Website: http://www.twelvetribes.com/

Church Review
Theology: 2/5
Mission: 2/5
Community: 2/5
Worship: 2/5

Summary: The Twelve Tribes of Israel believes they are the only ‘true’ disciples of Christ. All other Christians are no different than atheists, Buddhists or Muslims. In order for a person to be saved, they need to move into one of their communities, give up all their possessions to the community as well as agree (with no room for differing opinions) to their interpretation of scripture. We see this as legalism, works-based faith and as an error to the Christian faith.

Sadly, what caused the Twelve Tribes to ‘react’ to this extreme is true. They see that most Christians today are unwilling to live out the faith as Christ called them to. This faith includes love for neighbor, self-sacrifice and service to a common goal in the Kingdom of God.

Too much legalism and extreme interpretations for us to recommend anyone join the group.

Website: http://www.sonrise.net/

Church Review
Theology: 2/5
Mission: 2/5
Community: 3/5
Worship: 3/5

Summary: I attended Sonrise Community Church’s Unite service. An evening ‘postmodern’ service for people aged 18-30 years old. What struck me the most at this service was the preaching. In the service I attended, the pastor spent most of the time speaking about himself. He talked about his job as a news anchor, how he now gets paid well to work part time at Channel 8. He talked about how he “closed the deal” in evangelizing a Budhhist. (I’m glad he is evangelizing but part of this should be done in love not to ‘close the deal’.) Over half the message with about him.

Website: http://www.sdmaranatha.org

Church Review
Scriptural View: 2/5
Missional View: 3/5
Community: 3/5

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

Summary: Maranatha is a common church name (meaning ‘the Lord is coming’). This Maranath church is a Seventh Day Adventist Church. There are several distinctions that Seventh Day Adventists’ hold to that Christians should be aware of prior to selecting this church. The most obvious being that the churches meet on Saturday.

Website: http://www.thirddaychurches.com

(House Churches Multiple Locations)

Church Review
Scriptural View: 3/5
Missional View: 4/5
Community: 5/5

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

Summary: The Third Day Church movement is a Charismatic house church movement that began here in San Diego and is now in eight countries. Here is an excerpt from their website about this movement:

On several occasions, history has provided the needed critical mass and the synergistic inertia to thrust the church into breaking out of its’ box and becoming the force in culture and society that God intended it to be. Today, the church, at the dawning of the 21st Century, has once again reached this “critical mass.” It’s something so big and so obvious that the winds of change demand we look hard at our forms and face the reality that a different church must provide a different response to a postmodern age. This Third Millennium (“a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day,” 2 Peter 3:8; Psalm 90:4), or this “Third Day” requires a “Third Way” of doing and being the church, even a third Reformation.

There are a lot of things that this church is doing that San Diego Church Reviews agrees with. They are highly missional, they desire to remove traditions that impede on the advance of the gospel and the active involvement of all people in the church to ‘be the church’ not just attend one. There are two primary areas of concern about Third Day Churches; staying within the bounds of Scripture and the belief of modern day prophecy. The home churches offer a place that is “free for people to do whatever they want” which can be liberating but also can lead to unbiblical practice. Second, the belief that a person can prophesy and ‘speak for God’ is dangerous. Third Day offers Schools of Prophecy to help train people to use this gift which we believe is no longer necessary with the completion of the Apostolic period. Unfortunately, to truly know how Third Day conducts themself, someone would need to attend their church for a season to ‘test the spirits’ that are being used.

A facinating house church movement. This Church is not recommended for everyone and we offer a word of caution for people to investigate their practices before joining.

Website: http://www.calvarychapel.com/pointloma/

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

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

Summary: Point Loma Calvary Chapel is a smaller Calvary church in the San Diego area. The good news is that the church preaches expositionally, or verse-by-verse through the Bible. This is highly commendable. The downside was the service I attended offered very little in the way of actual explanation or insight into the text. The sermon was filled with stories and cliche’s that offered little relevance to the actual sermon. I have attended other Calvary’s and been impressed with the teaching but Point Loma Calvary was not one of them.

A Calvary church that didn’t dive into the meat of the text.

Website: http://www.stgregory.ca.goarch.org/

Church Review
Scriptural View: 2/5
Missional View: 3/5
Community: 4/5

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

Summary: St. Gregory of Nyssa is a recent Greek Orthodox church plant in the East County of San Diego. The Greek Orthodox tradition dates back over 2,000 years to the founding of the Christian church. In 1054, the Greek Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church split into two over issues of Papal authority. Services have a ancient liturgical feel which connects people today to generations that have gone before us. The Orthodox have done a great thing in maintaining their identity and tradition over hundreds of years- they have not compromised- and that is admirable in many ways.

Many in the Greek Orthodox tradition feel their church is the best and closest representation to God’s church. From St. Gregory’s website:

Orthodoxy believes that she has preserved and taught the historic Christian Faith free from error and distortion, from the time of the Apostles. She also believes that there is nothing in the body of her teachings which is contrary to truth or which inhibits real union with God.

At the service, the Father Demetri Tsigas, spoke much about the Kingdom of God and the need for the church to be missional to the world. I was encouraged by his preaching and his message called people to live out what was preached. The preaching was more topical than exegetical though.

The Greek Orthodox communities are notorious for their family-atmosphere and at the service I attended several people invited me to events. I felt a real warmth at the church. There is much that this church is doing right and for that I commend them.

The point that we (as Protestants) differ is we hold to sola scriptura, that the Bible alone is God’s special revelation to mankind. The earth and all of creation are God’s general revelation but only through the Holy Spirit and Scripture are we to base our beliefs. This is where we differ from the Greek Orthodox church who holds that ” The Bible is viewed as only one expression of God’s revelation in the on-going life of His people. Scripture is part of the treasure of Faith which is known as Tradition.” Other minor points over praying to Saints, Mary being a perpetual virgin consubstantiation (that communion literally becomes Jesus body and blood) also differ from traditional Protestant positions.

Because of our difference of how we view Scripture as well as a few other differences we do not recommend this church to Protestants.