Surfer's Chapel Motto On Waves: `God Makes 'Em; We Ride 'Em'

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. - The cars are plastered with bumper stickers:

"Will Surf for God"

"One God, one country, one fin"

"Pray for Surf"

No, it's not a beach parking lot on a weekend.

This is church: Surfer's Chapel in Huntington Beach.

It's Saturday night and some 60 churchgoers are riding a wave of praise music, lifting their arms and voices heavenward as they sing: "When I'm standing upon that shore . . . I will trust in You."

Dave Enderle is showing latecomers to their seats and giving them copies of the church bulletin. On the cover is a photo of a surfer taking an awesome ride on a brilliant blue wave. Underneath is written the church motto, taken from Psalms 93:4: "Mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty."

Several churchgoers have lugged along their surfboards and set them up around the sanctuary. Pastor Bill White is standing at the podium - designed to look like a surfboard sawed in half. On it is the church logo, a drawing of an A-frame wave.

White and his flock are decked out in Sunday-go-to-meeting duds that look more like Sunday-hit-the-beach. The pastor, 48, who has sun-streaked hair down to his shoulders, is wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a blue-and-red Hawaiian shirt. White calls the dress code for his church "knock the sand off your shoes." But while he is wearing a pair of sandals, many in the congregation are barefoot.

White wades through the church announcements: music leader Benny Libay has gotten his surfboard back from the repair shop; photos of a recent ocean baptism are on the back table; the Wednesday Ohana (family) night will meet as usual.

He enthuses about the week's big ocean swells. The faithful in the pews hoot and clap. A stoked White yells, "That's right. Give the Lord a handclap. He makes 'em, and we ride 'em."

White's sermon this evening is the last in a series of eight he has been giving on "Resin, Catalysts, God and You." The focus is how God sands and polishes the heart, just like an artisan repairs a surfboard. The pastor intricately weaves together scriptures from Peter, Corinthians and Romans, with tidbits of his own rocky spiritual journey and elaborate descriptions of the art of surfboard making.

"Our lives are like that surfboard," White concludes, "Satan wants to keep us dinged up. But God patches those dings and gives us healing."

Surfer's Chapel started a year and a half ago, renting space at New Hope Fellowship Church. Surfer Chapel is one of 24 Foursquare Gospel churches in Orange County. Foursquare, which has 1 million members in 60 countries, was founded in the 1920s by famed Los Angeles Pentecostal evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson.

Pentecostals emphasize being born again and the so-called spiritual gifts outlined in 1 Corinthians 12, including speaking in tongues, faith healing and prophecies.

Needed less-formal surroundings

White and his wife were teaching new believers at a local church when their stories made him realize that many people, especially surfers with their laid-back lifestyle, avoid churches because they feel uncomfortable in formal settings.

"Surfers are such a subculture unto themselves. Some of them don't feel comfortable out of their subculture," White says. "And I knew there was a need, that there were those out there far from the Lord." So he and several other surfers started a home Bible study group. It snowballed.

White asked his pastor in Anaheim, Calif., Rick Danna, if he thought a surfer church was a crazy idea. Danna, a longtime surfer, said he had once dreamed of such a ministry and figured the Lord was going to create it through White.

Before giving the go-ahead for the new church, Foursquare officials visited beach and surf shops to see what interest there might be in such an endeavor.

"Their attitude was, we believe the gospel is for everyone, not just those who like a traditional church setting," said the Rev. Glen Merriman, Foursquare division superintendent. "We certainly don't have trouble going to foreign countries as missionaries, so why not try to minister to an area of our own community that would otherwise be missed?"

Merriman is impressed with the new pastor. "He has a heart that cares for people."

It wasn't always that way with White.

"I went from ridiculing Christians to being one," he says. In fact, he has been a surfer for 33 of his 48 years and a Christian for only 14. His spiritual transformation took place at a time when his life was in a muddle: "I was 34 years old, driving a fast car, surfing, and all I cared about was material things."

He was in the throes of divorce and drinking heavily when a friend took him to church. "I prayed, `Jesus, if you are real like you say, you can have my life, 'cause I'm making a mess out of it.' I suddenly felt like someone had cleaned me with hot water and Comet," he recalls.

The next day he was supposed to go surfing, but the wind had blown out the waves. "I think the Lord set that up."

With time on his hands and still confused about what had happened, White went back to the church and talked to the pastor. "He told me I'd been saved, born again, and gave me a copy of the New Testament."

Still needs to work on the side

Surfer's Chapel is not yet large enough to make White a full-time pastor. White also has an electronic-hardware consulting business.

Some members at Surfer Chapel participate each week in "Hungry Monday," a day of fasting and praying for their favorite stretch of beach.

"We aren't sitting around mercenarily praying for great waves," White says. "It's praying for the character of our hearts and those of the other surfers who are there."

He explains that surfing is a highly competitive sport, often fraught with ego and territorial battles. He's seen fistfights erupt between surfers vying for a particular wave. "We change the entire climate of an area where we're surfing. We don't do the territorial thing, and we encourage others and get excited if they have a good ride."

Church services are held Saturday nights, which, of course, leaves Sunday free for surfing. But Sunday morning isn't just for riding waves. It's a good time to evangelize. "We figure Christians will be in church, so the guys we meet out there probably haven't found God yet."

But he and his congregation make such efforts low-key. "Surfers are pretty independent and laid back, so we invite them to join in our beach barbecues and things like that."

The music attracts many. Benny Libay heads up the praise band and has added Hawaiian and Samoan twists to some of the traditional songs.

But not everyone is a surfer. Oma Laughlin, 71, of Tustin, Calif., visited once with her son, a surfer, and was hooked. "I've been to a lot of churches through the years, but here, I was struck by the lack of regimentation. It's what I always wanted but never found until now." She likes White's "easy to understand but profound" sermons, as well as the company. "These kids are the greatest bunch. They are like family. And they keep me young."