Skyline Church A Calvary Chapel

If you’re a Republican Mexican-​American, and a Latino before you’re a Christian, this is the church for you.
Really. Manny knows his Bible.
He’s also the winner of a church split in 2007 vs the Whites that ran CCTO for decades. Shows you how immigration impacted Ventura County.
I was raised in Tucson, where Brown reigns. Manny is just like every other angry-​Mexican-​American who throws a power trip when he doesn’t get his way.
Informally trained by the US Army, he doesn’t factor in formal education into his teachings, so those pursuing it will feel like outsiders until you find another church.
Caucasian wife with fiery red hair will plant the question in the back of your mind, «How did these two get together?»
This sets the temperature for fellowship at CC Skyline and explains why their issue went from overcrowding and the need to expand to merely paying the bills on time.
Again, if you look like and share Manny’s educational background and his insecurities as a Mexican American (that’s ethnicity before Christianity), you’ll fit right in and wonder how in the world anyone could write anything negative about this pompous prick.
God still uses him. He’s going on 10 years there.
Lay ministry is hit and miss based on what I described above.

This is a God-​led church. It almost feels odd to fill out a «review» for a church, however, I urge you to come visit if you don’t have a home church. Come as you are… don’t feel like you have to fit in a mold. God doesn’t have prerequisites for you to come to His house of worship. The congregation is nice, welcoming, and engaging. There’s truly a sense of community going on at Skyline church and it’s very contagious. See you on Sunday.

This is a homey type church. Because of our size we are able to get to know eachother, pray for one another and grow together. Everyone feels like family and that’s how God’s church is suppose to be. We aren’t going to impress you with our fantastic music, out powerful sermons or even our beautiful sanctuary, instead you will know us by our love for one another, as it says in John 13:35.
When you come, expect that the pastor will read scripture, line by line and verse by verse. Knowing that he is trying to get the full council of God when he preaches. He believes that «All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.» 2 Timothy 3:16.

Since my original review I’ve visited a few times — mostly the early 9am service, when the building seems cooler in the summer. The congregation is smaller, skews a little older, and there is a hymn thrown in, usually at the end of the praise songs.
Speaking of the praise team, I think Skyline and the Thousand Oaks Calvary Chapel split off a few years ago, taking some musicians with them. (No need to worry, wasn’t THAT kind of church split — CC churches do this to plant more local congregations). The last time I visited it was guitar, bass, drums and a couple of vocals. Yes, the music’s guitar-​driven, but that’s true for many contemporary churches. And they do rely on volunteers, so there may be different musicians of varying quality, not the full band every Sunday.
The one thing I learned is that the leadership of both Calvary Chapels in the Conejo Valley are very politically active, hosting conservative speakers like Mike Huckabee. I don’t know if this is true for all churches in the denomination. That could be a plus or minus, depending on your views…

5 Stars– Sanctuary
0 Stars — Music
3 Stars — Preacher
The decorating of the sanctuary is absolutely lovely. So classy. The beams curve upwards into gothic arches, that extend from the floors to the ceiling. Resting on them are beautiful wood cross beams and sheathing, all stained in a brownish cherry. Warm modern chandeliers hang from the center beam and matching sconces adorn the walls. The carpets are clean, in a dark blue-​grey heather. The cross at the front is subtly back-​lit over a midnight blue background. The seats are comfortable and arranged so that you don’t have to strain to listen.
We visited the church’s website to find the hours, so we arrived a little before 11:00AM and went in to get a seat. Once about six people were seated, the worship started. Huh? Only 6 people? 20 minutes later, maybe there were 20 people in the sanctuary. By 11:30 maybe there were 40 or 50 people there.
Why?
The music sucks. So sad. Everything so beautiful. Great sound system. Then… a guy on guitar who can’t sing on pitch and can play about 3 chords, a dude on a beat-​box and two cymbals and another on bass. Boring, hard to follow music selections with a dirge tempo (count: 1 — one thousand, 2 — one thousand…) while the guitar player strums in 16^th notes.
Don’t get me wrong. If it’s good, I like it. Good guitar, good band, pipe organ, etc… if it’s good I’ll appreciate it. So it isn’t as if I hate modern or folk instruments at church. This was just plain bad.
I think bad music is a sin. It makes people angry… or encourages them just not to show up for the worship portion of the service which is a disservice. After all, «worship» is the keyword in the phrase «worship service». That is, it’s a huge reason people go to church… or not.
The preacher is fine, seems like a nice guy with lots of life experience. The parishioners seem fine too. If you don’t care about music or worship you might dig the place.
But for me, NEXT. Pity that.
We’ll visit the Christian church on Ave de las Flores next. Stay tuned.