Lake Morena Community Church: to know God and make him known

Lake Morena Community Church

• Contact: 29765 Oak Drive, Campo (619) 478-5917 www.lmcconline.org
• Membership: 100
• Co-pastors: Bob and Tina Phillippi  
• Age: 49/48
• Born: Orange/San Luis Obispo
• Formation: Berean School of the Bible (Global University), Springfield, MO; School of Ministry-Assembly of God, Irvine, CA
• Years Ordained: 16/8

San Diego Reader: What is the mission of your church?

Pastor Bob Phillippi: Our mission is to know God and make him known. One of the most significant ministries we’ve done since becoming pastors is something we call Lunch with Friends. We open our church every Tuesday afternoon for an hour and make a hot meal for anyone and everyone who is hungry, who wants to come to connect and get a belly full of food. It’s free to our community, and we feed anywhere from 40 to 60 individuals through that ministry. It’s been a great outreach to our community.

SDR: Why did you decide to team-pastor as husband and wife?

PP: We both recognized the call of God on each other’s lives. Our marriage started kind of rocky, and so we were separated for a time. But when God brought us back together, we birthed a marriage ministry called “From Wrecked to Reconciled.” So we started preaching in that ministry together as we traveled around, putting on marriage conferences for other churches.

SDR: What is the secret to a good marriage?

PP: No matter how rough it gets, there’s no other option but to remain committed to the vows you made before family, friends and God when you said, “I do.” It’s for better or for worse – and sometimes worse can get pretty bad, but it doesn’t give you permission to exit the marriage. It’s 110/110—it’s not 50/50. Both give it everything and love your wife as Christ loves his church.

SDR: Where’s the strangest place you found God?

PP: My wife and I pastored for 15 years in the Los Angeles area. A great part of our ministry was outreach to the homeless population. Behind a gas station under a freeway overpass, we got a group of homeless people together and gave them food to eat. Then we asked them if we could pray. Afterwards, one of the homeless men…went back to his encampment and came back with this statue of a naked woman and a man at her feet embracing her. With tears coming down this man’s face, he told me I was the first person to ever tell him God had a plan and a purpose for his life. He said the statue was the only thing he had, but he wanted to give it to me. I thought, “Man! Is that not the love of Christ? Is that not God saying, ‘I am willing to give everything I have so you can be saved and live a life of forgiveness and freedom, and here I’m going to give you my son.’?” I still have that statue today, 16 years later. That night I found God in a different way.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PP: Everyone is going to heaven who accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. If they don’t, they’re going to go to hell. Hell is, as the Bible describes it, a place of continuous torment where there is gnashing of teeth. I believe the Bible is clear that the only way to the Father is through the Son. When one is saved, then one begins the journey of a life lived for Christ and with Christ. When you don’t, there is only one other option – hell.