Crossing Church: guided by pastors and parents

Crossing Church

• Contact: 1001 Country Club Lane, Escondido 760-752-7895 www.crossingchurch.com
• Membership: 175
• Pastor: Billy Phipps (wife Annie Phipps, Co-Pastor) 
• Age: 53
• Born: Anaheim
• Formation: SoCal Network-Assemblies of God, Irvine; Global University, Springfield, MO
• Years Ordained: 16

San Diego Reader: What is your main concern as a member of the clergy?

Pastor Billy Phipps: As pastors, we are becoming very polarized by world events and community events. My fear is that we’re leaving out the love of Christ, and so we need to focus on love, because that’s what Jesus came for. He came into the world, gave his life for us and he’s going to return – all because he loves the world so much. I want to take time to refocus on love.

SDR: Why did you become a minister?

PP: It was a calling. After I got married, I was in business for the first ten years. But through the process of being part of a church, seeing how Jesus changes people, my wife and I felt a call to leave the business world and become pastors in 2001. This was at the time my parents, who had been married many years, had divorced. Knowing what I was going through and how I dealt with that as an adult, my pastor helped me to see the divorce through a Godly and Christian perspective. God uses things like this to be able to form us into the people he has called us to be. My pastor and my parents’ divorce opened my heart and mind to the possibility of being in ministry.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PP: We’re named Crossing Church because we believe something dynamic spiritually happens when our lives cross the life of Jesus. Our mission is that we lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus. That’s why we get up in the morning and do what we do. We want to see people’s lives change when they have that relationship with Jesus.

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

PP: At lunch with an atheist friend. I have friends from all over the world, all different backgrounds, and I try my best to have relationships with people who are not connected to God. Someone introduced me to this gentleman. He was an atheist, but God was at that lunch. It wasn’t that I was preaching at him; I didn’t even get to the point where I talked about God or the Bible. We just talked about his life — his wife had cheated on him, and it was a difficult thing — and I connected with him as a friend.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PP: Corinthians tells us that when we are absent from the body, we are present in Christ. That is the goal. Call it paradise or heaven, I’m looking forward to that moment when I get to be in his presence. That’s where I want to go when I die. That’s true for anyone who believes in Jesus. It is only the work of Jesus on the cross that gives us the ability to be in his presence in the afterlife. Billy Graham said it best: Hell was not a place that was created for people; it was created for the devil and his demons. But because of our disobedience and unwillingness to make Jesus our Lord, unfortunately that does happen for some. Every person will live eternally. Some will live eternally in the presence of Jesus, and some will live eternally in his absence.