Original Core Group Bible Study
Our History- No Joke?
What do you get when God brings together two Catholics, a Jew, three Agnostics, a New Ager, a Materialist, and four Bible-thumping Evangelicals in the same group? No, this isn't a bad joke! It's the story of how God started South Shore Community Church.
In April 1993, a group of couples--with roughly the background described above--started meeting to examine the claims of Jesus Christ. God touched each life in that group in a very personal way, and within six months, everyone in the group committed their life to Christ.
As significant as the weekly Bible Studies were to the group, an even more fundamental event was occuring. Most every Friday night, all the families would meet at the beach just to spend time together. This forging of friendships formed a foundation upon which God continues to build His church. The group experienced a richness of community like never before. They were what we call "doing life together," and it felt good!
One evening, a group member asked the question, "Are we a church?" The immediate answer was, "Of course not. We're just a small group." But God prompted some in the people in the group to pray about that question. After months of seeking God's direction, it became quite clear that this was no ordinary group. God was at work!
The Scriptures, the Holy Spirit and circumstances were all pointing to the formation of a new church family. The group was estatic that doing life together would now transition into doing a ministry together! But what kind of church would it be? Who would they attract? What would they call themselves? Why was God starting this church? All of these questions would be answered in time, but their first response was to obey this calling from the Lord.
From it's inception, God determined that South Shore Community Church would be a body that reached out with the love of Christ to those who did not normally "do church." For two months, the young church met in a home on Wednesday nights for worship. As God continued to draw people to South Shore, it became apparent that the church was growing beyond what could be accommodated in a home. So in February of 1994, South Shore Community Church started meeting at Pine View School for Sunday morning services. For six years, South Shore steadily grew while at Pine View, and a true community was born. God carefully nurtured the fellowship as word spread about this different style of church that met each Sunday in a school.
However, in time, circumstances changed and the South Shore body needed a new place to meet. Due to a threatened lawsuit against the Sarasota County School System by the ACLU, South Shore was forced to look for a new church home. So with hearts opened to the leading of God, South Shore took a leap of faith and started seeking a new meeting place--no matter what it looked like. In what has proven to be true to form, God's leading started to take South Shore in a non-traditional direction as the search committee began to consider the options available within the community. In February of 2000, South Shore Community Church took the bold step of having one service on Saturday nights at the First Church of the Nazarene.
For most people, church takes place on Sunday. But for South Shore, God was asking us to look outside of our own traditional comfort zones to discover His truths. So with much prayer and commitment, the family of South Shore embraced this change and started gathering at a new time and new location! The Saturday night format opened up unique opportunities to reach people in unexpected ways and created a different appeal for people in the community who were seeking something different.
From October 2004 through December 2008, God again asked this body to trust His calling and led us to a new meeting place -- Sarasota Alliance Church, Still using the Saturday night format, the church easily moved into a new setting and served the community from our Bee Ridge home.
On March 16, 2008, God led South Shore through another surprising change. The Gateway Community Church on Tuttle Avenue merged wiith South Shore and became South Shore's "Tuttle Campus." Soon thereafter, in December 2008, South Shore left our friends at Sarasota Alliance Church on Bee Ridge and moved all of our ministry activites to our home campus on Tuttle and Hyde Park. We now offer services on both Saturday night and Sunday morning. With each transition, God has led new people to the flock and continues to strengthen this family as we grow together in faith.
Every Saturday night, South Shore comes together (at 1899 S. Tuttle Avenue, just south of Bahia Vista St. and north of Webber St) at 5:30 and 7:00pm to worship and learn more about Jesus. On Sundays, we come together at 10:40 a.m. From our unusual beginning to our unusual weekly format, and our multi-site strategy, South Shore is a place where the unexpected joys and sorrows in life coincide with the promises recorded in the Bible. It is a safe place to discover God's heart and to find fellowship with people who are living in and around our community.