Pastor Gary Galbraith
29220 Scott Road
Menifee, CA 92584
http://www.revival.tv
Service Times - Weekend
Saturday 6pm
Sunday 8am
Sunday 9:30am
Sunday 11:15am
Sunday 12:45pm
Sunday 6:00pm
Service Time - Mid-week
Wednesday 7:00pm
Rating:
Worship 3/5
Friendliness 5/5
Sermon 3/5
Theological Content 3/5
Evangelistic 4/5
Facility 5/5
Introduction
On Sunday July 6th 2008 I decided to visit Revival Christian Fellowship in Menifee. The only two things that I knew about this church in advance was that it was big and that it was part of the Calvary Chapel denomination. The person that went with me, my 21 year old daughter, had visited the church several times and spoke highly of the church. We happened to be running a little bit late this day and were pleased to find out that there was a parking space right in front of the church reserved for first time visitors. We were greeted in the parking lot by a very nice woman wearing a black apron that introduced herself and then escorted us to the sanctuary. The ushers were directing people to the overflow area upstairs but because I was a first time visitor they were able to seat me in the main sanctuary. I was also informed by our greeter that the senior pastor was out of town and the assistant pastor would be preaching the sermon.
Worship
The worship music was very good. The words were Christ centered. I also appreciated the humble posture of the worship team. Sometimes when you get 3 guitars, a bass, drums and a few vocalists on the stage it can be like a rock concert. This was not the case at Revival. The music was tastefully done. It also seemed to be at the right volume which is another difficult balance to strike these days, or so it seems. I did find it odd that the congregation clapped after every song but maybe it’s just me.
The Sermon
As I already mentioned, the Senior Pastor was out of town, so one of the Assistant Pastors was filling in for him. His name was Scott Baysinger and according to the website he oversees Local Outreach and Multimedia. His sermon was entitled “Who am I?” and was based on 1 John 3:1-3. One thing I appreciate about Calvary Chapel pastors is that they have a very high view of the Bible. The sermon was also very biblical and he compared several texts of scripture with one another. The thrust of his sermon was about God’s love for us as sons and daughters of God.
From a theological perspective he gave several analogies which he was forced to distort to fit with his Arminian theology. For example, he spoke of the analogy of an orphanage in which a father comes to an undeserving group of orphans looking for orphans that have their hands up saying “pick me”. You can watch the sermon by following this link. Other than my theological differences I think he did a really good job. My daughter encouraged me to come back when Pastor Gary was preaching. She said that she found his sermons to be “more convicting”.
General comments
The church facility was very nice and given the number of people the service oversight was very organized. The church seemed to be genuinely concerned about living out there faith before God.
They also mentioned that they are very involved in the Harvest Crusade which is Calvary Chapel’s version of the old Billy Graham Crusades.
