Karla Lightner

Unity San Diego

Contact: 3770 Altadena Ave, San Diego 619-280-2501 www.unitysandiego.org

Membership: 110

Pastor: Karla Lightner

Age: 67

Born: Evanston, IL

Formation: Unity Urban Ministerial School, Detroit, MI

Years Ordained: 4

San Diego Reader: Why did you become a minister?

Pastor Karla Lightner: I saw how Unity made a difference in my life and the life of my children. I adopted my grandsons when they were babies — ten months and four months old. It made such a positive difference, to be raised and to live looking for the blessing in every situation and appreciating the best with gratitude. In that way, by allowing God to work through us is life-transforming. So I decided I wanted to help spread this message to other people… I started in youth ministry and started studies to become a certified spiritual educator. I kept praying about it and eventually got the call to do ministry full time.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PL: Our vision statement is to transform lives, to inspire people to make a positive difference in the world. Our mission is to empower personal growth through positive spiritual practices, inspirational music and community service.

SDR: Why Unity?

PL: In 2002, my daughter had run away, and a friend of mine told me about a church down the street from where I lived. My friend said it had a prayer ministry which, if you prayed, always works. I said, “Yeah right.” But when my daughter didn’t come home, I called the prayer ministry. My daughter came home the next day. I went to that church — it was Unity San Diego — and never left. We have a positive, practical, progressive approach to Christianity. We don’t worship Jesus, but follow him as our way-shower. We follow the love, the acceptance, and the other things he taught. We have five principles: 1) God is all good in all things everywhere. 2) I am naturally good because God’s divinity is in me and everyone. 3) I create my experiences by what I choose to think and what I feel and believe. 4) Through affirmative prayer and meditation, I connect with God and bring out the good in my life. 5) I do my best by living the truth that I know I can make a difference. These are Unity’s basic principles ,and they have resonated with me for years. They’re simple and straightforward.

SDR: What one book has had a vital influence on your ministry?

PL: E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality by Pam Grout. This book combines Unity principles, metaphysics, and quantum physics, and helps people understand through lab experiments that we shape our reality with our minds. Rather than take reality on faith, we can do these experiments to demonstrate that spiritual principles are as dependable as gravity and there is a positive, loving universe.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PL: Heaven and hell are here with us on earth, and death is nothing more than the opening or closing of a door; we go from one existence to another. We’re threefold people: body, mind, and spirit. We’re spiritual beings having a temporary human experience in a spiritual universe that is governed by spiritual laws. We believe our spirit is that everlasting connection to God, and that continues on after death. Our spirit lives on after death. We’re put on earth to take care of that spirit, and to learn how to live and love as Jesus taught.