What is the one thing in life I was created for?

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

Pastor Aaron Jayne: Grace. Without a doubt, I believe if people understood how much God loves them, it would change their lives completely. My signature message I call the “Secret of John.” Although the disciple Peter and the disciple John both followed Christ, Peter’s identity was wrapped up in the thought that “I love Jesus — I’ll die for Jesus — I’ll go to the extreme for Jesus.” As a result, Peter was very weak in his faith and very insecure in his faith. He had a lot of struggles and shortcomings in his faith. The identity of John, on the other hand, was wrapped up in the idea “Jesus loves me.” You see that throughout his writings and life. You can build your life on how much you love Jesus or on how much Jesus loves you, but you’ll have a lot more confidence and strength if you build it on his love for you and not your love for him. Our love will fail — it’s imperfect.

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

PJ: I want everyone who comes to our church to figure out why God put them on Earth. The vision of our church is that the people who come to our church can answer a very simple question when they lay their heads down at night on their pillows: What is the one thing in life I was created for, I can do better than anyone else and can make an eternal difference?

SDR: Where is the strangest place you found God?

PJ: For me, the strangest place I found God was in L.A. with a vampire named Ozzy who came to our church there. He had the full gothic garb, white face, black lipstick, jewelry, flowing gothic robes; he filed his teeth down like a vampire and called himself Ozzy because he thought he looked like a skinny version of Ozzy Osbourne…. Ozzy was homeless, with nowhere to stay. So I let him stay in my bedroom…and saw God show up in his life one night and it was amazing to see how it turned his whole life around. He told the story of the abuse he went through and the get-up was really a mask to hide from his past, the abuse, and the pain. Through God showing up one night, he was reunited with his daughter in Canada, moved back to Canada, got a job, and turned his life around.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PJ: This is a question I’m asked a lot as a pastor. The way people phrase the question is — “How can a loving God send anyone to hell?” The way I phrase the question is, “How can a loving God kidnap people and force them to live in heaven?” Heaven is God’s home, it’s his presence and it’s his essence. I believe it is God’s passion, desire, and heart that everyone clearly be with him in eternity. But he’s not going to force that plan on people, but he’s going to give them free will.