Born and raised in Southern California, Chris Muller-Tabanera is a proud Angeleno with deep roots in the city—his family first settled in North Hollywood when his grandparents immigrated to the U.S. A biracial native of L.A., Chris came to saving faith in Jesus during college through InterVarsity, where he discovered a passion to make Christ known across cultures and communities. Over the past decade, he has served in non-profit leadership within the anti-human trafficking movement while pursuing theological training, earning an M.Div. in Urban Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Seminary and currently working toward his Doctor of Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary. Chris is a gifted teacher, strategic leader, and cross-cultural minister, and together with his wife, Hope, and their two daughters, he is eager to follow God’s call into full-time pastoral ministry.

After a yearlong process of discernment, prayer, and spiritual direction, Chris sensed God’s unmistakable invitation to return home and plant a gospel-centered, multiethnic church on the west side of Los Angeles. For Chris, this calling is as much about proximity as it is about purpose—being near his aging parents, reconnecting with extended family, and living out his love for the city that shaped him. His heart beats for the beautiful collision of cultures that defines L.A.—the intersection of beach, urban, and entertainment life—and his vision is to cultivate a community that reflects that diversity: a biblically formed, grace-filled, and missionally engaged church devoted to whole-life discipleship and the renewal of Los Angeles through Jesus Christ.