Real Life Stories
Eric & Darlene Partin - Shoreline Church
Destin, FL
Shoreline Church launched in February 2005 with 210 people attending our first service. We started off in a conference room at a local hotel. That worked out okay until spring break hit. Tourists filled the parking lot, not our church. By late April, our congregation had shrunk to 35 attendees!
We started looking for a new location and were incredibly blessed to have a movie theater in Destin agree to allow church services in their building. This isn’t just any theater… this is THE theater (Rave Motion Pictures) in THE most popular shopping complex within 30 miles! We’re now known as “Church at the Rave,” a name that has brought many non-church attendees visiting out of curiosity – and staying!
Surprisingly, our one and only service was comparatively early – 9:00 a.m. Despite that fact, we had over 400+ at our Christmas 2006 service and 450+ at our Easter 2007 service. As our monthly average continued to grow, we knew in our hearts that a second, later service was needed. In June 2007, our second service time (10:30 a.m.) officially started and new attendees gradually made their way in.
Now, in September 2007, we’re averaging 350+ people in our Sunday morning services. In addition, we have over 30 life groups per semester with weekly participation averaging about 1/3 of our Sunday morning attendance. Our goal is that by next summer, life group participation will grow from 1/3 to 2/3.
Shoreline Church has hosted other churches that are in the planting process. If you are thinking about planting a church or are already in the process of doing so, we encourage you to visit us. We’d love to meet with you, mentor you, and give you a behind-the-scenes look at how we accomplish what we do. Give us a call at (850) 650-8658.
God is doing amazing things in this beautiful part of the country. Partnering with ARC has helped us accomplish the dream God put in our hearts. We are thrilled to be part of something so much bigger and better than what we imagined!