New La Jolla Lutheran Church pastor preaches ‘Holy Spirit-driven’ revival

Long before La Jolla Lutheran Church’s new pastor, Jeff Tally, began his tenure earlier this year, he was practicing for the pulpit.

From the time he was two years old growing up in Oceanside and Vista, Tally said, he would preach to a congregation of stuffed animals.

“I kind of knew I was gonna be in ministry,” Tally said. “It’s been on me since a very early age.”

And while religion had long played a pivotal role in his life, but before switching to a faith-based career, he majored in psychology and German language at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. It was there that Tally said he had the feeling that the psychology path wasn’t was God wanted for him. Still, it wasn’t until he had what Tally calls “a God experience” at the university’s newly minted chapel and 24/7 prayer room that he made the jump to ministry.

“Every night I’d go in there and quite often pray through the night, just asking God, ‘if not this, then … what?,’” he recalled.

His answer, he says, came in the form of a vision of him preaching to his stuffed animal audience at home. When he called his parents to tell them about it — and his plan to pursue ministry — their response was, “it’s about time.”

His pastoral journey led him to many different places, from Japan (where he spent three years doing missionary work) to northern California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah. Most of the churches he served, Tally says, tended to be smaller or in need of reinvigoration. From his experience, he’s been able to bring them back over time.

“I’ve learned to be very open to going and moving where the Holy Spirit tells me to, and really listening for God to speak and trying to be obedient immediately — not just pushing against it,” Tally said. In scripture, the Holy Spirit was heavily involved in guiding the life of Jesus Christ. Thus, Tally said for people, “the Holy Spirit should be the driver of everything … in the same way (it was for) Jesus.”

Tally’s journey to La Jolla was motivated by that same trust. Having spent decades away from Southern California and eight years after he became a senior pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Utah, he felt a beckoning to return home.

“At that time, I started looking for open calls, all the way from the (U.S./Mexico) border to Orange County basically … and I was particularly looking for a church that would be at least open to the activity of the Holy Spirit,” Tally recalled. “And the only place I could find at that time that was open was La Jolla Lutheran Church.”

His first go in 2024 didn’t yield a head pastor position, as La Jolla Lutheran Church brought in Rev. Mike Anderson aboard. But after Anderson departed in September following a recall to active duty as a U.S. Navy and Marine Corps chaplain, another opening was created. In the meantime Dan Hill stepped in as interim pastor.

While Tally was “really far along” in talks with a Japanese church in Anaheim when an opening became available in La Jolla, he was flown out to meet with La Jolla Lutheran Church leadership. It didn’t take long for him to see La Jolla as a fit for him and his family.

“We pulled into … this little parking lot here at the church, my wife (Tess) and I stepped out of the car. And it was like the air had changed,” Tally recalled. “We knew that the Holy Spirit was doing this.”

Since making his first appearance at the church as a preacher on July 6 and formally beginning his tenure in September, Tally says he’s led services in a fashion that’s “Holy Spirit-driven” and moving at a pace where people are “stretched but not broken.”

Noting the church’s 80-year history, Tally explained, “Change is really hard for people, especially Lutherans and especially people who have been around for a long, long time. So it’s very important to have the Holy Spirit’s help with all of this stuff.”

He also sees the potential of a revival of spirituality in Southern California along the same lines of what he saw in Utah.

“I have the sense that something like that is coming back to Southern California. And I think that’s part of the reason that I’m here,” Tally said. “So I’ve been preaching revival a lot. My messages tend to be very loving, but getting people ready for the work that God’s getting us ready to do for that revival.”

Away from his work, Tally’s hobbies include singing, playing guitar and martial arts, which he hopes to start teaching again. Tess Tally is a professional singer and actress, and they have two daughters, Claire and Heather.

La Jolla Lutheran opened May 20, 1945, with services held originally in a mortuary before it broke ground on the current location at 7111 La Jolla Blvd. in 1947. Learn more at lajollalutheranchurch.com.

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