First time that I went to church services and I join with all of my friends and I enjoy come to…read morethis church because I love meeting new friends and everyone that attend this church services and I enjoy it!!!

New hope is a seeker friendly church that has good music and sound teaching. Although the teaching…read moreis not expository, I often come away having heard that I need to deepen my reliance upon the only true God.

Engage Church is a vibrant community of families and young adults seeking to love God and serve the…read morecommunity. The earlier service at 4:30pm draws many young families, and the 6:30pm service has mostly college students and young adults. Located in a strip mall at the corner of Lanikaula and Laukapu, Engage really does seek to engage people with the love of Jesus. Services have energetic worship with contemporary Christian music in English, and sermons feel very relevant. They are directed mostly toward the millennial generation, but people of all ages can benefit and relate. When I visited recently, Pastor John was going through a series from Francis Chan on his book "Forgotten God." The message felt clear and challenging, and the pastor really encouraged the congregation to consider how to put scripture into action in our lives rather than just hear what's being said. We had an opportunity to write down our thoughts on a response card. Engage Church feels very welcoming to newcomers! They take a break after the first worship set, and people can grab snacks, which included chili nachos and watermelon when I visited. Surprisingly, the church encourages people to use their phones during service, whether to look up scripture or even post their thoughts to social media using a church hashtag. I work with college students, and this is a church in encourage my students to attend.

Thank you Open Arms Metropolitan Community Church for bringing an energy of diversity back into…read moreworship, and reminding me of dear friends from the past. I've known about Open Arms MCC for a while, but today was the first time I've attended a service. They meet on Sundays at 10 am at the Ainaloa Longhouse, which is a temporary worship location while they grow towards a permanent home. Basically the Open Arms MCC premise is "Serving ALL God's children with Aloha!!" .... a church for people who can't take the rank hypocrisy of so much organized religion; a church for people who have been actively pushed away from other churches because they demanded equality for themselves, for women, and LGBT minorities. Wikipedia has a good read about Metropolitan Community Churches and all their "firsts" in equal rights here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me... . "No matter who you are you are welcome -- and equal--- here." THIS is the teaching of Jesus. So easily overlooked by the divisive haters who call themselves Christian in our nation today. Pastor Pressley Sutherland arrived recently to lead the church, and he delivered a thoughtful and powerful service.... he preached, he played keyboards, and he sang--- he's got a great voice and seems like a really good musician in addition to being a good preacher. His message --- like all the good messages--- somehow seemed to speak directly to me and the issues I am currently struggling with participating in the music program of a much more conservative (and discriminatory) local church. Overall the service was comfortable contemporary Christian, yet also included beautiful poetry from an Islamic woman poet and an amazing India Arie song. The message topic today was "Cynical and Tired of Religion? Me Too !" A man I chatted with after the service told me they're about 50% heterosexual and 50% LGBTQ. So basically it was a super diverse congregation. I could feel a real sense of caring and welcome and community.... and concern for social justice.... EXACTLY what you SHOULD find at a church. They don't have all the formality and assets of your more established churches, but guess what, neither did Jesus, and it didn't hinder his message. My only minor criticisms are that I'm a bit of a germophobe, and while I applaud their open communion, I would probably prefer if there were less people touching my bread as part of that ritual. Also, plenty of bibles but no hymnbooks in sight at all (I would prefer a hymnbook over just trying to guess the melody of unfamiliar praise songs). Anyway, overall I LOVED the service, and am really looking forward to going back. You should check them out also. FINAL NOTE-- MAKUU MARKET IS RIGHT DOWN THE STREET SO AFTER CHURCH YOU CAN HIT THAT UP FOR SOME AMAZING FARMER'S MARKET FINDS AND GRINDS. A PERFECT PUNA SUNDAY MORNING.

You should visit this center if you want to feel happy! It has a very positive energy and they're…read morevery welcoming. The membership is primarily people who have sort of lost hope in the traditional church - this teaches you to really believe in things happening...give it a try

Cute little church loved being there at times of hardship in my life, pastored by Damien shirinski…read morevery nice pastor who always took my teens in and loved them, I loved when kag was pastored by Dennis and u'i Jessica corpus, wonderful things happened and such a wonderful time, but yes you need a touch from Jesus pay pastor Damien visit.

Thanks to Damon Tucker's blog (www.damontucker.com) I read about a lecture at this temple, by a…read morevisiting Buddhist scholar from Oregon, Dr Mark Unno. I am so glad I went! The building is a very cool old structure which they are working at fixing up and restoring. There's some unique trees on the grounds... that weird giant pine tree is actually a species of very primitive "living fossil" from the Mesozoic (as in dinosaurs!) period. Also known as a Monkey-puzzle tree, because it looks like even a monkey would have a hard time climbing it. Another tree is a cutting of a cutting of a cutting of the tree that the Buddha was sitting under when he found enlightenment. I need to find that tree and sit under it! Inside the building... wow... I did not expect the whole over-the-top temple display in the front with multiple elaborate colorful bright altars. (The pews are sized for an old Japanese lady so that part was not so comfortable for me) The Resident Minister is a young "local boy" named David Fujimoto. He gave me a warm welcome, as did several members of the congregation. There was a heavy incense smell, and we did some prayer chanting in Japanese before the lecture... i did my best to follow along... it was printed phonetically in a little red book. The minister and the lecturer were both down-to-earth, casual, funny men. I did not expect to laugh as much as I did. The lecturer started by taking several minutes to stare thoroughly at each person in the audience. This was a strange quiet moment, but I liked it. He saw me. We communicated in silence. He didn't get into anything too technical. He talked about his cats, his aging parents, and somehow moved from those topics to the upcoming collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. He basically spoke about our search for meaning in life and finding our place in the universe. It was very similar to what I hear in Christian churches if you substitute the words "nature" "the universe" and "life" for the Christian word "God." He made a lot of sense, and I did feel that I walked away a little more enlightened and at peace. They have Sunday services at 9 am. Plus I read in their newsletter that they volunteered at this years first Big Island Aids Walk. Very cool. I'll be back! I definitely got a five star feeling from this place.