What is Salty Sheep?

We are the playful, passionate, & colorful sheep who aren’t afraid to wander from the flock.

  • Our Mission:    ‘Embracing RECREATION as a means of breaking thru the social, economic, and Faith barriers that divide our community..
  • We value:  All of you and the uniquely beautiful gifts that you add to the community.
  • We believe:  that there is not one ‘right’ spiritual path, and instead we strive to learn from, empower and support each individual’s unique faith journeys of each individual without proselytization.  So, though rooted in christianity, we like to focus on what unites us, not what divides us! So all are welcome to join in all of our fun and fellowship

What does Salty Sheep do?

  • We Celebrate unity through diversity (because we believe that oneness is far from sameness!) and because of that our community is filled with a full spectrum of amazingg people
  • Move beyond the blind acceptance of “second hand religious” rituals, rules, and practices of the past… and seek out the omniscient in passionate and personally relevant ways
  • Cultivate authentic community unrestricted by labels of homelessness, disability, faith affiliation, gender, age, race, etc… 
  • Laugh at ourselves (life and religion are far too important to be taken seriously!)
  • Have fun!   Be it a surf, sail, hike, boardgame, ski-trip, etc… As the late Plato wrote, ‘we grow more through an hour of play than a life of study and conversation.’

Enough reading… let us show you what we mean!

Pastor Ryan Althaus

I’ve never been a particularly “churchy” guy (that may be the understatement of the year.)   So several years back, while attending seminary, I decided to heed my call and venture away from the stained glass sanctuaries of an ecclesiastical society and seek out the deeper meaning of Worship.  I stopped seeing “Church” as a place and instead embraced it as a people.   I grew weary of trying to understand and explain God and started seeking new means of experiencing and knowing Him.        

Salty Sheep Ministries, with its belief that the best means of spiritual growth come when we are able to match our passion and playfulness with relevant faith teachings and fellowship, was the answer.  In our particular community that passion is rooted recreation and the salty sea.

Yes, this is a Christian group; however, one that embraces doubt and doesn’t fear questions, so we welcome and grow through our interactions with the full diversity of religious traditions and because of that we do not push any one belief on others because we don’t claim to have he faith thing all figured out!  Recreation has the unique ability to break down Spiritual Barriers that we have constructed over the millennia and it allows us to experience God in wholeness rather than limit God through names and labels. 

We hold strong to the core belief that worshiping and/or knowing God is only possible through our experiencing God, and as a community we understand that does not always happen in a church pew!

Our program is fully inclusive and lifts up our uniqueness as individuals.  Following the Indonesian philosophy of “unification through Diversification,” we embrace the various views and experiences that each of us bring to the table because we all grow and learn through one another.  Furthermore, our individuality demonstrates the need for each person to seek and develop their own personal, and indeed “unique,” relationship with God.
Our services and outreach opportunities aid in this by providing safe places to grow, relevant worship, and mission opportunities that facilitate the development of each individual who exists amongst a community of individuals with similar passions of which to explore through fellowship.  Salty Sheep helps to make religion not only relevant, but fun, emphasized through our motto of “re-Creation through Recreation,” and we truly believe that play is an essential component of spiritual growth. 

              -Pastor Ryan Althaus

  Food for thought:

I wonder when…

…I wonder when,
in the course of the Christian experience,
we decided that church,
that worship,
meant sitting still?
When did we decide that faith
was a passive experience?

If you believe that worship is movement,
in the acting out of our faith
through a mixture of service and play,
then maybe you are a
Sweaty (now Salty) Sheep.

If you connect with God
through laughter and activity,
through sailing into the sunset as well as sitting in a pew,

…if your understanding of ‘baptism’ is the crest of a crashing wave
then maybe you are a
Sweaty Sheep.

If you believe that God is bigger than a name and calls us
to squeeze every ounce out of life,
smell every flower,
and dance every chance we get,
then maybe you are a
Sweaty Sheep.

We invite you to join the flock and be part of a
spiritual MOVEMENT,
through which we actually MOVE.

There is a certain fellowship built through sweat, through play, some healthy competition, and a celebrated diversity. We embrace the Christian faith, but without neglecting the beautiful wisdom of all faith traditions…

We believe that no one tradition has things all figured out and we pursue the path of a guy who turned water to wine, hung out withbthe homeless, and called out the hypocrites!  A friend who shone with a rich and nondiscriminatory love, who stepped out of boats onto the water, and knew how to find meaning in this life (though giving his so we could live ours…

We believe theres a difference in being alive and living life.   We chose the latter!

Lucia Capocchione states:

“Play keeps us vital and alive. It gives us an enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable. Without it, life just doesn’t taste good.”

FAQ

Is Salty Sheep a church? What denomination?
Yes, Sweaty Sheep is a validated ministry of the Presbyterian Church USA church. A church isn’t a building, but a group of people who have been called by God for a purpose. Salty Sheep is supported by the Presbytery of San Jose; however, we partner with a variety of churches and denominations and thus do not put a denominational label on our community.  No matter what denomination or religion you belong to -or if you don’t belong to any at all- you’re welcome here!

How do I get involved?
Check us out on Facebook and look out for upcoming Salty Sheep events and spiritually uplifting sailing excursions!

Does Sweaty Sheep have a central location?
The world is our playground…      We have launched Salty Sheep Santa Cruz (and would love your participation in its formation). In Louisville we work alongside of St. Vincent DePaul with our runPossible holes running program and our monthly services are often in Cherokee park.  Keep up to date on both programs via Facebook:  Louisville and California