Orange County Churches Review & Guide

http://www.alccpasadena.com

Church Review
Scriptural View: 5/5
Beliefs: 5/5
Community: 5/5
Preaching: Exegetical
Worship: Hymns & Choruses
Service times: Sun. 10:00 AM

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

Review: I attended the Sunday morning service in May of 2004. The moment I walked through the front door, several people greeted me and began asking me many questions. They were very friendly and invited me to sit with them.

The service began with prayer of petition that God would be glorified in the service. Abundant Life Community Church is part of the Sovereign Grace denomination Sovereign Grace Ministries . Sovereign Grace is the denomination from which PDI music (People of Destiny International Music) was formed and so we sang many PDI songs. All of the them were very lyrically strong (God-centered & man minimizing) and musically pleasing (led by a young man on an acoustic guitar). A couple of the stanzas of a song called “Haven’t You Been Good” particularly impressed me:

Thank you for the cross
Thank you Lord for drawing me
Out of millions lost
Thank you Lord for saving me

Haven’t You been good
Haven’t You been so good
Glory to Your name
Glory to Your holy name

Sovereign Grace is not only a Reformed denomination doctrinally but also a charismatic one. This was evident during one portion of the song time when someone went forward to the elders whispering something in their ears. When the current song we were singing was over, one of the elders, Ron Boomsma went up to the microphone explaining that the Holy Spirit had moved upon someone present to share something with everyone. He then handed the microphone over to that person who shared about her overwhelming feeling that we shouldn’t hold anything back because God was so worthy of our praise.

The sermon was delivered by one of the two elders who lead the church named Lynn Baird. He began by explaining that their church teaches through the Bible book by book and deals with every verse and every word. On this Sunday they were continuing their study in the book of Acts and were in chapter 16. Lynn was very passionate and at the same time very careful with the text explaining the genre and purpose of Acts, the relevant historical and cultural background and he dealt with the individual words of the chapter. The main thrust or theme of the message was reaching out to the world with the gospel.

At the conclusion the sermon there was a time of prayer and service ended. As soon as the service was over my wife and I were swarmed with people coming and talking us. We were actually invited out to lunch by three different people. One man took me to see their bookstore and ended up buying me three different CD’s. During the following weeks after we attended this church two different men called me to see how we were doing.

I would highly recommend Abundant Life Community Church as a great place for anyone to grow in their knowledge and love of God through the study of His Word and fellowship with His people. They are somewhat conservative culturally (some of the women wear head-coverings and wives are discouraged from working outside of the home) which may inhibit them missionally. But their doctrinal strength and devotion to God’s Word makes this church an excellent place to worship.

http://www.motifs.com/firstchurch/

Church Review
Scriptural View: 0/5
Beliefs: 0/5
Community: 1/5

Website Review
Site Usabilility: 1/5
Site Design: 0/5
Site Content: 0/5

Summary:“Christian Science” is a cult started in the 1800’s by Mary Baker Eddy. They use the words ‘christian’ and ’scientist’. They are neither Christian nor scientists. I recommend you visit the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) to study this cult.

Not only does it deny the essential doctrines of Christianity, but it has completely reinterpreted the Bible. It drastically redefines the Bible’s culture and terminology and rips thousands of scriptures out of their historical and biblical contexts. The result is a non-Christian mixture of metaphysical and philosophical thoughts. Christian Science is so foreign to the Bible that, if it didn’t use words like Jesus, Trinity, Love, Grace, Sin, etc., you’d never suspect it had anything to do with the Bible at all. Additionally, the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which is the Christian Scientist’s mainstay of spiritual knowledge, reads with a rhythm of pseudo logical statements that has the tendency to dull the senses when read long enough. Is Christian Science Christian? Definitely not.

Above quote from CARM.

Christian Scientist churches are part of a cult. Their churches and reading rooms are not places of true worship and study of the Bible. I strongly recommend you avoid them.

http://www.ocuuc.org

Church Review
Scriptural View: 0/5
Beliefs: 0/5
Community: 2/5
Preaching: Topical
Worship: Hymns
Service times: 9:15 & 11:00 AM

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

Review: I attended a service in January of 2005. The service began with the singing of a number of songs out of a hymn book, led by a woman playing the piano. After the time of song there was a ceremony where a chalice was lit and everyone spoke out a phrase together which was printed in the bulletin. The chalice is intended to symbolize openess to all according to reason, justice, and compassion and the flame lit inside its bowl is intended to symbolize love. There was also a time of giving money. When the plates were passed around to put money in, everyone turned to each other and sang, “From you I receive, to you I give; Together we share, and from this we live.” After the offering there was a time of meditation. During this time, perhaps two or three minutes, most of the people closed their eyes and repeated the act of taking long breathes of air in and then exhaling.

The woman leader and minister of the church, Karen Stoyanoff. She was speaking about Martin Luther King Jr. Her sermon was titled “The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life.” The three dimensions were, one: love yourself, two: love your neighbor, three: love the cosmos or life itself. She used excerpts of King’s sermons to illustrate each point but when she came to the third she said that King believed in God, but those of here do not accept the notion of a traditional “God” so she said what we need to do is love the cosmos. She defined the cosmos as that which unites us all to gather in an interconnected web of life.

WARNING! I recommend that you avoid any Unitarian Universalist church. They are a cult. The reject the existence of God, the deity of Christ, the authority of the Bible and a host of other things. (To read more about Universalists see Christian Apolgetics Research Ministry )

http://cmmethodist.org

Church Review
Scriptural View: 2/5
Beliefs: 3/5
Community: 2/5
Preaching: Topical
Worship: Hymns
Service times: 10:00 AM

Website Review - website currently down
Site Usability: 0/5
Site Design: 0/5
Site Content: 0/5

Review: I attended the weekly Sunday service in January of 2005. The First United Methodist Church of Costa Mesa meets in their historic church building complete with pews, a high vaulted ceiling, an orchestral organ, and stained glass windows. As I walked in I was greeted by two elderly men who handed me a bulletin containing the order of worship.

The meeting was led by a woman pastor named Julie Elkins. She directed the service in various prayers, responsive readings, and a message from the pulpit. She began by asking any visitors to stand up and introduce themselves to everyone. After this, everyone was to go around and greet each other.

Throughout the service there were several times when everyone was directed to either stand up or sit down. One time, while we were sitting, Julie Elkins asked for anyone who had any prayer requests to share them out loud. Julie had a prayer request for a good friend of hers who was recently diagnosed with cancer. She was very emotional and after collecting herself she prayed for her friend and for blessings upon the people present.

There were a couple of sections in the service when a man led the congregation in singing some hymns while he played the organ. In addition, there were two very talented younger children who played special music right before the time of offering. One played a beautiful piece on the violin and after that the other played a wonderful piece on the oboe.

The time of offering was led by a man who performed a ceremony where money from plates that been passed around were put on an alter in front of the church below a cross. He prayed a prayer announcing the money as a gift to God.

Later, Julie Elkins had this same man read a passage from the Gospel of John, after which she proceeded with her Sunday morning sermon. Her sermon was topical in nature. She said there was a principle in this passage of John about coming to see Jesus. The thrust of her sermon was that Jesus was a good teacher and that we all need to be taught, so “come and see” and be taught by the master teacher.

I cannot recommend this church for several reasons. The most obvious reason is infringement of Scriptural teaching concerning the roles of men and women and the leadership of the church (for questions see Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood ). Other reasons include the low esteem of Scripture (demonstrated by the non-exegetical nature of the sermon), and the low esteem of Christ, who was not only a good teacher but the Son of God. In addition, there appeared to be no mission mindset whatsoever. Nearly everyone present was elderly in age.

http://whittierhills.org

Scriptural View: 5/5
Beliefs: 4/5
Community: 3/5
Preaching: Topical
Worship: Choruses and Hymns
Service times: 8:00, 9:30, & 11:00 AM

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

Review: I attended a service during Christmas time of 2004. The time of worship in song consisted of singing a couple Christmas carols and a few worship choruses. This was followed by a time of prayer and then an offering..

At the beginning of the sermon time the minister announced that some people in the earlier service had responded to the day’s message and become Christians. He pointed to a cross on the podium where he was standing which was backlit with soft lights. He said the cross was lit up today because people had come to Christ. The preacher’s sermon initially was introduced as an expository exegetical sermon from the book of Hebrews. However, during the message we turned to one passage after another as he tried to tie it all together. There was no main thrust to the message except that in the end he encouraged people to respond to Christ as saviour. The preacher offered himself to pray with whoever desired prayer at the end of the service in the front.

As I walked out of the building I was greeted by a number of people. There was a wall covered with a world map you see as you leave. On it were the pictures several people who were living as missionaries in different parts of the world. Outside there were a couple small booths giving out information about how to get more involved in the church and one booth was giving out free coffee.

As I sipped my coffee somehow I got involved in a conversation with a group of people. A couple of them were church members who said that they get the most out of going to this church by being a part of one of the mid-week bible study fellowships called “life groups.” They told me that a few of the professors from Talbot Seminary lead some of the lifegroups which has really helped their study of God’s Word to be profitable.

If you were going to be part of one of the lifegroups I would recommend attending this church. The Sunday morning service was quite traditional even though it is called one of their “contemporary” services. The congregation did not seem very diverse culturally. It seems they put more of their mission focus abroad. Their doctrinal statement is strongly evangelical and well-worded, but the sermon on this Sunday was weak exegetically.

http://www.gracechurch.org

Church Review
Scriptural View: 5/5
Beliefs: 5/5
Community: 3/5
Preaching: Exegetical
Worship: Hymns
Service times: Sun. 8:30 & 10:15 AM

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

Review: I attended a Sunday service at Grace Community Church on Mother’s Day of 2004. After parking across the street I walked into the large sanctuary and found a seat in one of the many pews. First there was an opening prayer and then the choir and orchestra played led the congregation in singing a number of hymns which focused on the greatness and majesty of God. The general feeling in the air was one of utmost reverence and awe for the God this significant amount of people had gathered for. After the time of worship in music and song, John MacArthur, the well known Bible teacher and commentator, delivered the Sunday morning message from the Word of God. MacArthur teaches through the Bible book by book, dealing with every verse and every word. At that time he was in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 12. MacArthur put a lot of emphasis on the historical background of the text, the narrative framework of Matthew, and the weight of Jesus’ words and actions in the passage. In conclusion he called upon people to apply the text by believing in Christ instead of standing by demanding a sign as an evil and adulterous generation does.

I highly recommend this church as a great place for one to grow in their knowledge and love of God and His Word. Grace is very traditionally conservative regarding cultural freedoms in Christ, which can easily inhibit gospel mission and openness to all people types communally. However, the strength of Grace is their high view of God and their commitment to the careful exposition of Bible. The comment posted includes a more in depth review which would be important if you are seriously considering this church.

Orange County Church Review & Guide is made up of several individuals who believe it is extremely important for non-christians, new believers and mature believers to find a church that is centered on the Bible. Amongst the reviewers we have several pastors, the editor of Christianity DMOZ, people with Masters in Theology and more.

If you would like to join us and write reviews, please feel free to apply, email: Orange County Churches. There are two criteria to accepting reviews:

(1) You can’t write a review of your home church.
(2) Further, Orange County Churches is not unbiased. Frankly, no one is unbiased. We all have a particular viewpoint in which we decide to value things by. So all applicants will be asked a few questions to help understand these biases. A few biases in which we evaluate churches by.

a) Does the Church believe scripture is true?
b) How do they interpret Scripture?
c) Does the church have a heart of mission both locally, culturally and worldwide?
d) Does the church desire to glorify God and worship Him, rather than people?
e) Does the church have a community that lives out an active involvement and desire to disciple/hold people accountable and grow them?

These areas are the areas in which we value churches. Some people may not agree with these. We would encourage you to add your comments under the churches in which you disagree. We also would encourage you to start your own website to review churches based on the standards you see fit. We recognize some people may be upset with reviews of particular churches. Our desire is not to make people upset but to pursue God and hopefully, the Pastors of these churches will prayerfully consider any areas that are evaluated as settling for less than the Glory of God.