Shoreline Church stands at 10350 Ellis Avenue in Fountain Valley, California, and its Sunday rhythm is easy to plan around: Life Groups meet upstairs at 9:00 a.m., followed by worship at 10:30 in the main worship center. The congregation is known for worship that blends traditional hymns with modern music, for a multigenerational mix of ages and backgrounds, and for a campus that opens its doors to other churches and ministries through the Ministry Center.
A Legacy Church Rebuilding for Its Next Chapter
Shoreline describes itself as "a legacy church that is rich in history and rooted in generations of faithful service." At the same time, the church says it is in a season of rebuilding for the future, an effort to restore not just a building but a place of spiritual growth and discipleship. People with gifts and talents are being invited to join a rebuilding team and help bring new life to the church's next chapter.
That posture shows up in how Shoreline describes its Sunday gatherings: "Shoreline is a group of people whose lives have been transformed by God's love and grace." The same invitation to take part runs through the church's other work, from Life Groups to the Care Ministry, Shoreline Sports, the weekday preschool and the Ministry Center, each of which depends on people serving in concrete ways. Giving is available through the church's Give Online option.
Life Groups at Nine, Worship at Ten Thirty
Life Groups meet at 9:00 a.m. upstairs in the classrooms, in Building B on the campus map. Each hour is built around four things: fellowship, lifting up prayer requests, studying God's Word, and applying Scripture to daily life. Shoreline describes Life Groups as the place where people connect and grow with God and one another, loving, supporting, encouraging, praying, learning and serving together. The church asks interested visitors to speak with Senior Pastor Ryan Coiner about joining a group, and one group, the Journey Life Group, is taught by Ken Fox.
Worship follows at 10:30 a.m. and runs until 11:45 a.m. in the main worship center. The service is organized around worship through music, biblical teaching, giving and prayer. "Our worship service is not primarily about us, it is about God," Shoreline says. "Our first priority is to minister to God through worship. We want to celebrate and worship God for who He is and what He has done."
Come As You Are
Visitors often wonder about dress, and Shoreline has a straightforward answer: "Feel free to dress in whatever way you feel most comfortable." Most people dress casually, others dress up, and the range runs "from shorts and sandals, to coats and ties." What matters, the church says, is not what you wear but coming ready in the heart to meet with God and worship Him.
The people you will meet are described as a multigenerational church made up of people from all kinds of ages, races and backgrounds, united in their love for Jesus, His Word and each other. The church office is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and the church phone is (714) 968-4222, with separate numbers for the preschool at (714) 962-6886 and Shoreline Sports at (714) 319-2438. Visitors who want to stay connected can complete an online connection card.
Traditional Hymns and Modern Worship
The worship ministry's stated goal is "to be used by God to facilitate the worship of the church." Shoreline's music is described as "a blend of traditional hymns to modern worship music," and the team insists that every song aligns with Scripture because worship is not only about the songs but about what is being said to the God being worshiped.
The team is made up of volunteers serving as band members, singers, and sound and media techs, and the church says it will train newcomers in whatever area interests them. Worship Leader Daniel Monroe began leading worship in high school at Canyon Hills Community Church in Bothell, Washington, then earned a minor in music and a minor in Biblical Studies at Biola, where he led a worship band for five semesters. His aim for the ministry is to create an environment where people can freely worship and respond to the Lord.
The People Behind the Programs
Senior Pastor Ryan Coiner has more than a decade of ministry experience, including work in Idaho, Colorado, Texas and Germany. He is passionate about expository preaching and biblical literacy, and he came to ministry after a career as a professional soccer player. He holds a Master of Theological Studies from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and is pursuing a Master of Divinity in Apologetics from Southern Evangelical Seminary.
Other leaders carry distinct pieces of the church's work. Steven Herd started running Shoreline Sports in 2022 after playing in the leagues as a child, and he began co-leading the men's ministry in 2024 while continuing to coach youth league teams. Bob Garcia has led the senior adult ministry for eight years; he holds a master's degree in Educational Psychology from Cal State Long Beach, taught special education for 35 years, and has been a member of Shoreline for 50 years. Melly Toscano directs Shoreline Preschool and Infant Toddler Center and brings more than 30 years of early childhood education experience to the role. Richard Sickels leads the Care Ministry. Ken Fox, a member since 2008 and a small business owner for 22 years, serves as church administrator and facilities manager, teaches the Journey Life Group and is involved with Shoreline Sports.
The Care Ministry: Visits, Rides, Cards and Meals
The Care Ministry is "committed to serving God by caring for others in a wide variety of ways." Richard Sickels leads a group that helps the church body with visits, phone calls, cards, transportation and other services, coordinating its work with the deacons. The ministry works hand in hand with Life Groups, adding members who can help with:
- visiting shut-ins, people in the hospital, and those in long-term care
- driving people to church when they cannot drive themselves
- assisting the bereavement team with funerals
- providing meals to families who have gone through recent medical procedures
- sending cards to stay connected with people
Agebusters: Two Gatherings Each Month for Seniors
The Agebusters ministry is open to everyone who is "sixty years old or better." It offers fellowship, meaningful service, ministry projects, spiritual growth and excursions that challenge and energize, with the goal of helping seniors remain active and committed members of Shoreline. At least two activities happen each month. One is a regularly scheduled luncheon followed by a program, a guest speaker, a ministry report or another opportunity for growth and fellowship. The second is an excursion into the community, or a trip together to another city or state. The ministry also responds to practical needs as they arise.
Basketball Leagues and Open Gym Year-Round
Shoreline Sports runs a year-round program, Monday through Saturday, offering basketball leagues and open gym basketball. Sunday open gym is open to all ages, and Wednesday open gym is for players 40 and older. Youth leagues run alongside adult teams across the seasons. Steven Herd, who grew up playing in the leagues, now runs the program and coaches youth teams, leading the men's ministry alongside it.
Shoreline Preschool and Infant Toddler Center
Shoreline's weekday preschool is directed by Melly Toscano, who has spent more than three decades in early childhood education and holds an Associate of Arts degree in Early Childhood Development from Santa Ana College along with a Director Certification from Saddleback College, including certifications as an infant and toddler teacher, preschool teacher and early childhood administrator. She describes the goal as creating a loving, Christ-centered environment where every child feels seen, safe, valued and deeply loved by Jesus, treating the early years as a sacred time to nurture a child's mind, heart and spirit. "We are not just teaching ABCs, we're shaping hearts for eternity," she says. The preschool can be reached at (714) 962-6886.
A Campus That Makes Room for Other Ministries
The Shoreline campus is home to six other ministries and churches, including many multicultural churches, an international mission's ministry and a homeschool community. Shoreline calls itself Kingdom-minded and seeks partnerships with local ministries that want to rent space to further the gospel in Orange County and internationally. Ken Fox, the church's facilities manager, handles those rental partnerships, and the Ministry Center has become a way for the church's property to support ministry beyond its own walls.
What Shoreline Believes
Scripture and God
Shoreline's beliefs begin with the Bible, which it describes as written by divinely inspired people and as God's revelation of himself: a perfect treasure of divine instruction, without mixture of error, wholly true and trustworthy, the true center of Christian union and the supreme standard for human conduct, creeds and religious opinions. Scripture is, in the church's words, "a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation."
There is one and only one living and true God, an intelligent, spiritual and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver and Ruler of the universe, infinite in holiness, all-powerful and all-knowing, whose perfect knowledge extends to all things past, present and future. To him belongs the highest love, reverence and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct in person but without division of nature, essence or being. God the Father reigns with providential care over his universe and creatures. God the Son is the eternal Son, conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, who lived without sin, died on the cross for redemption, rose from the dead, ascended, and now sits exalted at God's right hand as the one mediator, fully God and fully man, and who will return in power and glory to judge the world and dwells in believers as the living Lord. God the Holy Spirit is fully divine; he inspired the Scriptures, enlightens the understanding, exalts Christ, convicts of sin, calls people to the Savior, effects regeneration, baptizes every believer into the body of Christ, cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, bestows spiritual gifts and seals believers to the day of final redemption.
People are described as a special creation in God's image, male and female, given freedom of choice, and as having fallen through temptation into sin, so that all are under condemnation and only God's grace can restore fellowship with him. "Every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love."
Salvation and the Church
Salvation is the redemption of the whole person, offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and it includes regeneration, justification, sanctification and glorification. "There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord." Regeneration is God's work of grace, a change of heart brought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin and answered by repentance and faith, with repentance a genuine turning from sin toward God and faith the acceptance of Christ along with commitment of the entire personality to him as Lord and Savior. Justification is full acquittal on the basis of God's righteousness, bringing the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God. Sanctification begins at regeneration and carries the believer toward moral and spiritual maturity, with growth in grace continuing throughout life. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and the final state of the redeemed.
The church also teaches that God has a gracious purpose of grace in election, that true believers endure to the end and never fall away from the state of grace, though believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation and so grieve the Spirit, but they are kept by God's power through faith unto salvation.
A New Testament church is described as an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by his laws and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes, and every member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. The scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service, "the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture." The church is also the body of Christ, made up of all the redeemed of all ages, from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.
Baptism is defined as the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, an act of obedience that symbolizes faith in a crucified, buried and risen Savior, death to sin, the burial of the old life and resurrection to walk in newness of life. As a church ordinance, it is a prerequisite for membership privileges and for the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience in which members, through the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate his second coming. The first day of the week is the Lord's Day, commemorating Christ's resurrection and marked by worship and spiritual devotion, public and private.
The Kingdom, Education and Public Life
The Kingdom of God includes God's general sovereignty over the universe and his particular kingship over those who willingly acknowledge him as King; it is the realm of salvation entered through trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ. Christians are to pray and labor for the kingdom to come and God's will to be done on earth, and its full consummation waits for Christ's return and the end of this age. God will bring the world to its end in his own time and way; Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory, the dead will be raised, Christ will judge all people in righteousness, the unrighteous will be consigned to hell and the righteous in resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and dwell forever with the Lord.
Evangelism and missions are called the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church, and missionary effort rests on the new birth's love for others. Every child of God is to seek to win the lost to Christ through verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods that harmonize with the gospel.
Education is treated as part of the Christian heritage, since the new birth opens human faculties and creates a thirst for knowledge, and Christian education should balance academic freedom with academic responsibility. Stewardship follows from the confession that God is the source of all blessings: Christians are to serve with their time, talents and material possessions for God's glory and the help of others, giving cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately and liberally.
Cooperation is encouraged through voluntary, advisory associations that hold no authority over one another or over the churches. New Testament unity is spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends, and cooperation between denominations is desirable when the goal is justified and involves no compromise of loyalty to Christ and his Word.
For society, Christians are to seek the will of Christ to be supreme in personal life and in human society, and improvement is lasting only when rooted in the regeneration of the individual by God's saving grace in Jesus Christ. In the spirit of Christ, they should oppose racism, greed, selfishness and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, and they should provide for the orphaned, needy, abused, aged, helpless and sick, speak on behalf of the unborn, and contend for the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. Christians are also to seek peace with all people on principles of righteousness and do what they can to end war, praying for the reign of the Prince of Peace. Religious liberty is affirmed: God alone is Lord of the conscience, church and state should be separate, no religious group should be favored by the state, and a free church in a free state is the Christian ideal. Finally, the family is named as the foundational institution of society, composed of persons related by marriage, blood or adoption, with marriage as the covenant union of one man and one woman for a lifetime and children, from conception, treated as a blessing and a heritage.
Following Christ and Talking with a Pastor
Shoreline's message to people turning toward faith begins with the claim that everyone was created for a relationship with God, and that this means being created "to know God, to love God, to obey God, to enjoy God, and to bring glory to God." But every person has sinned, and sin, described as anything done, thought or said that breaks the law of God, separates people from a perfect and holy God and earns his wrath and judgment, with hell as its eternal punishment.
The good news, the church says, is that God made a way for sin to be forgiven. Jesus lived the perfect life, never sinned, and was willingly executed on a cross for sin; God raised him from the dead three days later, conquering sin and death and proving once and for all that he is the Son of God and Savior of mankind. That leaves a choice: reject Jesus and bear the punishment of sin yourself, or turn away from sin and trust in Jesus, submitting life to him as Lord. Those who do are forgiven, have a relationship with God through Jesus, and will go to heaven when they die. Pastors are available for a personal conversation, and the church offers Coffee with a Pastor for those who want to talk it through.
Shoreline Church's week is wide: Life Groups and worship on Sunday mornings, a weekday preschool and infant toddler center, a senior ministry with monthly gatherings, basketball leagues and open gym, a care ministry that makes visits, drives and meals, and a Ministry Center that hosts six other ministries and churches on its campus. At 10350 Ellis Avenue in Fountain Valley, the church continues its work as a legacy congregation in a season of rebuilding, restoring a building and a place of spiritual growth and discipleship at the same time.