Reality Carpinteria

If you want to be surrounded by hypocritical, judgmental, supposed «Christians» than this is the place for you! Their welcome arms are all just a façade to get you to drink their cup of freshly brewed cult punch. I thought Christians were supposed to be accepting and loving toward everyone and all walks of life? Instead Reality has a following that likes to bash other organized religions even if they are in the same sect! They openly judge Catholics and Mormons which both have decent followings in the sleepy town of Carpinteria, CA and their followers openly judge people who don’t agree with their views on love and life. Their youth program is what is most concerning! Tell me, what does chasing around and slaughtering a greased up, poor, innocent pig have anything to do with growing in faith and establishing a connection with God? Please, don’t be fooled by their new age methods of worship, if this church continues down their «righteous» path, they are guaranteed to be the next Westboro Baptist Church!

Be careful going to this warehouse church. They have a history of strange events. The youth group painted themselves in war paint and did a pig slaughter. One of the youth pastors ran his motorcycle drunk into a fence with a kid on the back. I tried to sit-​in at the youth meeting where my daughter was, and was asked to leave. You think they might have something to hide? It’s got all the earmarkings of a cult! These people seem to worship this Britt guy more than they do God!
The compound would be a great location for a bowling alley and arcade facility. This would benefit our wonderful community of Carpinteria a lot more than this hole in the wall. God Bless those bowlers and pinball players.

I love this church so friendly, relevant, and up beat! Great place to meet new people and get filled up. The serve a good cup of coffee as well.

Been a believer for a few years (around 5) and this is by far the most Christ-​centered church I’ve ever been to. Every pastor who I’ve seen teach here in my two years attending are incredibly humble despite an amazing understanding of scripture. Every message points to the gospel, and the music is professional grade. If you love Jesus I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

I’m not speaking from a 1 time experience, I have actually attended this church a couple of times throughout the last few years. I have friends who USED to attend this church on an every Sunday basis and sometimes I would tag along just to see something different than the church I normally go to.
The people there seem to worship Britt– the main pastor– more than they do God. He’s a great public speaker, but a lot of his teachings are based off of his own personal experience instead of readings/​teachings from the Bible. This is a good and bad thing: Good in that he has experience and has grown and learned and has something to say about it that is semi relative, but not so good in that people are thinking about his personal life story more than what’s coming out of the Bible, meanings, and teachings from God.
The rock music they play is distracting– it’s not like a traditional church with the normal songs and hymns and things, it’s hard core rock music, and reggae– like Bob Marley status. It really grabs young teens attention, but once they declare God as their Lord and Savior there isn’t much else for them.
In summery: This church does a lot for bringing people to accepting Jesus and caters to a young high school crowd, but after that… there isn’t much to make that relationship deeper.

Awesome church in Carpinteria! Pastor Britt Merrick (son of surfer pro Al Merrick) brings a great word and has a huge heart for people, the worship is absolutely amazing, and all the people are very nice and welcoming. Lots of programs for kids, they have a jr. high and sr. high group as well. On a typical Sunday morning you’ll see people ranging in age from teens to Senior Citizens. You’ll find business men in ties sitting next to college students in shorts and sandals. Really, you’ll find people old, young, and somewhere in between from every race and culture. You even get baptized in the ocean! How cool is that?