St. John's Lutheran Church
Our world is like heaven
WE GIVE!
Pastor's Corner
Hello and God bless! I’m Pastor George, pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church.
Family: I have two wonderful daughters, Hanley and Olivia. Shannon, my wife of ten years, passed away in 2007.
I was called on October 1, 2005 to serve as pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in El Cajon, CA. Prior congregations where I served as pastor were St. Paul Lutheran Church, Lodi, CA and St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, Aurora, CO.
My girls and I have called St. John’s our faith home since arriving in October of 2005. Since that time we have received blessing upon blessing and grace upon grace by the members and friends of St. John’s, especially through our trials of Shannon’s illness and death, and through my struggles as a single parent. The members of St. John’s are truly faithful disciples and wonderfully kind people. The Holy Spirit has blessed us by bringing us to St. John’s.
In my free time, besides enjoying time spent with my daughters, I enjoy caring for our family of animals: alpacas, pygmy goats, various varieties of chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, and Shiloe, our Great Pyrenees dog, and Polly, our Lhasa Apso dog. I also like reading, both for work and pleasure, and follow my sports teams: the San Diego Chargers and Padres, and the Minnesota Vikings and Twins.
My ongoing sense of call to the mission and ministry of St. John’s is based in my faith in Christ Jesus and his mission and ministry to the world at large. Through his love lives are transformed and find their meaning and purpose. I pray the Holy Spirit uses me to share and enhance the gospel message to the people of and around St. John’s.
The biblical foundation upon which my faith is grounded rests in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the first-century Christians of Rome, whose belief in Jesus Christ was always filled with hope:
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? ‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ?’ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.Romans 8:31-39
and in John’s first letter about the power of God’s transforming love:
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
John 4:7-12