San Clemente has no shortage of compromised churches. We have rock-concert non-denominational venues, seeker-sensitive social clubs, and high-production entertainment centers with crosses in them (for some unknown reason). But among them all, one stands out as the most spiritually dangerous of the bunch: Zion Church.
Why the most dangerous? Because Zion Church doesn’t just water down the Gospel. It openly defies the written Word of God in its leadership and has actively marched the spirit of the world through our community.
A local New Testament church is called to be “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). Zion Church is neither.
A “Pastor Team” That God’s Word Forbids
Zion Church was launched in early 2020 by the husband-and-wife team of Jon and Tayren Krist. Jon is presented as the “Lead Pastor,” while Tayren serves as the “Outreach Pastor,” who teaches, and leads as a “co-pastor”. The egalitarian, feminist world rejoices in this. The Bible flatly condemns it.
God’s qualifications for the pastoral office are not suggestions, guidelines, or cultural preferences:
“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach.”
— 1 Timothy 3:2 (KJV)
“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
— 1 Timothy 2:11-12 (KJV)
A woman cannot be the husband of one wife. A woman cannot hold the office of Pastor. Period.
This is not a cultural issue limited to the first century. Paul grounds this restriction in the unchangeable order of creation itself (1 Timothy 2:13-14), just as headship in the home is grounded in the way God created man and woman (1 Corinthians 11:3).
Here is what this tells you about the ministry at Zion Church: a church that will openly disobey God on something so clear will disobey Him on everything else. If they will not submit to the authority of Scripture regarding who may stand behind the pulpit and exercise pastoral authority, then their doctrine and teachings are just built on the same sand.
Marching With Worldly Philosophies
In May 2020, during the height of the national social unrest, the leadership of Zion Church actively jumped on the bandwagon of the secular commie protest movement in San Clemente. According to contemporaneous news reporting, Zion Church of San Clemente, led by Pastor Jon and Tayren Krist, held a “silent march” from the Community Center down to the pier.
Let’s be entirely honest about what that movement represents. The official Black Lives Matter global organization was founded by self-described “trained Marxists.” Its published, official charter openly called for the “disruption” of the nuclear family, the very institution God established in Genesis 2:24 and gave further instruction for in Ephesians 5 and 6 and many other places in the Bible. BLM is an anti-family, anti-authority, and radically anti-White terrorist movement rooted in the same godless, state-worshiping ideology that has historically persecuted Bible-believing Christians.
The BLM riots and the property damage were the most expensive in U.S. insurance history. Not to mention the priceless cost of the multiple lives that were murdered during this time by the BLM terrorists. Imagine how anti-Christ someone would have to be to support such a thing.
Marxism is simply atheism with a political agenda. It has no more place in the local church of Jesus Christ than a pagan idol does.
The secular “social justice” movement pushes an absurd collective, tribal guilt and perpetual bitterness. It is a counterfeit gospel, and Scripture pronounces a curse on anyone who preaches another gospel (Galatians 1:8-9).
For a man (and wife) calling himself “pastor” to lead a church under the influence of that worldly philosophy is a staggering betrayal of Christ:
“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)
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
— Colossians 2:8 (KJV)
The pulpit was not instituted by God for community organizing, secular activism, jumping on the bandwagon of the latest anti-American trend, or progressive virtue signaling.
San Clemente Deserves Better
If you want your ears tickled, your secular ungodly politics validated, and a weekly rock concert, Zion Church will serve you well.
But if you want the church that Jesus built, one that stands on the preserved King James Bible as the final authority, obeys God’s order for pastoral leadership, preaches salvation by grace through faith alone, and works to see souls saved from Hell, you will not find it there.
“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 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 4:2-3 (KJV)
That time has come to South Orange County. The itching ears are being scratched on every corner.
It is time for a faithful, Independent Fundamental Baptist lighthouse in San Clemente, a local church that fears God more than it fears being called names by the culture. If you share that burden, it’s time to stop compromising.
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
— 2 Corinthians 6:14 (KJV)
