What We Believe

As the Sunny Hills Church of Christ meeting in Fullerton, California, we are a group of people who just want to be Christians. Our desire is not to be another church denomination. There are already too many divisions among those who believe in Jesus. We want to be obedient to God's word and be Christians like the original Christians we read about in the New Testament. There are several things about which we feel very strongly. These strong feelings will also tell you a little more about us as a Church.

INDEPENDENT --we are independent of any denominational structure. We are not bound by any denominational creeds, written traditions, or regional/national organization. We want to be undenominational! We are completely independent and autonomous in terms of our doctrine, practice, and church government. We do have a group of men who are our spiritual guides and leaders. These men are called elders, bishops (overseers), or pastors (shepherds). These men are all members of our congregation and have been chosen by us based upon the qualifications listed in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. They guide us as a church body and they are responsible to God for our spiritual lives.

BIBLE BASED --we believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God which tells us how to live and also how to conduct our life as a Church (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We also believe there is only one way to unify all the many different divisions among those seeking to honor Jesus Christ as Lord: do away with all creeds written or compiled by men, and turn back to the Bible for our only guide for church life, doctrine, and personal salvation.

LORDSHIP FOCUSED--we believe the purpose of every human being in our world is to honor Jesus as their Lord and Savior and to worship our Holy Father in Spirit and truth. We strive to honor him by assembling together to offer encouragement to our fellow Christians; and to share our financial blessings with those in need and to accomplish the work of God in our world. Even more than wanting to honor him with just our words, we want to be fashioned and molded to be like him. Our hope and prayer is that each day finds us a little more like him, and that in all we say and do we honor him who has so richly blessed us.

MISSION MINDED --The church family at Sunny Hills has always been very actively involved in world missions. The purpose of the Church of Jesus has always been to reach the lost of every nation, language, and culture with the message of salvation. We want to do our part in this great task and believe that it is essential for God's people to be mission-minded. Sunny Hills is involved in specific mission efforts in our community, Africa, China, and Mexico, and all over the world through World Christian Broadcasting and World Bible School.

History

We had our first official church meeting at Hill Crest Park in their recreational building in the Fall of 1958. It was called the West Fullerton Church of Christ. We had hired a full time minister, James Tolle. There was a good crowd the first day and we ran a notice in the Fullerton News Tribune. Many came that we did not expect to be there.

Of the original group that first met and are still attending Sunny Hills Church of Christ are:

Erma Sims, Rema Mitchell, Phyllis and Eugene Alderson, Joe and Mary Scroggins, Ray and Joan Lawyer, and Nancy (Lynch) Jacobs. Freda Fullerton came the first Sunday and we always consider her a charter member.

Later we bought the property on Euclid and built the original building there in 1964. Our name was changed at that time. We had met in many different buildings during the interim.