Son of God when His Word is not revered.

http://www.standrewspres.org

Church Review
Scriptural View: 4/5
Beliefs: 4/5
Community: 4/5
Preaching: exegetical
Worship: contemporary on Sat night / traditional on Sun morning
Service times: Sat night - 5:30, Sun morning - 8:30, 10:15

Website Review
Site Usability: 3/5
Site Design: 3/5
Site Content: 3/5

I attended a Saturday night service in July. I was invited to go there by a friend of mine who attends St. Andrews and so I was able to sit with him and a few of his friends. That made me feel very welcome. St. Andrews seems to have a very strong sense of community. It is a large church, a couple thousand in members, but I would not be surprised if there are even more people involved in their mid-week Bible studies and other ministries.

For the most part the majority of the people appear to be upper middle class, mostly caucasian. I am not sure how people of varying cultural classes and interests would be received. I did not perceive any particular indicators that St. Andrews is significantly interested in cultural awareness and/or mission.

The worship of song was contemporary style. The worship team seemed to genuinley enjoy worshipping. That made it pretty easy to sort of follow their lead and sing along unto the Lord. All the songs were choruses and were projected on two large screens, one on each side of the platform.

The preaching was exegetical in format though the minister did some odd things with the text. The sermon was a study in Psalm 73, which seems to cleary be an apologetic Psalm both raising and answering the question of how God can be just when the wicked prosper. But rather than following this strongly evident theme in the text, the minister talked a lot about how Satan was tormenting David in this passage and how there is a spiritual battle going on in every one of us. My difficulty was that though spiritual /Satanic battle is a reality and though he was going through the Psalm verse by verse, he was clearly reading things into the text that were simply not there. It seemed like he was trying to get God off the hook by reverting to Satanic activity as the source for wickedness and spiritual struggle. This answer seemed odd to me since both this particular text and the rest of the Bible always pictures God as sovereignly and purposefully goverening Satanic wickedness.

Our church reviews are usually based upon only one visitation and what we can learn about the church from their website. For this reason there is always the possibility that the particular time I visisted just happened to be different from the norm. In this case I would like to give St. Andrews the benefit of the doubt for a couple of reasons. One, the preacher for that service was a guest preacher, Richard Mouw, the president of Fuller Seminary. Two, their doctrinal statement is very strong (with the exception of paedobaptism [learn what we see as the errors of infant baptism instead of believer baptism ] and egalitarianism [all roles are open to both men and women instead of some roles being designed solely for women and some roles designed soley for men, i.e. complementarianism). Three, I have been informed by a staff member that they do in fact affirm the Sovereignty of God in all things and are dedicated to carrying on the vision and convictions of the Reformation (ususally considered to be the 5 solas: the auhority of the Bible alone, salvation by faith alone, by grace alone, on the basis of Christ alone, for the glory of God alone).

Though I do have some secondary reservations on a few non-essential matters, this church does seem to be theologically sound at their core. I would recommend this church if you live in Newport Beach particulary in light of what appears to be a lack of churches in the immediately surrounding area who are committed to exegetical preaching and theological depth.

Welcome to Orange County Church Reviews. This is part of our continued effort to review churches in local areas to help people find good churches to attend. Also visit our San Diego Church Review site for those of you in that area. If you would like us to review a church in any of the following cities, let us know: Aliso Viejo, Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Cypress, Dana Point, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine, La Habra, La Palma, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Los Alamitos, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Orange, Placentia, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Stanton, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster or Yorba Linda.

Church Review
Scriptural View: 3/5
Beliefs: 3/5
Community: 2/5
Preaching: Topical
Worship: Contemporary
Service time: 10:00

Website Review
No Website

Review: I attended the Easter service at Plaza Bible Church in 2004. This church meets in downtown Orange right near the Orange Circle. Plaza Bible Church belongs to the Foursquare denomination (www.foursquare.org), a Pentecostal group born in the early 1900’s out of the Wesleyan Holiness Tradition.

The first thing ones sees as they are walking in the front doors of the church is a sign with a Scripture verse engraved on it: Philippians 4:19 “My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory.” The church building seats a few hundred and is decorated with elegant script messages painted on the side walls and a very real looking cross on the back wall behind the stage.

The time of worship in song was composed of contemporary Christian music led with guitar, drums, a piano, and three vocalists. The time of worship in the study of God’s Word consisted of the Pastor, Don Palmer talking about how Easter is a time of new beginnings. He began his sermon by sharing about how he did not start working on his sermon until the night before, but woke up early that morning to discover that his wife had put out Easter candy for his son which really inspired him for the day’s service. Pastor Don said it made him feel like God had something really special for everyone that day and that Jesus love on Easter was like His wife’s. He cried, then very passionately described the death and resurrection of Christ. The passage of Scripture Don referred to was John 21 which describes Jesus appearing to Peter after His resurrection. Then with a big smile he told everyone how we all can have a new beginning just like Peter.

There was a wide range of age groups present and everyone seemed to know each other very well. On the front steps of the platform there were several Easter lily plants they were giving away after the service.

I cannot recommend this church for their lack of solid exegetical preaching. Their denominational affiliation confesses core salvation beliefs but lacks theological depth and consistency. This is evident in their service which chiefly appeals to human emotion and experience rather than Scripture and reason.