Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Sheep and Goats: St. Timothy's Lutheran Church
"No real change happens that’s lasting or meaningful to me if it’s not through Jesus."
Contact: 2602 Reo Drive, San Diego 619-475-1575 www.sttimothysd.org
Membership: around 200
Pastor: Tim Jones
Age: 59
Born: National City
Formation: San Diego State University; Bethel Seminary (now closed), San Diego
Years Ordained: 13
San Diego Reader: What is your favorite subject on which to preach?
Pastor Tim Jones: Jesus and God’s grace. A quintessentially Lutheran verse is Ephesians 2:8-10, which talks about being saved by God’s grace. It’s incredibly important for people to understand that we don’t earn salvation, but only by God’s grace. Religion is about man creating a way to either a God they created or a God they heard about, and it’s based upon the things they do or say — in general, their works. Whereas, when we read the Bible, the emphasis is on God’s grace, on what God has done for us through his son Jesus — not on what we can do for God.
SDR: What’s your main concern as a member of the clergy?
PJ: One of my biggest concerns is that people are taught the truth, and that they know and understand that God leads and we follow. The real freedom in Christ comes when we know the truth that it is God who paved the way for all this. Once people know the truth, that’s where the true freedom that Jesus came to give us comes in life, and that’s also where the responsibility comes to live the kind of life that he created us to live, to be salt and light in the world.
SDR: What is the mission of your church?
PJ: Changing lives through Christ. That mission statement long precedes me. But I like it, because no real change happens that’s lasting or meaningful to me if it’s not through Jesus. We’re introducing people to the truth through God’s word. From the Lutheran theological “onlys” — only through faith are we saved, only through the word of God do we receive faith, and only by the grace of God — do we get all that. In Latin, it’s sola fidei, sola scriptura, and sola gratia. That is how Jesus enables us to change lives. We bring God’s word to the people, we help them apply it to their lives, and we help them understand salvation through Jesus and the grace of God, which not only empowers and enables us to understand but also helps us live the kind of life Jesus wants us to live.
SDR: Where do you go when you die?
PJ: According to God’s word, there is a heaven and a hell. If we are in Christ —meaning that by the faith God gives us, we believe Jesus is in fact our lord and savior, and his death paid the price for our sins — then after this life we wake up in heaven and get to spend eternity with God our Father, his son Jesus, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, in a place of eternal love, joy, and peace. If Jesus is not our lord and savior and we spent a lifetime rejecting him, I like to say that God is a perfect gentleman about it. If we spent our lifetime rejecting him, he’s not going to force us to spend eternity with him. Hell is characterized in many ways in the Bible and other sources; the simplest way to understand it is that hell is dying separated from God but fully aware of who God is and what the love God is — and knowing you will never be in that presence again. I can’t think of a fate worse than that.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Sheep and Goats: St. Timothy's Lutheran Church
"No real change happens that’s lasting or meaningful to me if it’s not through Jesus."
Sheep and Goats: St. Timothy's Lutheran Church
"No real change happens that’s lasting or meaningful to me if it’s not through Jesus."
Contact: 2602 Reo Drive, San Diego 619-475-1575 www.sttimothysd.org
Membership: around 200
Pastor: Tim Jones
Age: 59
Born: National City
Formation: San Diego State University; Bethel Seminary (now closed), San Diego
Years Ordained: 13
San Diego Reader: What is your favorite subject on which to preach?
Pastor Tim Jones: Jesus and God’s grace. A quintessentially Lutheran verse is Ephesians 2:8-10, which talks about being saved by God’s grace. It’s incredibly important for people to understand that we don’t earn salvation, but only by God’s grace. Religion is about man creating a way to either a God they created or a God they heard about, and it’s based upon the things they do or say — in general, their works. Whereas, when we read the Bible, the emphasis is on God’s grace, on what God has done for us through his son Jesus — not on what we can do for God.
SDR: What’s your main concern as a member of the clergy?
PJ: One of my biggest concerns is that people are taught the truth, and that they know and understand that God leads and we follow. The real freedom in Christ comes when we know the truth that it is God who paved the way for all this. Once people know the truth, that’s where the true freedom that Jesus came to give us comes in life, and that’s also where the responsibility comes to live the kind of life that he created us to live, to be salt and light in the world.
SDR: What is the mission of your church?
PJ: Changing lives through Christ. That mission statement long precedes me. But I like it, because no real change happens that’s lasting or meaningful to me if it’s not through Jesus. We’re introducing people to the truth through God’s word. From the Lutheran theological “onlys” — only through faith are we saved, only through the word of God do we receive faith, and only by the grace of God — do we get all that. In Latin, it’s sola fidei, sola scriptura, and sola gratia. That is how Jesus enables us to change lives. We bring God’s word to the people, we help them apply it to their lives, and we help them understand salvation through Jesus and the grace of God, which not only empowers and enables us to understand but also helps us live the kind of life Jesus wants us to live.
SDR: Where do you go when you die?
PJ: According to God’s word, there is a heaven and a hell. If we are in Christ —meaning that by the faith God gives us, we believe Jesus is in fact our lord and savior, and his death paid the price for our sins — then after this life we wake up in heaven and get to spend eternity with God our Father, his son Jesus, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, in a place of eternal love, joy, and peace. If Jesus is not our lord and savior and we spent a lifetime rejecting him, I like to say that God is a perfect gentleman about it. If we spent our lifetime rejecting him, he’s not going to force us to spend eternity with him. Hell is characterized in many ways in the Bible and other sources; the simplest way to understand it is that hell is dying separated from God but fully aware of who God is and what the love God is — and knowing you will never be in that presence again. I can’t think of a fate worse than that.
Comments