06/03/2026
✨ COMMUNITY ✨
Tamar Knuth is a high school senior, ocean lover, surfer, and open water swimmer who finds joy in sunset beach walks, community, and being outdoors. Thoughtful and grounded, Tamar brings both curiosity and warmth to the Community Church of Sebastopol, where she has grown up surrounded by generations of people who helped shape her understanding of belonging, faith, and connection.
Like many young people raised in the church, Tamar’s early relationship with Community Church began as part of family life. Church was simply what her family did together. She remembers loving the music as a child and participating in programs like Godly Play, but for many years, church still felt more inherited than personal. “It was kind of a rule in our house that if you’re home, you go to church,” Tamar shares honestly.
Over time, however, relationships transformed her experience. When her close friend Sophia joined the church in third grade, Sundays began to feel different. “From then on,” Tamar recalls, “it was more like, ‘Oh, I get to go to church, because then I get to go see Sophia.’” Through friendships, confirmation class, church camp at Westminster Woods, and traditions like the annual apple pie fundraiser, church became more than a place to attend. It became a community she actively wanted to be part of.
Tamar also found belonging through the consistency and care of the people around her. She speaks warmly about sitting with members of the Bell family during services. “They’re always there,” Tamar says. “And they’re always happy to see me. They always just make room.” It is a kind of welcome that she feels deeply embodies Community Church itself.
As Tamar has grown older, the church has continued shaping not only her faith, but also the way she moves through the wider world. “I definitely think I realize how important community is from going to church,” Tamar reflects, “and I definitely seek it in other areas of my life.” Community Church’s open and thoughtful approach to faith has also expanded her understanding of people whose beliefs differ from her own. “Experiencing another person’s religion,” Tamar shares, “is something that is so powerful and beautiful. People believe differently than me, but they’re still people, and that’s a beautiful thing.”
In recent years, Tamar has also found herself increasingly drawn to the sermons and teachings themselves. “After each sermon,” Tamar says, “I try to take something from it and apply it to life.” She especially appreciates messages that encourage courage, reflection, and stepping into discomfort when it aligns with one’s values. Rather than experiencing faith as rigid or limiting, Tamar describes Community Church as a place that encourages openness, compassion, and thoughtful engagement with the world.
Tamar’s story is a reminder that the church’s impact is often built slowly and relationally, through friendships, traditions, shared experiences, and communities that consistently make room for people to belong. Through Community Church, Tamar has not only grown in faith, but also developed a deep appreciation for connection, curiosity, and the beauty of human difference. In investing in this church community, we invest in the shaping of young people who carry those values into the world around them.
Written by Reena Burton
