St. Andrew Presbyterian Church stands on Arnold Drive in Sonoma, California, and is known as “the big white church on Arnold Drive.” The congregation has worshiped in the Sonoma Valley for more than six decades, beginning in 1960 and moving into its current building in 1992. Part of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Presbytery of the Redwoods, St. Andrew is shaped by Word and Sacrament worship, an open and affirming welcome, active Earth Care, and long-standing local and global partnerships. It serves Sonoma, Glen Ellen, Kenwood, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Napa, and surrounding communities around a simple rhythm: connect with God, grow in community, and serve the world.
Sunday Worship at 9:30 AM
St. Andrew's Sunday worship begins at 9:30 AM and is just over an hour long. The congregation values the traditions of Word and Sacrament, but worship also makes room for music, liturgy, laughter, and the honest sharing of imperfection. Each Sunday brings a slightly different order, with traditional and nontraditional elements forming an eclectic mix that reflects the pluralistic community gathered in the sanctuary. Families begin together, and children move to age-graded classes after Discovery Time.
- Communion is generally celebrated on the first Sunday of each month, with everyone welcome at the table and a gluten-free option available.
- Choir Sundays feature the congregation's musical gifts, including the handbell choir and occasional guest musicians.
- Birthday and anniversary blessings set aside about ten minutes for those who wish to stand for a blessing.
- Sermon videos are recorded each Sunday and generally available by Tuesday morning through the sermon video collection.
After worship, coffee, doughnuts, and conversation fill the fellowship hall and front plaza. A visitor may fill out a name tag or skip it, and no one is likely to feel out of place. People wear whatever is comfortable, ranging from jeans and T-shirts to an occasional necktie or dress. The open and affirming character of St. Andrew extends to people who have never attended church, have grown up in one, or have become disillusioned with organized faith. Questions and doubt are encouraged as part of faith rather than treated as separate from it.
Access, Parking, and a Warm Arrival
The sanctuary, fellowship hall, and restrooms are wheelchair accessible. Greeters can assist visitors from their car into the sanctuary in any weather, and hearing-assistance devices are available on request. Two large parking lots serve the church: an upper paved lot and a lower gravel lot. The circle drive and accessible spaces are reserved for people with disabilities. After worship, vehicles leave north onto Sobre Vista Road and then onto Arnold Drive. St. Andrew provides visitor information for arrival planning.
From a Carriage House to Arnold Drive
The congregation began in 1960, meeting at the home of its first pastor, the Rev. William Huskins. In 1961, the Presbytery of the Redwoods purchased the Spreckels family carriage house. The two-story, 6,200-square-foot building was adapted with care: the carriage room became a sanctuary seating about 175, the tack room became a social room, and the former horse stalls became six Sunday school rooms, along with choir and nursery space.
On Palm Sunday, March 19, 1989, oil- and turpentine-soaked polishing rags spontaneously ignited in the carriage house. Fire consumed the building and nearly everything inside. A handmade walnut-on-oak Celtic cross fixed to the exterior remained attached to one standing wall. Firefighters led by congregation member Tom Shearer pulled it free as that wall collapsed. Easter services went ahead in the parking lot, where nearly 200 people gathered. Pastor Rich Gantenbein found signed choir music in the ashes and used the title “Bring Your Torches” to remind the congregation to keep a sense of humor even amid tears. He also said, “We must recognize that a church is not a building. We will pull together, we will make it together.”
The congregation chose to rebuild on the same site. Groundbreaking took place on Easter Sunday in 1991, construction followed, and the first services in the new church were held in March 1992. Architect William Turnbull Jr. designed the building, and the rescued oak cross now stands outside the narthex. Rich Gantenbein served for 38 years and died in 2019. His legacy and the community's continuing life are remembered through St. Andrew's vision: “A community of faith seeking to follow Jesus as our Lord so we make a real difference with real people.”
Children and Youth Begin Together in Worship
Children are welcome in the sanctuary from the start of worship. After Discovery Time, they walk together to age-graded classes. Skilled nursery care is available from birth through age 3. Preschoolers use the “First Look” curriculum, centered on three simple truths: God loves me, my church family loves me, and Jesus wants to be my friend forever. Children in preschool through Grade 5 explore stories of Jesus through activities, storytelling, arts, games, and acts of service. Paid nursery and preschool staff and trained Sunday school volunteers are screened in advance and required to pass background checks. For children with special needs, the church accepts accommodations and works to provide an environment in which each child can thrive.
St. Andrew Youth serves middle and high school students in grades 6 through 12. Youth are welcome in worship and do not need to be members to participate. The program emphasizes friendships, service, hard questions, and faith in everyday life. The Sunday youth group meets in six-week series for dinner, games, conversation, and discussion of topics such as identity, belonging, faith, doubt, school, and the world around them.
Older youth help with Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, family events, the Christmas pageant, and other church celebrations. Each summer, the Caravan mission trip gathers students finishing eighth through twelfth grade for a week of service, learning, and shared experience. Fundraisers such as pancake breakfasts, car washes, bake sales, and Buy-A-Mile campaigns help keep participation accessible. Youth also join projects that serve local families, visit senior communities, assist with Vacation Bible School, and care for the church's grounds and environment.
Small Groups, Choirs, and Conversation
St. Andrew's Life Groups gather people in groups of four to 12 for friendship, faith, and subjects that vary from group to group. Some meet in person and others online, and additional short-term studies are offered during the year. The church's rhythms include Pizza & Theology, usually on the last Thursday from 6:00 to 7:30 PM, and Friday morning women's meditation from 9:30 to 10:30 AM. Graceful Aging, a women's group on Zoom, meets every second and fourth Friday from 2:00 to 3:15 PM. The Guys' Group gathers for friendly low-stakes poker every third Thursday from 6:00 to 7:30 PM, with winnings going to St. Andrew.
The St. Andrew Chorale rehearses on Wednesdays from 6:00 to 7:00 PM, followed by bell choir rehearsal from 7:00 to 8:00 PM. Music, conversation, and connection are recurring features of these gatherings. The youth series explicitly welcomes friends who are not members, while the weekly coffee after Sunday worship remains another regular meeting place.
Care Close to Home
St. Andrew's deacons describe their work as the church's caring arm. They provide practical day-to-day care, including home visits, prayer concerns, help for families in need, and a list of community resource contacts. Parish groups assign each family a deacon and create smaller communities within the congregation. The deacons also serve as a link among congregants, the pastor, and church staff, watching for where God is moving and how they can help.
Mission partners include Friends in Sonoma Helping, known locally as FISH, which receives clothing, food, funds, and service from St. Andrew. Congregants have worked in the clothing store and rung bells during December. Sonoma Overnight Support, or SOS, serves meals to people who are unhoused, hungry, or on limited income, and St. Andrew has made SOS a long-standing mission focus. The congregation also supports YoungLife, hosts riders and a dinner for the Presbytery of the Redwoods' Pedal for Protein ride, and directs that ride's proceeds to Northern California food pantries and an international hunger-relief project.
Once each year, “Don't Go to Church, Be the Church” sends volunteers from the church into the Sonoma Valley. They serve at public schools, nonprofits, and other community sites, turning the church's mission statement into a day of shared work.
Partnerships Beyond Sonoma
St. Andrew has supported mission work in Romania since the 1990s. It now partners with Pastor Florin and a local Baptist church that has planted five village churches. Their work includes spiritual development, resources that help children remain in school, a hot meal for children attending school, and the Bread Project. Each summer, a St. Andrew team runs Vacation Bible School for as many as 100 Roma children. Clothing, shoes, and school supplies are sent throughout the year, along with funding for the Bread Project.
In El Salvador, the church made an initial contribution of more than $35,000 after floods and earthquakes in 1998, helping provide medicine, supplies, and 54 dwelling units in Buenos Aires, a village of close to 1,000 people. St. Andrew committed to a long-term relationship rather than a single project. Successive work teams built a school and community center, donated the land for a second community center, added a school room, created a playground, basketball court, and mini soccer field, and supported an English-speaking program from kindergarten through sixth grade along with a bakery project. The partnership's long-term aim is to help village residents meet a wide range of needs and offer a model for other organizations seeking similar work.
Earth Care as a Practical Calling
The Green Team began in 2019 with a mission to be stewards of God's Earth, protect and restore the environment, and model sustainable practices. In March 2022, St. Andrew received Earth Care Congregation certification from the Presbyterian Church (USA), one of approximately 360 certified congregations among more than 8,000 Presbyterian congregations in the United States.
The church's environmental work is practical and visible. A dedicated solar system, installed in 2022, is expected to provide 100% of the church's electricity for 30 years. The Green Team added recycling, compost, and landfill bins throughout the campus and teaches the congregation what belongs in each. Ceramic mugs replaced disposable coffee service, saving more than 2,000 cups from landfill each year. A summer produce and flower exchange shares garden abundance and sends excess produce to Sonoma Overnight Support. Six Green Team volunteers clean one mile of Arnold Drive north of the church twice a year through Sonoma County's Adopt-a-Road program. The congregation also installed a barn owl box for rodent control and organizes a yearly community dump run for hazardous waste, electronics, concrete, and other discarded materials.
Earth Care also shapes worship and hospitality. After worship, coffee is served in reusable ceramic mugs, and youth carry Earth Care projects into service. The church's simple vision - connect with God, grow in community, and serve the world - is being practiced through energy, waste, transportation, food, and habitat work.
Open and Affirming, and More Light
St. Andrew warmly invites, welcomes, and affirms people who identify as LGBTQIA+, as well as anyone seeking to deepen a relationship with God. Its More Light statement names acceptance and affirmation as the church's practice and describes diversity as a reflection of God's creation. The congregation belongs to More Light Presbyterians and gaychurch.org, and explains its welcome this way: an affirming church does not view homosexuality in and of itself as sin and treats an LGBTQIA+ person no differently from anyone else seeking Christ.
As a More Light congregation, St. Andrew centers full participation by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual people in the life and ministry of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and society. Its theology begins with a God of abundance, calls the church to be “hope evangelists,” and holds that people are created in the image of a God whose possibilities and expansion are limitless. The church understands welcome as a path toward transformative inclusion in policies, leadership, worship, and life together.
Baptism, Communion, and Memorial Worship
Baptism is open to people of all ages. St. Andrew understands it as an outward sign of an invisible grace God has already given, which is why many infants are baptized and adults may also affirm that grace. Baptism normally takes place during Sunday worship. Communion, also known as the Lord's Supper and Eucharist, is generally celebrated on the first Sunday of each month. All people are welcome to receive bread and juice, and a gluten-free option is available. The church calls it the Table of Grace and emphasizes that what people share in Christ is greater than their differences.
St. Andrew also offers a Service of Witness to the Resurrection as a memorial service for anyone, whether or not they are a church member. The pastor works with each family to honor the person's life while respecting the family's understanding of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. The church facility is available for memorial services at no charge, although fees apply when ministry team members or musicians participate.
Pastor Nicole and the Continuing Chapter
The Rev. Nicole Caubisens came to St. Andrew after 11 years as a director of family ministry, a Master of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary, and service as pastor of St. Luke Presbyterian in San Rafael, where she was ordained and installed in 2015. She values connection above all and often begins with coffee and a conversation when meeting someone new. Her ministry team includes Stacey Schoeningh in mission and worship, Kaitlyn Tinder in children and youth, Barret Wilber in music ministry, the Rev. Jeffrey Gaines as parish associate, and Eileen Haflich as Green Team leader. Together they work alongside the Session, deacons, and congregation to carry St. Andrew's vision forward.
Caubisens often remembers Rich Gantenbein's legacy and says, “This is a unique community that continues to be a gift to me and so many others. I look forward to discovering with God and one another what the next chapter brings.” St. Andrew's next chapter remains rooted in a community built around worship, honest questions, belonging, service, and care for creation.