I've been a part of Church Without Walls since 2002…read more What drew me in was the smaller, family feel of the church and the church's heavy involvement with the Berkeley community: volunteering at Rosa Parks, serving Berkeley youth.... It definitely felt like a place I could be accepted for all of who I am, brokenness included.

I started attending Church Without Walls when I was first dating my wife 3 years ago. Within 6…read moremonths of attending sometimes (it's was a long-distance relationship), I already felt stronger connections at CWOW than I did after 7 years at the church in the city where I was living. I really like that CWOW (they pronounce it "C Wow") is very focused on the community. The church is very involved with each other, it feels like family. The church is also involved in many community projects like science fair for the middle school, game night at the men's home, and tutoring at the high school. There is also a very high attendance rate for the mid-week small groups, so it's easier to make connections and build relationships. I feel this church focuses less on my own sin and more on bringing God's Kingdom to Earth; there is a focus on justice and restoration in the community, which is all right up my alley, so to speak. Come join us on Sundays and check it out! :)

I came in as a new freshman looking for a church to belong to. I didn't know campus very well and I…read morecame from a long line of broken churches. Church politics, consumer attitudes toward the church, and a lot of in-fighting and splitting, it was really hard to just hear about, find, or be a part of a church that I felt like was really trying to live out the gospel. I wasn't too hopeful in finding a good church in a place like Berkeley, but somehow I was able to find this fellowship. Like the previous posts said, it is pretty big - the church I came from had a grand total of about 23, 25 members - so it was hard to get used to. But for me who always wanted to find a church whose members took the Bible and its commands seriously, I was so stunned that so many people in a group so big were so serious about really living out Christ-like lives. And there were enough small group activities that I was able to get to know people well and everyone is so friendly - you are never left alone to sit awkwardly by yourself at an event. So I was able to really get to know people, and even get used to the size. I mean, just being at such a big school like Cal, you just get used to big crowds, anyway. Growing up in church, I came to realize that there is no such thing as a perfect fellowship, or a perfect church for that matter. After all, all churches are made of broken sinners trying to love others as God loves others, and that is a tall order. But I found that acts2fellowship (and the church, Gracepoint) - though not perfect - is a place where I could grow in my relationship with God, really belong to a body of believers, and strive to become better Christians together. They are not only about have emotional convictions, but promote a intellectually robust Christianity that can answer tough questions like: "If God is loving, why hell?" and "Is the Bible historically accurate?" These questions I thought could never be answered as a high school student with no spiritual leaders or teachers who were equipped to answer such questions. I'm pretty thankful for this fellowship, so I hope that my review was helpful to anyone looking for a place where they will be immediately welcomed. My hope for anyone, in the end, is that they will find a fellowship and church in Berkeley, whether affiliated with Gracepoint or not, and be able to understand the depths of this grand and wonderful, Good News.

I was a part of this fellowship for a long time, a long time ago, and they are the same now as they…read moreused to be. They prey on young impressionable college kids, love bomb them, and try to get them to join them for life. You will end up spending all your free time at their events, giving them your money, only doing things that they want you to do (give free labor to the church). Please stay away from this high control group and tell all your friends to stay away too. Please for the love of God don't go to the seven week intensive "training" they have this summer for $1000 in Chicago.

I was looking for a new church home in 2013 - Open and Affirming (ONA) to LGBTQ community was a…read moremust! I visited three other ONA churches until finding First Church in Berkeley in March 2013. The Sanctuary was beautiful and full of great natural light. The Ministers (4 total) rotated leading the service and preaching Sundays, so boredom was never an issue. Each Minister was friendly, charismatic, and humorous. Each had a different preaching style and their sermons were thought provoking and pertinent to the times. The music was fantastic! Traditional pipe organ hymns, folk music with guitars, a very talented church choir, soloists singing opera and spirituals; youth choir, guest musicians and choirs. As a single person with minimal family ties in the Bay Area, I felt welcomed my talents valued and friendship offered. I joined as an official member into this spirit-lead, loving and imperfect progressive community in September 2013. Five years in, I am still enthralled by our many talented Ministers and church staff - some have left and new leaders have arrived but the sense of welcome and genuine care-giving to allow each our us to be our true imperfect selves before God and others without judgment has not changed. You are welcome here: questioning God's existence, agnostic, atheist, other religious traditions, never been to church, wounded by other religious traditions - You are welcome here! Plenty of activities to feed your progressive soul at First Church: Justice and Service events; Adult education programs; Child, Youth and Families events; Young Adult Events; Progressive Christian events. Come Join the fun and make new friends!

GOD was watching over me as usual. During a concert on Thursday I was harassed and threatened by…read morethe parking attendant who stated if I didn't move out of a handicap parking spot I was legally parked in, that he would pull me out of church and tow my truck. He said if I gave him $10 , I would be able to stay. He allowed people who were not disabled to park just because they were a part of the program being performed.

Wonderful place . Old hippies singing social justice songs. Nice open mic first Friday of the month.read more

This small congregation has been my spiritual home for the past six years. It has a proud history…read moreof promoting spirituality and social justice in the heart of Berkeley since 1957. We offer great music, a welcoming diverse congregation and great variety in its worship services. This is where you can join with others in working to improve our community and our world. A place where you can bring your whole self and feel at home!

Open Letter to Todd Strandberg…read more Sergeant Strandberg (of "Rapture Ready" fame): It has come to my attention here at this Air Force base that you, as a supply sergeant, have been accepting items of inferior and even dangerous quality! Now, it's true that your actions are far from deserving a court-martial. But let me remind you, Sergeant, that your reputation is in jeopardy, and if you don't improve the quality of the items you distribute, the Commander-in-Chief who's over both of us may have some words with you one of these days! Sergeant, now where in the world did you get some of those substandard items that are in your "Margaret MacDonald Who?" article that's in the "Pretribulation Rapture" section of your "Rapture Ready" website? You maintain that I "have never been able to prove that Darby ever heard of MacDonald or her vision." FACTS: In John Darby's book The Irrationalism of Infidelity (1853), pp. 283-5, he described in great detail his visit with her in her home in Scotland in mid-1830 and even talked about her endtime outlook and the Scriptural texts she used for support! (All this is in my book The Incredible Cover-up.) Then you claim that Darby's pretrib view was derived from "the distinction between Israel and the church." FACTS: Darby's first clear pretrib teaching, in his "Notes on the Revelation" (1839), p. 206, was based on only the symbol (!) of the man child "caught up" in Rev. 12:5----and this was his pretrib basis for 30 years (from the 1830's to the 1860's)! Interestingly, this symbol was Edward Irving's pretrib basis in his "Interpretation of the Old-Testament Prophecies quoted in the New" (The Morning Watch, June, 1831, p. 301)----a full eight years before Darby "appropriated" Irving's idea! You then assert that Darby discovered the pretrib rapture concept in 1827. FACTS: Darby himself wrote in his "Short but serious Examination of...'Daniel the Prophet'" (1850), p. 67, that he came to "understand" pretrib in 1830 and not 1827----an understanding that came to him only after the Irvingite journal The Morning Watch (which he regularly read) began to clearly teach pretrib in its Sep., 1830 issue (which saw "Philadelphia" raptured, in a partial rapture scheme, before "the great tribulation," pp. 510, 514!). And you foolishly declare that Margaret Macdonald (it was spelled this way) couldn't have been a pretrib because she taught that the "Church" will be persecuted by the Antichrist. FACTS: For more than 30 years I've emphasized, in my books and articles and while guesting on worldwide talk shows, that the Irvingites, as well as Margaret, taught pretrib before Darby did. My critics, wishing to divert attention away from unmistakably clear pretrib teaching by Irvingites, have focused instead on uneducated Margaret and her brief and somewhat unclear revelation account. They also know that she held to partial rapturism which sees PART of the "church" taken in a pretrib rapture and the REST of the "church" enduring the trib. By covering up her pretrib rapture ("one taken and the other left" before "THE WICKED" is "revealed") and emphasizing her posttrib-flavored statements like "The trial of the Church is from Antichrist," they can hopefully discredit her as the originator and give that honor to someone else who seems to have a better reputation! Incidentally, all partial rapturists including Pember and Govett have always described the ones "left behind" as the "Church" (the way Margaret talked) and even John Walvoord's books classify partial rapturists as "pretribulationists"! Since some of the emotional and spiritual cripples (with potty mouths) on your Rapture Ready message board have gotten the impression from someone with little conscience (I wonder who!) that I am a heretical (and even Satanic) liar that no one should ever listen to, I am forced to tell you that since the early 1970's my books on pretrib history have been publicly endorsed by a galaxy of leading evangelical theologians as well as church history experts----scholars from George Ladd, Merrill Tenney, and F. F. Bruce to Robert Gundry and Walter Martin. (Google "Scholars Weigh My Research") Finally, Sergeant, in order to shore up your collapsing pillar of pretrib sand, you seem to enjoy dropping names like Thomas Ice, Pseudo-Ephraem, Morgan Edwards, and Manuel Lacunza. FACTS: Whenever I see a photo of Ice, I'm reminded that your site considers him the "heavy" artillery who constantly shoots off his mouth about the "pretrib" outlook of the last three names. I wonder, Sergeant, what your fans will think when they discover my "Deceiving and Being Deceived" article (on many sites) which exposes the plagiarism, document revisionism, phony "Dr." degrees, cover-up and other pretrib dishonesty, and which also proves that Pseudo-Ephraem, Edwards, and Lacunza all had the historical habit of blending together the rapture and the final advent!

First of all the Bible tells us that Jesus is coming again in the clouds to take the believers out…read moreof the world, and the nonbelievers will be left to endure the tribulation and the Antichrist. God does not want anyone to go through the Tribulation, but if people reject Him, then he will return reject them. Out God is a very loving and gracious God, he wants all to be saved. It is up to the individual to accept Jesus Christ or reject him. I will tell you now that our time is short, and the trump will sound, the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive will follow. Oh what a glorious day that will be, but also a sad day for those individuals who refuse to accept Jesus Christ. Even the small children will snatched from their mother if the mother is not a believer.

Evidently the door-to-door folks at this church can't read. I have signs on my door asking for…read morereligious literature not to be left at my residence, but they did so anyway.

A wonderful Church that doesn't mess around with the Word of God. You'll find detailed teaching,…read moreChurch discpline, and classes for things like fundamentals of the faith and evangelism to help members grow in faithfulness. I have been to many, many false Churches, where everyone is kind and friendly and would never dream of rebuking you. Where you'll have a great time, never be challenged, never grow, and hear the words "Depart from me, I never knew you" on the day of judgement. Not here! True Christians abound, I was invited to someone's home on the very first week, there are many many children (the fruit of a true Christian church!) and a great children's ministry for them. Come and feed on the Word of God!

I was a member here, and its church plant, for over 10 years from my senior year in college to…read moreseveral years afterward, from 2005-2016. What immediately strikes you is the seriousness of the attitudes of the members here -- they are not here to play and they take the Bible very seriously. Within this church body a strong view of Lordship salvation -- which is church-speak for honoring Jesus as your Lord and Master, not just your "homeboy" or Savior, or genie in a bottle -- quite refreshing. I think the outcomes of this church are a mix of the individual, the church teaching, and the culture and influence of members of this church. My current view is that salvation (justification, sanctification, and future glorification) is completely the work of God, and not of man. I have seen Christians of all shapes and sizes come through this ministry and become essentially more of what they were, previously. e.g. Big-hearted Christians became even bigger-hearted; immature Christians became slightly less immature individuals with their problems masked by changed behaviors, but unchanged hearts. Pros: - Biblical teaching, expositional preaching, good doctrine, high view of God's word, conservative views - "Truth"-heavy - A lot of equipping. An inside joke, when the church was still called "Eastbay Baptist/Bible Church of Berkeley," was "The Eastbay Seminary." The Sunday school and equipping classes I've taken: Evangelism Training 1, Evangelism Training 2 (Apologetics), Biblical Hermeneutics, Old Testament Survey Cons: - More could be done to help build up well-rounded Christians. - Culture is too "inward" focused -- members tend to neglect relationships with family, non-Christian friends, coworkers, etc. - Can be "hyper-fundamental" at times. Things that are not explicitly sins in the Bible are viewed and treated as if they were actual sins. - Where is the grace? Tendency to be big-headed, small-hearted. - Lack of cultural diversity - Lack of age diversity - Tendency to produce behavior change (through peer pressure), rather than heart change (only possible by work of Holy Spirit) On the positive side, most of the members of this church body have a genuine desire to pursue holiness and Christ-likeness -- "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). However, because of the overall youthfulness and immaturity of certain individuals, and the proclivity for group-think, there is a tendency of a version of stoicism and monasticism (denying oneself of worldly pleasures) to be erroneously praised as a virtue among its members in their good-intentioned pursuit of holiness--which is still missing the mark. I would encourage all to be Bereans and study Scripture for themselves. I received a lot of great teaching from this church and learned the tools to help study the Bible for myself. However, there were certain experiences that I went through during my time here that were also heart-wrenching. While I have been encouraged greatly and grew tremendously as a Christian during my time here, I also experienced a lot of deeply painful experiences that are still with me today, and on some days, those painful memories are more vivid than the positive ones. I think Revelation 2:1-7 is a very good, spot-on description of this church when I was a member there: "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: 'I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.'" In a culture where the prevailing attitude is anti-God and overwhelmingly secular, this church is a God-send and refuge from the storm. For conservative believers, it feels like the members of this body are the "7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him" (1 Kings 19:18). However, I would exhort this church to excel still more, and to try and find ways to have a refreshing and positive impact to its surrounding and greater community. Remember the two greatest commandments: 1. Love the LORD your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. (No, not just your fellow church member.)

This church means a lot to me! In 2004 I started my RCIA journey as my son went to Their school,…read moreyes there use to be a school and my heart broke as many hearts did when they closed it. I also met my husband in 2006 and he commenced RCIA almost immediately after we met because he wanted to marry me and yes in the church! I was a cradle catholic baptized as infant only but he was a total conversion and we were married here by Fr. Stephan on 12/12/2007 hallelujah!! We then moved to Richmond and still attended mass here however we felt we needed to stay in our community. Anyhow here we are i visited today because I was told they have the partial Tridentine Mass. Oh my word!! What a beautiful experience as I've always read and heard stories of the pre Vatican II days. Today I knelt for communion for the first time and accepted the body of Christ in the most solemn way. My husband will be back no doubt!!! Major kudos also to this parish for having a wonderful greeter who hands you the church missal and the option of the church bulletin. Inside the church the pews are completely bare and free of hymnals, papers, etc. The missal made my heart warm as all the readings, hymns, and to top it off, the lovely instruction for receiving the Holy Eucharist was clearly written out. I am not sure why churches everywhere don't do this as many Catholics don't even know they are not supposed to receive communion if they are in the state of any grave sin. I learned years ago that not going to church on Sundays was a grave sin, not to mention a few others. This also helps non-Catholics who are visiting.... Again, thank you STJW the Lord is gleaming I am sure, I know I am! By the way, Father Luhan who is a priest at St. Mary of Magdalene have the most beautiful homily. Just a special day for me with our Lord, thank you STJW! God bless

This is the most beautiful church! Got married here and Father John and everyone here were amazing…read morefor our special day.

When I was younger I came here as a child and into my teenage years as I was raised catholic. (I…read morehave then since converted to Judaism). Overall this church is really nice, large and well kept up, both inside and out. The priests at the time were all really nice and always very caring (they have now since change priests). As the years went on, things started to change within the church and there were certain people that left. They were too many rules and people felt that they were being control. It was also rumored that there had been some funny business within the priests group which of course is disturbing in any religious setting for anyone to hear of. Which is why my family stopped coming here and they started attending another church around our area. The church does have a large hall for parties or weddings, complete with a stage, kitchen, bathrooms, tables & chairs and large sitting/dance area. There is a parking lot across the street from the church that can be used but other than that parking can be found on the street. Such a shame that such a beautiful place doesn't get as much attention after what happened.

I have attended Sunday and weekday morning church services at St. Ambrose Church. I am pleased to…read moresay that this church pretty much still has the same exteriors and interiors that I had remembered (barely) as a child. Which is more than I can say for some of the churches here in the SF Bay Area. What I do wish there was space for the statue of the founder of the Salesian order, St. John Bosco. This parish is run by the Salesian order, headed by two Salesian priests from India and one in residence. They are very nice and very friendly priests. The Mother likes how one of them delivers his homilies: he starts by telling you what he is going to tell you; he tells you what he is going to tell you and then he summarizes what he has just told you. I have to agree, I quite like his homily style--works for me very much. What has changed is the congregation. I am used to quiet before and after the service so I can pray. It was a bit of a shock to come in and the church is a social hall. Okay, so much for quiet prayer and reflection. I am very used to going to church as if I was on my way to the library. The congregation is very spirited and very friendly. On one of my very first visits, one of the members was way too inappropriately friendly: this person practically accosted me while I was looking at the stained glass windows of the apostles and saints. I do not want to go into the gorey details about what happened. This person was way too friendly (in such an inappropriate way) for my tastes which is one of the reasons why I will stay an occasional visitor to St. Ambrose. I had the pleasure of travelling with one of the priests at this church on a pilgrimage to France/Italy last summer in celebrating his 25 years as a Salesian priest. This priest is one of the main reasons why I will still visit St. Ambrose when I can. (I just have to be prepared to avoid a certain member of the congregation or two by running the other way as fast as I can.)

If you're looking for a room of people who all agree with each other, then All Souls is not for…read moreyou. If you're looking for ultra-traditional Anglican liturgy, then All Souls is not for you. If you're looking for a church service that looks like a rock concert full of beautiful hipsters, then All Souls is not for you. But if you're looking for a safe, open, LGBT+ affirming space to explore questions of faith and spirituality...then All Souls just might be for you. And if you're looking for a cross between a Catholic mass run by hippies, an awkward but warm family reunion complete with screaming children, and a support group for people recovering from their religious upbringings...then All Souls is *definitely* for you.

All Souls church is a very special and truly inclusive community, where everyone is welcomed and…read morevalued. Since I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, I have received great spiritual support and, above all, emotional support. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a church in the Bay Area.