I attended here for two sermons. I came last Sunday December 3 and there was a sermon about grace and having grace to our community. Loved it, until they started to talk about "protecting the life of an unborn child" which I feel like casts shame upon women. Didn't really like that. Loved the message, but there's no reason to condemn people who have had miscarriages or abortions. I could've heard that message differently than how it was portrayed, but that is what I heard. Today on December 10, the pastor started his sermon about talking about George Floyd's death to pique the interest of the following message of justice. Amazing! Can't wait to hear what this message is going to be about! As we started to go into the sermon, the pastor started condemning Black Lives Matter, the LGBTQ community, nonbinary people, and going down a political message; rather than a spiritual message. I would think that if Jesus were here walking around in today's age, Jesus would love all no matter what. I don't believe there is space for pastors to condemn people for their "sins" especially as a nondenominational church. A church should be welcoming no matter their audience. As a white cis female, I don't have a place to speak for their black community or the LGBTQ community, but I believe that putting together sermons targeted towards the condemnation of these communities isn't Christian-like. Although, this is all just my own personal opinion on this church. The reason why I'm sharing my opinion here is to let others know who are seeking out a new church or their first church. What I heard was a pastor weaponizing God's words to promote condemnation over specific groups that do not fit their rhetoric.
The church is beautiful, they were open about their projected "tithing and donation goals" ($13M) and how they spend the money, they have a lot of different life groups to attend outside the Sunday service, they have four different services throughout Sunday that you could attend, a bunch of age groups which is awesome for people like me in their 20's, and amazing volunteers that help with finding seats, opening doors, coffee & water stations, et cetera.
The messages I was hearing really outweighed the benefits and have me searching for a new church to attend. I really wanted to like this church but I'm not going to tolerate God's words being used as weapons against people who God still loves.
It is very easy to serve a message about the meaning of Justice in the Bible without condemning others on their political, social, and personal beliefs and choices. read more