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Sheep and Goats: Calvary Lutheran Church
"God is in the world in all kinds of places, but do we have eyes to see and ears to hear?"
Contact: 424 Via de la Valle, Solana Beach 858-755-2855 www.calvarylutheranchurch.org
Membership: 350-400
Pastor: Mark Donald
Age: 57
Born: San Diego
Formation: Gustavus Adolphus, St. Peter, MN; University of Minnesota; Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN
Years Ordained: 23
San Diego Reader: What’s the mission of your church?
Pastor Mark Donald: We seek to help connect faith to life. Not that you are coming to Calvary to discover where God is, that is, in these four walls, but rather you come to encounter scripture, song, prayer, sacraments, message, and everything else with other folks wherever they are in their faith journey. Then we go back to the world to discover how personally and deeply God is in the world, how much God loves the world and broods over the world like a mother hen gathering her chicks into her arms, and how much God needs our hands and feet in the world in whatever way we can to use our gifts to shine light in the darkness.
SDR: Where’s the strangest place you found God?
PD: I had a congregation in Billings, Montana called First English Lutheran Church. We would regularly go out into our neighborhood to find out more about the people we served. We would knock on the door and introduce ourselves and ask some questions about the neighborhood. We always went out in pairs, one on each side of the street. One of the questions we’d ask is whether there was anything going on in your life that we can pray for. My partner on the streets was 74 years old and named Dan. One day, he knocked on a door and this girl comes to the door who is about five feet tall. She’s in a late stage of pregnancy. Dan spoke with her and asked her about whether there was anything we could pray for. She looked down sheepishly at her belly and said, “I guess you can pray that my baby is okay, and the delivery goes well.” It was her first child. What happened next, Dan would have never had done before—as he said afterwards, “I don’t know what happened but I reached out for her hand and on the front steps I prayed for her. Both of us had tears in our eyes.” Three weeks later, Dan went back to that house and the woman came to the door with her baby in her arms. He then prayed for the baby. He said, “I don’t know other than the Holy Spirit, what compelled me to do that.” That story was a reminder that God is in the world in all kinds of places, but do we have eyes to see and ears to hear?
SDR: Where do you go when you die?
PD: Lutheranism holds there is a heaven and a hell. Martin Luther certainly thought so. But I don’t worry as much about if you die tonight are you going to heaven or hell. Rather, I take great comfort in this God we find in scriptures which says that “you are loved, you are mine, and through Jesus Christ, I have made you part of the family. I have adopted you as children of God.” Yes, there will be judgment at the end times and that will be God’s perfect judgment; he will know all things. At the same time, that judgment will be interpreted through God’s perfect grace in the gift of Jesus Christ. That’s all I can do: trust in those promises and leave the particulars up to God and go from there.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Sheep and Goats: Calvary Lutheran Church
"God is in the world in all kinds of places, but do we have eyes to see and ears to hear?"
Sheep and Goats: Calvary Lutheran Church
"God is in the world in all kinds of places, but do we have eyes to see and ears to hear?"
Contact: 424 Via de la Valle, Solana Beach 858-755-2855 www.calvarylutheranchurch.org
Membership: 350-400
Pastor: Mark Donald
Age: 57
Born: San Diego
Formation: Gustavus Adolphus, St. Peter, MN; University of Minnesota; Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN
Years Ordained: 23
San Diego Reader: What’s the mission of your church?
Pastor Mark Donald: We seek to help connect faith to life. Not that you are coming to Calvary to discover where God is, that is, in these four walls, but rather you come to encounter scripture, song, prayer, sacraments, message, and everything else with other folks wherever they are in their faith journey. Then we go back to the world to discover how personally and deeply God is in the world, how much God loves the world and broods over the world like a mother hen gathering her chicks into her arms, and how much God needs our hands and feet in the world in whatever way we can to use our gifts to shine light in the darkness.
SDR: Where’s the strangest place you found God?
PD: I had a congregation in Billings, Montana called First English Lutheran Church. We would regularly go out into our neighborhood to find out more about the people we served. We would knock on the door and introduce ourselves and ask some questions about the neighborhood. We always went out in pairs, one on each side of the street. One of the questions we’d ask is whether there was anything going on in your life that we can pray for. My partner on the streets was 74 years old and named Dan. One day, he knocked on a door and this girl comes to the door who is about five feet tall. She’s in a late stage of pregnancy. Dan spoke with her and asked her about whether there was anything we could pray for. She looked down sheepishly at her belly and said, “I guess you can pray that my baby is okay, and the delivery goes well.” It was her first child. What happened next, Dan would have never had done before—as he said afterwards, “I don’t know what happened but I reached out for her hand and on the front steps I prayed for her. Both of us had tears in our eyes.” Three weeks later, Dan went back to that house and the woman came to the door with her baby in her arms. He then prayed for the baby. He said, “I don’t know other than the Holy Spirit, what compelled me to do that.” That story was a reminder that God is in the world in all kinds of places, but do we have eyes to see and ears to hear?
SDR: Where do you go when you die?
PD: Lutheranism holds there is a heaven and a hell. Martin Luther certainly thought so. But I don’t worry as much about if you die tonight are you going to heaven or hell. Rather, I take great comfort in this God we find in scriptures which says that “you are loved, you are mine, and through Jesus Christ, I have made you part of the family. I have adopted you as children of God.” Yes, there will be judgment at the end times and that will be God’s perfect judgment; he will know all things. At the same time, that judgment will be interpreted through God’s perfect grace in the gift of Jesus Christ. That’s all I can do: trust in those promises and leave the particulars up to God and go from there.
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