Dane Lindsay

Elijah Mountain Ministries

• Contact: 6763 El Cajon Blvd, San Diego 619-884-8063 www.elijahmountainministries.com
• Attendance: 40
• Neighborhood: Lemon Grove
• Pastors: Dane Lindsay (wife Elizabeth Lindsay, co-pastor)
• Age: 63
• Born: San Diego
• Years Ordained: 13

San Diego Reader: How long do you spend preparing your sermon?

Pastor Dale Lindsay: I preach what I live. I haven’t written but one sermon in my life. I don’t write them. I wrote one and the Lord told me not to bring it. I haven’t been able to write one since. Every week, my message is basically the same thing — the power of scripture to guide our lives and bring us out of the mud. I spend about 8-16 hours in the word and in prayer, if not more.

SDR: What’s the mission of your church?

PL: The mission of the church is to see individuals delivered and come into their created purpose. Thus, we are meant to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, to fulfill the commission the Lord put on us — to see people delivered from demonic strongholds and addictions, the things that destroy people’s lives. My heart and the heart of the church is to see those people become completely free. We have different individuals in the church. I’m about equipping the people to do what they’re called to do because I’m not called to do it all.

SDR: Where is the strangest place you found God?

PL: In a bus in the middle of Uganda when I was at the end of my end. I literally ended up in Uganda after going to some deep places in my life, experiencing suicidal thoughts. I had an encounter with a young man, in his mid-20s, and Jesus in this bus. I was looking out the window, into the middle of Africa, telling God I was done. I can’t do this. I know you love me. But I’m done with the ministry and done with it all. I’ve had it. Then this kid starts talking to me, and he basically read back to me everything I said to the Lord. He looked at me and said, “Dane, if it was just for one, would it be worth it to continue?” So that’s one of my main things when I’m preparing for a message. “God, I don’t have anything if I don’t have you.” If it makes a difference to one person who is affected by the word of God or his presence in our meetings — if just one person showed up, it would be worth it. That bus trip was transformational.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PL: I believe in heaven and hell. Without Christ, you’ll end up in eternal darkness and with Christ, you’ll end up in eternal glory. We all have free will to make that choice. But I think there are going to be a lot of people shocked when we get to heaven. We might deem this or that person hell-bound, and they probably have more of a relationship with Jesus than the person in the front row of the congregation. I think God is way bigger than the box we put him in. I do believe that Christ is the only way, but if you’re not sitting in my church this weekend, it doesn’t mean you’re going to hell. God is out-of-control in love with us. We think we have it figured it out, and we don’t have a half an ounce of it figured out — the magnitude of God’s love for humanity.