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

Park Hill — a church on Fir Street planted from Portland

"The gathering on Sunday is the huddle and everything we do all week long is the game"

Pastor Evan Wickham: "We don't want a church that cloisters in the building for two hours a week and that’s it."
Pastor Evan Wickham: "We don't want a church that cloisters in the building for two hours a week and that’s it."
Place

Park Hill Church

590 Fir Street, San Diego

Membership: 125

Pastor: Evan Wickham 

Age: 36

Born: San Diego

Sponsored
Sponsored

Formation: Western Seminary, Portland, OR

Years Ordained: 15

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

Pastor Evan Wickham: God is in relationship with himself — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — and out of that relationship comes humanity. The whole story of the Bible is that God pursues his family in love. I would want to preach on that my whole life — a relational God working history to recover a relationship with his family. At the end of the story, of course, he gets exactly what he wants — a renewed humanity in relationship with him.

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

PW: What I notice among millennials that grew up in the church is a tendency to love spirituality and hunger for an encounter with the divine; on the other hand, there’s a real anti-authoritarian sensibility among millennials. The answer is for the millennials to rediscover the ancient identity of the church as the place of God’s dwelling in the world, a place of God’s healing presence, where the sick, infirm, and marginalized can find acceptance in a family.

SDR: Why non-denominational?

PW: My wife and I are leading a small team being sent from a family of churches in Portland, Oregon, to replant the church at 590 Fir St. Our family of churches in Portland are non-denominational with a conservative evangelical theology, but we also see a high value in social justice and a concern for the poor and the wellbeing of the community with a strong civic sense to help relieve suffering in the city at every level. It’s that family style of church we hope to bring to Park Hill Church.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PW: To be the place of God’s dwelling in the city, the presence of Jesus in San Diego along countless other denominations across denominational lines. The old boundary markers are less meaningful than they used to be, and that’s great. It’s less about denominations and more about networks. That’s our goal — to network with other churches for gospel causes in San Diego that bring tangible healing to places of true need.

The last thing we want to be is a church that cloisters in the building for two hours a week and that’s it. We see the gathering on Sunday as the huddle and everything we do all week long as the game. What’s more important to football, the huddle or the game? Well, it’s both, really — you can’t have one without the other. So our mission is to live out what the Holy Spirit does during the gathering — to live out these things Monday through Saturday, in the park, on the beach, wherever you are in the city.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PW: I believe in a place of eternal separation from God for those who arrogantly reject the lordship of Christ; and there is a place at God’s forever-table for those who respond in humility and receive the lordship of Christ. Both of those things are forever. Jesus is a beautiful, peaceful, loving lord; but he’s also a just judge. Everyone wants justice and everyone wants the wicked, who have done them harm, to be judged. That’s exactly what God is going to do through Christ on the final day. The great call of the gospel is to repent of your own injustice.

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

OSHA rules wall falls our fault

Who, U.S.?
Pastor Evan Wickham: "We don't want a church that cloisters in the building for two hours a week and that’s it."
Pastor Evan Wickham: "We don't want a church that cloisters in the building for two hours a week and that’s it."
Place

Park Hill Church

590 Fir Street, San Diego

Membership: 125

Pastor: Evan Wickham 

Age: 36

Born: San Diego

Sponsored
Sponsored

Formation: Western Seminary, Portland, OR

Years Ordained: 15

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

Pastor Evan Wickham: God is in relationship with himself — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — and out of that relationship comes humanity. The whole story of the Bible is that God pursues his family in love. I would want to preach on that my whole life — a relational God working history to recover a relationship with his family. At the end of the story, of course, he gets exactly what he wants — a renewed humanity in relationship with him.

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

PW: What I notice among millennials that grew up in the church is a tendency to love spirituality and hunger for an encounter with the divine; on the other hand, there’s a real anti-authoritarian sensibility among millennials. The answer is for the millennials to rediscover the ancient identity of the church as the place of God’s dwelling in the world, a place of God’s healing presence, where the sick, infirm, and marginalized can find acceptance in a family.

SDR: Why non-denominational?

PW: My wife and I are leading a small team being sent from a family of churches in Portland, Oregon, to replant the church at 590 Fir St. Our family of churches in Portland are non-denominational with a conservative evangelical theology, but we also see a high value in social justice and a concern for the poor and the wellbeing of the community with a strong civic sense to help relieve suffering in the city at every level. It’s that family style of church we hope to bring to Park Hill Church.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PW: To be the place of God’s dwelling in the city, the presence of Jesus in San Diego along countless other denominations across denominational lines. The old boundary markers are less meaningful than they used to be, and that’s great. It’s less about denominations and more about networks. That’s our goal — to network with other churches for gospel causes in San Diego that bring tangible healing to places of true need.

The last thing we want to be is a church that cloisters in the building for two hours a week and that’s it. We see the gathering on Sunday as the huddle and everything we do all week long as the game. What’s more important to football, the huddle or the game? Well, it’s both, really — you can’t have one without the other. So our mission is to live out what the Holy Spirit does during the gathering — to live out these things Monday through Saturday, in the park, on the beach, wherever you are in the city.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PW: I believe in a place of eternal separation from God for those who arrogantly reject the lordship of Christ; and there is a place at God’s forever-table for those who respond in humility and receive the lordship of Christ. Both of those things are forever. Jesus is a beautiful, peaceful, loving lord; but he’s also a just judge. Everyone wants justice and everyone wants the wicked, who have done them harm, to be judged. That’s exactly what God is going to do through Christ on the final day. The great call of the gospel is to repent of your own injustice.

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

March is typically windy, Sage scents in the foothills

Butterflies may cross the county
Next Article

Summit Fellowship wants to be a home of belonging

Unitarian Universalism allows you to be exactly who you are in the moment
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.