Liberty Baptist Church, Newport Beach CA

How do you scribe the worst/weirdest church I’ve ever experienced.

My wife kids and I had been looking for a church for sometime. I served as the youth pastor for 17 years and I felt the Holy Spirit calling me to a different ministry something to do with foster care. That’s where I ended up and foster care ministry.

That’s a little background about myself. I have worked with the biggest churches in my area (Whittier Hills, Baptist Church, now redemption Hills, EV Free Fullerton, Sambica youth camps) I’ve had experience working with churches and organizations over the years. When my wife and I found the church, we thought great we finally found a place where the preaching was gonna be worship was going to be amazing. The worship was really well done. Then the preaching came a bit dry not all that amazing but it was good. So I set my seminary aside and said I can sit through this. My wife and I decided to join the Bible study that the senior pastor was leading. Someone say that’s a mistake, but I would say that’s an eye-opener. I learned a few things about the senior pastor. He’s arrogant he does not stand up for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t really care to speak to anyone who he deems unworthy. The senior pastor tends to think in terms of dollars. There’s one pastor that was roaming around him, Doug, who, for over a year, introduced himself to my wife and I. Over a year she came up to us every Wednesday and Sunday to introduce himself.

We tried to stick it out through the summer. They have summer nights where they do a family meal and then a sermon. Now our children have been going there for a year, making friends for a year and we had zero issues. One Wednesday night my daughter who is seven said “ hey, those girls are in my class can I go sit with them and eat“ my wife and I said yes and within a minute we overheard the girls and saw the girls stand up and say we don’t want to hang out with you you’re weird. When we brought this to the children’s pastor, he said well, not all children are made the same I guess.

After that, my wife and I decided to take a hard look at is this the church we want to stay at. So we went and we sat and another Sunday morning sermon and that morning we were pulling into a parking spot. We pulled in and as we were getting out, we were yelled and cussed out by a little tiny member. He said things are inappropriate and most non-Christ center circles. We laughed and said OK someone needs Jesus. We sat down in church and they started a testimony of a man who was a yacht dealer in Newport. Turns out that yacht dealer is the same man who decided customers out and tell us we were worthless.

Very long winded frustrated review. I wanna go to this church. The senior pastor is arrogant, the associate pastor might have dementia, and the children’s pastor has no right to be a pastor yet. Stay away I can’t say there are a lot of great churches, but I can say this is not one of them.