Rushing Wind Ministries

San Diego Reader: What is your favorite topic on which to preach?

Pastor Z: The fact that Jesus loves and saves people like you and me. I am absolutely amazed that God would save someone like me. If I was God, I wouldn’t save me — I wouldn’t even use me. He used people like Moses, David, Peter, all these guys who were failures at one point in their lives. I am amazed that God not only loves us but wants to use us for his glory. I always tell people if anything good happens here, the glory goes to God and I take the mistakes. I’m smart enough to know that God is the one who orchestrates things — not me.

SDR: What is your main concern as a member of the clergy?

PZ: The saddest thing I see happening in a lot of churches is compromise. To try to stay politically correct or culturally correct, they’re willing to throw out a lot of what the word of God has to say about different issues. If people want to know more about what I mean here, they ought to show up at my church on a Sunday or Wednesday night. The bottom line is that there are a lot of things that are absolutes in the Bible that way too many churches are willing to compromise on. There are two absolutes in life — there’s only one God and you are not him.

SDR: Why did you become a minister?

PZ: I believe that God calls the people he wants to use. That boils down to anything from the guy who unlocks the door before the people get there on Sunday to the people who work in Sunday school to the people who are worship teams to senior and associate pastors. God calls people and gives them individual gifts and then uses the people he calls.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PZ: Both Rushing Wind and Bikers for Christ [are] reaching the unreached. I’m not interested in stealing Christians from other churches. The Bible says we need to go after the least, lost, and last in society. I feel I do that with some people in the biker community, because most pastors aren’t going to go chasing after those people. That’s my vision — the least, the lost, and the last. Most of the people churches wouldn’t want to attract.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PZ: The Bible says that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only name under heaven by which men and women can be saved. That’s not my opinion — that’s what the word of God says. So I do believe in a literal heaven and a literal hell. Before I became a Christian, I thought hell would be a big party where we all run around naked, getting stoned, and having a good time. The Bible says that hell is going to be a place of eternal torment, weeping, darkness, and gnashing of teeth. That doesn’t sound like any party I want to be at. In heaven, the Bible says there aren’t going to be any tears, pain, or sorrow.