Just off Taylor Road on the west side of Port Orange, a beige building with a covered walkway and a small sign invites neighbors, retirees, students, and visitors into a church that has quietly committed itself to one phrase: "Building real faith and passing it on." Port Orange Christian Church is a non-denominational, missions-oriented congregation that takes the Bible seriously, sings modern praise music on Sundays, hosts a smaller traditional service on Thursday mornings, and keeps a steady calendar of Bible studies, service groups, and outreach projects running through the week.
Building Real Faith and Passing It On
The phrase on the front of every brochure at Port Orange Christian Church is short enough to memorize. The church exists to help people connect with God, grow together in faith with other believers, and learn to serve and share that faith with the world. Pastors describe it as a three-step path: connect, grow, serve. Members are encouraged to move from a Sunday morning chair into a small group, and from a small group into a place of ministry where their faith is put to work.
The culture that supports that vision is laid out plainly on the About Us page. The church values truth over trend, authenticity over performance, relationship over results, excellence over perfection, relevance over tradition, creativity over complacency, and Christ above all else. It is also self-aware about the kind of person walking through the front door. "You never have to pretend to be someone that you are not," the welcome reads. "Just be yourself." First-time guests are greeted at the door with a smile and a handshake, and can expect a straightforward Bible-saturated sermon, contemporary songs that aim to glorify God, and a multimedia experience that supports the message rather than distracting from it.
Sunday Mornings and a Thursday Tradition
The weekend rhythm is built around two identical Sunday morning services at 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. in the main auditorium. Both hours feature modern worship and praise music combined with what the church calls "straightforward, challenging teaching from God's Word." The services are designed to pack a full hour of worship, prayer, and preaching, and nursery care is provided during both services for infants and toddlers. Children in preschool through fifth grade can be dropped off in Kids Beach during the 11:00 a.m. hour.
For those who prefer a quieter gathering, a Traditional Service meets on Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. in the same building. It draws a smaller, often older crowd and gives the church a second weekly opportunity to gather around the Lord's Table and hear preaching from the same biblical foundation. A monthly potluck lunch follows the Thursday service, which is one of the easier ways for newcomers to meet long-time members.
Sunday evenings belong to the students. The Grove meets from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. for middle and high schoolers, with a shared meal, games, and a time of worship. The name comes from the idea that a grove of trees survives storms because the trees stand next to each other; in the same way, students at The Grove are meant to be present for one another through grief, injury, and celebration.
Kids Beach: From Shoreline to Breakers
Children's ministry at Port Orange Christian Church is built around a beach metaphor and a simple mission statement: "Know Him, Show Him." Kids Beach runs every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. for preschool through fifth grade, with a clean and safe environment designed to feel like an extension of home.
The nursery is staffed during every main worship service for infants and toddlers. Parents who prefer to keep babies with them are welcome to do so; a quiet room off the foyer and changing stations in the nursery are available for anyone who needs to step out. For older children, the program is divided into two rooms. Shoreline serves pre-K and first graders and leans into play, story, coloring, and music. Breakers serves second through fifth graders and digs deeper into Scripture, giving the older kids room to take on small leadership roles among their peers. Volunteers, all members of the church, must be at least in high school, and anyone eighteen or older agrees to a background check.
Once a year, the Kids Beach philosophy spills out of the Sunday classrooms and into a Vacation Bible School that fills the building for a week of crafts, games, songs, and Bible lessons. The church also points families to Parent Cue, an online resource that helps parents follow up at home on what their children are learning.
The Lighthouse, The Grove, and the Pacesetters
Port Orange Christian Church treats its generational ministries as the backbone of its discipleship pipeline. The Grove on Sunday nights is the student ministry, and it carries a vision borrowed from 1 Corinthians 3:7: "neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." The goal is for students to keep growing toward Christ even as friend groups, schools, and seasons change.
The Lighthouse is the young adult ministry. It meets on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. for a Bible study, and the church also offers a Lighthouse Young Adult Service on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. The ministry describes itself as meeting young adults where they are, with a mission drawn from John 1:4-5 about the light shining in the darkness, and a vision drawn from Matthew 5:16 about letting that light shine before others. Young adults come from a wide variety of backgrounds, from lifelong churchgoers to people hearing the gospel for the first time, and the ministry is built to give everyone in the room a chance to belong.
At the other end of the age spectrum, Pacesetters is the 55-and-older fellowship. It meets at 12:00 noon on the first Thursday of each month at a rotating list of local restaurants, offering a casual lunch and easy conversation for retirees and empty-nesters in the church.
Small Groups All Over Town
The church's small group directory is the clearest picture of how Port Orange Christian Church lives out its week. Groups are organized by day and meet in a wide range of locations, including the church building itself, members' homes, the church cafe, and partner ministries around the city.
On Sunday mornings, an Adult Bible Study meets in the Church Office Classroom at 9:30 a.m., and a Student Ministry Bible Study for grades 6 through 12 meets at the same hour with the Next Gen Pastor. That evening, a service group heads out to Palmetto House, the largest temporary housing facility in Volusia and Flagler Counties, to support residents moving toward permanent housing.
On Tuesdays, a Ladies Bible Study meets at 10:00 a.m. in the Kids Beach Breakers Room, the PB&J Sandwich Ministry gathers at 4:00 p.m. every other week to make sandwiches for the homeless, and the Men's Bible Study meets on the last Tuesday of the month at 6:00 p.m. with dinner included.
On Thursdays, in addition to the traditional service and The Lighthouse, Pacesetters heads to a local restaurant at noon. On Saturdays, the Men's Breakfast meets at Bob Evans at 9:00 a.m. on the second Saturday of the month, and the Women's Breakfast meets at the church cafe at 9:30 a.m. on the same weekend. Other weekly touchpoints include a Christian-based 12 Step program for those working through addictions and a Hope Place service group that serves in Daytona Beach on the first Friday and on the fourth and fifth Tuesdays of each month.
Anyone with an idea for a new group - whether to host, lead, or simply suggest a topic - can fill out a short form on the Groups page, and a Small Groups Leader will follow up.
PB&J Sandwiches, Hope Place, and Palmetto House
Service is treated as an extension of the gospel at Port Orange Christian Church, not a separate program. The PB&J Sandwich Ministry meets every other Tuesday afternoon in the Kids Beach Breakers Room to make sandwiches for the homeless, and the church considers the time together as much a fellowship hour as a packing line. "What better way to show the love of Christ than helping in the ministry," the events page asks.
Hope Place, a ministry in Daytona Beach, and Palmetto House, the forty-eight-room temporary housing facility in Volusia and Flagler Counties, are two of the church's closest local partners. Both serve people working through homelessness, addiction, and unemployment, offering case management, counseling, life skills classes, GED preparation, and referrals to mental health and addiction services. Members of POCC serve alongside these ministries on a regular rotation, and small groups often adopt one of these partners as their service focus.
Sending Out Around the World
Local outreach is paired with a long-distance missions program that the church takes seriously. Port Orange Christian Church supports five long-standing mission efforts:
- Mid India Christian Mission, which works toward the holistic transformation of people through evangelism, education, and empowerment.
- Ray and Pam Trantham, who have lived and worked in Odessa, Ukraine since 1995, teaching at Odessa Theological Seminary to train national leaders for ministry.
- New Mission Systems International (NMSI), founded in 1989 by Jesse and Cynthia Frame to assist Russian pastors in planting churches and discipling new believers. NMSI missionaries have served in more than 39 countries.
- Palmetto House, the Daytona homeless-housing ministry described above.
- The American Indian Christian Mission, founded in 1969 to serve Native American communities through Vacation Bible Schools on the Navajo and Hopi reservations and a boarding school near Show Low, Arizona.
The church's missions philosophy is summarized in the line "Help us make a difference in this world." A Missions Team meets monthly in the Prayer Room, and anyone interested in global outreach is welcome to join.
What Port Orange Christian Church Believes
The doctrinal backbone of the church is laid out in detail on the What We Believe page. The church teaches that there is one God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and that the Bible is the inspired, error-free Word of God and the final authority for faith and life. Salvation is by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and the Bible's pattern for following Christ includes believing, repenting, confessing, and being baptized by immersion.
The church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, that God creates each person as male or female, that marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman, and that sexual intimacy is reserved for that union. The Church is described as a fellowship founded on the Day of Pentecost and organized into local assemblies, with elders serving as the overseers of each congregation's affairs. Members are expected to meet regularly for worship and the Lord's Supper, serve one another with their gifts, give financially, pursue holiness, and submit to the authority of the elders.
Membership itself is described in unusually welcoming terms. To join, a person must be a baptized believer who confesses faith in Jesus Christ and wants to partner with the congregation for mutual encouragement and accountability. Members are not required to agree with every doctrinal distinctive; they are asked to understand them and be willing to work in supportive ways.
The Pastoral Team
The staff of Port Orange Christian Church is small and intentionally close-knit. Jimmy Sledge serves as the Senior Minister and Lead Pastor, overseeing the overall direction of the church and preaching from the pulpit on Sundays. Chad Holmes serves as Executive Minister, supporting the leadership team and the day-to-day ministry of the congregation. Tyson Kuyper serves as the Next Gen Pastor, giving focused leadership to Kids Beach, The Grove, and the student ministry. The church is also accepting applications for a full-time Worship and Outreach Pastor to lead Sunday worship services and coordinate the church's evangelism and outreach ministries. The team works out of the office Monday through Thursday and gathers for a weekly staff meeting.
The front door of the church office is open during the week at 904 Taylor Rd, and the phone (386-322-9811) and email inbox (info@pocc.faith) are answered by people who know most of the regulars by name. Visitors are welcome to stop by, walk the halls, and pick up a coffee in the cafe before deciding whether to come back on Sunday.