Rev. Kirk Bottomly was called on July 28, 2008, to be the third lead pastor in FOPC's 56-year history.  Watch this space in coming weeks for a bio and more information about Kirk, wife Laila, and his family. In the meantime, if you'd like to read a letter of greeting from the Pastor, just click on "Read More" just below.

I am so impressed with your church from both your reputation and my visits—impressed with your faithful heritage, your courageous choices, your evangelical witness, the beauty of your worship center, your hospitable facilities, the internal strengths of a committed staff and a servant-hearted congregation.  I know God has a great future for you! 

How can I introduce myself?  It’s hard to be welcomed as the new guy after 30 years under a beloved and dedicated pastor.  It’s like wary kids eyeing their new stepdad.  Let me tell you a little about me.  My life is all about Jesus— loving Him, serving Him, sharing Him, growing in Him, representing Him, praising Him, carrying on his mission in the world wherever he puts me or sends me.  “For me, to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21).  The world will never hear news so good as the Good News about Him.  Proclaiming that message and translating that message into life is the passion of my life. 

My name is Kirk— Kirk Bottomly. That’s a funny last name, but you get used to it.  When someone on the phone says, “Could you spell that?”, I say, “It’s bottom plus an “l” “y”.  Which makes my wife Laila roll her eyes. “You’re just making it worse,” she says.  I got the name when I was born— nothing I can do about it.  My folks gave me the name Kirk too— the Scottish word for “church.”  Which is also funny, since none of my family was Christian at the time.  Nobody would have predicted that one day my life would be the church.  The Lord told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born I set you apart and ordained you” (Jer 1:5). That’s my story too.  Like St. Paul, I can say, “Then something happened! For it pleased God to choose me and call me by his grace, even before I was born! Then he revealed his Son to me so that I could proclaim the Good News about Jesus” (Gal 1:15). 

I’m 53 years young. I’ve been a pastor since 1990— I’ve been proclaiming the Good News for almost 20 years.  For 33 years I’ve been married to Laila; we have a grown daughter and son.  I’ve been a Californian since 1970. I’ve been a Christian believer since I was thirteen.  But looking back I can see how the Lord’s hand was on me my whole life.  He had a plan for me before I knew that plan, before I knew him!  He came after me and saved me.  My life— just like yours, Christian friends— is a testimony to God’s amazing grace.  

I was born in Virginia, the middle of five kids. My dad was in the military, and his Air Force assignments took us to England, Alabama, Nevada, Virginia, and finally California.  We went to church when I was a kid, but none of us remembers hearing the gospel; we were church folks waiting to be born again— and didn’t even know it.  My older brother came home from college his first summer full of Jesus!  He sat down with me and, using “the bridge illustration,” explained God’s love for me; how my sin separated me from this holy God; how Christ died to solve the problem of my sin; and how I could receive his salvation by receiving Christ.  I was thirteen when I knelt beside my bed and prayed that prayer of faith.  “Lord Jesus, Savior— save me; come, be the Lord of my life.”   

I have been a Christ-follower pretty steadily ever since.  I was discipled by the Navigators as a teenager; I served on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ when I was in college.  I got me a King James Bible and read it through five times my first five years, underlining and annotating and memorizing key verses, finally swapping it for a New American Standard.  I learned how to share my faith, how to pray, how to study the scriptures.  My influences were Francis Schaeffer, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, John Stott, Richard Foster.  I understood discipleship as a process of making Jesus Christ Lord of my whole life, not just my “fire insurance policy.”  I love how the Westminster Catechism puts it. “What is the chief end of man? (What is the purpose of human existence?): To glorify God, and enjoy Him forever.”      

When I graduated from college I married my high school sweetheart, Laila (pronounced lay-EYE-lah- it’s a family name; she’s as Anglo as me).  She had found Christ through Young Life. And we began our marriage with Christ at the center of it.  We had both been active in parachurch until then—Navigators, Campus Crusade, InterVarsity. At first I was disillusioned with the institutional church because it had failed me in its fundamental responsibility to share the gospel.  But now as a couple with a new family, we immediately started getting connected to church again— a Baptist church, an Evangelical Free church, a Covenant church.  Like many of you, we had no denominational loyalties.  Where is Christ honored and his Word preached?  That was the key question for us as we moved around and chose our church.   

I was a grad student at Berkeley when our daughter Jenny was born (1977); Matt came three years later (1980).  For 10 years I was part of the working world—technical writing and public relations for banking and computer firms in the Bay Area.  I believed, you don’t have to be a pastor to put Christ at the center of your life and live for Him.  You can glorify him in any vocation.  Laila graduated from Hastings and practiced law.   

As I entered my 30s, I sensed a call of God on me to full-time ministry.  I loved teaching the Bible and preaching, I had a huge passion for Christ that found its greatest satisfaction in helping other people find faith and “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18).  I talked to several pastors, I asked older Christians whose opinion I respected, I asked my Bible study to pray, I talked to Laila—and they all confirmed this gifting and call.  And so, like Abraham and Sarah, in the mid-season of our life, we pulled up stakes and went off to Princeton Seminary.  I graduated with my faith intact (no small achievement these days), spent a year at the University of Tűbingen (Germany) on a post-grad fellowship, and then became ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA).  I figured it was a good mission field. 

After five years as an associate pastor in Thousand Oaks with responsibilities for Christian education (supervising the adult, youth, and children’s ministries), I was called to be senior pastor at Fallbrook Presbyterian Church (in north county, San Diego) where I’ve served for over 12 years.  We’re a deeply evangelical congregation, with strong mission support, active in community outreach, thriving youth and children’s departments, committed to cross-denominational kingdom ministry (working with other Christian churches to feed the poor, provide crisis pregnancy services, promote revival and renewal).  We have 400-500 in worship on Sunday, split between a “warm traditional” service and a rocking contemporary service.  I love both worship styles!  (For samples of my preaching, you can go to  www.fallbrookpres.org and listen online or download sermons to your iPod. Right now we’re on a summer series through the book of Romans).  Every Friday morning at 6am our elders meet to pray together for our church—for nearly two hours!  It has built unbelievable unity and relationships among our leaders and given us a clear discernment and consensus about God’s direction for our church.   

And I am a committed missional pastor— the church’s task is to gather people and send them out to do the mission of Christ in Fallbrook or Fair Oaks or wherever you are.  In addition, I am actively committed to world missions.  Every year I lead a short-term mission team to Malawi (in east Africa) where we have a long-term partnership with a national church to equip and encourage village pastors, care for AIDS orphans, and promote health, education, farming, and discipleship—all as signs of God’s love and Christ’s kingdom (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENJ346LU-qE).

I encourage you to read these.  OK, it’s 30 pages long, but it’s a great mini-course in Christian theology. No church should call a pastor without ensuring that his fundamental convictions are thoroughly biblical. 

·         I want you to know that I believe the Bible—it is God’s supernatural Word from Genesis to Revelation—it is the final authority for us for all issues of faith and life.  I don’t preach self-help stuff or 10 ways to a fulfilled life; I preach the Bible.  This is the only Word that can ultimately help or fulfill us.

·         And I believe in Jesus—that Jesus Christ is the only Savior (Acts 4:12), the incarnate Son of God, the only hope for a lost world.  He is the Lord of heaven and earth (Matt 28:18)—and the Lord of the church. 

·         And I believe the Holy Spirit—God’s supernatural indwelling presence in every believer—is the key to living the Christian life successfully and building a community of world-changers. 

·         The church’s mission is to be and build the kingdom of God in the midst of this broken, fallen world—in the power of the Spirit, beginning in our own neighborhoods. 

When Fair Oaks calls me as pastor, I am prepared to exit the PC(USA) and find my new ministry-home in the New Wineskins-Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  (Our Fallbrook church has been in the New Wineskins Association for over two years and our leadership is mulling the same decisions your church in Fair Oaks has already made).  It’s time to focus our limited time and energies on doing mission rather than fighting endless internal denominational battles over truths and morality that should be long settled.  

Laila and I are empty-nesters and have entered a sweet season of our marriage (now that we don’t have to argue and stress about the children).  We love hiking (every year we backpack in the Tuolumne high country); we love travel (just returned from two weeks in Nicaragua); we love gardening (I have a huge vegetable patch); we love watching football (this is a tough time to be abandoning the Chargers—but when you’re in ministry, you have to make sacrifices); we go to the gym together; I’m an avid racquetball player.  (Sorry, I don’t know how to play golf.  Can I really be Presbyterian?)  Daughter Jenny is an ER doctor at UC Davis Med Center; she lives in Davis with her husband Jeff, a physical therapist; she is pregnant with our third grandchild.  (That’s three more reasons to be moving to Fair Oaks).  Son Matt is single, unattached, and in his third year at law school (at George Mason in Virginia).       

This may be much more than you wanted to know. I wanted to share something of my life story, of my faith story, and of my faith-convictions.  We’ll have time to get to know each other better.  But for now, this is me; this is the guy your PNC is presenting as pastor.  Passionate about Jesus. Passionate about life.  Leaning into God’s future with a certain trepidation—new people, a new church, new challenges—but with much excitement and faith that all things are possible with God and “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Phil 4:13). 

I am so eager to meet you all later next month!  I wish even now I could shake your hands, give you a big hug, look you in the face, hear your name, and begin to connect and bond with the wonderful folks at Fair Oaks—each of you beloved by God, each of you a saint who is precious to the Lord, each of you with a holy call on your life.  I look forward to hearing your faith-stories and partnering with you in the mission of Jesus!