Church Reviews/ Penn/ South Hills AOG
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South Hills Assembly of GOD
South Hills Assembly of God is located in Bethel Park, PA and is lead by Pastor Dr. Jack C. Stepp. In this review we will be looking at their church via their website which can be found at http://www.southhillsassembly.org. The purpose of this review is not in anyway to say that the people who attend this church are not Christians or that they are heretical. Instead the purpose of this review is to point out what this church teaches and compare it to what the word of God says and see if it aligns with scripture. We are to be like the Bereans and question and compare what we are being taught to the Word of God and if it does not match than get rid of it (1 Cor 5:12-13).
The first area we will be reviewing is South Hills’s “Vision” statement which can be founded at; http://www.southhillsassembly.org/about-us/vision. As we look at this page we are greeted by an opening verse from the book of Isaiah chapter 61 verses 1 to 3. Upon reading this verse given we can see a major problem with the applicational purpose of this verse. As often is done with my churches and pastors today there tends to be a reading of one self or church into biblical text that don’t apply to us today, this has become otherwise know as narcissistic eisegesis. Isaiah 61:1-3 when read in its correct context is dealing Israel not our church today. This is a descriptive verse not a prescriptive verse meaning that when Southern Hills church adds to the “me” and puts “us” to the text of this verse they are allegorizing the verse instead of contextualizing it. In short this is not something we are suppose to be doing this in what is being described as being done at the time by the prophet Isaiah for Israel not for us to do today in our churches.
This above topic at first this may not seem like a big deal but when you are looking at what a church teaches these types of little issues should set off red flags. This type of mistranslation of biblical texts are dangerous in the sense that if they are allowing this type of misrepresentation to be happing in their vision statement than how much more could it be happening in what is being preached from the pulpit? This also is a warning flag that this church may or may not be teaching Reconstructionism or hold to a Postmillennialism eschatological view. This view in extreme cases can be heretical in their approach of reclaiming the culture and establishing a kingdom for Christ to return to.
The second area that we will be looking at is South Hills’s “Core Beliefs” section which is located at http://www.southhillsassembly.org/about-us/corebeliefs. At a precursory glance it should be noted that their belief statement is not backed with any biblical scripture references at all. This can be seen as a major red flag when looking at a church. This allows a church to establish what they believe without backing their beliefs with scriptural evidences. While South Hills has a lot of “We Believe” statements they have no scriptures backing what they believe with the bible therefore what they believe may or may not biblical based on their lack of supporting scriptures.
While their belief statement confirms many of the essential Christian doctrines there are some concerns to be raised. A major one worth mentioning is that they do not confirm whether Jesus is a man right now in heaven or not. This is a very important statement to include because this reflects an understanding of the basic divinitical nature of Christ being both divine and a man at the same time. This is otherwise known as the communicatio idiomatum.
A minor point worth mentioning here is that upon further review it can be concluded that South Hill’s hold to a definite Arminian theological view. While this does not make them heretical or not Christians this does lead to some at the very least interesting theological conundrums, especially when it comes to the topics of Predestination and the Will of God to choose His elect.
The last area we will be looking at in this review is how the Pastors handle the Word of God from the pulpit for this we look at; http://www.southhillsassembly.org/newsaresources/sunday-mornings. When we checked out several of these messages from the pastors at this church we got a definite underling tone from their preaching. The underling tone of their preaching was very Word of Faith and Name Claim it preaching style. There is also seems to be a lot of out of context preaching from the bible and misapplying biblical text to the church and it’s people. The pastors at South Hills also seem to over play on emotionalism in their preaching; playing on the feeling of the church goers. This is a common practice among many Assembly of God churches and even more common in the seeker friendly churches. Sadly many of the Assembly of God churches are turning to just that seeker friendly.
While South Hills is not a heretical church and they are within the realms of Christianity it’s not a church that we would recommend attending. We can not recommend attending this church based on the evidences sited in this review. This doesn’t mean that the people who attend here are not Christians or that the Pastor is not being sincere. This however does not excuse the problems that we have sighted with this church’s teachings and theological stands. A person or a church can be sincere but their sincerity does not make them right.
The first area we will be reviewing is South Hills’s “Vision” statement which can be founded at; http://www.southhillsassembly.org/about-us/vision. As we look at this page we are greeted by an opening verse from the book of Isaiah chapter 61 verses 1 to 3. Upon reading this verse given we can see a major problem with the applicational purpose of this verse. As often is done with my churches and pastors today there tends to be a reading of one self or church into biblical text that don’t apply to us today, this has become otherwise know as narcissistic eisegesis. Isaiah 61:1-3 when read in its correct context is dealing Israel not our church today. This is a descriptive verse not a prescriptive verse meaning that when Southern Hills church adds to the “me” and puts “us” to the text of this verse they are allegorizing the verse instead of contextualizing it. In short this is not something we are suppose to be doing this in what is being described as being done at the time by the prophet Isaiah for Israel not for us to do today in our churches.
This above topic at first this may not seem like a big deal but when you are looking at what a church teaches these types of little issues should set off red flags. This type of mistranslation of biblical texts are dangerous in the sense that if they are allowing this type of misrepresentation to be happing in their vision statement than how much more could it be happening in what is being preached from the pulpit? This also is a warning flag that this church may or may not be teaching Reconstructionism or hold to a Postmillennialism eschatological view. This view in extreme cases can be heretical in their approach of reclaiming the culture and establishing a kingdom for Christ to return to.
The second area that we will be looking at is South Hills’s “Core Beliefs” section which is located at http://www.southhillsassembly.org/about-us/corebeliefs. At a precursory glance it should be noted that their belief statement is not backed with any biblical scripture references at all. This can be seen as a major red flag when looking at a church. This allows a church to establish what they believe without backing their beliefs with scriptural evidences. While South Hills has a lot of “We Believe” statements they have no scriptures backing what they believe with the bible therefore what they believe may or may not biblical based on their lack of supporting scriptures.
While their belief statement confirms many of the essential Christian doctrines there are some concerns to be raised. A major one worth mentioning is that they do not confirm whether Jesus is a man right now in heaven or not. This is a very important statement to include because this reflects an understanding of the basic divinitical nature of Christ being both divine and a man at the same time. This is otherwise known as the communicatio idiomatum.
A minor point worth mentioning here is that upon further review it can be concluded that South Hill’s hold to a definite Arminian theological view. While this does not make them heretical or not Christians this does lead to some at the very least interesting theological conundrums, especially when it comes to the topics of Predestination and the Will of God to choose His elect.
The last area we will be looking at in this review is how the Pastors handle the Word of God from the pulpit for this we look at; http://www.southhillsassembly.org/newsaresources/sunday-mornings. When we checked out several of these messages from the pastors at this church we got a definite underling tone from their preaching. The underling tone of their preaching was very Word of Faith and Name Claim it preaching style. There is also seems to be a lot of out of context preaching from the bible and misapplying biblical text to the church and it’s people. The pastors at South Hills also seem to over play on emotionalism in their preaching; playing on the feeling of the church goers. This is a common practice among many Assembly of God churches and even more common in the seeker friendly churches. Sadly many of the Assembly of God churches are turning to just that seeker friendly.
While South Hills is not a heretical church and they are within the realms of Christianity it’s not a church that we would recommend attending. We can not recommend attending this church based on the evidences sited in this review. This doesn’t mean that the people who attend here are not Christians or that the Pastor is not being sincere. This however does not excuse the problems that we have sighted with this church’s teachings and theological stands. A person or a church can be sincere but their sincerity does not make them right.
