Christ Presbyterian Church | Read below to hear why I think this is the best church in Temecula...

Pastor Eric Landry

Church Website
Stars:
(5 is best/0 is worst)
Worship 5/5
Friendliness 4/5
Sermon 5/5
Theological Content 5/5
Evangelistic 5/5
Facility 4/5

The church is currently meeting at Chaparral High School in Temecula.

I want to begin this church review by stating that I am NOT Presbyterian. On Sunday 11/27/2011 I decided to go visit the 10:30 AM service at Christ Presbyterian Church
On this particular Sunday Rev. Robert Recio was preaching. The title of his sermon was "Christmas and Creation" I was so thoroughly impressed with the sermon that I spoke to the pastor after the service and complimented him on his preaching. It was then I learned that he was not the main preaching pastor. I thought to myself, "if this guy isn't the main preaching pastor and he was that good then how good is the other guy?" So I decided to return on Sunday December 11th. Pastor Landry preached the sermon entitled "The Christmas Controversy" I was blown away. I have listened to A LOT of preaching. I decided to return today just to make sure this guy was for real and I just didn't catch him on a good Sunday. Once again I was amazed. When I hear a sermon there are usually several things said that I am not in complete agreement with. This guy nailed it once again! Praise God that he continues to gift men such as Pastor Eric.

The Worship
The service begins with a call to worship and follows a particular flow from beginning to end. Although it is liturgical Pastor Eric presents the liturgy in a fresh and informative manner that I have never heard before. I have never been fond of liturgical churches because the ones that I have attended seemed rote and wooden. Not so at CPC.

The Music
I also really appreciated the worship music. It was contemporary yet meaningful. It was also biblical and theological in content and was not repetitious in the least. There are two to three musicians and it is very conducive to congregational worship. It was NOT a rock concert! There were no one handed drum solos or "hip shaking" bass players. (I am so sick of that stuff). The music was done with humility and reverence which is how it should be done.

The Sermon

I have already touched on this aspect of the church service. I will add that the preaching is the MOST Gospel centered I have experienced in Temecula. There is a continual reminder that our only hope is Jesus and His finished work. We don't stand before God because we have been "good Christians" but we stand before God and have access to His throne of Grace because he has redeemed us and bids us to come on the basis of the blood of Christ. I need to hear this every Sunday and so do you. I have heard this on the three Sundays that I was present at CPC.

If you are looking for a church, do yourself a favor and visit Christ Presbyterian Church in Temecula!

Murrieta Valley Church

Church Website
Stars:
(5 is best/0 is worst)
Worship 5/5
Friendliness 4/5
Sermon 4/5
Theological Content 4/5
Evangelistic 4/5
Facility 3/5

The church is currently meeting at Thompson Middle School in Murrieta. On Sunday 01/23/2010 I decided to go visit the 10:15 AM service at Murrieta Valley Church
They also offer Nursery and Sunday School classes for all ages.

A Brief Bio on Pastor Jason

Jason Robertson, our preaching pastor, is married to Tasha and they have three children. He was baptized in Milldale Baptist Church (Zachary, LA) in 1980. He began preaching the Gospel in 1985. He attended Liberty University and completed his undergraduate studies at William Carey College and earned his Masters of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. His current doctoral work is on hold until he can free up some time. He teaches “Church Planting” as an adjunct professor at California Baptist University in Riverside, CA. Jason planted MVC in 2001.

The Music

Pastor Scott Hill oversees our worship ministries. His is also an elder in the church. He is married and is the father of three. He recruits, trains and shepherd’s many men, women and young people who wish to lead God’s people in corporate worship.
Listen to some of his music on Youtube.

The Sermon

The Sermon that Pastor Jason preached was entitled "Longevity and the Glory of God". You can listen to the audio here. It was about how we as Christians can demonstrate the steadfast and immovable love of God through consistency and longevity. Consistancy and longevity in our relationships, our marriages, our families and our Church. We live in a culture of change and one of the ways that we can standout from the world is through immutability in our relational commitments most importantly, the Body of Christ.

Leadership
The church has a plurality of elders. The current leadership consists of Pastor Jason Robertson, Pastor Scott Hill, Pastor Chris Hinton oversees our counseling ministries. He is married and is the father of four. He is trained in biblical, clinical and nouthetic counseling. He works for a plastics sales company in Southern California and is a student at California Baptist University (where his oldest daughter attends). Chris is a die-hard Chargers fan, a motorcycle enthusiast, and loves taking his boys fishing and Pastor Larry Brooks oversees our finances and education ministries. He is married and is the father of two and the grandfather of four. He was saved and baptized into Christ in 1974 and has served in churches ever since. He has studied at the Southern California School of Evangelism, Talbot School of Theology, and Bahnsen Theological Seminary. In 2006 he earned a Masters in Theology. Larry’s passion is for MVC to provide a biblical education for all ages that is second to none. He loves playing golf, riding his Harley, and hanging out with friends.

Calvary Chapel Murrieta

Calvary Chapel Murrieta
24225 Monroe Ave
Murrieta, CA 92562

Phone: (951)677-5667
Fax: (951) 698-4896
T.T.Y. (951) 698-2520

Church Website

Rating:
Worship 5/5
Friendliness 4/5
Sermon 4/5
Theological Content 3/5
Evangelistic 4/5
Facility 5/5

On Sunday 04/05/2009 I decided to go visit the 7:30AM service at Calvary Chapel Murrieta
Their services are at 7:30, 9:30, 11:30AM and 7PM. Nursery and Sunday School classes for all ages are available.

Pastor Brian Bell explains the history of the church

Chapel of Murrieta was originally incorporated as Murrieta Union Church in 1951 as part of the Assembly of God denomination. However, in January of 1985, the church had only 12 remaining members and no pastor. The remaining members, at that time, contacted Chuck Smith, the Pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, California, a non-denominational church, requesting that a pastor be sent. A pastor from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa came and began teaching line upon line, precept upon precept, through the Word of God. The church began to slowly grow in numbers during the next three years. The name was changed to Murrieta Country Church to better reflect the rural setting and location of the church.

By March of 1987, the church numbered more than 100 adults. It a move to Murrieta Christian School located on Adams Avenue. The church refurbished the school facilities and was able to meet there rent free. Near the end of 1987, the church sold its property in Old Town and purchased five acres of vacant land next to Murrieta Christian School with the intent of building its own facility.

In June 1989, because of confusion over whether or not we were affiliated with Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, we changed the name of the church to Calvary Chapel of Murrieta. On July 2, 1989, the original pastor sent from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa resigned and moved away. At that time, the Assistant Pastor, Brian Bell, became the Senior Pastor.

In June of 1991 we completed the construction of a new 350 seat sanctuary and Sunday School/fellowship hall on the five acres that we had purchased in 1987 on Adams Ave. In September of 1993, Calvary Chapel Murrieta established Calvary Chapel Christian School on this site with an enrollment of 268 students.

The next five years would be filled with continued growth, not only for our church, but our new school as well. As the church expanded to four Sunday morning services and the school added eight modular classrooms to keep up with our growth, it was evident that we were in need of a larger facility. In 1995, we purchased 8.25 acres on Monroe Ave. and made plans to not only move the church to this site, but also to construct a Jr./Sr. high school facility so that we could accommodate the continued growth and expansion of our school.

In August 1996, we broke ground on the building of a new 900 seat sanctuary and gymnasium at the Monroe Ave. site, which also included 60,000 additional square feet of classrooms, 315 parking spaces and support offices for the church, Sunday school, and our Jr./Sr. high school. In February 1997 we dedicated the building and held our first service.

1999 was a busy year at Calvary Chapel Murrieta. We were able to complete our new elementary school campus in late February. This new campus, which is located south of the church on Monroe Ave., currently has 640 students and 60 staff members. The 35,000 square foot school has a full service kitchen, a separate fine arts department room, and a large maintenance building. With over two acres of playground and play equipment, as well as 185 new parking stalls, this new facility will meet our needs for some time to come.

Our Jr./Sr. high campus has also seen some new construction with the addition of six classrooms, the relocation and remodeling of our Jr./Sr. high school offices, and the consolidation of our church and school print shops to one location. The addition of the six new classrooms has enabled us to add a multi-room library to serve both campuses, as well as a completely new computer lab and support staff office.

In addition to the 505 students at our Jr./Sr. high campus, we also have an additional 229 students who are home schooled participating in ISP (Independent Study Program.)

The Music

The worship music was the best that I have heard in the Temecula/Murrieta Valley. Why do I say that? First of all it was real worship not a performance or a concert. Secondly, the music was tastefully done and the vocals were excellent. The harmonies were right on and the mix was great. I could go on but I don't want to puff them up!

The Sermon

The Sermon was good. It was Biblical and to the point. Pastor Brian's style struck me as different than the Calvary Chapel pastors that I have heard preach. I can't put my finger on what the difference was but I didn't feel like I was listening to a KWAVE sermon. The Title of his sermon was "This is a Test" and you can listen to it on itunes by going to the itunes store and downloading it for free.

Rancho Community Church 07.14.07

Rancho Community Church
Website- www.ranchocommunity.org
31300 Rancho Community Way,
Temecula. Ca. 92592
(951) 303-6789
Pastor Scott Treadway

The following review is based on a Saturday evening service that
I attended on 07.14.07 at 6:30 PM

Rating
Worship 4/5
Friendliness 4/5
Sermon 5/5
Theological Content 5/5
Evangelistic 5/5
Facility 5/5

Additional Comments:

Worship
The worship team consisted of 6 members, 2 electric guitars, 1 acoustic/vocalist, bass guitar, drums and a female vocalist. The 2 vocalists had incredible voices. The music was a little bit louder than I prefer but it overall it was pretty good. There is a fine line between a band performing in front of a congregation and a band leading the congregation in the worship of God. The worship team a little too close to that line. I also found one of the guitarists to be a bit distracting with his "Rick Springfield" style moves.
Having said that all of the musicians were excellent in their playing abilities given the genre of music.

Sermon
This is actually the part of the service that surprised me the most. I had come across a Sunday bulltin from this church about three years ago that looked like a downloaded sermon outline from Rick Warren's website complete with "fill in the blanks". I was attending the church on the assumption that the church was going to be "seeker sensitive" with "Temecula Tommy" as the "target attender". Boy was I wrong. Pastor Scott's sermon was well prepared, filled with Biblical truth and in my estimation, He nailed it!
The sermon was a sort of introduction to the subject of spiritual warfare. He immediately dismissed some of the more popular false notions of spiritual warfare. He has been teaching through the book of Ephesians and he is coming up to the verses that have to do with the armor of God.
He continued to teach about Jesus' "incarnational" ministry and how that model should be reflected in the lives that we live not just in the church but also on the job and in every arena of human life.
I took issue with acouple of statements that he said during the sermon but after the service he was kind enough to talk with me and explain the context of his statements. At that point we found ourselves in agreement.
If Pastor Scott teaches like this on a regular basis his church is not only going to continue to grow numerically but his people are definitely going to grow into maturity.
If you are looking for a church that isn't going to feed you milk every week then I think I have just found one that can recommend

I plan to visit one of his Sunday morning services in September so check back with me.