Today we’d like to introduce you to Derrick Miller. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Makers Church is a diverse community of Jesus followers dedicated to living out the great commandment and the great commission in the city of San Diego and beyond. We seek to be a collective voice of hope, expression of love, and an agent of reconciliation with great faith that through the power of the Holy Spirit we can MAKE on earth as it is in heaven.
Our expression of community has grown over the years as we continue to discover the unique calling God has given us as a church. Never one to shy away from change, Makers aims to respond to the movement of God in our individual and collective lives, going where he calls us to go, doing what he has gifted us to do, and becoming who the Creator has designed us to be.
Under the faithful leadership of lead pastors Derrick and Laurel Miller, our church was founded in 2010 as MOSAIC San Diego. In 2017 we became Makers Church. Two years later, in another act of faith, Makers Church and North Park Baptist, a dynamic community with almost 100 years of legacy and ministry, chose to merge into something beautiful and new.
Through this joining in ministry, Makers honors the traditions of those who have helped shape us as we continue to follow the Spirit boldly into the future. We seek to build a unique expression of church in the heart of North Park – one that reflects the neighborhood in which we live and the people whom we serve and hungers to see lives transformed and hearts turned to Jesus.
Our desire is to MAKE on earth as it is in heaven – and we believe this begins with a work of God within us, flowing out into the work we do, the families we raise, the relationships we cultivate, and the lives we lead. We hope you will join us!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Creating community always comes with its joys and challenges. Most challenging is juggling the clear mission and vision we’ve been called to with the many expectations and opinions of people in our community who have their own. We also struggled to have a permanent home for many years and bounced between rental venues in South Park, North Park, Downtown, and Point Loma before landing in our permanent home in North Park after 9 years. Our staff is also co-vocational, which means we all work in jobs/careers outside of church work, so balancing schedules can prove to be challenging. And of course, COVID was a massive challenge in regards to not being able to gather and in managing expectations around our response.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Derrick Miller, firefighter, and pastor
Derrick Miller leads a double life. During the week, he puts out fires as a captain for the City of San Diego’s Fire-Rescue Department. But on Sundays, he lights a fire for God as the lead pastor of Makers Church in North Park.
It seems he was born to rescue people. His first calling was firefighting. To help pay for college, he worked summers for the U.S. Forest Service. Something about the work appealed to him, so he decided to become a full-time firefighter. He applied to 22 departments before finally landing a job with San Diego. He was hired in 2006, promoted to engineer in 2015, and them to captain in 2019. He is currently stationed in Little Italy.
As satisfying as the work was, it wasn’t enough. Miller saw others who needed a different type of rescue. So, in 2010, he and his wife, Laurel, started a church called MOSAIC San Diego. Over the past decade, the congregation grew and grew. In 2017, it became Makers Church, and just last year, it merged with a congregation with a 100-year-old history, North Park Baptist, to become the dynamic church it is today.
Miller and his church are very active in the surrounding community, as well as south of the border. The church has “adopted” a village in Baja California and leads several work trips there each year to build homes and a multi-purpose facility where they plan to establish a day-care center and medical clinic. They encourage their congregants to participate in fundraising events such as the Uptown 5K that benefits homeless services. They tutor refugees. They sponsor the Justice Film Festival, which showcases documentaries and short films about social justice.
Derrick says, “I don’t see my two vocations as competing with each other, but rather complementing each other. I’m able to bring life experience and leadership from both realms to each other. I’m incredibly grateful be to called to both.”
Derrick lives in South Park with his wife Laurel, Blake (son), Kirra (daughter), Aubree, (daughter).
Our church is led by a team that is co-vocational. This means that in addition to our vocations as ministers and church workers, we also have vocations in other sectors of society. This is by design and on purpose. It’s central to who we are as a church.
There is a common belief that our work is “secular” while our “spiritual” work happens during a quiet time or a corporate worship time. We refer to this as the sacred/secular divide. We are convinced this divide shouldn’t exist and that all of life can be redeemed and made sacred. There shouldn’t be a disconnect between what you believe and how you live. We don’t see these as competing spaces but as complimentary spaces to live out our faith in the day-to-day.
We believe that if you are a follower of Jesus, YOU are a minister and missionary. The mission of the church should be the mission of your life. The mission is to live the great commandment and the great commission.
There is no competition between the work we do as people in gathered worship and our vocations in the world. Liturgy means “the work of the people.” For believers, these two spheres are intricately woven together.
Here at Makers, we say it like this. Our mission is to make on earth as it is in heaven, by developing and commissioning followers of Jesus Christ, to love God and love others.
Jesus says in Acts 1:8, 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
We are “the blessed and sent ones”. Our vocations and locations (where we live, work, and play) are the places we are “sent” no matter what our field of work and sphere of influence.
We believe that every follower of Jesus Christ is called to be a minister and a missionary. But it might not mean what you think. We aren’t asking you to quit your jobs and join our church staff. We want to develop and commission you into the vocation you’re already in.
The places you live, work, and play are just the right spot for you to see yourself as “sent to” and to practice loving others there with the love of God. And just as the ministers on our staff have jobs outside ministry, we believe you are called to ministry in addition to your jobs.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Clarify your mission and have it drive everything you do. Surround yourself with great people who share the mission to help you accomplish it. One of our favorite sayings around Makers Church is, “you can go faster alone, but we can go further together.”
Contact Info:
- Website: makerschurch.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makerschurch/
- Facebook: facebook.com/makerschurch
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/makerschurch
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/makers-church-san-diego?utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/makers-church/id637151335
