Co-Founder & Spiritual Director

School Pastor | Bible Educator | Student Mentor

Pastor Adam Riojas is the Co-Founder and Spiritual Director of Freedom Generation Higher Education and the Founder and Senior Pastor of At The Cross Oceanside, the church and ministry home where Freedom Generation operates today.

With nearly 40 years of pastoral ministry and care, Adam has devoted much of his life to preaching and teaching God's Word, discipling believers, counseling individuals and families, developing leaders, mentoring the next generation, and walking alongside people through both the celebrations and difficult seasons of life.

For Adam, ministry has never simply been a profession or something confined to Sunday mornings. It has been his life's calling.

Throughout nearly four decades of ministry, he has seen firsthand that people need more than biblical information—they need pastors and leaders willing to genuinely walk with them. His ministry has included biblical teaching, pastoral care, prayer, discipleship, marriage and family support, outreach, leadership development, and countless conversations with people navigating real life and real faith.

Those years have given Adam a perspective that cannot simply be learned from a textbook. He understands that knowing Scripture matters, but so does learning how to live it when life becomes difficult. Faithfulness matters. Integrity matters. Perseverance matters. Forgiveness matters. How we treat people matters. And who we are when no one is watching matters.

That conviction became part of the foundation of At The Cross Oceanside, the church Adam founded and continues to lead as Senior Pastor. His desire has always been for the church to be more than a building people enter once a week. He believes the Church should be present in people's lives—a place where families find community, people receive prayer and encouragement, believers grow in their knowledge of Scripture, ministries serve those in need, and people are continually pointed toward Jesus Christ.

That same heart played an important role in what would eventually become Freedom Generation.

During the uncertainty and disruption of 2020, Adam remained committed to keeping the church available for ministry and standing in the gap for people who needed prayer, fellowship, biblical truth, encouragement, and community. As families began searching for alternatives for their children's education, the doors that had remained open for ministry also became a place where families could gather, children could learn, and a new educational vision could begin taking shape.

Today, Adam serves Freedom Generation as its Spiritual Director, School Pastor, Bible educator, and student mentor, helping guard the biblical foundation of the school and ensuring that Christ remains at the center of its mission.

His role is much more than ceremonial. Adam teaches Scripture, mentors students, supports families, and brings nearly four decades of pastoral wisdom into the everyday life of the school. He wants students to understand that Christianity isn't simply another subject on their schedule.

Biblical truth should shape the way they think, work, lead, treat others, understand the world, and ultimately live their lives.

Adam especially believes young people must eventually move beyond simply repeating the faith of their parents. They need to know what they believe, why they believe it, and how to stand firmly in biblical truth when the culture around them tells them something different.

At the same time, he believes knowledge without character is incomplete.

Academic achievement matters. College and career preparation matter. But nearly 40 years of pastoral care have shown Adam that a successful résumé cannot substitute for a faithful life.

He wants Freedom Generation students to understand the importance of integrity, personal responsibility, humility, hard work, honoring their father and mother, keeping their word, serving others, and doing what is right even when nobody is watching.

“Faith isn't meant to exist only inside the walls of a church. God's Word should shape how we live, how we treat people, how we work, how we lead our families, and who we are when no one else is watching.”

Adam also brings a practical, entrepreneurial perspective to his ministry and mentorship. For many years, he owned and operated his own handyman business, giving him firsthand experience in skilled trades, craftsmanship, business ownership, customer relationships, problem-solving, and the value of honest work. Alongside his wife, Cleta, he also helped establish Bistro at the Pier, their Oceanside coffee business serving locals and visitors.

Those experiences have reinforced his belief that there is dignity in honest work and purpose in using the abilities God gives us well.

Not every student's future will look the same. One may become a pastor, another an engineer. Some may become entrepreneurs, physicians, educators, craftsmen, artists, tradesmen, business owners, parents, or community leaders. Adam believes success isn't found in forcing every student toward the same destination. It is found in helping young people develop the faith, character, wisdom, work ethic, and courage necessary to faithfully pursue whatever God calls them to do.

At the center of Adam's life is also his family. Together with Cleta, he has built a life around faith, marriage, raising their children, ministry, entrepreneurship, and serving others. They share a deep conviction that parents have been given the primary responsibility for raising and discipling their children and that Christian educators have the privilege of coming alongside families in that calling.

That belief shapes the way Adam mentors students. He points them back toward Christ, but he also points them back toward their families—encouraging them to honor their parents, respect God-given authority, take responsibility for their choices, serve rather than expect to be served, and become young men and women worthy of trust.

After nearly four decades in pastoral ministry, Adam's heart remains firmly fixed on the next generation.

He wants to see young men and women become strong in faith without becoming arrogant, courageous without losing compassion, knowledgeable without losing humility, and bold enough to stand for truth without being ashamed of Jesus Christ.

For Adam, the goal of Freedom Generation isn't simply to produce academically successful students.

It is to help raise future Christian leaders—young men and women grounded in Scripture, equipped to think with wisdom and discernment, prepared to work with excellence, willing to serve others, and courageous enough to carry biblical truth into their families, churches, careers, communities, and wherever God sends them.

After nearly 40 years of ministry, the calling that drives Pastor Adam remains remarkably simple:

Teach God's Word faithfully. Love people well. Strengthen families. Disciple the next generation. And use whatever God places in his hands to point people toward Jesus Christ.

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