Waves Church Opens at Pepperdine University

Amidst the storm caused by Hurricane Hilary, a new student-focused church opened its doors on Pepperdine’s campus on August 20th in Elkins Auditorium. The church founders conceived of a worship experience rooted in the Church of Christ tradition that engages students in new ways, including meeting on Sunday nights and adding instrumental worship.

Waves Church first was envisioned in the early summer of 2023 by Board of Regents member Alan Beard (’94, MPP ’99) and his wife, Dean of Students Sharon Beard (‘94, MDR ’01). Together, they founded the church with their partners in the few months before students returned to campus.

Waves Church is the second Church of Christ congregation meeting on campus. University Church of Christ will continue meeting as usual on Sunday mornings.

Context
In an interview with The Beacon, Alan Beard highlighted the motivation for the new church was centered on students.

“The way that we’ve looked at it is that Pepperdine is a big place—lots of students, thousands of students at that. I think there were a lot of students on campus every week who never found a church home and our effort is pretty simple, which is, we believe that focusing on student outreach and creating a Christian community for the students on campus is something worthy of focusing on and leaning into. And we do this with pure hearts for trying to reach and be in community and impact positively the lives of students to plant seeds.”

Taylor Walling was the minister chosen for the new church. He left his position as Teaching Minister at The Hills Church in Texas in order to serve at Waves. Walling is no stranger to Pepperdine. He was a finalist in the search for the position of Associate Vice President for Spiritual Life at Pepperdine, now held by Tim Spivey since March 2023. His father, Jeff Walling, received his master’s in Religion from Pepperdine and is a renowned speaker who leads the Crossways youth summer ministry program on campus.

Two Campus Churches
On the presence of two Churches of Christ at Pepperdine, Beard expressed:

“We thought that there was space for another church to be additive to the good work that the University Church of Christ already does. They’ve been doing it for a long time, and they have a core group of especially great faculty and staff and their families who live on campus, and that is a great option for some students. We’re trying to do things a little bit differently to appeal to people who are looking for something else. […] Pepperdine is a big mission field. There’s plenty of room, I think, for both churches to thrive, and that’s certainly what I hope and pray for.

I feel like we’re both on the same side. We’re co-ministers to the Pepperdine community. I think of them as brothers and sisters. Sharon and I were members there for a decade or more, and so we have a total fondness for that church. […] I want to be super clear in our positioning. We’re not doing this in order to say ‘they’re doing something wrong’ or ‘we’re going to do it right’. I love them. I want them to succeed. And we’re not going to try to replicate exactly what they do in the exact same way, because I assume that everything about [UCC] that appeals to people they’re already responding to. […] That’s our approach. But again, we’re early days. And so I also want to have the humility to say even the things that we think we know we don’t really know yet. And we have a lot to learn.”

University Church of Christ (UCC) will continue its various ministries on campus. Tim Perrin, a member of UCC’s Pastoral Care and Oversight Council told The Beacon, “We share with Waves Church a desire to share the good news of Jesus with college students at Pepperdine. That is our hope and prayer for Waves Church. May God guide and bless the efforts of all who serve the spiritual needs of students on campus. The University Church welcomes opportunities to collaborate with the Waves Church to advance the Kingdom of God on campus and beyond. [And] we love opportunities to connect with and engage Pepperdine students and to nurture spiritual formation in all our members, including emerging adults.”

One of those UCC opportunities to connect comes in the form of a new program called “Unfiltered” which meets at 6 p.m. on Thursdays at the Campus Ministry House on Baxter Drive. Unfiltered is the successor program to an initiative called “The Table,” which met on Saturday nights for the past two years at the Brock House. In an email to past Table participants, UCC Campus Minister Falon Barton said:

“Unfortunately, the donor who funded The Table informed us late in the summer that they would not be providing the funding this year. With no time to fundraise elsewhere, the University Church sadly had to cancel The Table for this year. I know The Table was a meaningful space for many of you, and it was for me, too. Many of you have told me that you loved The Table because you crave a space to discuss challenging topics and pressing questions that impact our lives, our communities, and our faith. That will be the focus of Unfiltered.”

The Focus of Waves Church
Although Waves Church and its leaders are rooted in the Church of Christ tradition, Beard said it would “feel different.” Besides the instruments and evening worship, Beard said to expect a multi-generational church where they “want to be a meaningful part of students’ lives, and to bring [them] the gospel message and to help them have mentors and good examples of what a life of faith can be.”

Despite being a Church of Christ school, Pepperdine is a community of people from diverse faith backgrounds, including students who are either “hot” or “cold” in their faith. When asked how he thought Waves Church would serve students of so many diverse faith backgrounds Beard commented:

“I’ve been answering questions on this [Waves Church] for a month now, and that’s the hardest question I’ve been asked so far. If I answered this with utter confidence that I knew exactly how to do this, then you would know that I was faking it. Because what you’ve asked there is the hard question. Right? It is the challenge that we’re accepting that, I think, is very difficult but is worth trying to figure out.”

He hopes—with Taylor’s experience—Waves Church will “be a great teaching church for ‘sometimes’ students who didn’t grow up in a church environment or maybe did, but have never really seriously studied and considered this.” Beard also emphasized Waves Church’s role as a “sending church” where most students are only involved in the church for a set period and then go out into the world.

“Our goal is to reach both those who have gone cold in their faith, and those who are hot in their faith by creating a sense of purpose, of creating a family of believers on campus. [Some] of those people will come, worship with us, and they’ll return home. They’ll go back to the church that they came from. Or they’ll go to a new church wherever they end up. It’s not about keeping everybody forever in our and our little place. It’s about serving them while they’re here. It’s about being the hands and feet of Jesus to students […] and showing by example, through our love for them, through our service to them, that there is something real and meaningful in the message of Christ that I hope brings them to a deeper faith and commitment while they’re here, even if they don’t stay members of Waves Church.”

Speaking on the new minister, Taylor Walling, Beard remarked:

“He and his wife Courtney have been with us all summer talking about this and praying about this. […] I’m super excited about him and Courtney coming with their kids and being a part of the Pepperdine community. He’s really a super-gifted guy. And I’m excited that someone who has all of the the talent and reputation to be able to go to any church in the country and work anywhere he wants has chosen our community to lean into. […] I can’t tell you how much I feel like this is an answer to prayer, and how just happy and and grateful I am that God gave him the calling to come our way. […]

I think [he] will resonate with a lot of our students who are looking for someone who is relatable and does tell a good story and who understands modern media and the world we live in, and the culture we’re in, but who also isn’t afraid to say: ‘well, here’s what the Scriptures say, let’s dig into it and see what this means, how we can apply that to our walk, and how we can use that to discover the truth?’’

In his concluding thoughts, Beard said:

“We think that the spirit of everyone will be that they’re getting a chance to be a part of creating something brand new. That again, hopefully, 50 years from now people will look back and say, ‘I was there in the first year. I helped build this church. I was a part of creating this Christian community on campus. And here it is 50 years later, and it’s still going strong.

We believe the Lord is moving, and the spirit is moving. This is something that we can take comfort in knowing that it’s not up to us to make it work or not. We can only do the things that we’re called to do, and do them with all our might. But when it works, it’s not gonna be because of us. And so I take great comfort in that.”

Waves Church held its third service on September 3rd at 5 p.m. in Elkins Auditorium as of this writing.