On a single block in Jacksonville Beach, a few minutes' walk from the Atlantic, a congregation called Beach Church gathers twice on Sunday mornings around a quiet conviction. Lead Pastor Jerry Sweat sums it up plainly: "We exist to reach, raise up, and release followers of Jesus who change the world." In a town better known for sand and surf than for sanctuaries, the church has set out to be known for what it is for, not what it is against. "In a world where the church has been known for what it's against," the church says, "we want to be a church that is known by what we're FOR. We believe that God is FOR people, and as a movement we are for the beaches."
A Chapel Older Than the Strip
The heart of the campus is a small stone chapel built in 1937, the second oldest chapel in the beaches area. Its walls are made of coquina rock, composed of tiny seashells that were mined from beneath the water north of Daytona Beach. Original wooden beams, original pews, and stained-glass windows give the room the intimate feel of an old country church. That chapel still holds about 225 people and remains the venue for weddings hosted by the church, while the larger sanctuary next door hosts Sunday morning worship. The contrast, a 1930s chapel beside a modern worship center, says a lot about how Beach Church thinks of itself: rooted in something older than itself, while making room for new generations.
Two Sunday Mornings, Casual Dress, an Open Door
Sunday morning worship at Beach Church runs at 9:00 and 11:00 AM at the Jacksonville Beach campus, and the same two services stream online at the same times. Services last about seventy-five minutes and consist of singing, preaching, and community. Worship music is described as engaging, and the preaching as a relevant message about Jesus. The dress code is intentionally low-key: "We like to dress casual and comfortable."
Visitors are encouraged to arrive a few minutes early to hang out in the lobby. Parking is straightforward, with lots off of 7th Avenue North, 8th Avenue North, and 4th Avenue North, plus street parking along 7th Avenue North. Families with kids are asked to come ten to fifteen minutes early for check-in, and there is an online pre-registration form to save time on a first visit.
Sixth through twelfth graders are not pushed off to a side room. They are invited to worship in the main Worship Center with their families, sitting together in a designated section in the front left of the room at both services. Their own dedicated gathering happens on Wednesday nights.
BeachKids: Pelé, Promiseland, and The Ark Room
On Sunday mornings, the BeachKids ministry runs alongside both worship services, broken into three rooms. Pelé serves babies through pre-K and is built around three truths the church prays each preschool child will carry: God made me, God loves me, and Jesus wants to be my friend forever. The format is designed to create wonder in preschoolers as they see how much God loves them, with simple, fun life groups where belonging comes first.
Promiseland is for kindergarten through fifth grade, mixing large-group worship with small-group life group time. Its three core takeaways are: I need to make the wise choice, I can trust God no matter what, and I should treat others the way I want to be treated. Children experience worship and teaching in an environment designed to help them discover God's character.
The Ark Room is a third option for any child from pre-K through fifth grade. It is a safe, loving, supportive environment created to provide a calm space for kids who thrive in a smaller, sensory-friendly setting. The goal is to serve children of all abilities and create a space where they can participate at their own pace and connect with the Bible story in a way that is meaningful to them.
For families who cannot make it to campus, BeachKids Online posts a weekly video-based worship experience with separate preschool and elementary tracks. Families are encouraged to watch together and close the time by praying.
Beach Students on Wednesday Nights
Beach Students, the church's middle and high school ministry for sixth through twelfth graders, meets Wednesday nights from 6:15 to 8:30 PM in the Worship Center. The night is called United, a student-led gathering that mixes hang-out time, worship, and a teaching message designed to bring God's Word to life. The middle school version of this gathering is called The MDDL.
After the large-group portion, students break into Life Groups by gender and grade, led by caring adult leaders. In these small groups, they work through Scripture, discuss how it connects to everyday life, and support one another through highs and lows. Adult leaders, many of whom are young adults themselves, walk alongside students for the long haul, often staying with the same group year after year.
Twice a year the ministry takes its biggest trip, Epworth, a weekend retreat that fills the calendar with worship, teaching, Life Group time, a silent disco, Tribe Wars, games, and late-night memories. Students can serve on Wednesday nights too, both as peer leaders and as production volunteers.
Life Groups: Doing Life Together
The church believes no one is meant to do life alone. Life Groups are small groups of eight to twelve people, usually in similar stages of life, who meet weekly to build friendships, have fun, and encourage one another in faith. Groups are organized in two semesters each year, February through May and August through December, and the best time to join is at the start of a semester. The church keeps a directory of open groups and helps place newcomers into the one that best fits their schedule and season of life.
For those who want to take a step further, Life Group leaders guide others toward Jesus by facilitating conversation, hosting, and walking with their group over time. Resources for current leaders include a Leader Covenant, training materials, and recommended reading drawn from books like Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, Practicing the Way, Confident Leader, and Hero Maker.
The Discipleship Journey
Life groups and Sunday messages are tied together through a tool called the Discipleship Journey, released each week in three pieces. Message Scriptures point to the passages studied in the weekend message and encourage group discussion. The Journal is written by members of the church and offers deeper insight into the week's themes, useful for catching up on a missed Sunday. Weekly Thought Questions are designed to provoke reflection and to give Life Groups a built-in discussion guide. The journey also includes optional daily devotionals from Pastor Jerry, who writes a Monday-through-Friday email series tied to the week's text.
Care: Prayer, Counselors, and Stephen Ministers
Beach Church takes care seriously, organizing its care work under a single Care Ministry that reaches people in three ways: care opportunities, care groups, and care events.
A weekly prayer team prays over requests submitted online or written down at the prayer station on Sunday mornings. A Care Team, with members trained through Stephen Ministry, an internationally recognized caregiving program, offers one-on-one listening, encouragement, and prayer to anyone walking through a difficult season. The church maintains a referral list of recommended Christian counselors for those who need professional help, and points to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline for anyone in immediate crisis.
Twice a year the church runs GriefShare, a thirteen-week grief recovery support group, and DivorceCare, a thirteen-week group for those working through the end of a marriage. Registrations open in January and August. For anyone who has been told they have a kind and caring heart, Care Team Training is offered periodically, with specific skills to help people face life's hardest moments.
The Care Ministry also hosts weddings in the chapel and funerals or memorial services in the chapel or sanctuary for members and their families.
The Early Learning Center
Beach Church has run a licensed early childhood program on its campus for more than sixty years. The Beach Church Early Learning Center, licensed by the Florida Department of Children and Families, serves children ages three months through four years old (Voluntary Prekindergarten) in a Christ-centered environment at 334 8th Avenue North, across the street from the main church building.
Beginning in August 2026, the ELC is expanding to welcome infants as young as three months old. The program offers age-appropriate curriculum, academic development, and a teaching staff whose stated goal is for children to know Jesus. Schedules vary by age, with part-day morning options running 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM and full-day options running 7:30 AM to 5:15 PM, two, three, or five days a week. VPK follows the standard 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM state-funded day, with optional wrap-around care to 1:00 PM and full-day care to 5:15 PM. Tours are offered Tuesday through Thursday mornings.
Serve: From the Parking Lot to the World
Beach Church describes serving as one of its five core pursuits, and it organizes opportunities in three buckets. Locally, volunteers staff Connections roles: greeting guests, parking cars, helping newcomers take their next steps, and hosting special events. They serve in BeachKids and Beach Students as life group leaders, worship leaders, storytellers, and on tech, prep, and check-in teams. They sing and play in the worship band, run cameras and lights with the Production team, design graphics and run social media on the Communications team, or work behind the scenes with Front Lines Ministry on rapid-response efforts like cold-night shelters, ramps for veterans, hurricane relief, and practical needs inside the congregation. Security, Facilities and Groundskeeping, and a Front-of-House Sago Coffee shop round out the menu.
Local partnerships extend the church's reach beyond its walls. Mission House is Jacksonville Beach's only day center for individuals facing homelessness. BEAM, Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry, serves low-income residents across the beaches. Hart Felt Ministries helps seniors age in place with dignity. Rising Tide runs a Saturday-morning Sidewalk Sunday School for kids in the Portside community of East Jacksonville. First Coast Women's Services empowers women facing unplanned pregnancies. Beaches Community Kitchen prepares and delivers home-cooked meals to homebound seniors. All Nations Soccer uses the game to restore, unify, and empower people of all nations in the community.
Globally, the church supports three missionary families. The Leavelle-Anderson family, whose work began at Beach Church on the BeachKids staff, now serves in Birmingham, England, partnering with a local church to reach university students and young adults. Michael and Sarah Young are with YWAM Detroit, focused on discipleship, biblical training, and gospel-centered hospitality in the city. Tyler and Hannah Liv Workman founded Okoa Refuge in 2008 in Masaka, Uganda, a ministry to orphaned and vulnerable children that has grown into church planting, Bible studies, victim care, meals, healthcare, and agricultural training.
Greater Things: The 2026 - 2029 Vision
The current season at Beach Church is shaped by a vision called Greater Things, which runs through 2029. The premise is simple: "So many people today are living lost, wandering, or stuck in survival mode - unable to imagine that their lives were created for lasting purpose and significance." Greater Things is the church's answer, a call to step off the sidelines and into God's bigger story.
The vision breaks into three movements. Reach Your One invites every believer to identify the one person God has placed in their life who does not yet know Jesus and to start that relationship. Empowering Disciples helps each person find their unique place in God's mission through service and spiritual gift discovery. Culture of Mentorship calls seasoned believers to walk alongside the next generation of world changers.
To support the journey, the church offers a free SHAPE assessment to help people identify how God has wired them, and a Discipleship Trip to Costa Rica each summer that emphasizes being with God before doing for God.
The Internship Program
Vocational ministry training is built into the life of the church through an eleven-month internship running September through July. Interns choose a focus track from Lead or Campus Pastor, Worship/Tech Ministry, BeachKids, Discipleship, Beach Students, Communications, or Operations. Each week includes one-on-one time with a pastor, a theology book study within the Wesleyan tradition, hands-on ministry, and a week-long Detroit Discipleship Trip with YWAM Detroit that focuses on engaging with Black and Muslim communities. The internship is unpaid, but housing is provided just three blocks from the beach.
What Beach Church Believes
The church's core beliefs are rooted in classical Christian orthodoxy. Beach Church teaches that God is the Creator and sovereign Ruler of the Universe, existing eternally in three co-equal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, who lived a sinless life, died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sin, rose again on the third day, ascended to heaven, and will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Holy Spirit is fully God, present in the world to make people aware of their need for Jesus, living in every believer from the moment of salvation, and empowering them to live a life that points others to Christ.
The Bible is described as God's eternal Word to humanity, written under the supernatural inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the supreme source of truth and the authoritative guide for life. Humanity is made in the image of God and is the supreme object of God's creation, though every person is affected by sin, which separates people from God. Salvation is a gift, made available through Jesus Christ, received by repentance and faith, not by self-improvement or good works, though becoming more like Jesus is a lifelong, Spirit-empowered process.
The church affirms that people are created to exist forever, that eternal life comes only through a relationship with Jesus, and that salvation is received and sustained by God's grace and power, not by human effort. The church also affirms God's sovereignty alongside the gift of free will: God does not determine human actions, but has given people the freedom to accept or reject Jesus.
Around that theological center, Beach Church builds its five core values. The church aims to be Focused, with hope in Jesus alone. It aims to be Relational, doing life together. It aims to be Servants, loving and helping others with no strings attached. It aims to be Fun, enjoying life. And it aims to be Accepting, loving everyone just as they are.
Giving, Weddings, and Sago Coffee
Generosity is described as an act of worship. Online giving is available through the church's giving platform, and gifts of stock can be directed through the Florida United Methodist Foundation. For anyone curious but not yet ready to give, the church offers a 90 Day Tithe Challenge built on Malachi 3:10, with a written promise that if you tithe for three months and do not see how your giving has led to God's blessings, the finance team will refund 100 percent of your tithe, no questions asked.
Weddings can be held in the historic 1937 chapel, and the church's pastors are available, schedule permitting, for off-campus weddings for an additional fee. Funerals and memorial services, framed as hope-filled Celebrations of Life, are hosted in the chapel or sanctuary for church families who have lost a loved one.
On campus, Sago Coffee is a small front-of-house coffee shop run by the church, a casual place to grab a drink before service or to linger in the lobby.
What to Know Before You Visit
Beach Church sits a short walk from the ocean at 325 7th Avenue North in Jacksonville Beach. Sunday services run at 9:00 and 11:00 AM in person, with both services streamed online at the same times. Services are about seventy-five minutes long, dress is casual, and kids from birth through fifth grade have their own programs at both hours, including a sensory-friendly option. Middle and high school students worship with their families on Sunday mornings and gather for their own program on Wednesday nights. Parking is available on three streets around the campus, and families with children can pre-register online to save time at check-in.
Whether someone is exploring Christianity for the first time, looking for a church home on the beaches, or just visiting for the weekend, Beach Church invites them to come as they are. As the church puts it: "We'd love to get to know you."