Proclaiming Christ in Carpinteria
How the Trust Helped Beau Bekendam Train for Ministry at TMS
When the phone rang, Beau Bekendam could hardly have been more discouraged and lonely in ministry. For several years, he’d worked on staff at a church in Carpinteria, California, a quiet beach town nestled in between Santa Barbara and Ventura. He’d come to faith in Christ through this church’s ministry, then a few years after salvation he’d come on staff to minister to college students. As a young believer and pastor, he was eager to serve and excited to preach. But his ministry was turned upside down when the senior pastor took an extended break and the elders asked Beau to fill the pulpit. He did that as faithfully as he could for several years, but with the responsibility came plenty of uncertainty. There were growing differences of conviction between Beau and the elders. There were also constant questions about whether this job was temporary or permanent. Additionally, he received criticism from those who did not prefer his verse-by-verse approach to preaching. In the midst of it all, Beau did not know where to turn for help and counsel. He certainly wasn’t expecting a lifeline to come when he picked up the phone.
“I’ll never forget it. Luke Cherry is on the other end of the phone,” Beau said, referring to the vice president of development at The Master’s University. “He tells me a donor at TMU has been encouraged by my ministry, and he asks if I’ve ever heard of John MacArthur and Shepherd’s Conference. At the time, I’d been listening to old Shepherd’s Conference messages and lots of MacArthur sermons, just trying to learn and grow and figure things out in ministry. And out of the blue, someone from that world calls me.”
During the conversation, Luke invited Beau to be part of the next Shepherd’s Conference, an invitation Beau gladly accepted. There, he was able to meet Austin Duncan, who oversees the pastoral ministries department at The Master’s Seminary. Austin connected Beau to other leaders who could help him think through theological and ecclesiological issues at his church.
“It was all the Lord’s kindness to bring godly men from Grace Community Church, TMU, and TMS into my life at that time,” Beau said. “I desperately needed help and the Lord provided it through those men.”
In the years that followed, Beau’s relationship with the leadership at Grace Community Church and The Master’s Seminary deepened, while the challenges at his church increased. As Beau’s convictions around expository preaching and reformed theology grew, so did the differences between him and the other elders at his church. In God’s providence, Beau and the other elders agreed that he should plant a church in Carpinteria, which he was able to do in March of 2021.
“Now I’m planting a new church and I’m facing a whole new set of challenges,” Beau said. “But in God’s kind providence, he used many of the relationships I’d made with folks from Grace Church and TMS to help me navigate this new season of ministry.”
As the senior pastor of the brand-new Christ’s Church Carpinteria, Beau realized that he needed more formal training. He had never gone to seminary, and he knew if he wanted to build an enduring ministry, he needed to be fully equipped. So Beau enrolled at TMS in the fall of 2021. Four months after he planted Christ’s Church, he was making the 90-minute drive twice a week to Grace Community Church for in-person classes at TMS.
Like most church plants, Christ’s Church did not have unlimited financial resources. It needed to be careful about how much money it spent. A consequence of this was that a seminary education would be out of reach financially for Beau, unless he could secure financial aid. He was able to do that through The MacArthur Trust Scholarship.
“I would not be at The Master’s Seminary if not for the John MacArthur Charitable Trust,” Beau said. “The full-tuition scholarship has made seminary possible for me, and it’s also made it possible for two young men at Christ’s Church to join me each week for the 90-minute commute to Grace Church and TMS.”
The two men Beau is referring to are Travis Green, associate pastor at Christ’s Church, and Christian Mathis, a pastoral intern at the young congregation. Both have a full-tuition scholarship through the MacArthur Trust.
Beau is confident that the training he and his co-laborers receive will have a deep and enduring impact on the ministry at Christ’s Church.
“Since we are such a young church, we still need to get our house in order,” Beau said. “That means establishing the doctrine we believe, the priority of membership, the form of church government we practice. So, much of what I’m learning, and just as important, who I’m learning it from, is going to shape and help guide us in the coming years as our church continues to grow and mature.”
Already, Beau is seeing a hunger for God’s Word in the lives of his young congregation. This past year, dozens of men have read through “Biblical Doctrine” with him, and in those meetings, he saw a hunger to know the deep things of God. He is confident that in the coming years, the church will benefit from the practices of doctrinal fidelity and expository preaching that are being established now. And he prays that one day, his church can train men and send them out as missionaries and pastors.
“As we get our bearings as a new, growing church in Carpinteria, we are so thankful for the investment of TMS and the John MacArthur Charitable Trust,” Beau said. “So much of the training that’s going to benefit our church, and the Carpinteria community, wouldn’t be possible without the Trust’s investment.”
