THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 25, 1995 TAG: 9503250050
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 135 lines
A DECADE AGO, Joe Buran spent his most ecstatic moments crouched on a surfboard in 20-foot waves, riding high on his ranking as one of the world's 10 best surfers. He'd wake at 4:30 in the morning, just to get to the California beaches for the best waves of the day.
``When I was surfing, the water was god, with a small g,'' he says. ``I lived for the ocean.''
These days, Buran is working for God, with a capital G. As pastor of Calvary Chapel of Hampton Roads, he seeks calm waters - anywhere from Lynnhaven Inlet to the YMCA pool - to baptize people.
``When I go to Lynnhaven Inlet, I think how different it is,'' he said. ``I get a kick out of it. I used to be performing for crowds. Now, I go to a beach where there are no waves and dunk people.''
In four years, Buran has built his storefront church in Virginia Beach from 30 people to more than 300. Now, he says, the Lord is calling him to start another church where water most often arrives as ice and snow.
The 34-year-old pastor, known in his surfing days as ``the California Kid,'' is heading to Vermont, the Green Mountain State.
Burlington, an area which claims 100,000 people only by counting all the nearby towns, is ``uncharted terrain,'' ripe for some evangelizing, Buran believes.
He envisions making Burlington the anchor city for taking his ministry international. ``I wouldn't be surprised to be ministering in Canada around the turn of the century,'' he said.
He'll preach his first services in the meeting rooms of an Econo Lodge.
To support his family - which includes three kids, ranging in age from a 4-year-old to a 6-month-old baby - he plans to line up some part-time jobs. He'll have some money from the sale of his house in Virginia Beach, and about three months start-up financing from the Calvary Chapel's founding church in California.
That's all.
``There are men God has called to be church planters,'' he said.``It's a challenge to start new works.''
His challenge takes shape in the clash between where Buran came from and where he's going.
After spending most his life in warm climates near ocean beaches, he's heading to the only New England state without an Atlantic coastline. Sub-zero winter temperatures don't raise eyebrows in Burlington, and four-wheel drive vehicles are necessity, not style.
He has rapidly built up Calvary Chapel in South Hampton Roads, a region with more than 1 million people, many with a strong penchant for churchgoing, sometimes twice a week.
Churches in Burlington tend toward the mainstream, heavily Catholic due to the influx of Canadians, with several Congregational, Baptist, Episcopal and Methodist churches.
Into that world, Buran is taking the Calvary Chapel style of worship, West Coast laid-back, anti-authoritarian, and pretty new.
It started in the late 1960s with Chuck Smith, a pastor who left a Pentecostal denomination to teach the Bible his own way. He opened the church doors of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa to everyone, even stoned hippies wandering around on the beaches.
The main feature of Calvary Chapel services is systematic reading of the Bible, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book. Children, kindergarten through high school, attend bible study in separate rooms.
Beyond that, pastors get lots of freedom. They run their churches independently, with no financial ties to the first Calvary Chapel where Smith still preaches, Buran said.
``My job is to be well-versed in prayer and discern the mind of the Lord,'' he said. ``In many mainstream denominations, pastors don't have that freedom. In fact, many pastors are hirelings. . . . If they implement something that isn't approved, they could be fired.''
For Buran, the main worry is not being fired. It's simply making it. He did it once before, when he came to Virginia four years ago.
Back then, his wife, Jennifer, remembers, they sometimes weren't sure they had enough money to buy food for the week ahead. They wouldn't say a word to anyone, but people seemed to think of them just in time.
A bag of groceries would show up on the doorstep. Family and friends would send them a check in the mail. She says you learn to trust - that God has a purpose and will provide.
For church planters, frugality means survival. Buran says his family can get by on $1,200 a month. ``God has refined our living,'' he said. ``We've learned how to make money go a long way.''
Buran spent his early years in Virginia, but took a long detour before coming back. His military family moved to California, and he fell in love with surfing.
As a sixth-grader, he practiced surfing on his bed - getting his brother to rock it back and forth to simulate waves - but quickly headed to the beach for some real waves.
And he proved to be the Real Thing, the California Kid, the state's top-ranked amateur and winner of the Hawaiian Pipeline Masters, the sport's premier event. In 1985, he helped start the U.S. pro tour.
All the while, he battled depression and a dependency on drugs and alcohol, which brought him to the edge of suicide. He was involved in the Calvary Church in Vista, Calif., but resisted his pastor's encouragement to enter the ministry.
Then he was sidelined with a back injury for a month and started reading the Bible. He was hooked. He put aside his dreams of a comeback and started training to become a minister.
He was featured in a film about Christian surfers, which caught the eye of the Christian Broadcasting Network's ``700 Club'' staff. After a guest appearance on the show, Buran felt Virginia was where he would get his start.
Navy families, who knew about Calvary Chapel because of its presence near the bases in San Diego, were the first members of his congregation. He preached for the first time on Feb. 24, 1991 - and he admittedly wasn't a born preacher.
For one thing, he told too many surfing stories, which have now been wiped out of his sermons.
``I am very grateful for the people who stuck around,'' he said. People didn't just stick around. They brought friends. Buran and his assistant pastor, Brad Hill, went knocking on doors. People came from across the community, from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. A Calvary Chapel sprung up in Newport News, near Fort Eustis.
Last September, the church's growth picked up speed. The harvest was coming in, Buran says, and he got the itch to move on. He took a trip through New England and fell in love with the place.
God was tugging him there, he felt sure, and he even had another family in the congregation who would go along to help the church get started.
Why start again? It's a question he's faced from his wife, family, friends. It's one he's asked himself.
``God equipped me to take a raw beginning, have a vision, build it up to a solid work and then turn it over,'' he says.
For Hill, the man who is taking the handoff, it makes perfect sense.
``Joey has the gift of planting and that's what God used him to do,'' he said. ``My strength lies in watering and caring, maintaining that growth. This church will blossom.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Joseph John Kotlowski, Staff
Pastor Joe Buran...
Buran watches the sun rise over Virginia Beach...
KEYWORDS: EVANGELIST by CNB