HANS FINZEL: Hi! This is Hans Finzel, President of WorldVenture, based in Littleton, Colorado. Welcome to our weekly radio program Missions on the Frontline. Our website is
www.worldventure.com. This program is part of our initiative to make you aware of new and exciting ways you can be involved in missions. WorldVenture supports over a thousand mission projects and missionaries in over 65 countries. We’ve been sharing the good news of Jesus Christ around the world since 1943. Today our show is taped on location in Santa Cruz, California, where one of our missionaries, Jonathan Finley is on assignment speaking with Andy Lewis, the pastor of Faith Community Church. JONATHAN FINLEY: Hi! This is Jonathan Finley. Welcome to WorldVenture’s radio program, Missions on the Frontline. Today I’m on location in what must be considered the frontline of God’s mission of love. I am in downtown Santa Cruz, California in the street front offices of Faith Community Church here on Soquel Boulevard, next door to the historic Rio Theater where Faith Community Church gathers for Sunday worship. My guest today is church planter Andy Lewis, founding pastor of Faith Community Church of Santa Cruz. Their website is santacruzfaith.org. Welcome to the show, Andy.
ANDY LEWIS: Its great to be here. I’m glad you can be here right on the ground with us in Santa Cruz.
JONATHAN FINLEY: Yes, actually I should be saying thank-you for your hospitality since I’m in your house today.
ANDY LEWIS: There you go…that’s right. (Laughter)
JONATHAN FINLEY: So, on this show we interview missionaries from around the world who are incarnating Jesus’ love in diverse cultures from around the world. And what we really want to hear is…in what sense you consider yourself a missionary here in Santa Cruz, California?
ANDY LEWIS: That’s a great…you just said, I am the founding pastor and you think about all of these different identities that we grab…you know…founding pastor, pastor, Christian…but I think that has been the most interesting part of this whole journey…is really realizing that ultimately I am a “missionary”…that Jesus really meant it when he said go and make disciples, when he said you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Sumaria. And even trying to turn that around and help our people begin to understand. We are about a three and-a-half year old church. But even into that adventure are people who are who wanted to plant a church, realizing the distinctive between planting the church that feels right or feels comfortable to you or has your certain set of preferences…that…wait a minute, this isn’t a church in that sense. This is a mission and in really making that distinction in my mind and in their minds…I am a missionary. We’re all called to be missionaries.
JONATHAN FINLEY: So you are not the only missionary at Faith Community Church.
ANDY LEWIS: Absolutely not! It is so fundamental for the imperative of this mission…if I am the only hired gun missionary here…we’re really in trouble in terms of having gospel penetration here in Santa Cruz. So, it really is an imperative…that not only I understand…but that the servant leaders and the people understand, we’re ALL missionaries. We’re ALL called to make disciples in the spirit of the influences that God has us in… our relationships…our family members…the people we work with at work, the people we contact in our schools. All that stuff…we’re missionaries!
JONATHAN FINLEY: So, what is the size of your community in the number of people?
ANDY LEWIS: We probably have about a hundred and ten…a hundred and twenty and some change. You know, the change being about fifteen or twenty children. And so we’re…I guess in America the statistics I’ve seen, is you know…we’re kind of probably in the top seventy-five percentile range of what is the size of most congregations in America.
JONATHAN FINLEY: That’s one-hundred and twenty missionaries is what you are saying!
ANDY LEWIS: Yeah!
JONATHAN FINLEY: …right here in downtown Santa Cruz!
ANDY LEWIS: …absolutely!
JONATHAN FINLEY: Wow!
ANDY LEWIS: And, I think that is the thing that has been most interesting, because I will admit to you…you know, as any kind of pastor, you know …like…I wont to be successful unless…and then you fill in the blank … you know…how much money…you know, the three B’s…bodies, buildings and bucks…you know! But I think God has been really good and gracious at showing us that it’s not about how many bucks you have, how many buildings you have or even how many bodies you have. A church of any size can be extremely culturally vital and transformitive in a community if they can embrace the mission that God has given them. And I think that has been a part of our journey.
JONATHAN FINLEY: Let’s talk about your mission context…about your mission field. Describe Santa Cruz for our listeners. I’m sure Santa Cruz has a certain reputation around the country. Give us the ground view.
ANDY LEWIS: Absolutely! Yeah…I mean, Santa Cruz is probably, for most people hearing about it either nationally or internationally…it’s known for surf culture, its known for city counsels who make pronouncements about United States presidents; and all kinds of cultural things, but it is also culturally influential in a lot of different ways…skateboard culture, surf culture…these are things that are known worldwide about Santa Cruz. So Santa Cruz is not a large place…its probably…the whole county combined is about a quarter of a million people…250,000 people combined. But it has this very strong cultural influence that is felt both nationally and internationally. However, having said that, what is really interesting about this place is, it is a place that is uniquely “over” the whole Judeo-Christian world view. They are completely and thoroughly over it!
JONATHAN FINLEY: What do you that? By being “over it”?
ANDY LEWIS: What I mean by “over it”, what I mean is that they are suspicious of “Christians”. They are suspicious of any of the Judeo-Christian worldview, philosophy, anything that is “organized religion”…they are very very suspicious of it. And you can bring up the word “Jesus”, there are kind of the “alarms” go off for them. And so, we’re in a place that is in some degree is “hostile” to it. And, at the same time, right down the street from where we are right now at this interview, literally just down the block is one bookstore where it is a kind of all roads lead to where you want to go to find power in your life…buying crystals, buying books, and then a block down from that is a place that has on it’s awning an upside down pentagram that is called Sacred Grove. And I think it is largely a wicken place. But it literally advertises you can buy your witchcraft paraphernalia here. In the mountains of Santa Cruz we know that there are very evil things that transpire. These are people who are trying to gain power for their lives, and being very misdirected as to where they are going to get it. And so, in Santa Cruz, the prevailing media culture has done a pretty good job of defining what being “Christian” means and its negative. It very negative.
JONATHAN FINLEY: Well, speaking of the “media”, you do know that this interview is going to be heard by approximately some thirty million people. Are you putting yourself out there…calling yourself a missionary to Santa Cruz?
ANDY LEWIS: Yeah, I am…I’m going to put myself out there, absolutely. And I’m not even saying this particular show, but there’s been a lot of what they get in mainstream media of what Christian is …or what evangelical is…to use certain words, and they have power. And for some of us that is positive power…but here on the ground it is largely meant negative. And so, we’re kind of, sort of swimming up-stream in terms of presenting Jesus in a way that can come in the backdoor of the defenses that come up for people when it comes to…
JONATHAN FINLEY: Well…let’s talk about that. We know you want to see the word of God incarnated in Santa Cruz in ways that make sense to people. Tell us what that looks like. I mean, what is your hope or what is the reality of it?
ANDY LEWIS: The hope is that our people will increasingly…all of us together…learn how to be witnesses both in word and in deed for who God is, what he is up to in this world…I like what you said in the very beginning of this show, that God’s passionate love for this entire planet. That people can see it in their lives, they can hear it in their words, and they can experience it in how they are living…you know…the deeds of compassion and things. In the earliest years of our church’s life, we did a lot of things about being out on the streets, just asking the city…what do you need? How do you need help? For example, this particular weekend we are going down to the beach. The beach is an important place for the people here. We have adopted one of the beaches to clean up with the local “Save Our Shores” here along the California coast. It’s a way of us partnering with the city. What’s fascinating in a way is that the first part of our partnership is recognizing that there are people, who in their minds don’t want to have anything to do with God, but who are actually doing God’s work…they are involved in justice, they are involved in making sure their sustainability and things. And we had to open our eyes to realize that we have to partner with them in ways that they are partnering in what God wants to do…and let’s help them. So that was one. And so that’s one as a voice and by winning a voice, we get to speak to who we are and what we are about in both attractionally…”Hey, come and worship with us and hear what it is that we are celebrating.” But, also, being as missionaries, where people may never want to worship with us…even though our attractional is very missionary in the sense of that it is in the Rio Theater, right next door to where we are sitting right now, it’s a communal space…we don’t own it, they have book readings, rock concerts, dramas, art, movies, and then us on Sunday morning. So it is a safe place in a sense that it is not a church, not “church” in anyway.
JONATHAN FINLEY: So you’re community has actually invested existing space in Santa Cruz…you worship in a theater or in a storefront offices. I can see Soquel Boulevard from where I am sitting, so physically you really have moved into the neighborhood.
ANDY LEWIS: Absolutely!
JONATHAN FINLEY: And now you have described in deed, you know…good things that the church is doing. How can…what’s the best way of communicating the Word to people who don’t know the Bible, who are even hostile to the idea of Christians…
ANDY LEWIS: I will be honest…I think that is the next level of where our people will begin to gain comfort…a level of comfort and confidence to speak. I would say this though, a lot of our generation…and those of us who are living in kind of what you call it…the frontlines. What is happening in Santa Cruz is where things will be going in the rest of the…at least in the United States, and probably has been for a long time in Europe, is this people who are very done with the Judeo-Christian world view and so can very much critique it and say what is wrong with it, but have a difficult time listening to the purity of the Gospel and who Jesus is. And so, you know…what we are dealing with here, is letting people learn how to get comfortable. We are a people who have embraced that great quote from St Francis of Acicci, where he said “Preach the Gospel at all times…if necessary…use words.” Well, in a culture that is so done with the Judeo-Christian worldview, it is easy to embrace that quote and being fearful of ever saying anything. Its just hoping that our words and our deeds will transform somebody’s life. But, ultimately there has to come a time when we tell people why, and I think that’s where we are seeing the beginnings of fruit, our people are beginning to get comfortable again in saying, “ This news is so good and so life affirming” that when you really understand it, why not talk about it, even in a cultural context where people are very done with it and are very anit-it when they hear it in its purist form and they see it in a life…they say “Wait…your life is like it’s kind of working. It’s not perfect…you’re authentic…you’re real with me…but you’re…there’s love in you…there’s something that’s working.” Then our people are beginning to realize…I can talk about this .
JONATHAN FINLEY: You’ve earned their trust.
ANDY LEWIS: But, I mean the good news is for everyone who is listening…and I’m sure you’re listening because you agree with this…or even if you don’t….the good news is that the good news of what Jesus Christ offers this world is the most powerful transformative message that turns the world upside down and is healing everything. I love Jesus’ line in Revelation where he basically says at the end of it all what his vision statement was, where he says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” God is into renewal. I mean, what the fundamentals are…that “you matter to God”. God is doing a daring rescue attempt for all of this planet…by sending his Son to die in your place and in my place. He loves you with great grace, and compassion and mercy. He is extending to you life that is indestructible…that is indestructible now and will go on into eternity, in the beauty and paradise of heaven. That is what is extended to you and I will tell you the honest truth though, Jonathan, and that is this, that what I have found here on the ground in this worldview of this Judeo-Christian worldview is it’s not as easy as we may…in our context of what…where we get up and preach it to people who say yes to and ask what box do I check. It does not work that way here. It is conversations that last three months, four months, six months, nine months, ten months. But after people conversing with it and dialoguing with it…when they do make that decision, they are ready to be baptized, they are ready to publicly identify themself with Christ and to continue to grow. But this mission field is really hard yardage! It’s inch by inch!
JONATHAN FINLEY: So, you’re saying you don’t have a silver bullet that you can give to everybody out there. It is basically conversation by conversation…
ANDY LEWIS: Absolutely not!
JONATHAN FINLEY: …and it’s…just like you’re renewing this building right now here…the renewal that Jesus is about is a process of seeing people’s lives changed. If you are just tuning in today, this is Jonathan Finley with WorldVenture’s program Missions on the Frontline. I am talking with churchplanter Andy Lewis. We are learning about the missions frontline in Santa Cruz, California. Yes…Santa Cruz! So, tell us about the experience…the actual nuts and bolts of planting a church here. I mean, it doesn’t look like a church does it?! In fact it looks like you’ve just scraped your sign off the store front here haven’t you?
ANDY LEWIS: Yeah…well the first thing is the kind of misknowmer is “what is ‘church’”. You know, I mean…the old adage of…here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the doors and see all the people. How that’s not even…that’s one of the mindbenders for us is that it is probably a more accurate saying that “Here’s a building that a lot of people are still paying for, and here’s a steeple…but when you open the doors the church IS the people. And so being free of building and stuff like that, you know, yeah, we’re a space that doesn’t look like what people have in their heads of as a church or a churchbuilding, its communal, its familiar to the spaces where people are living their lives and walking through the streets. But, in terms of planting, gosh…you know, it was just kind of… you know the adventure was…I was working in a local church, a very effective church here in Santa Cruz, and God just gave us this heart to conversation with people like there are people who have a hunger to know the Good News and the hope that can be found but they were just a little off…their put off a little bit by some of the forms of the church locally here. And I was like…well I don’t know what the deal is here, why is that such a problem. Man, somebody should plant a church for them.” And you know how that goes…and God just kept saying, “and I’m asking you to pray about it and think about it.” And so we did, you know we ended up planting this church. But…even in that I would say it’s been a three-and-a-half year journey, and it really relates to this show, I’m realizing that its not about planting a church, where as a pastor in America, what you do is your go to the largest demographic, you go to where the cities are swelling with bodies and people, so you have a high ratio of ability to have success…which again is bodies, buildings and bucks…and… by that definition…and you go there and then you plant. Well, Santa Cruz isn’t a “place” In the state of California, it’s a shrinking demographic, it’s a place that is not growing. The economy has been very difficult here. It was basically nuts, it was crazy to plant a church here. But what God had in mind is what he has been showing me all along is, I’m planting a mission outpost. Which is, frankly, what I think God has been showing me is what “church” is suppose to be anyway…that all faith communities are “mission outposts”, but it has been a journey for us, I will admit. But it came from just seeing people who needed to have the gospel incarnated, put on to flesh in a way they could resonate with…and they could relate to. And, I admit, I thought it was going to be like…I thought it was just going to fly…its’ going to be easy…its going to be exciting, it was going to be great! It’s been exciting…but people ask “How’s it going?” and the honest answer is, its been the most thrilling and the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It has been hard yardage, but it has been thrilling.
JONATHAN FINLEY: Its been thrilling in what sense…and its been difficult in what sense? In essense, two questions.
ANDY LEWIS: Its been thrilling in just the transformation of seeing how God transforms lives…not the least of which is my own, and my wife, and my family. But also the people who have come to know Jesus and how their lives have been radically transformed through this mission.
JONATHAN FINLEY: At WorldVenture our vision is to see people of all nations transformed by Jesus’ love. Tell us some transformation stories, transformed lives…we love to hear those. One or two…I’m sure you’ve got many.
ANDY LEWIS: Yeah…I can think of some real fun ones…the first one was a guy who came to one of our first “like…come to check us out services”, and he was a holistic health practitioner…there’s a lot of those here in Santa Cruz…a chiropractor and took care of people…you know…in a different juices to drink and stuff. But he’d been checking out all types of paths, and he came but he notices us, he was renter in the office spaces we had…and he was watching us and listening to what we were talking about… proximity. And that’s another thing that we’ve learned about missions, proximity has power! And when we live in our bubbles, we’re not close enough! So he saw it in our lives and he came to the service and I talked about what Jesus offers in the kingdom, and so he came to me and I walked and sat down with him and he said I want that and he gave his life to Christ. And Warren has now been one of the biggest talkers about Jesus…people come and as he’s working on them as their Chiropractor he starts telling them about Jesus and says now this what you need to do and starts praying over them and all that kind of stuff. And another one is….another holistic
JONATHAN FINLEY: And didn’t you mention that it was Warren who was going to pay for the new signage…
ANDY LEWIS: Yes, exactly!
JONATHAN FINLEY: Thank you, Warren! That is great. I’m sure he’s going to hear this show. We appreciate the signage.
ANDY LEWIS: Yeah! Another one, a guy just walked off the streets just into this building couple of months ago and he said, “I just need a Bible, I’m lost…I’m in recovery…in twelve step…” and he says “Can you pray for me.” As we were praying and I just felt God’s Spirit strongly say, you need to ask him if he knows the gospel. And, I said, “Bro, here’s the thing, do you know the good new of what God has for you?” And he talked the talk, I mean he had all the things down and I said, what does that mean for you? He just looked at me stumped! That was interesting…he knew all the facts about Jesus’ on a cross and about forgiveness and what it meant, but he didn’t have any clue what it meant to him personally. And when I connected the dots for him and I asked him “Do you want this?”, he said, “I want it desperately!” And he prayed with me and one of the other staff here in this room we’re sitting in right now and he gave himself to the Lord. But, one of the things I want to highlight is that its easy to hear that story and go wow that’s exciting, and it is, however, a few weeks later I have not seen him for a long, long time. And that is the nature of this journey, is not…we say out mission statement at Faith Community Church is making more and better disciples for Jesus Christ and so he’s in the kingdom, he prayed…but in terms of growing him in to Christ-likeness, that’s…both are the journey…if you will.
JONATHAN FINLEY: Now, that’s obviously some of the exciting things that make you say its been an exciting journey, but you also mentioned that it’s been hard. You’ve also mentioned opposition. You’ve also mentioned the fact that going on the radio for example and publicly identifying with Jesus in Santa Cruz can be risky.
ANDY LEWIS: Um-hum!
JONATHAN FINLEY: Tells us about the hardships.
ANDY LEWIS: Well, one of them just happened a month ago. We ah, interestingly in this town, we have identified ourselves with trying to help out homeless teens who, one of the peoples knows by name, and we were giving out sleeping bags and we’ve developed this thing called Beanies of Hope where the people of our church are knitting beanies for them. The good news is that we know them, and this woman knows them enough by name that when she can gives them beanies and sleeping bags, she knows them enough to know that they are not selling them for drugs, they are actually in need. But…it got in the newspaper and the local city didn’t think that our work was all that compassionate…or all that something…all that good…that Jesus would have wanted, so it got us into a bit of a controversy. The upshot of it is, is that we have been able to get into touch with the local city leaders who were quoted in that story about being anti-, and say “Yeah, let’s sit down and talk and find out how we can work together.” So, God has given it as an opening. But those are some of the challenges…being misunderstood even when you are doing something unquestionably good. The other one is this opposition, and I don’t know where everybody is at with it, but you hear stories, I’m sure on this show, about the spiritual evil and demonic opposition worldwide. It is very true here in the United States and right here in Santa Cruz.
JONATHAN FINLEY: Well, with the time that we have left, let me ask you an open ended question…you know…you are the pastor of this church; you said that your role is really as a missionary, but you do have the role of serving this community as leading. Tell us about your vision. Describe for us what you really…in your wildest dreams pray and hope for in this ministry.
ANDY LEWIS: It gets back to that statement I said about that this city is actually transformed. I think, increasingly, the Lord has given me a vision that he has asked me not only to pastor a congregation but but to actually be a pastor of a city. But, whether or not we ever get any bigger than what we are…that we can be effective in the transformation of God’s kingdom come and His will being done on the ground here as it is in heaven. And that would affect the culture here, it would affect peoples lives, that more people would come to know Jesus, but it would even begin to get out in affecing businesses, and how people are working together to see this place transformed. Another big part of our vision is to see the churches here unified, working together as one in very practical ways. And there more we can talk about thee to. My dream would be to see that kind of transformation, a real cultural transformation of this city, where people are like…”Man, you’ve got to go to Santa Cruz, God’s really doing stuff there.” And that my name is not being thrown out there and I haven’t published a book published about our church.
JONATHAN FINLEY: Now, you just got a phone call I think this morning about a group that wants to meet here for prayer for Santa Cruz. Is that right? Is that a glimmer of hope…a kind of cooperation that a…
ANDY LEWIS: Absolutely! A bunch of churches and the intercessors of the church want to use this space because it is not “churchy”…early Wednesday mornings to pray to let God do his thing in a powerful way here in Santa Cruz, so those are the kinds of things God is doing.
JONATHAN FINLEY: Well, we will continue to pray that he will do a powerful work here, and we will see Santa Cruz transformed and the people here that he loves so much. Thank you, Andy, for having me as your guest and for being our guest on this show.
ANDY LEWIS: Thank you, its’ been great.
JONATHAN FINLEY: Thank you so much for listening today. This has been Missions on the Frontline. If you want to learn more about Faith Community Church of Santa Cruz, please consult their website at
www.santacruzfaith.org For more information about WorldVenture please visit is at
www.worldventure.com. And don’t forget to drop us a note. We need your feedback and we would love to hear from you.You can e-mail us here at Frontline@worldventure.com. This has been Jonathan Finley filling in for Hans Finzel, President of WorldVenture. Hans will be back with you again, next week here on Missions on the Frontline. HF: Thanks, Jonathan, for this interesting story. This has been Hans Finzel and this has been Missions on the Frontline, a ministry of WorldVenture. Our website is worldventure.com. We are here to extend your vision, help you see new and exciting ways you can be involved in missions and how you can get involved with sharing the good news of Jesus Christ around the world. Thanks for listening today. We will see you next week on Missions on the Frontline.
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