Christian Church of Lemon Grove MAY NOT be the church for you, because…
- None of us are perfect.
- We all mess up and miss the target in life, maybe more than we like to admit.
- We are diverse and ethnically mixed.
- We are independent, we don’t belong to any denomination.
What kind of people?
Let’s be honest, one of the problems with the church and religion is hypocrisy in general. We all know people who speak something high and holy and then live a life that is a complete contradiction. The bible has a lot to say about these kinds of people. The bible also has a lot to say about religious people who come together to put on a show who seem only interested in impressing each other. Needless to say, what the bible has to say concerning this kind of behavior isn’t good.
We think that most of the people you will meet at Christian Church of Lemon Grove are real people. Each of us have come out of different and yet very similar situations – upheaval, tragedy, and family strife. Each of us at one level or another are simply trying to survive life. This reality is one of the things that binds our people together regardless of age, color, background, and economic situation. We are in fact a true cross-section of our diverse community. We are in fact a true cross-section of our diverse community. We are people with individual stories. Our doors always open to individuals seeking fellowship with other Christians. We gather each weekend around the most important story of all. It is the story of the living God constantly calling us to a deeper relationship with Him.
What makes us different?
We’re independent, which means that we don’t belong to any denomination. The story of how denominations began and what they are about today is a long one – about a 1900 year long story. Since we don’t have the time, here is what a condensed version might look like in a children’s story book.
Some 2000 years ago, Jesus chose 12 followers whom He had specifically spent time with to begin His church. These followers were called Apostles. (The word “Apostle” most specifically means “One who is commissioned.”) The church followed the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles. Over the course of time, someone (let’s name him Bob) believes that his congregation is moving away from the bible and so he decides, “This is what the Apostles’ teaching means. Here, let me tell you what it really says.” He then wrote a book about what he believed their teaching meant and developed a following. He started a congregation called the church of Bob. Bob would use his book as a source of authority in teaching the believers. If they had a question about doctrine or teaching, they would open Bob’s book to find out how Bob viewed what the Bible said about their question. We’re sure Bob was a sincere, devout, smart guy and worthy to be followed as a church leader. Everyone thought so, everyone that is except Steve.
Steve was another sincere, devout, and smart guy, worthy to be followed as a church leader. Steve believed Bob to be moving away from the actual teaching of the bible and he wrote another book. Soon of course, many began to believe Steve’s interpretation and they started a church called the Stevian Church. The church of Bob, and the Stevian church, both believe the same important things. They just disagree upon why they are important.
Many other churches would also begin through the teachings of various individuals and these churches still flourish to this day. Again, all of them believe the same important things; they’ve just gotten a little upset over the years why everyone couldn’t believe like them. Needless to say, the story doesn’t have an ending because we’re not finished living it. There are many organized groups of Christians that do wonderful things together in the name of Jesus Christ. They began to recognize that some of their differences were rather small, too small in fact to keep from serving Christ together and trying to understand each other. With each passing year, more understanding and communication takes place, and more inter-denominational service begins to happen all over the world for Jesus Christ.
This children’s story is filled with truth evidenced in any history book, in any library, in any town in America.
We recognize that many people have come along later to say and write tremendously insightful and helpful opinions about the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles. We believe in the original teachings of Jesus and the Apostles as the real authority. These teachings are found in the Bible and that is where we look. Our pastor spends many hours working to communicate these wonderful teachings in a way that you can understand and know the truth of what God desires for you. Rather than look at what “Bob or Steve” say, we encourage everyone to look at the teachings for themselves and see how plain the truths are. There is nothing mysterious about the Bible. It’s pretty clear that God wants to be known and wants us to know Him! Why would he make that difficult, or make it known just to an elite few?
What do we believe?
We believe that there is a God.
We believe that God is eternal (He had no beginning to His existence and He will have no ending to His existence).
We believe that God revealed who he was to men and women throughout history. These revelations were recorded by observers, and in some cases by the actual participants themselves. These recordings make up the whole of what we call the Bible. Though there were many of these “interventions” by God in many times and places, it is clear that God chose to reveal his purposes through one people, the historic people of Israel.
Upon reading the Bible we learn that God is a God of purpose, and that He indeed had a purpose for creating man. The scriptures record that mankind rebelled against God from the beginning and that man was responsible for driving a wedge in the relationship between himself and God. As a result, the Bible says that rebellion is now a part of our nature. The events that surround us today give evidence to that bold statement.
God, however is not one to give up so easily. He didn’t want the wedge to exist between He and us, so immediately He enacted a strategy to fix the relationship. The plan called for a sacrifice to be given, a payment to be made for the wrong-doing, the rebellion that mankind is now inclined to maintain. Somebody had to make payment for wrongs-suffered, in order for there to be justice, mercy, and love in this relationship. When the time was right God enacted the plan. He enacted it in the most magnificent, awe inspiring, and somewhat ironic event in history. The plan actually called for God Himself to be the sacrifice that would pay the price to fix the relationship. God physically placed Himself into history as a man. A man named Jesus. And to help us recognize this magnificent event, God went the extra step and provided us numerous and specific prophecies of the event — hundreds of years before it happened.
This Jesus, who was fully a man and fully God at the same time, lived a perfect life. He lived a life all of us should be living but none of us have. By becoming not just any normal sacrifice, but a “perfect” sacrifice, He was killed as a perfect representative in our place, a perfect punishment on our behalf. Since we believe He did this for us, we now give our allegiance to Him. He gave His life for us. Now we give and live our lives for Him. Our relationship with God has been restored!
Then, as He predicted, Jesus rose from the dead in order to bring to us a living hope that we too will rise from death into life forever with Him. The evidence is an empty tomb.
How do we know what we believe? The Bible, a collection of writings written by men, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, teach these things. These records are validated by archaeological findings, by internal evidence (what the documents themselves speak to, their consistency, their content, as well as fulfilled prophecy they contain), and external evidence (what witnesses observed and have recorded in historical documents, as well as the magnitude of manuscripts available to document the validity of these biblical writings). Beyond that, is the evidence of changed lives as people surrender their lives by trust to the living God who reveals Himself through these writings found in the Bible.
Does this church have a purpose?
CCLG (Christian Church of Lemon Grove) exists to help:
Searchers COMMIT to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord,
Believers CONNECT to Christ’s Church and His people,
Students LEARN how to grow and be equipped,
Servants GIVE to others what He has given to them.
Why a church?
The word “church” really means, “a called together assembly or meeting.” In the Bible the word is never used to mean, “a building.” The word “church,” meant, “the people.” We are a people that gather together to love the Lord, and love each other. One cannot be done without the other. Some people think that their relationship with God is personal and that they love and worship Him in their own way. The only problem is that God says we really cannot love Him unless we love each other. Well, that’s hard for someone to do when they don’t meet regularly with others.
Meeting with other Christians helps us move forward and get more out of our life experiences — a chain is simply stronger than one single solitary link.
History of our church.
Christian Church of Lemon Grove first started meeting in 1963 in various rented buildings. In 1968 we bought a piece of land and built the original worship hall. Later, classrooms were added in two separate phases. Our newest facility was completed in November of 2000. It is a 24,000 sq. ft. facility with offices, gymnasium, classrooms, and worship center.