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.

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.

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.

Seventh Day Adventists believe because God created the world in seven days and rested on Saturday, this is what we are required to do by the Ten Commandments. Churches who do not meet on Saturday are breaking one of the ten commandments. Other (major) differences are their belief that people who go to hell will be destroyed, they will not live eternally. They believe Jesus is Michael the Archangel, that our sins will be placed on Satan (The Great Controversy, p. 422, 485.), that on October 22, 1844 Jesus entered the second and last phase of his atoning work (Based on the Jewish Day of Atonement) amongst others. Oddly, a church that takes the scripture so literal doesn’t take passages about men pastors literally so woman is co-senior pastor at Maranatha. For more:

Christian apologists and countercult experts disagree on whether or not Seventh-day Adventism (SDA) should be classified as, theologically, a cult of Christianity. Source Seventh-day Adventism – Apologetics Index

A subset of Christian thought that we do not recommend to Christians to attend.

(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.

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.

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.

Church Review
Scriptural View: 2/5
Beliefs: 2/5
Community: 2/5

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

Summary: Christ Lutheran Church meets in Pacific Beach. The service liturgy is similiar to a Catholic Mass. There are things this church does well. They had tables soliciting volunteers for their local involvement with an Interfaith Shelter, seem to have a heart for missions and have a strong desire to bring a message of God’s grace to people. Also, much thanks should be paid to Luther who began the reformission tradition. As to their beliefs, Lutherans hold to a differing view of baptism. The main difference of which I am aware between Lutheran and protestant baptism is that most protestant churches teach that Baptism is the sign and seal of the promise of God given through the Holy Spirit, whereas for Lutherans Baptism is the gift of Holy Spirit, himself, is received at God’s command and promise through the water and the Word of the Sacrament. The Lutheran view of baptism is summarized in a listing of its benefits in Luther’s Small Catechism: “In Baptism God forgives sin, delivers from death and the devil, and gives everlasting salvation to all who believe what he has promised.” Also, as for this particular church, they do not believe that Christ is the only way thus negating the view that the Bible is God’s authority and inspired Word. For this and other un-orthodox beliefs we cannot recommend this church.

Baptism required for salvation. Also, based on their interpretations they do not hold the Bible as God’s innerrant word to His people. We cannot recommend this church.

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

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

Summary: There are a lot of things that are to be praised at Faith Presbyterian. They have a high view of loving people and reaching out to many groups that have been abandoned by the church including the homeless, needy, homosexuals and more. Further, they take worldwide social justice seriously. From what I saw, they have an ongoing campaign to write letters on behalf of the oppressed in nations around the world such as China or Sudan.

Service is traditional, with hymns and a choir. The sermon I attended was based on Scripture. Of course the sermon did not dive too deep into the text but mainly focused on broad themes. If this is how the preaching is done typically, it would be difficult to grow in your understanding of the Bible.

The PCUSA denomination is in a struggle over the role of homosexuals in the church. The Faith Presbyterian church is accepting of homosexuality and does not interpret the Bible to be literal. This means there are many issues that will greatly suffer because the Bible can become just a philosophy to guide people.

Faith Presbyterian is a liberal church in a denomination examining how to interpret the Bible on different cultural issues. Based on our standards of the Bible being true, we cannot recommend this church.

Church Review
Scriptural View: 2/5
Beliefs: 2/5
Community: 2/5
Preaching: Topical
Worship: Hymns
Service Times: 8:30am, 11am

Website Review
Site Usability: 2/5
Site Design: 1/5
Site Content: 1/5

Review: I attended a service in October 2004. Service began with seven hand bell players ringing out a hymn, as the congregation observed silently. Reverend Fanestil invited the children up for a short story, based on a rose he pulled out of a mystery box. Following this, was a prayer, a testimony and a reading from scripture. Next, Reverend Fanestil walked to the pulpit to preach.

“All human beings live by stories. It’s a matter of which stories you live by. Christians have to rely on the stories and images; these are the stuff of which this faith is made.”

After service, Reverend Fanestil spoke with me about the Christian faith and the Bible’s stories. “The Bible is much more like a bookshelf than a single book. As reading the Bible as a bookshelf instead of a single book, I end up feeling like the Bible speaks with many voices. These voices challenge me and I am forced to struggle with them. It isn’t always if the Bible says it, I believe it. I believe that is an unhelpful way to read the Bible.”

“(The Bible) is inspired by God, but I don’t believe it is inerrant,” Fanestil explained. “The gospel of John was written at the end of the first century, when the church was in great conflict with the Jews. There is an anti-Jewish polemic to the New Testament that needs to be put in its historical context.”

I asked Reverend Fanestil how his view of scripture affects his stance on the controversy regarding homosexuality within the United Methodist Denomination. “There is a split over the issue of homosexuality. A majority of (United Methodists) nationwide adhere to a traditional stance that homosexuality is a sin. They believe we should love the sinner but hate the sin. A majority of people at our church, myself including, believe homosexuality is an orientation for a vast majority of people that is given by nature. And I’ve preached that. The Bible doesn’t always speak with a single voice. We need to treat the words of scripture in ways that demands some tension and complexity.”

I asked Reverend Fanestil how does someone determine what is true in the Bible. “That’s what we all do. We have to choose (what we want to believe). I am very comfortable with saying I don’t know about a lot of things.”

“I believe Jesus is the way, I’ve experienced that in my life. I don’t feel called to pass judgment on the world’s other religions. I don’t feel qualified to pretend to know God’s minds on the worlds other great religions traditions. I certainly am reluctant to conclude that all folks who belong to other religious traditions are all destined for some state of eternal damnation. It doesn’t ring true with the spirit of the Jesus I know.”

The bottom line is La Mesa First United Methodist does not preach that Scripture is true. Therefore, we cannot recommend this church.

Church Review
Scriptural View: 2/5
Beliefs: 2/5
Community: 2/5
Preaching: Liturgical
Worship: None
Service Times: 4pm

Website Review
Site Usability: 3/5
Site Design: 1/5
Site Content: 4/5

Review: I must confess, I am not a Catholic and do not agree with much of their doctrine. For the Catholic Church to believe their traditions (the Magisterium, Papal Infalability) can be equal to God’s Word is the crux of the problem. There are many things I cannot see in the Bible that are held by the Catholic Church. These include Transubstantiation, Purgatory, Indulgences, Papal Infallibility, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, Venial and Mortal Sins, and a host of others. The Protestant Church cites the Bible alone as the source of doctrinal knowledge. The Catholic church, on the other hand, cites the Bible and Tradition. Consider the following:

“. . .the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, ‘does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence’.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 82.)

Apparently, it is Tradition that is the source of doctrines which are clearly not taught in the Bible but which the Catholic Church still says are implicit within its text and elucidated through Apostolic Tradition. The issue is whether or not these teachings of the Roman Catholic Church are credible. For more information on the Roman Catholic Church (as opposed to the Old Catholic Church) please visit Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry.

St. Francis and St. Taricicus as an Old Catholic Church does dispel some of the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. The Old Catholic Church separated from the Roman Catholic Church over religious politics after the Reformation.

I spoke to Father Kwasek about issues like Papal Infallibility and the Immaculate Conception. These are issues that differentiate the Old Catholic Church from the Roman Catholic Church. Yet when I spoke to Father Kwasek he did not pick a side, saying, “Even with these differences, they can easily be resolved and bring both Churches into communion with each other. I can accept (the Papal Infallibility) because the Roman, Protestant and Orthodox theologians have been going back and forth on this issue for 2,000 years with no clear outcome. In the meantime, citing Mark Twain, ‘I can’t prove nor disprove these claims’, so I’ll go along with them just in case. As for Mary, who would want to upset a Jewish mother in heaven in the first place? There was a time when only Catholics believed in the Immaculate Conception. Now it seems today that Americans believe they are all immaculately conceived, considering that people seem to take less and less responsibility for their failings and blame them on their upbringing and grade B milk they drank.”

I asked Father Kwasek what happens to people after they die. He answered, “In Hebrews it tells us, ‘It is appointed a person once to die, and after this comes judgment’. There are three places people go after they die. The first is heaven, with God, for those who believe in Jesus. It is because Jesus is God and through his redemption we have an antidote (to sin). The second place people go is purgatory. When people are going through the judgment for their sin after death, there will be a temporary period of time of sorrow. This period may be short or it may be thousands of years. This is a period of purging. Lastly, God sends no one to hell. God gives everyone 70 years to figure out that He loves them and He is God. Hell is for those who decide to rebel and reject God.”

For many of my friends that were Catholic, religion became nothing more than traditions. I attended Catholic school for many years growing up, and most of my friends would say they are Catholic not Christian. After a 10-year High School reunion I asked my friend, “Do you believe Jesus was literally God?” He replied that Christ lived the example life for us but was not God. This was a typical belief. In all fairness, I have met many wonderful Catholics who are evangelical Christians. In my neighborhood I am friends with a Catholic who also leads a Young Life. His desire is to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost world.

From my conversation with Father Kwasek it appeared he wanted to gather those who are lost to Jesus Christ. “There are two groups of people who attend Old Catholic Churches. The first are those who are not happy with the Roman Catholic Church and the second group of people were not attending any church previously,” Father Jerome Kwasek commented.

St. Francis and St. Taricicus is a good church for Catholic followers, but because of the many disagreements I have with the Catholic Church, I cannot recommend this for Evangelical Protestants.