Orange County Churches Review & Guide

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.gracelb.org

Church Review
Scriptural View: 5/5
Beliefs: 4/5
Community: 5/5
Preaching: Exegetical
Worship: Choruses and Hymns
Service times: 9:30 am

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

Review: I attended a service in July of 2004. Their website states that they are “a multi-congregational and multi-generational church” which is a fairly accurate description. There was quite a wide range of different types of people there from dressed up older men, to college age men dressed in holy jeans and other rags, to Asian girls dressed in hip Japanese fashion, to Mexican moms with their kids huddled around them. The church was founded in Long Beach 1913 and meets in a fairly large church building. It has a very artsy feel inside. Seventies style lights hang from the high ceiling. Pews fill both the main floor and the balcony. And older carpet covers the platform.

I sat in the balcony and looked down at the band which led everyone in singing a couple hymns and a couple choruses. The words were projected on a large screen while a young man led everyone in singing them while he played his guitar. Most the time he simply stood there with his eyes closed and his head looking upward while he sang.

After the time of song the senior pastor, Lou Huesmans, preached a sermon out of the book of Proverbs. He spent a significant time explaining the historical and cultural backgrounds that need to be understood in order to interpret Proverbs correctly. He illustrated how wisdom was seen during that time period and how Proverbs was a book of wisdom. Pastor Huesmans defined wisdom as “the right application of truth in one’s life.” He also spoke about the background of the author of Proverbs, Solomon and the various events of his life. After this he went through a few verses of the passage of Proverbs he was preaching from, dealing with each of the words and sentences and how the instruct us to live a life that is pleasing unto God and not foolish. He concluded with a time of response wherein all the Christians present, and all those who desired to put faith in Christ as their savior for the first time, were invited to read a confession of faith out loud that was printed in the bulletin. As we finished, he prayed a prayer a concluding prayer and everyone was dismissed.

When I walked outside there were a number of people just hanging out in the courtyard area in front of the building. There were a number of canopy covered tables some with information about different outreach ministries, some with information about different Bible studies and one with free coffee and doughnuts. One fellow with long brown hair, a beard, and a heavy metal t-shirt came up and introduced himself to me. We talked for awhile and he told me about an “Labrys,” art gallery they have there on campus. He took me over to another building where a good sized room was filled with art pieces on the walls a couple small tables , some chairs and a counter where they have coffee available. Apparently, he explained that on some nights they have film screenings and theological discussion about them afterward.

I would definitely recommend this church as a good place to grow in one’s faith and in their knowledge of the Word of God. They seem to have a good grasp on missionally reaching out to their urban community and culture. It is unclear about their stance regarding the some of the major tenants of the reformation. Deeper involvement in this church would ultimately demonstrate their convictions regarding them. I would encourage you to read the comments from a Pastor of the church. They will be helpful in your determining to visit this church.

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.