San Clemente is known for its beautiful coastlines, conservative politics, friendly people, surfing, and laid-back lifestyle. But if you look deeper, you will find that it is a spiritual desert. While it may seem like there is a “church” on every block, the reality is that many of these institutions are just entertainment centers and social clubs.
San Clemente is drowning in non-denominational churches that want to cater to everyone. What we truly need—and badly—is an old-fashioned Independent Fundamental Baptist church.
Please see our static page here with more info on our burden and vision: https://sanclementeifb.com/the-burden-and-vision/
The “Social Club” Church
Walk into most San Clemente churches on a Sunday morning, and you won’t find the worship of a holy God. Instead, you will find a production. The “worship service” has been replaced by a concert venue where rock bands take center stage and women jump around leading everyone in worldly lyrics.
“But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
— 1 Timothy 2:12 (KJV)
The goal is no longer to convict, exhort, or boldly preach the gospel. The goal is to make the congregation feel good, keep them trendy, and maintain a “cool” image.
This is not the church Christ built. This is a social club. These churches are designed to cater to the flesh, appealing to feminine emotions and subjective feelings instead of the objective, authoritative truth of God’s Word.
“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”
— Matthew 15:8 (KJV)
Poisonous Compromise
The rot in Orange County didn’t happen overnight. It grew because influential leaders led the people away from the authority of the King James Bible and the separation demanded by God. This used to be a much more Christian area, but that has been declining because of a lack of solidly biblical churches and preaching. We also have unchecked immigration and people moving into our city with strange religions that reject Christian teaching—and nobody is going door to door to give them the truth. Shallow believers and zealous cult fanatics make for an extremely unhealthy combination. We don’t want beautiful San Clemente to degrade into a place like Dearborn, Michigan or Minneapolis, Minnesota because people were afraid to stand up for the truth of the gospel.
Look at Saddleback Church, just up the freeway a few miles from San Clemente, with its multiple campuses. For years, Rick Warren steered the congregation toward worldly pragmatism. By the time he retired, he had driven the church into open defiance of Scripture. He “ordained” female “pastors” and eventually put into place a husband-and-wife pastorate, explicitly violating the biblical instruction given to Timothy and Titus.
“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife…”
— 1 Timothy 3:2 (KJV)
“If any be blameless, the husband of one wife…”
— Titus 1:6 (KJV)
This is wicked heresy. When a “church” rejects the biblical requirements for church leadership, it ceases to be a pillar and ground of the truth and becomes pure rebellion. It is a warning we should all heed, for as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17).
Closer to home, we see places like Shoreline Church with its formula of entertainment-focus. It is all about “being relevant,” “being cool,” and “being appealing” to the secular world.
“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
— James 4:4 (KJV)
When you focus on relevance, you lose the power of the blood. There is no urgency to reach the lost through soulwinning because the focus is entirely on keeping the current members happy with the weekly entertainment.
Then you have even worse places like “Zion Church” that combines trendy entertainment with Marxist social justice virtue signaling. Their husband-wife “pastor” team led a BLM rally in San Clemente, promoting the anti-White, anti-authority evil that BLM stands for. It is a horrible sight to see.
Where Is the Gospel?
In these trendy centers of compromise, you will find:
- No Soulwinning: They don’t want to disturb the peace by asking people where they will spend eternity, talking about the exclusivity of the gospel, or the reality of hell.
- No Hard Preaching: The pulpit has been turned into a “Ted Talk” for the twenty-first century—full of life-hacks, but devoid of Scripture.
- No Reverence: The holiness of God is treated as secondary to the feelings of the attendee.
- No Truth: The gospel is kept vague to ensure maximum attendance, because attendance is the metric of success for a social club, not soul-saving.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”
— 2 Timothy 4:3 (KJV)
Paul also warned that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). But these churches have so softened the message that there is nothing left to persecute. They are totally at peace with the world.
Anyone Out There?
San Clemente does not need another rock concert. It does not need another social club or Marxist gathering masquerading as a house of God. It does not need more feminine, emotional, “feel-good” preaching.
San Clemente needs a man of God that believes the King James Bible is the preserved Word of God. It needs a Pastor and a church with preaching on the full counsel of God—rebuking sin, calling for separation, preaching passages that go against the feminist LGBT filth being promoted so heavily today. It needs a church that prioritizes soulwinning over social status.
We are burdened for this city. We are tired of the entertainment, the compromise, and the vanity. People in this city who love the Lord and love His Word have nowhere to go. If you are someone looking for more than a weekly show and want a biblical church where the honor of Christ comes before the comfort of the crowd, then join us in praying for—and working toward—a truly biblical, Independent Fundamental Baptist church in San Clemente.
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
— Mark 16:15 (KJV)
