Caution! We may NOT be the
Church for you.
What kind of people hang
out at LGCC?
What makes us different?
What do we
believe?
Does this church have a
purpose?
Why a church?
History of our church.
Lemon Grove Christian 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 Lemon Grove Christian 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 400 people with 400
stories, with our doors always open for another story - yours
perhaps. 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?
Lemon Grove Christian Church
exists to reach, preach, and teach in Jesus' name; bringing others
to salvation and maturity in Him.
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 expereinces -- a
chain is simply stronger than one single solitary link.
History of our church.
Lemon Grove Christian 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.
