By Pastor Gene McIntrye

A Bible-Based Church That Started in a Living Room

Our church didn’t start with a stage, a spotlight, or a launch team. It started with a burp cloth over my shoulder and crayons scattered across the coffee table.

Faith, Family, and a Simple Yes to God

Our baby boy JC was three months old then—milk-drunk and sleepy, always needing to be held. Our daughter was five—curious, bright, and forever singing her heart out and spelling words…oh how she loved to spell! She also loved her brand new baby brother and making pretend forts out of couch cushions. It was just the four of us: my husband, our son, our daughter, and me. And on a quiet evening, with the dishwasher humming and the sun sliding down our blinds, we did the only thing we knew to do.

We asked God to help us.

A Spirit-Led Church Born in Ordinary Moments

We didn’t have a strategy deck or a logo. We had a living room. We didn’t have a platform. We had a prayer. We told God, “If You’re in this, we’ll say yes. If You build it, we’ll be faithful. As long as you don’t leave us, we won’t abandon this mission.”
And that was it. That’s how our Bible-based, Spirit-led church in Sarasota began—right there, not with applause but with a whisper.

The Early Days of Worship, Scripture, and Community

Those first “services” looked like bedtime routines and bottle warmings mixed with worship. We read Scripture over the baby monitor’s soft static and sang off-key while our daughter twirled in her socks. We shared communion with whatever we had, and we learned that holiness can sit hidden in ordinary moments: a hand on a small shoulder, a whispered amen after a long day, a quiet courage to believe God could do something with very little.

From One Family to a Growing Christian Community

Soon, a friend asked if they could join us. Then a neighbor. Folding chairs followed. I remember that first night when we ran out of cups and everyone shared mugs that didn’t match—polka dots next to chipped white porcelain—and I thought, This is what family feels like.
There wasn’t a program to impress anyone. There was only God’s presence. We opened our Bibles, our doors, and our lives.

Learning That Church Is a People, Not a Place

It wasn’t tidy. Children fussed. Toddlers learned to pray with sentences that veered into giggles. Some weeks we felt strong; other weeks we wondered if we were in over our heads. But every time we said, “God, help us,” He did. He met us in Scripture and in conversations that stretched late into the night. He showed up when a friend donated exactly the amount we needed for modest sound equipment. He showed up when we were offered a free building in a difficult neighborhood. He showed up and gave us courage when we walked the streets of that neighborhood as we reached out to new friends.
And whenever we felt discouraged, He showed up. Again, and again, and again.

A Non-Denominational Church Growing Through Faithfulness

We learned that church isn’t a place you go; it’s a people you become. It’s not measured by how many show up but by how deeply we show up for one another. It’s babies being rocked in the back while someone reads from the Psalms. It’s a five-year-old passing out napkins like she’s serving at a banquet. It’s husbands and wives, singles and seniors, doubters and dreamers, sitting knee-to-knee and telling the truth. It’s repentance and forgiveness, tears and laughter, needs spoken aloud and needs quietly met.

Seventeen Years of God’s Faithfulness in Sarasota

It has been seventeen years and, as we have faced the ups and downs of life, we keep returning to that first prayer. We weren’t trying to build something impressive; we were trying to be obedient.

Today, our hearts remain soft and our hands open, ready for what is next.
We need more space—our Sarasota Christian community is growing.
God is going to make a way.
We need more help—God is going to draw friends like you.

We don’t get it right every time—but we have the Right One in our midst.
We are the church. His church.

Leadership Shaped by Suffering, Scripture, and Obedience

I look back on those first months and see God’s mercy and kindness on everything. Pastor John and I were so ill-prepared to pastor, but God used us anyway.

In 2021, when John passed unexpectedly, I was not ready to take on the senior leader role, but God said “go,” and with my sister Pastor Lacey’s support and our faithful army of young leaders, we keep on going. God has used every limitation to teach us, to grow us, to stretch us.
We are still changing the world.
Our world.
👉 See what God is doing now:

Our Living-Room DNA Still Shapes Us Today

Today, wherever we gather and however we grow, we carry that living-room DNA with us. We greet each person like they belong at the table—because they do. We expect God to meet us in simple obedience. We make room for children to lead us with their unfiltered wonder. And we keep praying the prayer that started it all: God, help us.

A Sarasota Church Built on Repentance, Scripture & Community

That’s the origin story of our non-denominational, interdenominational church in Sarasota, serving Bradenton and Palmetto, focused on Scripture, repentance, worship, and Christian community.
👉 Learn more about who we are:

Not glamorous, not grand. Just a young family, a quiet house, and an honest yes. Repentance. Friendship. Scripture. Families binding together. Homes full of prayer. It did not start on a stage or a platform. God only needed our living room and our willingness.

Will Your Living Room Be Next?

👉 Reach out to us anytime

                                                                                            Psalm 127:1
“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”