Community Bible Church
September 9th, 2004Website: http://www.sandiegocbc.org
Church Review
Scriptural View: 3/5
Beliefs: 3/5
Community: 3/5
Website Review
Site Usabilility: 3/5
Site Design: 3/5
Site Content: 3/5
Summary: Community Bible Church (CBC) has a good foundational belief in Scripture and God. In their what they believe section most of what they write is both profitable and accurate for both a believer and unbeliever to consider. On salvational issues we are in agreement and so this church is comprised of brothers and sisters in the Lord. There are a few beliefs that they hold to that I believe to be inaccurate. These errors of doctrine should be a caution for the church seeker.
First, an error that many churches make, is taking a firm stance on ‘End Times’ issues. It is sad to see so many churches read through Revelation as a book of clues to try to figure out the symbolic language and interpret all of the world’s events through this filter. CBC spells out their beliefs on Dispensationalism (the Rapture, Tribulation, etc.), or as most people now view it the ‘Left Behind’ ideas brought by Tim Lahaye. As a church we should be firm in areas we are sure of, such as the need for Jesus Christ as our savior, but quiet on areas we are not certain and the end times is one of these issues. A disproportionate amount of time is being spent in the church devoted to the sensational tribulation ideas. And quite frankly, we don’t know these things and we will never know them.
Secondly, the book of the month is a book called, “Treasure Principle”, by Randy C. Alcorn. The review on their site tells us, “God has entrusted His wealth to us and called upon us to manage and invest His money. This is in everyone’s best interests, including our own.” I read one critique on the book that a reader posted at Amazon.com saying ,”Jesus never said that you can “invest” your worldly money in the church to receive rewards in heaven.” Too often American churches are focused on what we should receive as treasures, how God should bless us. (Just consider the Prayer of Jabez which made God a giant piñata.) Our country does have more wealth than we need and we should be stewards of this, including distributing it to the needs of the church worldwide.
Overall CBC looks to be a mainstream church with an evangelical position. With that said I can recommend this church but I would urge you to examine the above ideas and others that are often being taught by churches today. Far too often the average ‘christian’ is ignorant of scripture and easily swallow the concepts of people like Tim Lahaye who spend way too much time emphasizing areas away from the good news message of Jesus Christ and our mission as a church to communicate this to our world.
CBC preaches/teaches core salvational beliefs but I can’t strongly recommend them.
February 11th, 2005 at 12:33 am
well I strongly dissagree with this review. I found the church on your site and decided to go check it out. for the one reason that you can never trust some peoples reviews. I have attended this church for about 6mo and the one thing that I can say about CBC is that the people walk what they talk. what is the Greatest commandment? well we know what it is but what do we get caught up on all that time? Your Doctrine is not right so as a brother in that Lord we say I will fight with you or the nice way (Debate) you to show the world that the church as a whole does’nt know where they are going. I attened Kaleo for about a year and a half. Good people. well the pastor he found the reformed doctine and now every person that does not believe in that doctrine he has to debate. oh we are so willing to debate each other but again what is the Greatest Commandment? I feel that as the Breans we as Bible beliveing christians should not rely on these reviews only but check out the facts for ourselves. it does sound as if the reviewers of this site have a Bias and that is if it is not reformed it is not a 5 star church. because you all reviewed the Rock Miles church and it got I think and even lower review. what is the Goal of all the reviews on this site. to bring unity in the church. that is what you say on paper but how is it lived out?
February 16th, 2005 at 4:37 pm
Shawn,
Thanks for your comments. This site is just one opinion amongst many, I thank you for your reminder that people need to be like the Bereans and pick up their Bible and do some good research. Our goal is to provide tools for people to find churches. We hope comments like yours and others will create a healthy conversation about churches and their ministries. To encourage the discussion, I forwared your comments to one of the Pastors at Kaleo Church.
February 16th, 2005 at 5:16 pm
Shawn,
With all due respect, I think it is odd that you would chastise these reviewers for making observations and comments about churches they have attended, then go right on and make one about us having to “debate” everyone. As you well know I did not come to the doctrines of grace in the midst of our church plant. That was well before I ever thought of planting. One of the motivating factors for planting Kaleo was to not just have heart (feelings) towards God without mind (intellect) about who He is and what He has communicated in the Word. There can be mistakes on both sides and one develops intellectualism while the other pursues emotionalism. Kaleo desires to make neither mistake by ensuring what we feel is appropriately filtered by scripture and not the other way around. I have had many conversations with you on doctrine and have explained those doctrines carefully and with love for you. It’s alright to disagree over non-essentials, however, if someone asks doctrinal questions, I and every other pastor called by God to hold to His truth has a responsibility to effectively and truthfully explain those doctrines so that the inquiring party is given an answer from Scripture. I have no need, nor desire to simply “debate” for debating sake. I would rather see the lost come to the living God in faith and spend my time preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to all men and let God be God.
Glad to see your comments, feel free to respond back if you are interested.
Respectfully,
David Fairchild
February 19th, 2005 at 1:10 am
David has a point in that how I said “you can Never trust some peoples reviews” I do not think that I was Chastiseing these people for a review. my thought was how long has each of these reviewers gone to each church? have they talked one on one with each pastor? as I have thought about reviewing churches as we review a movie what is the main purpose? I would like to know if those who have started this review website have scripture that they could show me that calls us to do this. thank you for your response site admin and David.
February 24th, 2005 at 2:15 pm
We usually visit the church once and speak with the pastor before writing a review. The review will let people know how many times we’ve visited, whether we spoke with the pastor, etc. based on what we report.