Mike Killeen

Oceanside First Presbyterian

• Contact:  2001 S. El Camino Real, Oceanside 760-757-3560 www.oceansidepres.org
• Membership: 300
• Pastor: Mike Killeen  
• Age: 54
• Born: Marina del Rey
• Formation: California State University-Northridge, Los Angeles; California State University- Dominguez Hills, Carson; Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena
• Years Ordained: 21

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

Pastor Mike Killeen: There are several big issues in our world today, and the church has a hard time talking about them, for fear of offending the people that are already in the church and the people who are not there. It’s a combination of grace and truth. Some churches are all grace, meaning God loves you exactly where you are, and you don’t need to make any change or correction. “There’s nothing about me that needs to be shaped by the gospel or by Jesus.” Then, there are the churches which are all truth. There’s no gray area, and with that truth you hear a harsh, hard line that allows for no error, no grace. You’re either right or you’re wrong, and that’s it. So, churches are making either grace errors or truth errors, because they are all grace and a little truth or all truth and a little grace. My goal is to be the pastor to pull people to church and make clear that the church is full of grace and full of truth…

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PK: We’re here to reach people with the grace of God, teach people the truth of God, and serve people with the love of God. We reach, teach and serve with grace, truth and love. Reaching is intentionally being out in our community…We have something called Pub Theology; we take about 25-30 people and show up at a local pub or bar and have conversations that are loud enough that everyone can join in, and they often do… Teaching the truth is letting scripture speak and trying not to water it down, which means sometimes you’re going to hear and encounter things in scripture that will make you uncomfortable. It was never a promise of Jesus that you were supposed to be comfortable, or that your life was supposed to get easier by following him. We make sure we’re teaching the truth, even if it’s a hard truth and hard to digest, or the culture doesn’t want to hear it — or I don’t want to preach it. The last one, to serve with love of God, means if the church doesn’t serve its community with that love, it’s missing why it’s there.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PK: We get to sit at the feet of Jesus, and whatever else there is, is gravy…. I remind people to keep focused on sitting at the feet of Jesus. Let’s start there. Everyone is invited and gets tickets, but I don’t know if everyone redeems their tickets — and those that don’t go to a place of separation from God. But Christ’s death was for everyone. He said he came to save the world, and I think he does. But he also respects when we say, “No.”… Theologians continue to ponder those questions, but our job is to point people to Jesus and invite them to a better relationship with him. The best way I heard it described — I can’t remember which pastor told me this — is that we can get caught up in these other issues, but we only need to tell people that Jesus loves you and wants a relationship with you. Everything else is secondary.