University Church of Christ Malibu (UCC) had been Pepperdine University’s sole on-campus Church of Christ for over 53 years, but that changed when Waves Church began in Fall 2023.
The announcement of Waves Church’s establishment was made during a Sunday morning worship service at University Church in June of 2023. Waves Church officially opened about two months later Aug. 20, 2023. Although University Church maintains its identity as an intergenerational congregation and Waves Church mostly targets college students, the question of what Pepperdine’s church is remains.
And the answer is complicated.
“We’re all on this campus, we are all worshiping the same God and believe in the same savior and are doing the work,” said Alan Beard, a founding member of Waves Church. “We have two different approaches, and I think part of the benefit of the Church of Christ tradition, and of Waves Church at Pepperdine and UCC, is that it allows two different groups of people to try to accomplish the goals using different approaches.”
The Role of University Church
University Church of Christ Malibu was founded in 1970, before construction began on the Malibu Campus. Prior to meeting in Stauffer Chapel or Elkins Auditorium, the congregation met in the basement of the then L.A. County Courthouse in Malibu, according to reporting by the Christian Chronicle.
Since its inception, University Church has hosted weekly Sunday morning services with a cappella worship. The lack of instruments is traditional among Churches of Christ, according to Keith Huey, a Religion professor at Rochester Christian University, an institution historically affiliated with the Church of Christ tradition.
The Church of Christ is an autonomous, conservative wing of the American Restoration movement with “no organizational structure larger than local congregations,” according to the late Thomas H. Olbricht, distinguished professor emeritus of religion at Pepperdine University. Instead, churches of Christ are commonly led by a group of elders within each church, according to the blog Church of Christ Perspectives.
University Church was once the sole institution of spiritual life programming on campus, long before the existence of the Center for Faith and Learning or the Hub for Spiritual Life. In 1983, an average of 150 students were regular members of the church, according to previous Graphic reporting.
“There was a time where if you were Church of Christ and you worked at Pepperdine, you were kind of expected to come to the University Church,” UCC Lead Minister Eric Wilson said.
But that role has changed as spiritual life responsibilities spread to other organizations across campus, Wilson said, praising the decision but noting its unintended consequences for University Church’s reach.
A recent example is how The Well, a weekly worship service night that includes musical instruments hosted in the Amphitheatre that began in fall 2012, was moved under the Hub for Spiritual Life in fall 2021. Originally, The Well was sponsored by University Church and run by the campus minister at the time.
Today, undergraduate attendance for University Church has declined to around 10 to 15 students per week, which may reflect the trending decline of Church of Christ-identifying students, both at Pepperdine and nationwide. According to fall 2024 Office of Institutional Effectiveness Census data, 5.3% of undergraduate students identified as affiliated with the Church of Christ, down from 13% in 2017.
Due to the decreasing number of Church of Christ-affiliated students and their subsequent decreased donations to University Church, Wilson said UCC leadership tends to prioritize programming for faculty and staff families as much as they do students, rather than orienting their mission around student engagement.
Despite that, University Church ran a student-focused ministry starting in fall 2021 called The Table. This ministry was an evolution of House Church, a smaller-scale evening of worship and biblical teaching, which met at now-retired Senior Executive Vice President Gary Hanson’s on-campus home.
Throughout the school year, The Table met in the backyard of Brock House on Saturday nights. Funded through a combination of donors and church funds, it consisted of a free meal, instrumental worship by the band Well Collective and a short sermon by either Campus Minister Falon Barton or Wilson. Barton, who handled most of the planning, said an average of 100 students attended each week.
Waves Church was founded summer 2023. A month later, The Table was officially discontinued for the 2023-24 school year after its anonymous Texas-based donor informed University Church leadership he was withdrawing from funding the ministry, Barton said. She said University Church was unable to secure alternative funds for the ministry to continue because of the late-notice change.
The Founding of Waves Church
The Faith and Heritage Committee, within Pepperdine’s Board of Regents, voted unanimously to establish Waves Church at its June 15, 2023, meeting, according to the Christian Chronicle.
The Faith and Heritage Committee oversees and manages the practices and policies of the University in regard to religion and spiritual life to ensure a continuation of a relationship between Pepperdine and the churches of Christ, according to a letter sent by Gash to the faculty in summer 2024.
Alan Beard, vice chair of the committee, and his wife Sharon Beard, dean of students, were asked by the Board of Regents to lead the formation of Waves Church, Alan Beard said. Waves Church does not have an oversight council and operates autonomously from the Board of Regents.
President Jim Gash and Alan and Sharon Beard first informed University Church’s Pastoral Care and Oversight Council of the new church in a Zoom meeting, according to Steve Rouse, former council member and Psychology professor, who was on the Council at the time. The Council shared the news with University Church’s ministers in the days that followed, shortly before the announcement went public.
The University Church congregation learned of Waves Church’s establishment in the form of a letter from the Council, which also included a letter from Alan and Sharon Beard. On June 25, 2023, Lucy Perrin, a Council member at the time, read Beards’ letter aloud to the congregation, according to the Christian Chronicle.
Some congregants were surprised by Waves Church’s sudden establishment and its particular identification as a church rather than an additional ministry.
“When it was read, a lot of congregants responded with a lot of anger, partially because … there was this history [between] the people who were planting Waves Church, with University Church, like, ‘Why would it be done like this?’” Barton said.
Alan and Sharon Beard’s letter clarified Waves Church’s intentions as the soon-to-be “second Church of Christ on campus,” citing their personal connections with University Church and meetings with University Church leadership.
“We don’t seek to compete with the University Church and come into this missionary effort seeking to reach the thousands of Pepperdine students who currently have no church home in Malibu,” the Beards wrote. “We will seek to plant seeds and build Christian community as we ask God’s blessing in bringing a greater number of students into the fold at both University Church and this new church.”
Barton was told about The Table’s cancellation within a month of Waves Church’s announcement.
Sharon Beard said the two were unrelated, pointing to the differences between The Table and Waves Church. She said The Table was a Saturday-night worship service, while Waves Church is a Sunday-night church service.
“There is absolutely no evidence pointing to anything other than timing,” Sharon Beard said.
The Beards are part of Waves Church’s founding team, along with Lead Minister Taylor Walling and his wife Courtney, according to the Waves Church website. Alan Beard first expressed his interest in Walling as a potential minister in late June 2023, Walling said.
At the time, Walling had been preaching at a nondenominational, multi-campus megachurch called The Hills Church in Fort Worth, Texas, for nine years. For years, Alan Beard had known Walling’s father, Jeff Walling, director of the Pepperdine Youth Leadership Initiative, and Taylor Walling was familiar with the Pepperdine community, Alan Beard said.
“Everyone told us we couldn’t get him–that he was ungettable–because he was known as a really talented minister and preacher, and he was already at one of the biggest churches in the entire fellowship in Dallas,” Alan Beard said.
However, Walling took the risk; over the next two months, he and his family moved from Texas to Malibu to support Waves Church, Sharon Beard said. The gambit paid off, and the church has gained hundreds of student attendees. Many students, including senior Kellan Woodward, admire Walling’s preaching.
Woodward, who attends both Waves Church and University Church, grew up at the Hills Church and said he was excited to hear Walling preach in Malibu.
“I’ve actually loved Taylor’s messages, especially his way and form of preaching,” Woodward said. “As soon as he came, I was like, ‘Yes! Some good ol’ Texas preaching – it’s coming back.’”
Waves Church began its first year in Stauffer Chapel, Walling said, but this year, they moved to Elkins Auditorium out of a necessity for more space. An encouraging average of about 250 students regularly worship at Waves Church, with attendance numbers reaching as high as 330 on one Sunday night, Alan Beard said.
Though the church has grown exponentially thus far, it has retained a small staff, with only two paid employees: Walling, who has a full-time salary and paid-for on-campus housing, and Connections Director Jenn Gash, daughter of Jim Gash, who is paid part-time. Jenn Gash coordinates volunteers, leads small group efforts and occasionally preaches, among other duties.
Waves Church’s expenses, covered entirely by donations, are split between these paychecks and the Sunday evening meals.
“Zero dollars from the university,” Alan Beard said. “A hundred percent of the money that is in the budget for Waves Church has come from existing members or alumni supporters who believe in what we’re trying to do.”
President Gash, first lady Joline Gash and Jenn Gash attend both Waves Church and UCC regularly. Vice President for Spiritual Life Tim Spivey regularly attends Waves, but not University Church.
Waves Church and University Church: Side by Side
While both churches emphasize community, Waves Church is catered to a different demographic, according to the Beards’ announcement letter. Waves Church saw a specific opportunity in the declining number of Pepperdine students who attended church, the Beards said.
“We saw it as a mission field, because there were thousands of students on this campus every week who weren’t in church anywhere on Sunday, and we thought it was a worthwhile pursuit to try to reach those students and give them a church community to call their home while they’re here,” Alan Beard said.
In the Beards’ initial letter to University Church, they aimed to quell congregants’ potential worries about competing for the same on-campus audiences.
“Regarding differentiation [from University Church], we will not have a youth ministry or children’s ministry or any other ministry,” Alan and Sharon Beard wrote. “We will exclusively focus on ministering to students.”
Waves Church began with a student-exclusive view, a mission that contrasted University Church’s multigenerational community, but its goals have since changed. During the 2024-25 academic year, Waves Church established weekly children’s programming called Waves Kids, Walling and the Beards said.
“We didn’t start with that [Waves Kids]. We didn’t expect to start doing [a kids ministry], but all of a sudden, we ended up with a fair number of families who either moved into town or started coming on Sunday nights,” Walling said. “And, all of a sudden, it was like OK, there’s like over a dozen kids in this auditorium right now. We might want to try doing something.”
Over the past few decades, University Church’s congregation has become less student-heavy and instead largely consists of Pepperdine faculty and staff. This switch-up from Pepperdine’s usual campus student-faculty ratio feels welcoming in its uniqueness, said junior Landyn Phillips, youth ministry intern at University Church.
“The most important part of UCC for me, especially in this stage of life, is how intergenerational the community is,” Phillips said. “There’s people of all different phases of life. So, like from the very beginning, I was welcomed by other students, and then ministers, and some older people, professors – they all made it very clear that I was welcome as part of their community.”
An audible difference between congregations comes in University Church’s a cappella worship, a Church of Christ tradition, and Waves Church’s more contemporary instrumental worship.
Woodward said he sees the beauty in both types of worship, as he feels like he is singing in “one voice” with the congregation at University Church, but feels more individually connected through instrumental worship at Waves Church.
A distinct aspect of Waves Church is its weekly post-service meal, catered from local Malibu restaurants. Students like Woodward and sophomore Aidan Sunkel, a guitarist on Waves Church’s worship team, speak highly of Waves Church’s regular community dinner.
“It’s just a great representation of what Jesus wants for us, not just as Waves Church, but as a community of Christians,” Sunkel said. “Like, come together and eat together, sit with people you haven’t met yet, and this is a family.”
In an effort to grow, Waves Church’s founding team has tabled at events and connected with Greek Life, athletics and Pepperdine staff and faculty, according to Walling. Signs across campus also advertise Waves Church’s Sunday night service.
Jenn Gash also sends out weekly newsletters and manages the church’s Instagram, which posts about once each week. Both utilize photos taken by volunteer student photographers.
Though one may see students wearing t-shirts or hats representing Waves Church, Walling said these items were from a one-off giveaway in fall 2024.
“The goal and intention for that was not to create merch that was for sale – it was a way to celebrate hitting one year [of Waves Church],” Walling said.
Waves Church’s instrumental worship, prominent advertising and lack of an oversight council make it stand out from the Churches of Christ traditions.
“I don’t even know what denomination they [Waves Church] would describe themselves as, if any,” Sunkel said. “And that’s the thing, I think they’re nondenominational.”
While University Church and Waves Church have their differences, Alan Beard said their contrasting approaches do not foster negativity.
“I don’t question their motives or goals, they just have their way of doing it,” Alan Beard said. “They have total autonomy – who am I to come in and tell them that they should do things my way?”
Student attendees said they appreciate the increased on-campus variety of different times, styles and communities.
“The fellowship is always different, the people are different, the worship is different, and so it’s a blessing to get loved on by all the different kinds,” Woodward said.
The Role of Administration
Several Pepperdine senior administrators attend University Church regularly, including President Jim Gash, who served on the Council before his presidency. But the number of Pepperdine administrators in positions of leadership at the church has decreased over time, Wilson said. By 2023, Tim Perrin, senior vice president for strategic implementation, was the only remaining administrator on the Pastoral and Oversight Council.
In an interview with the Graphic, President Gash said he financially supports both on-campus churches. He said his donations at University Church haven’t diminished since the start of Waves Church.
Some at University Church, including Phillips, said they feel Waves Church’s support from the Board of Regents and administration are in part due to politics.
“The nature of a church being tied to an institution is very political – whether that’s, like, money, positions of power, that’s what makes it so complex,” Phillips said. “And so I think people with money and power at Pepperdine have seen members of UCC express beliefs or lean different political ways than they like, and that’s where Waves Church comes in, and the big, gung-ho endorsement of Waves Church from the people with money and power at Pepperdine.”
Beyond the Pulpit
Both of Pepperdine’s on-campus churches are politically and theologically diverse, in part due to the nature of the Churches of Christ tradition’s lack of creeds. Both regard women and men as equals in leadership positions.
“Taylor is adamant about not having any political affiliation, at least for the church to not have any political affiliation,” Sunkel said. “Because, at the end of the day, it’s a community of believers, not a community of Americans. We’re Americans nominally speaking, but that comes after being children of God.”
Over time, University Church’s ministry staff has become more progressive, according to Lead Minister Eric Wilson. Wilson grew up in the socially liberal United Church of Christ, which has openly advocated for issues such as abortion rights and LGBTQ+ civil rights since as early as 1969.
Wilson said labels like “queer-affirming” and “LGBTQ+ affirming” reduce what he believes Jesus calls him to do, which is to love neighbors, the least of these, and one’s enemies.
Barton and Youth and Family Life Minister Joel Foster, both of whom were hired for their roles in 2021, express similarly progressive views. Barton said she is particularly passionate about environmental justice, which led to the implementation of reusable communion cups at University Church last year. Barton and Foster each have small pride flags around their on-campus offices.
For the 2021-24 iteration of University Church’s Pastoral Care and Oversight Council, the congregation nominated and affirmed Rouse as a Council Member.
To attain this leadership role, a church member must be nominated by 20% of the congregation’s members, accept the nomination and be affirmed by 80% of members who fill out a ballot. Voters do not have to be current attendees of the church as long as they became an official member in the past.
Rouse, who also advises the student-run GSA (Gender Sexuality Alliance) Crossroads, identifies as bi, which he describes as similar to bisexuality but more encompassing of his identity as not solely sexual. He said the first time he spoke to a large group of people about his sexual orientation was during a Zoom event in fall 2020, and by 2024, he had become “much more visible” in conversations about LGBTQ+ issues.
He was the only running Council member from the 2021–2024 iteration who wasn’t reaffirmed last summer. His wife, Stacy, is a current Council Member.
Wilson said he is open to discuss his political views with anyone who asks. He said he avoids making partisan political statements while preaching.
“As a minister to a community who is uber-diverse in their stances and leanings, what my objective is is an attempt to help facilitate a space where people are formed and shaped in the likeness of Christ Jesus,” Wilson said.
Regardless, Waves Church and University Church of Christ Malibu are alike in that neither church takes an official stance on social issues, including LGBTQ+ affirmation.
“I think that the calling we have to be loving to each other is not served by dividing ourselves up with labels, politically,” Alan Beard said. “And so I would never want the church to be used as a place for politics.”
The Hills Church in Fort Worth, TX, where Walling previously preached, has a statement on their website defining marriage as only “between one man and one woman.” Prior to April 2019, the website stated that church members should “resist any and all same-sex sexual attractions” and described same-sex acts as “intrinsically disordered.”
Walling echoed these beliefs in a May 19, 2024 sermon at the Simi Valley Shepherd Church titled “Avoiding Sexual Immorality,” where he states, “He [God] said this [sex] was a gift intended inside a covenant marriage between a man and a woman.” In an interview with the Graphic, Walling declined to comment on his personal stance on same-sex marriage.
He is part of the decision-making process to approve wedding requests in Stauffer Chapel, which resumed in 2024 under limited circumstances after a five-year pause. The Graphic obtained a copy of the internally used Stauffer Chapel wedding policy.
For a wedding to be approved in Stauffer Chapel, applicants must meet a series of criteria that restricts marriages to Christian alumni who have an active involvement in the Pepperdine community. Requests must be approved by both Wilson and Walling, who serve as representatives of the two churches, and follow “all rules and regulations of Pepperdine University,” according to the document.
Neither Alan nor Sharon Beard clarified their personal stances on same-sex marriage. It was unclear whether Waves Church or University Church leadership would allow a same-sex marriage in Stauffer Chapel.
The Future
Barton said no one can predict the future, especially for University Church, a community that aims to follow the Holy Spirit’s movement.
“What I do know is this is a congregation that really loves each other, really loves Malibu, really loves Pepperdine and we have a lot of people who are part of our congregation who have been part of it for decades,” Barton said.
Alan Beard said he expects students to make up the majority of Waves Church.
“Our approach is still ‘preach the gospel, tell about Jesus, create Christian community, and honor God and the kingdom through it,’” Beard said. “And if we stay with that, then we’ll grow. At some point, maybe we’ll stop growing, and when that day comes we’ll have to assess whether we’re doing the right thing.”
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Contact Henry Adams via email: henry.adams@pepperdine.edu
Contact Faith Siegel via email: faith.siegel@pepperdine.edu
