A Mother Church on Scotland Street
First Presbyterian Church of Dunedin sits on the corner of Scotland Street and Highland Avenue in downtown Dunedin, Florida, where it has anchored the spiritual and civic life of the town since 1926. It is the city's oldest continuous congregation, and its members helped shape Dunedin itself. The first City Manager and several early City Commissioners came from its pews. Long before the village was named "Dunedin," Presbyterian worship was already underway here, and the church has planted or given rise to several other Presbyterian congregations in Pinellas County. Today it draws a diverse, multigenerational crowd to two very different Sunday services, all built around a vision of "Jesus' Beloved Community."
A Congregation Older Than the Town
The congregation traces its story to May 31, 1868, when Rev. Joseph Brown of Rockbridge County, Virginia, stepped off a schooner at the foot of Main Street and immediately held Sabbath services. He arrived fourteen years before the village would be named Dunedin and thirty-one years before it was incorporated as a town. For three years Brown preached and conducted missionary work from a small log schoolhouse at what is now the corner of Main Street and New York Avenue. In April 1871, with enough settlers gathered, he organized them into a body called Bethesda Presbyterian.
Five years later the congregation began building its own sanctuary on land near Jerry Lake, three miles east of the waterfront. A young Virginian named William Andrews had been killed in a freak accident, and his father offered $200 toward the new building if the church would rename itself in his son's memory. The congregation agreed, and Andrews Memorial Presbyterian Church dedicated the new building in December 1878. A small cemetery laid out next to the church survives as the present-day Dunedin Cemetery.
As the population drifted toward the coast, the church followed it. In 1888 a new sanctuary rose at the corner of Scotland Street and Highland Avenue in the Early Florida Victorian style, complete with a vaulted ceiling, a circular stained glass window, and a 1,000-pound bell cast that same year and gifted by Cornelia Skinner Holly. That bell still rings over downtown. By 1926, the congregation had again outgrown its building. Long-time members L.B. and Mary Skinner funded an expansive new sanctuary in the Mediterranean Revival style, and the church took the name it still carries: First Presbyterian Church of Dunedin.
The 1888 Victorian building was rolled south on the property and renamed Andrews Memorial Chapel. In 1970 the congregation gave it to the newly formed Dunedin Historical Society, which moved it to the entrance of Hammock Park, where it has been carefully restored, placed on the National Register of Historic Buildings, and now hosts weddings, memorial services, and community events as the second-oldest structure in the city.
The congregation has also served as the mother church of newer Presbyterian bodies in the region, including St. Andrews Presbyterian of Dunedin, Northwood Presbyterian of Clearwater, and Palm Harbor Presbyterian.
Two Services, Two Styles
First Presbyterian offers two Sunday gatherings that share the same vision but feel quite different from one another.
Worship Café begins at 8:45 a.m. and is the congregation's contemporary offering. Dress is casual. The music is led by a worship band, and the atmosphere is conversational. The church describes it as a place for "skeptics, believers, veterans, rookies, the passionate, the cynics, and the burned out, who seek to know and follow Jesus Christ." Coffee is on. The Café band is one of the musical ensembles the new Director of Music will supervise.
At 10:30 a.m. the Sanctuary Service fills the renovated 1926 sanctuary. This service is lectionary-based, with spirited congregational hymn singing, a Sanctuary Choir in the loft, and accompaniment from a 19-rank Reuter pipe organ and a Steinway piano. Members say the regulars are quick to greet newcomers, and the service is highly participatory. Children are welcome and encouraged at both services.
The two services also illustrate the church's wider music program. In addition to the Sanctuary Choir and the Worship Café band, the Director of Music oversees vocal and bell choirs and is expected to take music beyond the church walls and into the wider community through concerts and special programs. Both services are recorded and posted to the church's YouTube channel, where recent Sundays are available for replay.
Music as Ministry
Music is treated as central to the church's identity rather than ornamental. The Sanctuary Choir sings from the loft facing the pews at the 10:30 service, supported by the historic Reuter organ and Steinway piano. The Worship Café band leads the 8:45 contemporary gathering. There are also bell choirs, and the church periodically hosts community concerts.
The church is currently hiring a Director of Music for Congregation and Community, a full-time position paying $75,000 to $85,000 annually, with benefits including ten paid holidays, 50% employer-paid medical coverage, a fully funded HSA, retirement matching up to $100 per month, and a relocation allowance. The role calls for a creative leader who can shape worship across both services and carry music into the neighborhood as an act of community-building. Two part-time Nursery Worker positions ($15 to $20 per hour, four-hour Sunday commitment) are also open.
Learning in the Round
The congregation sees small groups as the heart of formation. Several ongoing groups meet under the Small Groups banner. Dialogues is the congregation's discussion-oriented gathering. Foundations in Faith offers structured teaching. Searchers is a long-standing study group. The Video Club screens and discusses films through a faith lens. Together these groups reflect a conviction: that within the larger church, small groups are where members learn, act, and care for one another.
The church also fields a Hospitality team that handles greeting and welcome at the Worship Café, and a Sanctuary Choir with its own leadership.
A Wide Net of Mission Partnerships
Service to the surrounding area runs through a long list of partnerships coordinated under the Missions umbrella. Bethel Farmworker Ministry supports agricultural workers in the region. Clothes-To-Kids provides clothing for schoolchildren in need. The Dunedin Cares Food Bank addresses local hunger. The Greening of the Church initiative works to heal the local environment and grow food on church land. The Homeless Empowerment Project and Pinellas Hope reach people experiencing homelessness. Pack-a-Snack provides weekend food for children who rely on school meals. Joy Rides offers transportation for neighbors who might otherwise be isolated.
The church also maintains a Care ministry. First Samaritans offers outreach to members and neighbors in difficult seasons, and prayer requests go directly to the pastor.
Children, Families, and a Working Nursery
Children are explicitly welcomed and encouraged at both Sunday services. Two part-time Nursery Workers are currently being hired to care for infants and young children during worship, with paid four-hour Sunday shifts and additional hours possible for special events. The nursery worker role requires applicants eighteen or older, experienced with children ages zero to six, comfortable with basic first aid, and willing to complete a background screening. Parents who want their children beside them in the pew are equally welcome; the church simply wants both options available.
What to Expect on Your First Sunday
Visitors arriving at 455 Scotland Street will find a large on-site parking lot with seventy spaces, including five designated handicap spaces, accessible from Highland Avenue on the south side of the church. Both Sunday services follow the same pattern of welcome and worship but in very different musical keys. Dress is casual for the 8:45 Worship Café and ranges from casual to traditional at the 10:30 Sanctuary Service. Members are quick to introduce themselves. The sanctuary itself is a Mediterranean Revival building from 1926, with the original 1888 Andrews Memorial Chapel standing nearby as a separately managed historic site.
Prayer requests can be submitted online; they are received confidentially by Rev. Dr. David K. Shelor and answered personally. Online giving is set up through the church's Church Center page, and a recurring newsletter is available by subscription.
Stated Values and Vision
The congregation's vision statement reads, "Communities of support that seek Jesus' Beloved Community." The church organizes that vision around four headings: Who, Where, What, and How.
Under Who, the church describes itself as welcoming spiritual seekers wherever they are on their journey, committed to calling forth the gifts of every person, and actively seeking out neighbors whose lives differ from the mainstream.
Under Where, the church begins with its neighbors in Dunedin, tends God's physical creation by growing food on its own land and working to heal the local environment, and partners globally with those who suffer most.
Under What, the church holds Jesus and his way, as found in Scripture, at its center; values deepening relationships over spiritual consumerism; reaches out to the world more than seeking to attract a crowd; and integrates faith, knowledge, and action.
Under How, the church centers its spiritual life on simplicity and Sabbath rest, values the courage to innovate and adapt, trusts small groups as the primary space for formation, and commits to honest self-examination.
Leadership
Rev. Dr. David K. Shelor is the congregation's installed minister, having been called and installed on Palm Sunday 2016. Under his leadership the congregation honors its long legacy while continuing to reimagine what a downtown Presbyterian church can be in the twenty-first century. The church's current worship planning is shared between the pastor, the Worship Planning Team, and the soon-to-be-hired Director of Music.