Tampa Bay Times
Tampa Bay Times
Published: Friday, June 12, 2009
FAIR OAKS/MANHATTAN MANOR — The reason to commit came covered in chocolate chips. There was a card, too.
Vicki and Joe Zendegui moved back to Tampa in December in search of a new spiritual home. They scouted seven. Logos Dei Community Church was the only one they heard back from.
Church members showed up at the couple's door with homemade cookies and postcards. Vicki knew she had found her new family.
The church of about 50 Christians began a couple of years ago as a string of Bible study groups seeking a Sunday morning routine. Pastor Sam Hestorff wanted a community-centered church casual enough to connect to young people. They meet at the Interbay-Glover Family YMCA at 4411 S Himes Ave.
"It's not about just getting dressed up and doing some rituals that don't really have any personal meaning," Vicki Zendegui said. "But it's really about being yourself and feeling God in your heart."
Hestorff said his church offers an informal and straightforward approach. Logos Dei is Latin for "word of God."
"Family is a great word there. They're very close-knit," Hestorff said. "And even when somebody visits, you would think they're long lost family."
He didn't expect the scattered study groups to grow into a church. If membership grows to 250, they may start a branch church, while keeping the original service at the YMCA. Hestorff has arranged to eventually move into the bigger gym with basketball courts.
There's no rush to lose the "living room feel" offered by their current setup.
Ask Hestorff why, and he shrugs.
He thinks a traditional church building might turn some people off. As a youth minister for 12 years at Bayshore Baptist Church, the 38-year-old pastor noticed kids growing up and leaving the church behind.
Young adults don't like the rigid structure of typical churches, he says. Neither does he.
On a recent Sunday, Zendegui sits in the first of three rows and taps her feet to the beat of a soft song. Hestorff leads on guitar and others sing, drum and play the keyboard before the sermon starts.
The theme is grace. The book is Titus.
The room is still. Hestorff's body moves with his sermon. His arms flail. His shoulders scrunch. At times he sounds out of breath, as if he has too much to say.
"You see, salvation by grace, it sets us free," Hestorff said. "It can be the healing of our brokenness."
Some days, he says, a member might interrupt his sermon to make a point of his or her own.
Later, members sing and say minute-long prayers.
During announcements, Laura Moore, mother of two, introduces a group for moms with young children. She smiles the whole service.
One woman cries.
Co-pastor Nancy Burke hands Pat Fisher a $1,000 check to help pay for her 20-year-old son's mission trip in Uganda. Then Amazing Grace plays over the speakers.
Fisher and her son, Alec, have been members since the beginning. Hestorff preaches, and she follows the lines in her thick, study Bible.
"It's just alive here," Fisher said.
She keeps her Toyota Camry full of her sons' used clothes to give to the homeless. She knows the church is always up to something like that.
When Hestorff stops talking, his "passion, not a job" gets a rest. Tables are cleared and put away. The stage is disassembled. The sanctuary is transformed back to an aerobics room with mirrors covering most of the yellow walls.
The church without a church is gone. Until next Sunday.
Ileana Morales can be reached at or (813) 226-3403.