Four Years Later
Shoreline Church just celebrated its fourth anniversary. We have a special service planned soon! We’ve come a long way in those four years and I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some of our growth.
One Church, Many Locations
We love being portable and in the market place. When people in our area refer to Shoreline Church, they recognize us as ”Church in a…” – for example, ”Church at the Rave,” Church in a Bar,” “Church in a Coffee Shop,” etc. We have used this marketing plan on all of our road signs advertising our many locations and it has “branded” us in our area.
Because Destin is a resort town, we strategically use our culture to reach those who are unchurched. That’s one of the reasons we’ve used local establishments as church sites, knowing this is where many people spend their free time after work or hanging out on the beach. This is especially true for those who work in the service (tourist) industry – beach attendants, charter boat crews, water sport businesses, waiters/waitress, bartenders, etc. While our main full-service site holds 2 Sunday morning services in the Rave Motion Pictures Theaters, our microsites are held at a variety of popular venues scattered through the community.
After one successful tourist season in 2008 with McGuire’s Church in a Bar, we are starting our second season April 14, 2009. With Sunday being the busiest day for the locals working in the tourist industry and for the tourists alike, an off night such as Tuesday is a great night to try out church. This microsite features a full band, although they play more secular than worship songs because of the clientele. The message, which is the same as Sunday morning, is given live by one of our pastors. The restaurant is a local favorite and the food is fabulous, so it’s great for their business as most everyone orders from the menu while they attend the service.
Late last year we started Church at PJ’s Coffee Shop on 30-A in Blue Mountain Beach. This microsite features acoustic worship and typically shows Sunday morning’s message via video. Last Sunday, we completely filled up the entire coffee shop!
In January of this year, we started a monthly Night of Worship at Fudpucker’s, a very popular local restaurant. This hour-long worship service is held on the first Wednesday of every month and includes worship, prayer time, and communion. Families come early to share a meal before the service begins. Again, this is a benefit not only to those who attend, but it’s a blessing to the restaurant to get so much business. The owner of the restaurant has a daughter who attends and is very involved in our church. He definitely recognizes our innovative ways of “having church.” He’s not a church goer, but as one of the most well-respected and innovative restaurateurs in our area, he is suggesting new ways to partner with us! We are hoping to expand the possibilities with him this year.
Our most recent addition is several hours from Destin. Matt and Sandi Metcalfe, who led our children’s ministry for three and a half years, moved to Guntersville, Alabama, to be closer to their families. Together with another former Shoreline family, they are starting a microsite there. While still in its beginning stages, we’re hoping to see them grow and expand.
This spring, we’re offering 46 Life Groups. From Shoreline’s beginning, Life Groups have been part of our culture. Most of our members and attendees regularly go to one or two Life Groups. It doesn’t take long for visitors to know about our Life Groups and the involvement has been infectious thanks to an incredible Life Group Coordinator.
In early January 2009, we heard about a family with four children who lost their home and everything in it in a fire. Shoreline jumped at the opportunity to help the family. Within 24 hours, Shoreliners had donated enough furniture and household items to furnish the family’s new home, raised enough money to pay their deposit on a rental, and provided a new wardrobe for each family member. This act of kindness and generosity made two local newspapers.
At the end of February 2009, Shoreline held its second annual Serve Day. This Serve Day included ten community projects where we personally impacted families and organizations with great needs.
In January 2009, Shoreline sent out our first full-time missionary. Michaela Partin relocated to Hawaii with Surfing the Nations and is preparing for her next mission to Indonesia. This style of missions is also a reflection of our local surfing culture.
Along with some coaching relationships we have through ARC, we are actively coaching and supporting three recent church plants in Florida: Grow Life Church in Tampa, Mosaic in Crestview, and Faith City in Merritt Island.
We’ve had so many great testimonies the past year! One family at our church included a Jewish husband with a Christian wife. He never liked church, but found that Shoreline was different from what he thought church was like. Over time, he grew to love the church and gave his life to Christ. When his friends ask how and why he changed, they want to try our church. But because they already attend somewhere else, he tells them they already have a church and that our church is for people like him. In other words, he “gets” our strategy!
We’ve heard several other stories from people who didn’t like church, but were invited to our church by friends. Although hesitant at first, they now call Shoreline their church home.
We’ve had good steady growth and we are praying about another full service video site. We are grateful for the opportunity that God has given us through ARC and our sending church, East Coast Christian Center!
