Today we’d like to introduce you to Craig Osborne.
Hi Craig, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My family and I are originally from Canada. My wife Renee and I started out in ministry as part time youth pastors in Edmonton, Alberta before moving to Calgary, Alberta to start a school of evangelism. We had always dreamed of living in California and in 2008 had an opportunity to move to Alpine (east county San Diego) to work as associate pastors. We jumped at the opportunity to fulfill a life time dream. We spent 5 great years in the community before moving to Toronto to pastor. It was a difficult decision to make because of our love for California and the community we were serving in Alpine.
Leaving, we never knew if we would be back. Immigrating to America wasn’t easy in 2008 and it was only getting harder. We ended up becoming the lead pastor of a church in the suburbs of Toronto for 3 years. It was both an incredible season because of the people we met and a difficult season because our longing for California never left. I was invited to come on staff in La Mesa at Crosspointe Life Church (now called Our Church) by a close friend in 2016 starting as the executive pastor. I served in that role for 5 years before the pastor who hired me resigned when at that time Renee and I accepted the role as Lead Pastors. We just completed our 9th year and absolutely love what we do with the people we are fortunate to serve.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’m not sure any pastor would say that their ministry road was smooth. Working with and leading people always has challenges. Early on in our time in La Mesa finances were tight, I gave oversight to the finances and there were times we prayed for money to come in just to pay the SDGE bill. Jesus has always been faithful and there was never a time when bills were not paid; sometimes they were paid in the nick of time, but paid none the less.
Navigating Covid was also a challenge for us, as it was for everyone. Trying to figure out how to best serve our community and church with no one knowing what was happening and information changing daily. Overnight we went from meeting in person to having to figure out how to livestream a church service so as to keep people connected to each other and to minister to their spiritual and emotional needs. There was a lot of time spent on google learning new skills on the fly. We didn’t do everything right but I think that we got more right than we did wrong.
When there is a change in leadership at a church it always comes with instability, Renee and I experienced it as we took over the lead pastor role. Some people are excited, others are grieving that the pastor they had know for over 20years is no long there. The Lord has been kind and gracious to us as we walked out the transition with transparency, humility and a lot of prayer. There were many days we would look at each other and say, “we have no idea what we are doing!” I think the most quoted verse by us then (and still today) is 2 Chronicles 20:12, “we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
Jesus is the great Shepherd of His people and if we will keep our eyes on Him, He never fails to guide us even in the darkest times.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
There are a few things that we do at Our Church that I guess you could say set us apart from others, although they are not unique to us. The first is our food distribution. We have been giving food away to people in need for close to 20years. We have partnership with Feeding San Diego where we rescue food from grocery stores before it spoils and we get it into the hands of families that are struggling. We currently give food away every Tuesday and Thursday year round. Typically we give away over 100,000 pounds of food each year to over 4000 families, this year we are seeing an increase in food we are picking up and distributing.
We also have a strong focus on prayer and worship. These two things are the foundation of what we do. We spend time multiple days a week in worship and prayer. Jesus is worthy of our time and we gladly will “waste it” in worship to Him. We believe this is the first ministry we are called to, loving Jesus. We also are leading our church in learning how to pray. This is the one thing that the disciples of Jesus in the Bible asked Him to teach them; so we spend time in prayer learning how. Prayer is not us coming to God trying to get Him to do things on earth, it is where we align with His heart and partner with Him on what He wants to do and is doing. We are agreeing with Him on what He wants to do. It is a great privilege to stand before God on behalf of people.
It’s hard to say what I am most known for, I hope it is for my love for Jesus first, then my family and then people. I count it a privilege to give my life to serving Jesus however He asks.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
There are so many people that made space for Renee and I as we were getting started in ministry.
Greg Roedell first brought us to California. It all started with me leaving a voicemail for him after seeing a post that he was looking for an associate pastor. He took a chance bringing my family to California from Canada. He showed us what faithfulness and longevity in ministry looked like.
Barry Sappington was the pastor of Our Church (then called Crosspointe Life Church). He brought us back to San Diego from Toronto. Barry gave us opportunity to lead, alongside him. He trusted us and created space for us to grow into the role of lead pastors eventually turning the church over to us. He is an older brother to us and we will always have a deep relationship.
Our parents always believed in us. Alma Clarke (Renee’s mom), Allan and Judy Osborne (my parents) released, support and prayed for us. It was difficult for them to have their children and grandchildren move to another country but they cheered us on. Through their prayer, many obstacles were moved and removed, some we faced and others never materialized because of their faithful prayer.
Our children, Josiah and Faith are the real champs in all this. They walked with us in decisions to move from country to country. We involved them in the process of prayer and they took it very serious. Several times their lives were uprooted as we followed Jesus and they were for it all with passion and excitement. We now have the joy of cheering them on as they follow Jesus; displaying the courage and faith it takes to go all with Him.
Jesus. This isn’t just something I should say, it is fact. I owe everything to Him. I have nothing apart from Jesus. I stand in His mercy and everything I am, do, and have is a gift of grace.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ourchurch.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/osbornecraig/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/osbornecraig
- Soundcloud: https://ourchurchsd.podbean.com
