Pacifica Stories

Trevor DeBenning has been our chapel director for six years now leading chapel and serving as a source of spiritual guidance for the Pacifica student body. Nearly every week, students hear from Pastor Trevor about Christianity, the Bible, and how to cultivate their own personal faith. He also shared the gospel with our student body during our All-School Retreat in Arizona this past year. Pacifica prioritizes forming students as whole individuals, not just as academic beings, and Pastor Trevor is an essential part of that effort on campus. 

Pastor Trevor earned his Masters from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and has been serving as the Lead Pastor at Risen Church in Santa Monica for the last 18 years. While at seminary, his greatest takeaway was that “Education for education’s sake is of little value, whereas education for the sake of a life lived unto God is of great value.”

Although Pastor Trevor has been on the Westside of Los Angeles for quite some time, he was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. In his younger age, he became curious about the most famous person in history, Jesus of Nazareth. He says that he tried to live by Jesus’ moral code, but quickly discovered that this was impossible. However, the more Pastor Trevor studied and took Jesus seriously, the more he became convinced that He is who He claimed and He accomplished what He set out to accomplish. He says that he now “sees everything through Christ, and by Christ everything makes a lot more sense.” Later on, Pastor Trevor met his wife, Amber, while working at a Christian summer camp called Mt. Hermon in Santa Cruz, California. Two of their four children, Moses and Zoe, currently attend Pacifica.

Pastor Trevor is invested in the spiritual formation of the students at Pacifica, and is constantly engaging with students in theological conversation after chapel and throughout the school year. This platform for conversation, discourse, and the pursuit of truth is one of the reasons Pastor Trevor loves working at Pacifica. 

“I love being in an environment where all ideas are open for debate. A place where we grow stronger together through the process of inquiry. I love the staff, the students, and the vision of a school that cares about thinking and living well.” 

Ultimately, Pastor Trevor’s hope for Pacifica students is that even if they don’t consider themselves to be Christian, that they would understand the faith well enough to want it to be true. We are grateful to have a consistent source of knowledge and faith to pour into our student body over the years. 

In his free time, Pastor Trevor enjoys reading, watching sports, and spending time with his family.