Orange County Churches Review & Guide

http:// www.crystalcathedral.org

Church Review
Scriptural View: 1/5
Beliefs: 1/5
Community: 1/5
Preaching: Topical
Worship: Hymns
Service times: Sun. 9:25, 11:05 AM; 6:05 PM

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

Review: Crystal Cathedral is a church in the heart of Orange County. The building itself stands a few hundred feet high and is wall to wall glass. It sits adjacent to the shopping mall, theatre, skatepark known as “The Block.” When you drive up to the Crystal Cathedral the first thing you see is a full color digital marquee with rotating messages. After parking in a sea of cars on Sunday morning you walk up to this enormous building and pass by a graven image of the Pastor, Robert Schuller, made of bronze.

With the choir singing the camaras run, recording the next episode of “The Hour of Power.” “The Hour of Power” of is a nationally televised broadcast of the Crystal Cathedral Sunday morning service. The name is quite appropriate for it summarizes the teaching of Robert Schuller and his son who is the soon to be successor. The time of worship from the preaching of the Word is an amagalmation of new age self-help philosophy with Scripture quotations mixed in-between. Schuller teaches that sin is a problem that we can fix. The solution, the power of positive thinking through reading about Jesus’ life following his example. By going to the Crystal Cathedral or by watching the Hour of Power, you can learn how to throw off negativity and exercise your power to heal yourself.

I recommend that you avoid this church. The are part of the Reformed Church of America denomination but have moved away from core tenants of the gospel and their denomination. Tenants such as the sinfulness of man and salvation only through the justifying work of Christ on the cross in our place. God’s Word is not truly studied here and instead is syncretized with the new age worldview, where self is the highest order and prosperity is only a matter of your willpower.

http:// www.newsong.net

Church Review
Scriptural View: 1/5
Beliefs: 2/5
Community: 2/5
Preaching: Topical
Worship: Choruses
Service times: 9:00, 10:15 am & 12:00 pm

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

Review: I attended a service in the beginning of November 2004. Newsong is located in an industrial area of Irvine. I attended the 10:15 service. There were several people talking outside and in the foyer. I walked through the people to the entrance to open the door and walked in when a young girl stopped me and told me they were not ready and for me to leave and come back later. So I went back outside into the foyer and went into the a small room off in the corner which was their bookstore. They had one wall with a bookshelf containing a few select books and also a small table in the middle of the room displaying the books: “The Purpose Driven Life,” “The Prayer of Jabez,” and “Letters From a Skeptic.” I turned to my left and noticed everyone in the foyer had started to go inside.

As I entered the large wherehouse my eye was immedietly drawn to a picture projected on one of the side walls which said “Misfits.” I later discovered that Newsong teaches series to series and the series they were in at that time was Misfits. The theme of Misfits is that God accepts Misfits if we choose Him and follow His plan for our life. I sat in a seat sort of in the middle of the room. As I looked around at the hundreds of people around me I noticed that everyone, literally everyone, was Asian. The music began and a band, which descibes themselves as a band playing “contemporary rock and R&B.” There are large video screens to the left, right, and behind the band, which picture flashing images of the people in the band and their instruments while the words displayed. In addition, colored lights constantly flash while they are playing, much like you would see at a large concert.

The sermon was from an excerpt about Moses in the book of Hebrews. The speaker used this text as a springboard to talk about His own personal story and how it compared to Moses and how each one of us can have a “God moment” and “do great things for God.” He quoted several other passages and told stories about how he used to be a “Misfit,” acting up in class as a kid and playing pranks. He told us a story about how he had to be put in a special class for difficult kids but how his mom prayed for him and his life began to change and how he eventually became a pastor.

Newsong prides themselves in being a church reaching out to culture who has been on the front page of the L.A. Times three different times for that very reason. The head of the church, Dave Gibbons, describes himself as a “entrepeneur and lead pastor.” I have sent two different e-mails to him inquiring about the theology of their church since the books emphasized in their bookstore do not represent the orthodox Christian faith, particularly “Letters From a Skeptic,” written by an open theist. (Suggested Articles: Decreasing God So As to Increase Ourselves, More about Open & Process Theism) But there has been no response to either of my e-mails.

It seems to me that in their desire to reach out, Newsong Church has sold out. The gospel Newsong Churches professes in their statement of faith seems very different than what is expressed in their service and in the books commended in their bookstore. Until I receive further clarification on these issues I cannot recommend this church and advise that you stay away from it. If they are advocates of open theism they worship a different God than the God of the Bible and the God of the historic Christian faith. In addition, they do not demonstrate careful concern for the right exposition of God’s Word but put more emphasis on human experience.