Tony Orlando

Lifepoint Church

Contact: 5480 Lake Murray Blvd., La Mesa (619) 776-9834 www.lifepointsd.com

Membership: 100

Pastor: Tony Orlando 

Age: 50

Born: La Mesa

Formation: Bethany College (closed in 2011), Santa Cruz 

Years Ordained: 17 

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

Pastor Tony Orlando: I would look for my subject in the Epistle of James. It’s the most practical book on Christianity—faith without works is dead (James 1-2), taming the tongue (Jame 3-4), temptations and trials (James 5). That’s a good default, although you can’t go wrong with any of the gospels, of course. Among these topics, faith without works is dead is the crux of the book. It’s such a great theme to apply; it’s not what you believe about Jesus nor what you do for Jesus, but the two have to be coupled together.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PO: We have a three-fold mission: Embrace, Adopt, and Equip. With every one of those, we are walking life together. That’s both during the good and the bad. It’s easy to walk with someone when things are going well, but harder when there is trial and conflict…We chose our name Lifepoint so that it would be like a compass, pointing our lives in the right direction as we walk life together. We embrace culture where we find it, through service. We equip people so they can go and grow in their relationship with the Lord. Then they raise someone else to embrace, adopt and equip.

SDR: What one book has had the greatest influence on your ministry?

PO: On a matter of practical help more than spiritual, one book is especially good for us in our culture today, which is so fast-paced. It’s a book that helps us honor the Sabbath, to see it as a true day of rest—and I’m guilty of not honoring it so well at times too. We get so caught up in the busyness of life and even rationalize it: “I’m doing what I’m doing for the Lord.” It’s John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World. The author helps draw margins for pastors to avoid burn-out. If you don’t take a sabbatical—or a Sabbath—the Lord will give you one, and it will be on his terms. So take a sabbatical that you know you can do, whether it be a weekend a month or a week in a year. It’s been a big struggle in my ministry—drawing those margins of rest.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PO: When you die, you either go to heaven or hell. At some point, we’re going to be judged for our works, what we’ve done. We don’t try to preach someone into heaven or out of hell, but heaven and hell are real places. At Lifepoint, we don’t take anything out of the Bible but we also don’t embellish what is in the Bible. “Anyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). Those who acknowledge this fact through serving the Lord, either their entire life—or even on their deathbed after not serving the Lord their entire life—are in heaven. I hold onto that scripture as the filter of who makes it and who doesn’t. I believe everyone is going to have a chance to call on the name of the Lord and make that decision to serve him and be saved.