Jonathan (Jono) Nunez: The Ministry of Presence
Director, Executive Producer, Photos and Words By: Gabriel Richardson Director of Photography and Edit By: Chase Viken Let Known | May 2026
Jonathan Nunez: Ministry of Presence
THE MINISTRY OF PRESENCE Jonathan Nunez on Surf, Skate, and Ministry Beyond Church Walls
It’s not a formula, it’s overflow.
Jonathan (Jono) Nunez (28) lives the kind of life most people would call a dream.
Surf breaks.
Skate parks.
Taco shops and coffee shops.
But for Jono, those places aren’t just a lifestyle. They’re ministry. It’s between a surf session and burritos that something deeper is happening. People feel seen.
Jono works with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, leading surf and skate ministry throughout North County San Diego. But his path into this work didn’t start with a clear calling or a strategic plan. In fact, the first time he ever attended FCA in high school, he didn’t like it.
“It was a bunch of sports guys,” he laughs.
“I remember thinking… yeah, I probably won’t come back.”
Years later, he found himself working in a surf and skate brand warehouse after college, content with where life was heading. Ministry wasn’t on his radar. Then came a phone call.
A friend of a friend kept insisting he reach out to someone involved with FCA for a potential job opening.
“Finally, I called the guy just to stop him from asking,” Jono says.
But that call changed everything. The man on the phone didn’t pitch a job. He asked a question.
“What’s your story?”
Jono explained that he had grown up in church, but his experience in church had felt distant.
“It felt kind of surface level,” he says.
“Like checking boxes. I didn’t really have deep connections.”
That changed when he went to a small surf ministry Bible study under the pier in Oceanside. There was no stage, no lights, and no pressure. Just surfers. Real people who loved the ocean and loved Jesus.
“It was the first time I saw faith as something woven into real life.”
That moment stayed with him. Years later, Jono realized that everywhere he served, one type of kid kept showing up. The kid who doesn’t quite fit in. The kid who isn’t walking into church.
“That’s the kid I always knew how to talk to.”
So he said yes to the FCA position to lead the surf and skate ministry in North County San Diego. He didn’t build a program. He built trust, and he showed up. Through skating and surfing, relationships formed naturally. It wasn’t a formula. It was something God had been forming all along.
“You show up to the same skate park every day, and eventually everyone knows each other.”
“The same with surfing. Some guys have surfed the same spot for 50 years.”
Many of the people Jono meets would never walk into a church. But they will show up at the skate park. They will paddle out. So that’s where Jono goes.
“It’s a culture where trust matters,” he says. “You have to earn it.” And that takes time.
Today, Jono oversees thirteen small groups across the surf and skate community in North County San Diego. Six of them he leads personally. But the model is simple.
Surf together.
Eat together.
Read scripture together.
Pray together.
That’s it.
“We usually surf for an hour or two,” he says.
“Then we go get food and sit down.”
And that’s where it happens.
“What are you grateful for?”
“What are you struggling with?”
Slowly, over time, people open up. Because presence builds trust. And trust creates space for transformation. Jono has seen it firsthand in Mikey.
Mikey first showed up to one of Jono’s bible study for the skating and the boba tea afterward.
The Bible study felt strange, but Mikey kept coming week after week. For more than two years. And then, unexpectedly, something shifted. Mikey came across evangelical videos on social media inviting him to pray. And he did. Over and over.
“It totally gripped him,” Jono says.
Months later, on a surf trip in Mexico, Mikey turned to Jono and said:
“I have to do this Jesus thing. I don’t even know why. But I know I have to.”
They prayed right there by the ocean. No manufactured moment. Today, Mikey is leading one of those thirteen bible studies and interning with FCA.
“It’s crazy,” Jono says.
“I planted seeds, but God did the work.”
That truth has become the foundation of his faith. God is the one moving.
“Man makes his plans, but the Lord directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).
Jono made plans. But looking back, it’s clear: God was always the one establishing his steps. With his students, friends, his wife, and even the outcast…
When Jono reflects on his own story, one memory rises to the surface.
Feeling unseen, unsure, and wanting to belong. But occasionally, someone would step in to slow down, listen, and genuinely care.
“That meant everything,” he says.
And now, that’s what he offers. Because sometimes the most powerful thing you can give someone… is simply to show up. This is the ministry of presence.
He sees himself in the kids he walks with. And he knows what it meant when someone made space for him. So now, he does the same. Trusting that somewhere in the ordinary surf sessions, skate parks, and late-night conversations, God is doing something extraordinary.
You can support Jono and his ministry HERE
