Sonrise Community Church (Unite Service)

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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. In fact, he even shared a story about how his wife had to elbow him five times when they had guests over because he was always speaking about himself. He confessed he could “talk about myself for hours”. I’ve got to be honest, this really angered me. Here were a group of 18-30 years-old who were being preached a non-Bible centered message. Just because this guy was a news anchor doesn’t mean he’s qualified to preach at a church. I pray their other services are radically different but even so, the ‘Senior Pastor’ was the person who hired Pastor Miller. I understand a pastor can have an “off night” but to preach the message he delivered, too much is left in doubt for us to recommend this church.
We do not recommend this church because of the low quality of preaching.

9 Comments

  1. To Whom it may concern,
    While we agree Sonrise Community Church may not be right for everyone, we would like to encourage rather than discourage.
    It is our hope, as well as our prayer that anyone “Lost” and seekind God, would not just walk, but run…to ANY local New Testement Church declaring, “Jesus as LORD” and sharing the Gospel daily.
    God’s Word says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.” “Let God be true and everyman a liar”
    Our mission at Sonrise is to reach our community for the Lord Jesus Christ and to equip God’s people that they may know how to live and serve Him in their generation.

    Sincerely,
    Michael and Michelle DeAngelo
    Covenent Members, Sonrise Community Church

  2. Dear Reviewer,
    Have you considered that you may not have enjoyed the “Unite” service at Sonrise because you may not fit into the demographic of the audience that that service is intended for?
    Are you an 18-30 year old single person? Generally the person who this sevice is for is IN a very SELF-CENTERED portion of their life (Many living on their own for the first time , no spouse to need to submit to, and no children to sacrifice for). God used the four authors of the Gospels to share the same story in their four different personalities (one a doctor-amazed by the miracles, one a Jew of Jews-well versed in the LAW, one a tax collector-knowing the usefullness and evils of $, and of corse a mystic-fully “IN LOVE” with Jesus and encouraging ALL to love one another. When Jesus talked to fishermen He used fish parables. When He talked to farmers He used farm parables. When He talked to investors He used money parables. It is a good thing that you have had an opportunity to read all four of the Gospels…if you had only read one, and it didn’t speak to you, you may have given the whole Bible a “Not Recommend” label. I challenge you to come back to Sonrise again and dare you not to feel the fully anointed indwelling of the Holy Spirit in that place.
    Lord Bless You,
    Michelle

  3. I feel the reviewer missed the mark for Sonrise.
    He needs to come to our regular service and listen to Pastor Tony’s delievery of the bible.
    You can feel the Holy Spirit moving there.
    Drop in on our bible classes. And then tell us our Church missed the
    mark. The bible is taught line by line, in context. The Teachers do a fantastic job of explaining ‘The Word’, and answering questions.
    Read our Mission Statement, and ‘who we are’ on our web site.

    I truly pray that you again visit our WONDERFUL church.
    If your in doubt as to the message please check out our website(www.sonrise.net) and listen to the archived messages. I think you’ll come away with a diffrent opinion.
    Sincerely,
    In him,
    Greg & Bobbi Harlan
    Covenant Members Sonrise Community Church

  4. San Diego Church Review also has linked our website address on this page to a GLBT website, a site that we have no affiliation to. If you would really like more information about what our church is really about, please TYPE the website into your browser at http://www.sonrise.net.

  5. Jeff,

    THanks for the catch. That domain was from a previous review of Dignity a Catholic gay group. The domain has been fixed.

  6. I feel that reading through these peoples’ comments as members of that church that someone missed the boat. Yes, I admit, since I am in that 18-30 demographic, that we are very self-centered, but having a message that is self-centered in itself is not truly delivering a message. I don’t care if you are inside a “real” service, or not. Any event that takes place under the church roof MUST make reference of the Bible. It is relevant to bring in experiences that have happened in your life, but proclaiming a biblical message involves the Bible above all else. If you don’t proclaim the Bible in all aspects you are becoming a Deist, and the 18-30 generation is especially drawn to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism if you don’t expose them to the truth of the whole Bible, not just the New Testament like some claim. As Christians we have a Bible that contains two testaments. 77% of the Bible is the Old Testament so it too should be used.

  7. I think that you really need to give this church a fair evalutation by attending the main service. Pastor Tony’s preaching is among the best in the county, as recognized by some of the best in the county. The unite service is constantly changing, and I believe that the man you heard speak is no longer on pastoral staff even. Unite represents such a small percentage of this church (maybe 20 out of 5000 people), so why don’t you come and see what the rest of us are up to? Love to have ya…

  8. Just wondering if these reviews are ever updated. If not, then they should be removed as due to the inaccuracy of the review. Pastoral leadership changes and thus the message may also change.

  9. A good church. What is funny, I remember the service. The ex-anchorman (I won’t mention), made the joke/comment “is there any liberals here raise your hand?….Ok there is the door.” It was funny but offensive none the less.

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