FEATURED
Empowering Churches to Revitalize Their Ministry
Zion Church felt stuck. The Spanish-language congregation in Santa Barbara, originally named Iglesia de Cristo, had faithfully served its community of mostly first-generation Mexican immigrants for decades. As Kenny Navarro took the reins from his father, who founded the church, the congregation found itself searching for new relationships and fresh direction.
“We wanted to be involved in the community, but our church culture had conditioned us to limit interactions to those who came into our church building,” Navarro says. “Our organization provided no direction or support to engage in or promote community involvement even though we had a desire to do so.”
Then something special happened. “Through a divine appointment, a Westmont community walk passed our house, where we were hosting a taco fundraiser for our youth,” Navarro says.
One of the walkers, Aaron Sizer ’01, initiated a brief conversation with Navarro. The director of the Gaede Institute for the Liberal Arts, he invited Navarro to consider Westmont’s new programs for pastors and churches. As a result, Zion joined the 2023-24 cohort of the Westmont Center for Thriving Communities, an initiative that helps churches explore new opportunities in ministry through retreats, coaching and funding for seed grants.
“Thriving Communities provided the catalyst that empowered us to get out of the building and into the community,” Navarro says. “The activities, ideas, guidance and table assignments helped us define who we were and what we sought to accomplish. The funds we received helped those ideas become a reality, and we were soon engaging with the community and consistently providing spiritual and tangible resources through monthly programs and special events.”
One of four programs the Gaede Institute oversees, Thriving Communities helps local churches and pastors seek fresh inspiration. New Frontiers offers a yearlong experience so new pastors can thrive as they chart their vocational course. The Young Adult Leadership Lab (YALL) gathers young adults and California churches to explore new ways of meeting, listening and reflecting on their development as Christ’s disciples. The fourth, the Incarnational Preaching Project, will launch in September 2025 and assist preachers in reimagining how the Gospel comes alive in person and in community.
At Zion Church, Navarro says YALL has challenged how they view the involvement and role of young adults in the church and the body of Christ. “It’s easy to take them for granted and minimize their importance in the church,” he says. “YALL has encouraged us to pause and reflect on opportunities to help them thrive in every season.”
Thriving Communities and YALL also provided guidance and input into existing programs at Zion, such as CityKidz and its spinoffs, CitySports and the Table. “Conversations about these programs help us verbalize the things we’re doing, hope to do, and find challenging,” Navarro says. “We take concepts and turn them into action.”
Funded by an initial $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., Thriving Communities launched in summer 2022 and has since worked with 13 Central Coast congregations in a yearlong process exploring innovative ministry. First Presbyterian Church of Santa Barbara, like so many congregations throughout the country, has worked to attract and retain younger parishioners. They joined the 2024-25 Thriving Communities cohort in the midst of a strategic process to explore the present identity and future direction of the church.
“We’re thankful for the space to engage and process together how to meet younger congregants where they are in their walk with God,” says Associate Pastor
Dean Choi, who came to First Presbyterian in 2024 to minister to youth, families and young adults. “I believe Thriving Communities helps us be aware of the importance of engaging and listening to the voices of our congregation.”
“This is exactly the kind of experience the program is designed to provide,” says Aaron Sizer, co-director of Thriving Communities. “As individuals and as communities, we find it easy to default to the scripts we’ve been handed — to keep doing things just because they’re the things we’ve always done. But that will inevitably miss much of God’s living, changing work in the world.” Thriving Communities — and Westmont’s activities as a whole — should enable people to listen and respond in larger ways, Sizer says. “We give our undergraduate students a broad range of courses and experiences hoping they’ll discover the fullness of their identity, the fullness of their invitation to participate in God’s story. We’re excited to offer a little of that same space to the broader Christian community — space to perceive who they are and where God might be moving in their midst.”
‘YALL has encouraged us to pause and reflect on opportunities to help them thrive in every season.’
“Through the grant, young adults have inspired our congregation to see the importance of cultivating creativity in Christ’s body.”
Yosam Manafa’s involvement with New Frontiers played an instrumental role as he discerned his call to leave a leadership position at a multiethnic church in Los Angeles to start Sojourners Community Fellowship. Yosam and his wife, Grace, also a pastor, both grew up in their native Uganda and came to California to pursue graduate theological education. He participated in the 2023-24 New Frontiers cohort while their colleague, William Maweu, joined the 2024-25 New Frontiers session. Their church also benefits from involvement in YALL, and two high schoolers from their congregation took part in Trailhead, another Gaede Institute program for high school students.
As Westmont’s newest program for congregations, YALL hosts congregational teams from throughout California to think in new ways about how their churches engage in shared ministry with young adults. Together, churches explore what it means to meet young adults where they are and take seriously their perspectives, life trajectories and specific concerns for the world.
YALL has brought Westmont into a multi-year relationship with 12 California churches that represent a broad spectrum of Christian traditions: PC(USA)
Presbyterians, nondenominational evangelicals, Latino Pentecostals and more. “Through the grant, young adults have inspired our congregation to see the importance of cultivating creativity in Christ’s body.” “We’ll walk with them as they develop and implement new experiments in young-adult ministry in the years ahead,” says Christen Foell, director of the Gaede Institute for the Liberal Arts. “We look forward to learning from them — and from the young people they work with.” Nikki Ramage, associate pastor of adult ministries and spiritual growth at Free Methodist Church in Santa Barbara, says she believes the best way to inspire young adults to participate in the church is to remind them that they ARE the church. “Their voice, ideas, leadership and presence are vital for the church’s health and well-being,” she says. “They’re not a nice add-on. The church needs every part of the body to function in its God-ordained design, and the church needs the leadership, service, compassion and input of young people to flourish.”
The YALL program and grant funding have helped Free Methodist continue its focus on equipping, empowering and raising young leaders God is calling to love and serve God’s people. The young adults at the church hosted and organized a beautiful art and music night for the whole neighborhood and a rousing open-mic event for all ages. “Through these grant-funded events, the YALL team has invited different generations to see the Holy Spirit integrated into so many forms of artistic expression,” Ramage says. “Through the grant, young adults have inspired our congregation to see the importance of cultivating creativity in Christ’s body. They’ve used their poetry, musical talents and artistry to proclaim God’s goodness and speak on behalf of the hopeless.”
The young adults have ushered their congregation into the messy but beautiful
experience of intergenerational relationships through Breaking Bread Together, a fellowship to foster connections across generations centered around food. “Deep conversations take place over meals in people’s homes, similar to Jesus’ favorite pastime of gathering with disciples, friends, sinners and tax collectors around the same table,” Ramage says. “Young adults have helped to co-host these meals and other events to promote cross-generational relationships built on genuine and authentic conversations.”
In partnership with YALL, Free Methodist recently launched an educational series that dives into topics related to mental health and the church. Following morn- ing worship, the church invites theologians, practitioners and therapists to speak, including experts from Westmont. These have included Andrea Gurney, professor of psychology, Heather Kuljian, nursing instructor, and Eric Nelson, associate dean for student well-being.
“Our church has also listened to the cries of young adults lamenting the mental health challenges that they and their peers face,” Ramage says. “The semester-long series examines how to navigate mental health challenges as Christians and how the church can offer an important resource in finding holistic healing. Through the YALL grant, young adults at FMCSB will begin to promote a young adult mental health fund to make therapy a more affordable and realistic option for young people.”
“Most of all, YALL has reminded us that investment in young adults is worth the cost,” Ramage says. “It’s immeasurable and beautiful work for the kingdom, and the fruit will continue to nourish us long after the program ends.”
For more information about the Gaede Institute and its programs, please visit westmont.edu/gaede.
“It’s immeasurable and beautiful work for the kingdom, and the fruit will continue to nourish us long after the program ends.”
This is a story from the Spring 2025 Westmont Magazine