First Baptist Church of Monterey

If you’re relying on Unilocal to help you know whether FBC Monterey is a good church, then… #justsaying

I can’t believe I’m reviewing a church… seems sacrilegious somehow. It’s always hard when you visit a church while on vacation; never know what to expect. I can’t bring myself to rate it lower than 3 stars, although the Easter service wasn’t all we had hoped it would be. We come to the area a couple times per year, but I don’t think we’ll be back.
The congregation is friendly, diverse in terms of age and ethnicity, and very engaged. People dress well for church (refreshing) without being stuffy or looking down at those who are casual (also refreshing), and the service length was the usual hour to hour-​and-​half. Music was not traditional, which was a big disappointment for us, especially on Easter. We can be flexible for a contemporary sound within reason, but they were singing traditional hymns to contemporary music which just ruined the whole experience for us. The auditorium is too small for a full-​blown drum set, etc. Music, especially church music, shouldn’t hurt your ears! Of course, this is our personal preference. I mention it only so others will know what to expect.
There’s nothing weird going on doctrinally, as far as we could tell. The pastor references scripture during the sermon, and nothing he said was wrong (no weird out-​of-​context statements or strange agendas like you sometimes find). His style is just not our style… like he’s trying too hard to be hip and funny/​entertaining. Just preach the Word, man, and let God take care of the effect! Sigh.
Note: Parking is limited to the street (they have a tiny lot, but spaces are reserved for disabled/​pregnant ladies). Everything is marked as 1-​hour parking, but apparently they are lax on Sunday mornings because after more than 1.5 hours, we did not have a ticket… not sure if that was Divine intervention or the norm :-)

Went to this church because I was in town for Mother’s Day. My family was eager to go this place because we wanted to go to the traditional service where they sing hymns (most churches don’t do that anymore. Not that we hate modern praise songs, but sometimes you just yearn to do something traditional). We missed that service because it was at 8:30 in the morning (yikes) and it was way too early in the morning.
Before the 11 am service started, we picked a pew in the back because we knew that if the sermon was somewhere between 30 to 40 mins, we’d be slipping out immediately after the sermon to make it to a tour we’d already paid for. The band drummer came over to welcome us, which was nice. No one else came over, which was fine with us, since some churches go overboard on greeting the guests to death.
There was a little girl dressed in a pink dress in the pew behind us. That struck us as odd. It’s the way my sister and I dressed when we were kids and went to Sunday School, but times have changed and we’re used to seeing kids go to church in hoodies and jeans. They called the kids to go to children’s service and what do you know, they were all dressed up in their Sunday best. So charming!
That doesn’t mean that the church is super formal. Other than the kids, everyone else was casual, so if you are a tourist in town and want to drop in for service, no need for a tie or anything.
The only complaint I would have is that the pastor takes way too much time to get to the point. In his sermon he had four points he wanted to make. The first one he spent 25 minutes on. We didn’t even wait for the fourth point because at the pace he was going, the sermon was going to take a whole hour and we’d miss our tour. I think the problem was that he made too many jokes. That’s okay though. He was well meaning and had a nice demeanor.
The church is your typical small town church and I really enjoyed myself. Maybe next time we’ll make extra certain we go to the first service to get our hymns on.