Pasadena United Reformed Church

Contacts

Address:
1515 Garfield Avenue, South Pasadena, CA 91030
Get directions

Website:
pasadenaurc.org

Phone number:
+1 626-437-4944

Categories:
Establishment   Church   Place of worship  

Suggest update

Reviews about Pasadena United Reformed Church

• Christopher Harper

  Aug, 17 2018
  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  Law & Gospel, Confession of Sin, the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, Creeds, Confessions, & Catechism for children and adults, from a covenantal, historic, and reformed tradition.
• Adam inCairo

  Dec, 20 2017
  ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
  This is basically a negative review. But before I begin I want to say that this church is filled with very kind and friendly laypeople who seek to worship God through Christ, according to the scriptures. The people of this church are great. These comments refer to the elders and their unfriendly and/or unbiblical policies towards visitors.
  
  There are no signs advertising that the church meets at this location. I had to park and ask around for 10 minutes or so before I found the sanctuary on the large campus of a congregational church.
  
  Though I emailed the church ahead of time, I was aggressively interrogated by an elder as soon as I sat down. The purpose of this aggressive grilling was to ascertain if I was eligible to take communion. But this was not at all clear at first. The elder didn't introduce himself, didn't say hello, and didn't take any interest in me as a person. I got the distinct impression that he was simply looking for reasons to deny me communion.
  
  I am a member of a NAPARC church, so there wasn't any reason for him to do this. But good luck if you happen to be Lutheran, baptist, evangelical, or a member of a Bible-believing Christian church outside of NAPARC. You will not be allowed to take communion here.
  
  This church confuses the NAPARC with the Kingdom of God. The biblical verses they print in their bulletin to "justify" their communion practices are non-sequiturs that have nothing to whatsoever to do with communion. They cite Matthew 18 and John 20:23 to justify the denial of communion to Christians. Their misuse of these scriptural passages to support this form of "heavy shepherding" is a rather flagrant violation of the third commandment.
  
  After the first elder finished his aggressive interrogation, I continued to wait for the service to start (it started quite late). As I was waiting, another elder came up and put me through the same interrogation all over again. Once again, the second elder did not introduce himself or extend any friendship, grace, or hospitality.
  
  The pastor is a much more humble and friendly person than the elders. He shook my hand, said hello, and welcomed me when he saw me sitting in the pews before the service.
  
  The sermon itself was pretty good. But there were a few problems. First, the pastor confused law and gospel in his Scripture readings. He began by reading from the law. This was good and clear. But when it came time to read from the gospel, he started by reading more law (this is not good).
  
  Second, on several occasions he really nagged the congregation during the service about coming to worship services. I did not understand why he was doing this -- the people in the pews are the people who ALREADY DO attend worship services. So why hammer them? What is the point of that? Perhaps if the services were more friendly and welcoming the elders wouldn't need him to issue so many reminders.
  
  Maybe I just caught this church on a bad day. It is possible the elders were just in a bad mood. But apart from interacting with the wonderful laypeople, my experience here was not good.
  
  The elders seem to confuse the kingdom of God with NAPARC. Visitors should expect to be greeted with the third degree. I am very sorry to say that I cannot recommend this church.

Photos and maps

Nearest companies

• Leslie Saeta Fine Art

  Establishment, General contractor, Art gallery

  2036 Oak Street, South Pasadena, CA 91030

  +1 626-799-8507

  saetastudio.com
• Pasadena United Reformed Church

  Establishment, Church, Place of worship

  1515 Garfield Avenue, South Pasadena, CA 91030

  +1 626-437-4944

  pasadenaurc.org
• Hwang Tony S DDS

  Establishment, Health, Dentist

  100 Huntington Drive # 206, Alhambra, CA 91801

  +1 626-308-1807
• In-N-Out Burger

  Establishment, Food

  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

  1 reviews

  1210 North Atlantic Boulevard, Alhambra, CA 91801

  +1 800-786-1000

  locations.in-n-out.com

  Closed now:
• Pizza Hut

  Establishment, Food

  1219 North Atlantic Boulevard, Alhambra, CA 91801

  +1 626-458-1313

  pizzahut.com

  Open now: Until 11:00pm
• Huntington / Atlantic

  Establishment, Bus station, Transit station

  United States, Alhambra, CA 91801