Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Lakeside Community Presbyterian: Christ, connection and community

Working our way through a new vision

Timothy Avazian
Timothy Avazian

Lakeside Community Presbyterian Church

  • Contact: 9908 Channel Road, Lakeside 619-443-1021 www.lakesidepc.org
  • Membership: 114
  • Pastor: Timothy Avazian
  • Age: 62
  • Born: Kingsburg
  • Formation: Azusa Pacific University; Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena
  • Years Ordained: 27

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

Sponsored
Sponsored

Pastor Timothy Avazian: How to love Jesus. We can teach people how to love Christ and other people. Ultimately, how to love Christ means how to be a disciple. Love God and love people. It’s that simple. It’s the call that Jesus gives all his disciples. We’re supposed to go and make disciples. To me, in thinking about making a disciple, it’s really introducing people to Jesus Christ, and helping them to love him more and more.

SDR: What’s your main concern as a member of the clergy?

PA: People are often disappointed in the church, which means they get disappointed in God. So they put God and his ways on the back burner because they’ve been disappointed in the past or in their parents or something. In relation to doing the work we do in churches, we’re trying to point people to God, because we’re giving hope for the future. Even though we’ve been disappointed in the past, there’s hope for the future. Hopefully, my sermons point to a loving, caring and generous God who is looking out for us. It also happens in the midst of connecting with people, and letting them see how God is real in my life. Hopefully, that carries over in how that happens in the lives of the people in the congregation as well, who may be able to share in a simple way that love for God.

SDR: Why Presbyterian?

PA: In the midst of my seminary training, I decided I was going to go the Presbyterian route. I like the combination of scripture and community. Presbyterians like to say they're good students of God’s word but there’s also a connectional aspect – the different Presbyterian churches are connected to one another. That appealed to me.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PA: We’re called to help people in the context of community – to know Christ and to become his disciples. We’re called to Christ, connection and community. Our church hasn’t officially said that, because I’m trying to do some new things and we’re working our way through a new vision.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PA: In some miraculous way there is this bodily resurrection of my soul, where I get to be in heaven in the presence of God. I am looking forward to that – I don’t know what that is exactly, except what we read in scriptures. It’s this place that is another world, in heaven. But somehow I am looking forward to it in the sense that I get to be reunited with others that have gone on before me, such as family and friends – and other saints. Being in the presence of God is the thing I’m most looking forward to – to be in his presence forever. There is some type of separation between those who love God and those who don’t. I not the judge of it, but I can only point it out to people and let God be the judge. Scripture talks about some type of separation, however. I don’t know what the parameters for that are, but I preach the criteria for heaven. God ultimately is the judge. But that’s hell – separation from being in the presence of God.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Raging Cider & Mead celebrates nine years

Company wants to bring America back to its apple-tree roots
Next Article

Could Supplemental Security Income house the homeless?

A board and care resident proposes a possible solution
Timothy Avazian
Timothy Avazian

Lakeside Community Presbyterian Church

  • Contact: 9908 Channel Road, Lakeside 619-443-1021 www.lakesidepc.org
  • Membership: 114
  • Pastor: Timothy Avazian
  • Age: 62
  • Born: Kingsburg
  • Formation: Azusa Pacific University; Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena
  • Years Ordained: 27

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

Sponsored
Sponsored

Pastor Timothy Avazian: How to love Jesus. We can teach people how to love Christ and other people. Ultimately, how to love Christ means how to be a disciple. Love God and love people. It’s that simple. It’s the call that Jesus gives all his disciples. We’re supposed to go and make disciples. To me, in thinking about making a disciple, it’s really introducing people to Jesus Christ, and helping them to love him more and more.

SDR: What’s your main concern as a member of the clergy?

PA: People are often disappointed in the church, which means they get disappointed in God. So they put God and his ways on the back burner because they’ve been disappointed in the past or in their parents or something. In relation to doing the work we do in churches, we’re trying to point people to God, because we’re giving hope for the future. Even though we’ve been disappointed in the past, there’s hope for the future. Hopefully, my sermons point to a loving, caring and generous God who is looking out for us. It also happens in the midst of connecting with people, and letting them see how God is real in my life. Hopefully, that carries over in how that happens in the lives of the people in the congregation as well, who may be able to share in a simple way that love for God.

SDR: Why Presbyterian?

PA: In the midst of my seminary training, I decided I was going to go the Presbyterian route. I like the combination of scripture and community. Presbyterians like to say they're good students of God’s word but there’s also a connectional aspect – the different Presbyterian churches are connected to one another. That appealed to me.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PA: We’re called to help people in the context of community – to know Christ and to become his disciples. We’re called to Christ, connection and community. Our church hasn’t officially said that, because I’m trying to do some new things and we’re working our way through a new vision.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PA: In some miraculous way there is this bodily resurrection of my soul, where I get to be in heaven in the presence of God. I am looking forward to that – I don’t know what that is exactly, except what we read in scriptures. It’s this place that is another world, in heaven. But somehow I am looking forward to it in the sense that I get to be reunited with others that have gone on before me, such as family and friends – and other saints. Being in the presence of God is the thing I’m most looking forward to – to be in his presence forever. There is some type of separation between those who love God and those who don’t. I not the judge of it, but I can only point it out to people and let God be the judge. Scripture talks about some type of separation, however. I don’t know what the parameters for that are, but I preach the criteria for heaven. God ultimately is the judge. But that’s hell – separation from being in the presence of God.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Syrian treat maker Hakmi Sweets makes Dubai chocolate bars

Look for the counter shop inside a Mediterranean grill in El Cajon
Next Article

Live Five: Sitting On Stacy, Matte Blvck, Think X, Hendrix Celebration, Coriander

Alt-ska, dark electro-pop, tributes, and coastal rock in Solana Beach, Little Italy, Pacific Beach
Comments
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 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
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader