About us

My name is Eric and my wife and I were both saved at an early age (around 5). We've both grown up in homes where we had Christian parents - who raised us both with Biblical teaching. We both began to grow spiritually in our mid-teens, being convinced that Christ was worth it!

We met while volunteering at a Bible camp in Northern Minnesota, and were married 29 years ago. We have 4 full grown sons with two daughter-in-laws and one grandbaby!

In our 20s and 30s, we attended a local church that had very sound Biblical teaching as various preachers taught from the Word of God 2-3 times per week. This church was a part of the Plymouth Brethren assemblies movement. They don't like to have a name associated with it, but that is how others would describe it. During that time, we weekly participated in the Lord's Supper where brothers would take turns (even me as a young man) sharing a scripture about the Lord Jesus, corporately praying - leading the church in prayer - thanking Christ for His work on our behalf, and more. This was a precious time for us.

Since then, we have moved to Navarre, FL about four years ago. While here, we have been very involved with a church in Pensacola, FL. The struggle is that we have to drive 40+ minutes every Sunday morning and Wednesday night to stay involved. We've worked hard to be hospitable with believers, but find that it is not very effective to try to cultivate good relationships when we live so far away.

About 2 years ago, we began praying about finding or starting a church here in Navarre.

The Lord seems to be leading us to start a new simple church that follows New Testament principles obediently. This is not a popular option in the Christian culture currently. It seems like many believers are looking for an easy button when it comes to their walk with Christ. This simple church model is a lot of work, it requires commitment by each individual member, and it doesn't have the 'cool' factor that the lights and stages have. But we believe that Christ's best design for His church would be something like this. We don't claim to have it all figured out - in fact, we really want to wait until we meet 3-4 families and work together to prayerfully and Biblically plan out what this gathering of the church should be.

A typical church plant would involve a pastor going into a community, supported by another church in another location. This pastor would meet people, begin building a church, then become the senior pastor in charge of everything.

In the simple church plant, we are involved in going into a community to reach the lost and connect with believers. We are not supported by anyone (I have a full time job). As this simple church starts, it will not be Senior Pastor Eric in charge. Rather, it will be Eric and other responsible/qualified men of God who shepherd the church. It will be Chief Shepherd Jesus Christ in charge - we'll follow His lead.

Read through our content on this website and if you are interested in learning more, send us a message on the contact form. If it seems like something that you would be interested in possibly participating in, we would line up to meet you at a local Navarre coffee shop.

The term simple church is not associated with any organization or ministry. I'm sure there are a few other churches or church networks that are using this term. Our intent is to use words that describe the direction of this church plant.