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San Diego First Assembly

Website: http://www.sandiegofirstassembly.com

Church Review
Scriptural View: 3/5
Beliefs: 3/5
Community: 3/5

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

Summary: The First Assembly churches website is fairly busy, with a primary focus on communicating the ‘where’s and when’ of their services and other meetings. Each of the main buttons compartmentalize the different groups you can attend, ie Children, Youth, College, 55+, Couples, Recovery, etc. It seems there is a lot of opportunity for different community groups.

The church posts the Nicene Creed and Apostles´Creed as their statements of faith. They fall within the broad evangelical base which holds a strong view of scripture as truth. They are a pentecostal which puts an “emphasis on Spirit-driven service to our world”. A quote from their website says: “Divine healing is an integral part of the gospel”. If this is speaking about healing in terms of Christ works to redeem us through His work, yes, if it is about physical healing, this is where we disagree on what the ‘gospel’ is. It is at this place that many will differ on their beliefs with San Diego First Assembly. This issue can be devisive. If you’d like read more from an essay by John MacArthur titled, “A Look at the Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement Is it Biblical?

Confessing church which holds a pentecostal position. Suggest you learn more about this if you plan on attending.

5 Responses to “San Diego First Assembly”

  1. San Diego Church Reviews & Guide » Update: San Diego First Assembly Says:

    [...] learning more about the church from the Senior Pastor, their review has been updated: New San Diego First Assembly review. [...]

  2. Pastor Todd Hudnall Says:

    Dear San Diego Church Reviews & Guide,

    I’m the Senior Pastor at San Diego First Assembly. I appreciate your desire to give insight into the churches in San Diego and help people in their church selection. Yet, it appears your reviews are based on incomplete information.

    In your comments about our church you linked to an article by John MacArthur. MacArthur is actually one of my favorite Bible expositors. I own his library of commentaries and often refer to them. He is correct on a segment of the Pentecostal movement but is painting with too broad of a brush in his article. It certainly does not typify my views or the views of our church.

    Have you ever been to one of our 10:45 services? I do feel it would change some of your views about who we are and what we are like. Currently on our website is an apologetic series we completed. Our teaching is orthodox and Biblically solid. Yes we do believe in the operation of the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12) and believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as experienced by Christians in Acts 8 and 19. Of course, if this is seen by you as Biblically unsound, I understand your rating – but you have rated other with the identical view much higher.

    As far as missional view, we are extremely aggressive about fulfilling the Great Commission and reaching the un-reached and unchurched. The church I led in Texas baptized between 100 and 200 people on a yearly basis. SDFA is increasingly developing an outreach focused mindset and a passion for the Great Commission. We are not focused on Post Moderns alone but are endeavoring to reach a wide demographic of ages, races, and people of various socio-economic positions. A good portion of our outreach is toward the poor and disenfranchised.

    I admit that our web site needs some updating. It probably doesn’t do a very good job of portraying who we really are. I’ve been at the church 18 months and we’ve made only limited changes to the site. By years end it should be totally revamped.

    I’m not writing to ask you to change your ratings or your comments. Instead I just want to make you aware that some of your reviews (at least ours) are based on inaccurate information. If you ever want to discuss who we are as a church or would like to better understand our doctrinal view, I’d be glad to visit with you.

    Sincerely,

    Todd Hudnall
    Pastor
    San Diego First Assembly
    http://www.sandiegofirst.com

  3. SiteAdmin Says:

    Pastor Todd Hudnall is the new Pastor at SDFA and based on his comments and some further review, we have changed our ratings on the church.

  4. Pastor Todd Hudnall Says:

    Dear San Diego Churches,

    I’m writing again to thank you for changing the status of our church on your website. As I mentioned, I feel MacArthur’s article painted with too broad of a brush. He portrayed the worst of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches and their doctrine in his article. I’m just as alarmed by the abuses he wrote about as he. Be assured, though there is much error, it does not typify the majority of Pentecostals and Charismatics.

    Some social historians call the “Pentecostal” movement the fastest growing movement in the history of the world, growing from a handful 100 years ago, until now some say it makes up over ½ of the Protestant Church (500,000,000 plus). The church in Africa, China and South America (arguably much more vibrant and devoted churches than the America church) are overwhelmingly Pentecostal or Charismatic. As such the movement can no longer be seen as a small and marginalized fringe element of the evangelical church.

    I’m not trying to be an apologist for the movement. I simply want to point out that every segment of the church including Reformed, Baptist, and Bible Churches have people who have shipwrecked doctrinally or morally. So have some in our movement. TBN, Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland do not represent the majority of Pentecostals and Charismatic. They certainly do not represent our local church or the Assemblies of God.

    Today I inadvertently ran across an article by Dr. Sam Storms listing the 10 worst Christian books. Though he is an admirer of MacArthur’s other works, he lists his treatment of Pentecostals and Charismatics as a poor portrayal. Below are his comments and his website. You may want to reconsider using MacArthur as a source when it comes to labeling all Pentecostal and Charimatic churches.

    Thanks for considering this.

    Sincerely,

    Todd Hudnall

    (8) “Charismatic Chaos,” by John MacArthur (Zondervan). I have tremendous respect for MacArthur and cherish him as a brother in Christ. But this book is bad. It takes the worst in the Pentecostal-Charismatic world (and yes, there are some pretty bad things in that world) and portrays them as typical of charismatics in general. His arguments for cessationism and against the contemporary validity of so-called miraculous spiritual gifts is extremely weak. But I want to say again how much I appreciate most of the other books MacArthur has written.

    http://www.enjoyinggodministries.com/article2.asp?id=572

  5. Harry Miller Says:

    Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ:

    I am a preacher (not a pastor) and I work among the homeless in an area called Rose Creek in Pacific Beach. A homeless brother with the Jesus only Pentecostal faith got hit by a truck on his motorcycle. He went to the hospital and denied treatment for his broken ankle because he said Jesus would heal him. The nurse said if they did not do surgery on the bone the bone would heal out of place and he would be in constant pain when he walked on it. I prayed the Lord’s prayer with him and took him back to his home that is underneath the Highway 5 bridge just north of In and Out Burger near East Mission Bay Drive and Damon Ave (If you are at the In and Out Burger you walk toward the creek and stop at the fence and follow the path that goes North toward the Highway and duck underneath the bridge: here there are many lost sheep that are in the prodigal life). The brother’s name is Rex Wayne Manley but he goes by Wayne. He is using crutches and is in a lot of pain. The place is filthy and the people around him are addicted to Meth. On Monday many of them get a check from the government for close to $1000 which most is spent on this drug. The dealer and payee are also underneath this bridge and it is a mom who is also a former care given nurse. The mom’s son is bipolar and he is about 18 or nineteen. Mom and son both are meth addicts that draw full checks from the government. Son is very hyper and has many outbursts. The son is the hardest case and his name is Randy. The moms name is Debbie. The police will not do anything unless the homeless choose to do so for to them civil rights trump all other rights. Because the police force is so small violence has to be involved before it is enough of a priority. They have said to me that drugs is a misdemeanor and all that is required is for the offender to go to class. I could not find a Jesus Only Pentecostal church in the area or I would have written them. Wayne comes from a congregation from Independence Missouri but has not been their for many years. I could not find this congregation through Google. Please pray for Wayne and if you know someone that could go out to him and bring him back into the fold Pentecostal faith this would be a blessing for our Lord Jesus. Wayne says he has not been using drugs but he does drink beers and according to him does not get drunk. He did not have any insurance or a license when he drove his motorcycle and the hospital La Jolla Memorial on Genesee has agreed to do the treatment for free if he will consent. I have known Wayne for almost seven years and he has been trying to be responsible by working at a car lot in the area and stay away from partying. But now with the pain many succumb to the drugs. The hospital will not give him medication but will give him a prescription. The hospital will not pay for a voucher to pay for the medication. The hospital will not give him direct medications until he sees the doctor and Wayne cannot wait and leaves. In this area we have seen murders. Most of these are drug related. Please pray for Wayne, Debbie, Randy and many of the others who think that they are Christians. God knows. The fruit and is not good. Christians do not come here hardly ever. The drug dealers come 7/24 and feed, cloth, let them use their home, give them a job selling drugs and most importantly be a friend and spend consistent time with them helping them. This is a hard area to work for you put in a lot of effort and many times it seems as it is wasted for the person you are helping goes back to drugs. It took 3 years for the first one to come out from this prodigal life. That is consistent work at least every week for 3 years. I need a Pentecostal laborer for Wayne before the checks come in Monday. This is as sober as they get in the month. Monday I have to take Harold who has HIV and Schizophrenia and a felony to Homestart. Please pray for laborers.

    Your brother in Christ,

    Harry Miller
    8870-215 Villa La Jolla Drive
    La Jolla, California 92037
    Home: 858-642-7548; Voice Mail: 619-275-5728
    Email: [email protected]

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