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Pastor

Rev. Paul Wenz, Faith Lutheran Church

Pastor Paul Wenz was born and raised in Ontario, California. He grew up in Redeemer Lutheran Church in Ontario, California, where he was baptized, attended Christian Day School through 8th grade, and confirmed.

In 1989, Pastor Paul received his B.A. in Philosophy and Religion from California Lutheran University (CLU) in Thousand Oaks. Pastor’s studies and travel have gone hand in hand since he spent the summer on an archaeological dig in Israel through U.C. Berkeley in 1987. He traveled throughout Greece after the dig to see many of the places from the New Testament. In January of 1988 he went on a study tour of the Central American countries of Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador to learn about the struggles of Christians in these poor countries.

 In 1989, Pastor Paul entered Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. He spent his spring semester of seminary in 1991 in South Korea, studying at Luther Theological University. He graduated from Concordia Seminary with his Master of Divinity degree in May of 1993, and began his studies for a Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) degree that same semester. He finished his thesis in Isaiah with a major in Old Testament Exegetical Theology and received His S.T.M. degree in May 2000.


Pastor Paul served as an Assistant Pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Yankton, South Dakota, from 1995–2001, and as an associate pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Orange, CA, as the Minister of Discipleship and also Christian Care ministries from 2001–2007. Pastor Paul’s ministry responsibilities in the past have included administrating Confirmation Programs for up to 90 eighth graders, small group Bible studies, designing and teaching New Member Classes, Family Ministry programming, the introduction of the Alpha Course for evangelism and outreach and many other areas of pastoral care.

Pastor Paul has also taught as an adjunct professor of Philosophy at Mount Marty College in Yankton, SD (2000-2001), and in the Theology department at Concordia University Irvine since 2002.

Pastor Paul received and accepted the call as Pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Oct. 2007 and was installed in November 2007. Since coming to Faith, the church has added a second worship service and grown to over 215 baptized members.

Pastor Paul is married to Kedma Wenz, who serves at Faith as the Contemporary Worship Team Leader. They live in Riverside with their 5 children.