Bayside Church - Granite Bay Campus — Attraction in Rocklin

I've been struggling with how to share my viewpoints on where Bayside is heading as a church for a few months now but I finally felt equipt enough to write a review on them. I have attended Bayside pretty regularly for the past five years and while I've definitely seen the church go through it's share of ups and downs, I have loved being a member of this Christian community. I have made many great friends and my faith and maturity have grown greatly from the teachings they have provided and the community I've been a part of. No church is perfect, however something has changed in the past year with Bayside and the changes are not good.

Several red flags have come to my attention over the past year that concern me greatly and have seriously made me consider wanting to find a new church. For the most part, Bayside has always been a great expository verse by verse teaching church with their focus being on the Gospel and Word of God as well as serving the community. I have begun to see a dangerous trend though in their worship, the preaching styles lately, who they promote from the pulpit, and the topics of their weekly messages.

Bayside has "weekend" worship teams who are talented musicians but they choose generic contemporary worship music to sing each week. I am not saying they need to be writing their own music, but I wish they chose better worship songs. What I mean by that is for the most part, all Bayside sings is Hillsong songs. That is not bad in and of itself. Many Hillsong songs are biblical and come from a great heart of worship for the Lord. Bayside unfortunately has done more than just sing the songs of Hillsong. Several times, especially in the past year or so, Bayside has praised Hillsong church in their sermons as well. If you know anything about Hillsong as a church, you know why this is a problem. The Hillsong community of churches are word-of-faith humanistic Pentecostal ministries that preach primarily the prosperity gospel of health and wealth. This is false doctrine and so incredibly dangerous, especially for a church with such a large world-wide platform. Sin and repentance are barely ever preached from a Hillsong pulpit. I question the discernment of Bayside pastors when they support dangerous ministries like Hillsong. Recently as well, the worship team sang a Jesus Culture song. Stemming from Bethel church in Redding, California, Jesus Culture is false to the core. We as Christians should have nothing to do with their heresy. What we do when we promote their music is we tell people we support their ministries too (the Bible is very clear about how we should handle false teachers.) Unknowing new Christians will seek out where the songs came from and start adding the church podcasts to their phones or watching their sermons online and be fed false messages leading them away from the cross.

I can genuinely say that over the past five years Bayside has done an amazing job preaching God's word in interesting and convicting sermons each week.I've been feeling much less equipt lately though with the messages Bayside preaches. The messages are lukewarm and provide little in the way of growth or maturity for the Christain's life. I am noticing with each new sermon they preach, how much more they are starting to resemble the prosperity gospel.

Overall, I definitely think Bayside has solid Christians who love Jesus and want to grow their faith, but something dangerous is changing the church's focus in a bad way and I'd say if I had to recommend a church for a new believer or seasoned Christian alike, I'd say look somewhere else. Sadly I've seen Bayside grow into a church who cares more about attendance and making people feel good than tending to their flock and building up genuine believers. My best advice would be to test everything they do and say to Scripture. If you start seeing things not align with God's Word and heart, pray for the church and pray for wisdom and direction from the Lord on whether or not Bayside is a healthy fit for you as a...

Excellent church with excellent Bible based teaching and heartfelt Hillsong worship music and numerous small groups and outreach ministries. Thrive conference and apologetics conference are cool. Lincoln Brewster is the jewel in the crown, awesome worship leader. Church for people who don't like church. If you're not into megachurch type services and upbeat atmosphere and you prefer a more solemn reverential atmosphere like most Catholic churches with traditional hymns and liturgy then you will not like this church. Personally I am quite ecumenical and I appreciate all churches and all different styles of worship so I could feel at home just as much in a small traditional Catholic church as in a modern evangelistic megachurch. As good as Bayside is, no church is perfect, so a couple constructive criticisms about Bayside. Sometimes the preaching gets too loud or strident, I would prefer a more conversational tone, like talking person-to-person instead of a high-pitched oratory performance on stage, because that usually comes across as phony or putting on an act or talking down at the people. God speaks to hearts "loudest" with a whisper, a still small voice, not shouting like a storm. Another constructive critique is that sometimes the worship music gets too repetitive, playing the same handful of songs week after week and month after month gets old. There are thousands of modern Christian songs to choose from so why play the same ones all the time. Even if you stick with Hillsong alone, there are still 100+ songs to choose from. Mix it up much more. Another issue is sometimes it's hard to find a parking space, although that's a good problem to have if you're a church. Another issue is if you want to have a more personal relationship with your pastor, it's hard because Ray and Curt and Lincoln and Andrew have such busy schedules. Some people criticize Bayside as "cultish". I haven't had that experience myself, but individual experiences and opinions vary based on reviews I've read and heard. Another potential critique is doctrinal, taking everything in the Bible as literal truth beyond question, even if modern science says otherwise. Maybe it's better to interpret the text as allegory or metaphor and teach both sides of the argument, like this is what science says about how things evolved and the supporting evidence, and this is what the Bible says. I'd argue based on modern science there are clearly many passages in the Bible that have to be interpreted as allegory and metaphor, not literal truth, including Genesis 1, or passages in the Bible that appear to endorse genocide,...

Very disturbing to see people say in the reviews of this church that if you "do not like this church you are 18 inches from heaven." Saying that you must like or attend a specific church in order to get to heaven is the sign of a cult. This church is a mega church with Granite Bay elite lining up at the Starbucks style coffee bar to buy over-priced lattes before/after and during service. The music is so loud (with smoke and flashing lights) that is it more akin to people wanting to go to a rock concert on Sundays and get an emotional high.

The sermons appear to be primarily about emotionalism, getting people "pumped up" and hyper emotional in order to cover the lack of the Holy Spirit being present.

What I see is that most of those who "adore" this church and all of its "good works" also chase after social causes like a greyhounds after a rabbits. I have had many members brag up what they do with the church and what the church does for the community. However, I have never once had a member talk to me about Yeshua (Jesus Christ). After attending this church repeatedly, I have NEVER ONCE heard a salvation message preached. Nope, it is all about making people with lots of money feel good so they donate to the church. The pastors appear hesitant, they temper things. They clearly fear offending their wealthy "clientele" who are there for a "positive and uplifting" message.

The small groups are better because they are one on one people. However, no saving knowledge of Christ is being expressed. BEWARE. You can get caught up in this "playing Christian" scenario very easily if you do not know your Bible. Yes, you will be doing lots of good works here if you volunteer for even a fraction of the "events" and "programs" and "missions." But you may find in the end that Jesus never knew you.

Do not buy into their "feel good" message and "I'm okay, you're okay" mentality. I simply do not see pastors here willing to challenge their congregation with a saving knowledge of G-d's grace or a true understanding of conviction. This is just another "ask_Jesus_into_ya_heart_an_you_got_fire_insurance cause it's okay to keep_your_life_as_it_is_cause_gawd_luvs_ya" church. No call to repentance, no conviction by the Ruach ha'Kodesh (Holy Spirit). Be discerning. Know your Bible. Your salvation...