Mission Village Christian Fellowship

San Diego Reader: What is your favorite subject on which to preach?

Pastor Carl Baker: The grace of God through Christ. That’s God’s answer to the world and our needs for our salvation. It involves the character of God and the entire plan of God to bring man back to him. There’s nothing sweeter than to talk about Christ.

SDR: What is your main concern as a member of the clergy?

PC: My number-one concern is the separation of so many people from God, and one of the concerns I see is the apostasy of many churches that’s taking place, giving up their biblical values for political correctness…. For instance, we love and care for homosexuals as much as anyone else; the sin is no different, but the homosexual lifestyle is being embraced by many churches…. I also have a real concern that almost sounds contradictory to what I’ve already said; namely, that conservative Christians and the political far right are thought of many times as one and the same. I consider myself not a part of the far-right conservative political agenda, yet I consider myself a very conservative Christian. I have a concern that so many Christians are jumping on the bandstand, almost to the point where if you are a Christian then you are by nature a Republican on the far-right side, and I think that’s a shame.

SDR: Why did you become a minister?

PC: I was in high school looking down the road. I wanted to join the military and get an education later on, after military service, but as I began to wrap up high school I sensed a call in my life that ministry was the direction I was supposed to go. So all the doors opened for me and I pursued that and I’ve seen that calling vindicated for the last 35 years.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PC: Our mission is to reach out to our community and share the gospel message in practical ways. We work in Ethiopia and helped the churches there purchase a coffee farm and plantation. We taught them about micro-finance and how to be self-supporting. The mission is bigger than throwing money at Africa but includes teaching and instructing on some of the principles we live by and take for granted in a capitalistic society in a developed country.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PC: There’s a little bit of controversy in scripture regarding eternity. Some believe it is immediate and some believe some of those literal teachings of Paul which say that, at Christ’s return, those who died spiritually in Christ will be resurrected. How it all works, I don’t think we understand it fully. But I do believe in a heaven and that God will call his children together to be where he is. I also believe in hell, but I’m very cautious in the way I present it. I believe that we should present it in the same way that Christ would present it, as an unnecessary ending to a soul.

Mission Village Christian Fellowship

Contact: 2650 Melbourne Drive, San Diego;

858-278-2633; mvcf.net

Denomination: Nondenominational

Membership: 90

Pastor: Carl Baker

Age: 57

Born: Reno, Nevada

Formation: Nazarene Bible College, Colorado Springs; Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego

Years Ordained: 31