University Bible Church

UBC is a wonderful bible teaching church; the congregation is filled with caring people who love God and are willing to serve others. Plus, they have an awesome kids program and staff!

In UBC, I have found a home where the truth of the Bible is taught in the love and grace that a true understanding of the Bible would instil. As a bonus, people there are fun, haha.
It seems most churches today either go to far one way or the other: they either give grace but in a way that compromises the truth, or they give the truth and throw grace out the window. I have also had a lot of bad experience with conservative churches, where people place social conformity over biblical grace and biblical teaching. However, UBC manages to be both biblical and biblically loving. I think that people at different levels of their spiritual walk would feel welcome here.
Sermons: very «user-​friendly» (understandable, approachable, and applicable to life), yet Pastor Rob always throw us theology geeks a bone as well.
Worship: contemporary. Sometimes a little loud (I like it loud), but not too often.
Building:
It’s really cute and old-​fashion, I think it’s some 80 years old. The sanctuary has a high vaulted ceiling with bare and beautifully crafted wood beams – I heard it is hand-​built by the founding group of the church, as well as most of the rest of the building. There are many comfortable places to sit in and hang out with friends, as well as an amazing kitchen in which they cook for us all the time!
People:
— Characteristics: as mentioned before, fun. Not what you would expect from a theologically conservative church (I was at first expecting everyone to be old and professor-​looking, hahaha, silly me). They are also very caring, loving, and kind, even (and especially) to people who are different than they are. Obviously every church has some people who are different from the norm, but the norm @UCB is very friendly and kind. The elders and leaders are on the look out to correct members who are not treating people like Jesus would treat them, which is a pleasant surprise for me since I had been discriminated against in churches a lot.
— Numbers: I think of this as a small church. I am not sure what the official definition is, but I think on Sunday service there are between 40 – 60 adults? There are tons of kids, though, and they are super cute.
Hospitality: as mentioned before, they cook for us all the time, it’s very nice. hahah. For example:
— Every year there are a couple whole-​church events where food is served, all opened to the community.
— Every Friday night we (I serve on the college ministry team) cook dinner for the undergraduates before Bible study.
— Every UCLA final’s week, we open up the whole church for students to come and study, and serve homemade dinner and coffee all night for 3 days.
Small groups: There are a number of groups for people who are at different «places» with God. For example, there is a group for people who are not Christians but are interested in Christianity, they can come and ask all sort of hard questions. There are a couple groups for serious theological discussions (some more layman-​friendly than others), and also a few groups for people to study the Bible together and to «do life together» as Christians.
Theological view:
The leadership in UBC are very good at holding tight only to the primary doctrines (the inerrancy of the Bible, Trinity, Jesus is eternal God, lived a perfect life, died an atoning death, resurrected on the 3^rd day, the personhood of the Holy Spirit, etc), and discussions on secondary issues are welcomed but never heated (e.g. end time theology, methodology of creation, etc). People with different conviction on the secondary issues can become members and serve (for example, I personally have a different view on creation than most Bible-​believing Christians – basically all we agree on is «God made heavens and earth and all that is within it” – this is known and no one has given me any grief about it even though it is different from the position of the church).

UBC is a bible-​oriented and family-​oriented church. I have been there for about 6 years now and have found it easy to get involved and easy to get to know other people. There are active programs for children, youth, college, 20s/​30s, men and women. UBC has been a blessing to me over the years, and I like that we are willing to try new ministry ideas while maintaining our core of Bible teaching and ministry.