What does it profit a man to feed the homeless but then his soul goes to hell the next day? I just moved about 2 blocks down from this church, there was a man standing behind me with his private part out in front of me. I found out he was apart of the food drive they do every morning. If the pastor really cares about his community he would be more vigilant with these people, especially considering the high school is less than a mile a way. read more

This area of Long Beach has three evangelical churches, all called Friends or Friendship or something for some reason. This one is the biggest one and I'm not sure how they actually help anyone besides using food to manipulate homeless people into sitting through a sermon. It's gross. Other than that, they do not provide any structural support for the homeless people who visit. It's a vapid effort to look like they're doing good works (because I guess it's easy to manipulate God into letting you into Heaven? lol) while not actually doing anything useful. The neighborhood is chaotic, dirty, and weird as a result. 0/10, I wish churches had to pay taxes! read more

IF I COULD, I WOULD GIVE "JOE" (THE PASTOR OF THE FIRST FRIENDS CHURCH) A "ZERO STAR RATING". This church DOES NOT CARE about it's neighbors or it's community. They have been feeding the homeless at this First Friends Church now for over 10 years. Since they started feeding them, CRIME in the neighborhoods around this church has sky-rocketed! People don't want to live here anymore because what they see on a daily basis are numerous homeless people who walk around and loiter on everyone's property. They use our alley's as toilets. If you say anything to them, you are subjected to having your car vandalized. If you complain to the First Friends Church all they do is put an 8x10 note on their front door that reads "Please respect our neighbors". Yeah, like that really means anything to these people - who are drug addicts, criminals and alcoholics and prostitutes. What's the requirement to receive a free meal at this church? All you have to do is sit through one of their sermons. Yeah. That's it. And this church honestly believes that what they're doing to help the homeless REALLY MEANS SO MUCH! While the REST OF THE COMMUNITY SUFFERS! Cars are being broken into around my building. Transients steal bicycles, anything and everything from your back yard so they can sell it to make a buck! My garage has been broken into twice! The building I live in has been burglarized 4 times in the past 3 years, they break in while we are at work. DIDN'T THIS CHURCH REALIZE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO THE SURROUNDING AREA WHEN THEY STARTED FEEDING THE HOMELESS? WHY DO THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THE HOMELESS? WHY DON'T THEY CARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE NEAR THEIR CHURCH? AND ABOUT WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS? Why hasn't the City of Long Beach done something about this VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM? Don't we have rights to live in a clean environment that doesn't put us at risk of becoming a victim of a crime? Our neighborhoods are being over ran by transients. They're living out of old campers, dilapidated Winnebago's, old cars and Mini-Vans, turning our alley's into homeless camps. They are routinely committing crimes. Everyone who lives around here or has a business near this church is suffering! Property owners can't keep their units rented. And the ones who have stayed are afraid to go to work each day wondering if their home will be the next to be burglarized! The First Friends Church DOES NOT live up to their name (they are NOT FRIENDS) because they don't care that what they're doing is destroying the communities and the areas around them. Why doesn't the city force them to rent or purchase a different property/location to do this? We're all living in HELL because of what this church is doing! And the Pastor at the First Friends Church DOES NOT CARE AT ALL that they're destroying the surrounding area with what they're doing. They absolutely DO NOT CARE!! If they care SO MUCH about the homeless, then they should ALSO CARE about the people who live in this area and HOW WE ARE SUFFERING! There is no peace anymore where I live! There is no safety! All you see and hear are the drug addicts and the alcoholics; people that are hard core criminals roaming around in our neighborhoods. They get into fights with each other. The drunks beat up women in broad daylight, I've seen women fight each other. The Meth addicts stay up all night trolling the alleys and streets looking for garages and back yards to break into! I've found used hypodermic needles in the alley behind my house! I go to take out my trash only to find a transient going through my neighbors trash, spilling out its contents with no intentions of picking it up. There is a First Lutheran Church just across the street from the First Friends Church and during the week all you see on the lawn of the Lutheran Church are sleeping bags filled with homeless people; and transients standing around on that corner. Yes! Believe it or not . . . the First Friends Church does not allow them to sleep or loiter on THEIR property! The First Friends Church has a large empty parking lot behind it, but they don't allow the homeless to set up their make-shift tents or lay out their sleeping bags on THEIR property! I guess it's okay with them that the rest of us have to suffer? Just as long as it's not them! 10 years of this has been TOO LONG!!! Why doesn't the City of Long Beach DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS?!! Why haven't they regulated what can be allowed and not allowed at this church? Someone at City Hall needs to help us! I pay my property taxes each year. I've worked hard all of my life for what I have and this church is single handedly destroying my peace of mind, mine and my children's safety and my properties value. No one leaves their shades up around here anymore or dares to open their windows to even let in fresh air! No one goes for walks in the evening around here anymore. We are all being held hostage by the FIRST FRIENDS CHURCH! Read read more

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Okay straight up the garbage wealthy around this church need to stop hating on the pastor because it's pastor if you really need help will go into his pockets and help you you will take his jacket off his back and give it to you if you're cold Jesus Christ and not come down here and save the wealthy he came down here for the poor the drug addict The prostitute he'll Mary Magdalene was a prostitute so whoever's leaving these posts you need to read your Bible read more

I just wonder if any of the other people writing the reviews here, ever took a moment to try and imagine what it's like to be homeless... and to have a church where you can turn to in a time of desperation and need. Without going into too great of detail, sure, there are a few bad apples that get stuck in that rut, and that are inconsiderate of the church, it's neighbors, and other patrons that go there, but this is one of maybe a handful of places in the downtown L.B. area, that strives very hard to be a place that can keep open its doors to the needy. There's bad apples in all walks of life, that's just the way it is. Unfortunate, but true. So all you others who wrote how horrible it is because of those inconsiderate few, who would post this sort of negativity without seeing the greater good that they do, while you sit in your home and complain of the annoyance,.. I'd seriously suggest to you, taking a stab at empathy, for maybe the first time in your lives; and realize that it's places like F.F.C. that has probably saved the lives of dozens of human beings, (not all bad people, but good ones with hearts just like you or I , as well), over the years. If they've saved even one, doesn't it make it all worth the while? I think it does.. no, I 'know' it does. Christ would smile upon this church, not try and condemn it. I feel the neighborhood community should try and do the same. read more