WHO

Jason Hayes, Pastor

Jason and Carrie Hayes have been married 10 years and are the very proud parents to their sons, Hayden, Henley, and Hyatt. Jason is a native of West Knoxville. Carrie is from South Carolina but moved to Knoxville to attend the University of Tennessee. It was there where Jason and Carrie met and began their lives together.

After spending the last 7 years in Nashville, Jason and Carrie have recently become increasingly attune to God’s call back to Knoxville. Per His prompting in 2011, they began exploring the possibility of starting a new church. As they sought the Lord, He clearly opened doors they could not dismiss.

Jason holds a Master of Divinity from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he most recently served as the National Young Adult Ministry Specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. Jason’s primary role was to serve as a speaker, church consultant, and writer. Jason has spoken at churches, conferences, camps, retreats, university chapels, and various other venues around the country. He is the author of Blemished and Follow Me. He is also the co-author of Lost and Found, featuring research cited in news outlets such as USA Today and CNN.

Prior to coming to LifeWay, Jason served at Long Hollow Baptist Church in north Nashville with a focus on teaching and spiritual growth. In addition, Jason led in the design of creative environments and in the worship planning process. Long Hollow is a wonderful church that has experienced tremendous growth and life-change over the last several years. Jason and Carrie have remained active leaders at Long Hollow even while Jason was serving in his role at LifeWay.

Before leaving Knoxville, Jason served as the Minister to Students at First Baptist Concord in Knoxville, Tennessee. He also gained early, valuable ministry experience through positions at Second Baptist Church, Griffin, Georgia, and Youth Ministry Resources, Inc.

Jason and Carrie love raising their boys, hanging out with friends and family, and being outside. They both love the Church and believe it is the vehicle that God has ordained to spread His love and fame to the ends of the earth.

NAME

Our goal in naming Shoreline was to find a name that was geographically inclusive while not overly limiting. In addition, we wanted something that would be accessible and welcoming to people of all ages and church backgrounds. Most importantly, we wanted something that spoke to our purpose as a church.

Some of Jesus’ most significant ministry took place on or near the shoreline. Our prayer is that Shoreline will be a church that experiences Jesus in a similar way. We also know that historically the shoreline has served as hub of activity and refreshment for communities around the world. Again, our goal for Shoreline is to be a source of life, renewal, and intimate encounters with God.

Our branding is a work in progress, but we feel great about it thus far. The water drop in the logo is an obvious reference to water. Hopefully, it becomes a clear, simple icon that we can use to represent all that’s been described above. Names and logos don’t change lives. Jesus does. But, we do believe the visual branding of Shoreline embodies our mission and vision.

KNOXVILLE

Knoxville’s roots run deep and strong. The city has served as the hub of the region since its founding in 1791. The best of its Appalachian heritage remains today — a strong work ethic, a family-centered community, and an intense respect for the natural beauty that envelopes the region.

The metropolitan Knoxville area was recently ranked the “best place to live in the United States and Canada” among cities with a population of fewer than 1 million. The ranking came from the Millennium edition of Places Rated Almanac. The results confirmed what most in this area have known for a long time — Knoxville is one of the best cities in the country!

The state’s 3rd largest city, Knoxville is the home of the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee. Knoxville is also home to the headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority, as well as the corporate headquarters of several national and regional companies. As one of the largest cities in the Appalachian region, Knoxville has positioned itself in recent years as a repository of Appalachian culture, and is one of the gateways to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

As for why we are starting this church in Knoxville, we believe it offers a natural and significant opportunity for Kingdom impact. Although in the South, there is still a large population of unchurched individuals in Knoxville. In addition, we’re blessed with a strong support network of friends and family in the area. We’re excited about joining together with other churches to reach Knoxville and the world for Christ.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoxville,_Tennessee (Wikipedia)http://www.ci.knoxville.tn.us/newcomers/ (Official city of Knoxville website)

We’ve worked hard to study the west Knoxville area in order to assess the greatest need and opportunity for impact. We feel confident the area designated above is where we need to be. For those familiar with West Knoxville, you’ll recognize the epicenter of our target area as the intersection of Northshore Drive and Pellissippi Parkway.

This area is flourishing with commercial development such as Northshore Town Center. In addition, the construction of a new elementary school and several new neighborhoods will only cause this booming area to keep growing. Of course, our target area naturally connects to our name. We believe that God will draw people from all along Northshore Drive, Pellissippi Parkway, and beyond. And, in most cases, there is water and shoreline very near these various pockets of our community.

We are actively exploring our options related to a meeting facility within our target area. We are confident the Lord will provide the right place at the right time. Our core group will meet in homes around the area through the spring and summer as planned. Our need for a larger facility will be to accommodate our monthly worship gatherings in the summer and then our move to weekly services and programming in the fall.

* Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2010 Data. Esri forecasts for 2011 and 2016. Info provided by North American Mission Board.

Church Membership

The Association of Religious Data Archives reveals in their latest report (2000) that 145,0901 of Knox County’s 382,032 people were considered unclaimed by any religious group. Assuming national trends, this number is most likely significantly higher at this time. 23,922 of those 145,091 were affiliated with non-Protestant denominations. In addition, these numbers are based on membership as opposed to active participation. Thus, we would approximate that 50% of our community is not connected to a local church.

10-Mile Radius

Median Age - 37

2011 2016

Population 273,913 289,122

Households 111,657 117,747

Families 71,957 75,125

Occupied Housing Units 111,658 117,747

TARGET AREA

MISSION AND VISION

Our mission is to plant Shoreline Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, through the proclamation of the gospel, for the salvation of the lost and the building up of the body of Christ, resulting in significant impact in our area and beyond.

We’re committed to remaining focused toward certain core values. Some of these include:

A commitment to teaching and application of the Bible.

A commitment to prayer and fasting.

A commitment to moving members into ongoing small groups.

A commitment to streamlined, effective programming.

A commitment to vertical, Christ-centered worship.

A commitment to marriages and families.

A commitment to developing leaders in the church and marketplace.

A commitment to loving and serving each other and our community.

A commitment to intentional and relational evangelism.

A commitment to mission work across the globe.

While we affirm that many historic doctrinal positions are argumentative and non-essential, a church can only be a church if foundational positions are taken on the essentials. While much more could be said, listed below are summaries of what we believe.

ABOUT THE BIBLE. The Bible is God’s Word, or His communication with us. It is inspired by Him, and is fully authoritative and without error. We can trust it in every circumstance and situation.

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:15-17, 2 Peter 1:19-21

ABOUT GOD. . God has always existed in perfect power and holiness. He is Creator of the universe, and He rules over every aspect of creation still today. He exists in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Scripture: Genesis 1, Deuteronomy 6:4

ABOUT JESUS CHRIST. Jesus Christ is God’s Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He is fully God and fully man. He lived a perfect life, died on a cross, and after three days, He defeated sin and death and rose from the grave. He will return one day to rule and reign.

Scripture: John 1:1-18, Colossians 1:13-22

ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He works in the world to make all people understand their need for Jesus Christ, and He indwells every believer from the time of salvation. He empowers Christians to live a supernatural life.

Scripture: Genesis 1:2, Acts 1:8, Ephesians 1:13-14

ABOUT SALVATION. Because of our sinful nature, the Bible teaches that man cannot enter into heaven no matter how good of a life he may have lived. Jesus Christ came to earth to take the punishment for the sin of all mankind, and our only hope for salvation is faith in the truth that Jesus died for our sin and made a way for us to gain the righteousness it takes to enter heaven.

Scripture: Genesis 3, Romans 3:10-23, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-9

ABOUT THE CHURCH. The Bible teaches that the church is the body of Christ in the world today. A local church is made up of baptized followers of Jesus Christ. The church should live out the mission of Christ as His body.

Scripture: Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 2:41-47, Colossians 1:8, 1 Peter 5:1-5

ABOUT BAPTISM. Baptism is an act of obedience for every believer. We practice baptism by immersion, symbolizing the imagery of salvation through Jesus – that our old selves have been crucified and buried, and that we now live a new life by the power of His resurrection.

Scripture: Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:9, Romans 6:3-4, Colossians 2:12

WHAT WE BELIEVE

VISITATION AND PREP – JANUARY – MARCH 2012

We’re focusing our current efforts on three specific areas.

First and foremost, we’re seeking the Lord in an effort to be as spiritually prepared as possible. We’re digging into the Word, praying diligently, and seeking as much godly counsel as possible.

Secondly, we’re focusing much energy on relationships. God has already entrusted us with so many who are interested, onboard, or simply supportive. We’re so grateful for the incredible amount of support that we’ve received from people and other churches in the Knoxville area. We’re scheduling lots of get-togethers during visits and trying our best to keep everyone up to speed with communications like this one.

Finally, we’re investing a lot of time and resources into preparing the church administratively. As a result, we’re working on incorporation, our website (www.shorelineknox.com), a people database, etc.

INFORMATION MEETING – MARCH 2012

We will begin our weekly core group meetings the week after Easter (April 8th). While participation in our core group meetings doesn’t lock someone into membership/partnership, these will definitely be intentional times of growth and preparation for the days ahead. With that said, we understand that some may want more information before committing to this important season of our church. Thus, we will be hosting a general information meeting in early March.

MOVING TO KNOXVILLE – EARLY APRIL 2012

CORE GROUP MEETINGS – MID-APRIL – AUGUST 2012

We’ll begin meeting regularly with an initial core group of individuals and families who have shown interest in being a part of the church in its earliest stages. We’ll most likely be meeting in homes for those meetings. We’ll continue to meet with this core group throughout the summer while hopefully adding new folks along the way. This will be a highly significant part of the journey and we trust it will be a special season for all involved.

MONTHLY WORSHIP GATHERINGS – JUNE, JULY, AUGUST 2012

In the summer, we’ll also be hosting a series of larger gatherings. We’re already anticipating what the Lord may do in these times dedicated to prayer, musical worship, and teaching. Hopefully, these will provide an ideal atmosphere where people can investigate what God is doing in this new church. This will also provide another important avenue to connect people to our core group throughout the summer.

WEEKLY WORSHIP GATHERINGS AND PROGRAMMING – EARLY SEPTEMBER 2012

We’re trusting and seeking the Lord with all of the timing, but our current hope is that we’d begin meeting weekly for worship as early as the fall. While some may see these services as when we officially “launch” as a church, we believe that God had already begun this work and trust that some of our most valuable and precious days will be much sooner than that.

TIMELINE

Shoreline is committed to the highest levels of financial integrity and giving systems. The Lord will be leading many individuals, families, and partners to give to Shoreline in the days ahead. We don’t take that lightly and are committed to stewarding those monies well.

Each year an annual budget will be created by staff and lay leadership and voted upon by the church. This budget will include allocation for ministry expenses, outreach, missions, facilities, staff, office needs, and more. We’re determined to be wise with our finances and avoid unnecessary financial pressure or strain.

In order to insure this from the beginning, we plan to enter a partnership with Dime: Simple Money. Dime has worked with some of the countries leading churches, ministries, and Christian artists.

Bottom line, Dime’s job is to empower us to do what we’ve been called to do by taking care of all our day-to-day and month-to-month financial management.They partner with us, and they literally become our accounting department.

Their core business is in working with churches. In fact, that’s how they got their start! They have expertise in start-up churches and church plants. They handle the administrative duties that can deter churches from accomplishing their mission.

Some of the responsibilities that Dime will handle for Shoreline include:

Accounts ReceivableGeneral LedgerDonor ContributionsBill PayAccounts PayablePayroll Setup and ProcessingCash Management

Our first-year ministry plan (budget) is available upon request. In addition, we’ll soon be providing the ministry plan to core group members and key partners.

FINANCES

JOIN US

Be a Part of Shoreline:

We’re extremely excited to see who the Lord will bring together to be part of this new church. Jason and Carrie have served a wonderful church in Knoxville and also have many dear friends at other churches in the area. So many of you love your church and are highly invested there. We rejoice with you in this and have no expectation for you to join us.

We’re simply trusting that God will be leading the right individuals toward this new work. We’re hoping to connect with those looking for a church while also providing a church home for new believers in need of fellowship and discipleship. We believe that God will not only be raising up our core group from within Knoxville, but we also believe that He’s going to prompt a few key partners to actually move from their current location to join us in Knoxville. It’s going to be an amazing adventure, and we can’t wait to do life with all those He is bringing together. That might just be you!

Church/Ministry Partners:

Shoreline is blessed to partner with Long Hollow Baptist (see the WHO section) as our primary sending church. While a partnership with Long Hollow provides us some sustained financial stability, it also allows us to establish a church how the Lord leads us in Knoxville. This is not a satellite campus or a video venue of Long Hollow. Rather, this is another iteration of God’s global work at Long Hollow as they seek to empower leaders to start new, unique churches. While we will lean on their experience and insight, this new church will have its own leadership and vision. We also have freedom to partner with other churches as the Lord may provide. We’re prayerful and excited to see who the Lord will use in accomplishing His plan for Shoreline Church!

Outside Partners:

Some of Shoreline’s most significant partners will be outside our church. The Lord is already bringing individuals who are called elsewhere and yet want to support the ministry of Shoreline. If the Lord is leading you in this, please consider the following avenues for support:

PRAYER – The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. Everything we’ll do as a church will be founded on prayer and we desire as much of it as we can get.

VOLUNTEERISM – As we get started, we’ll need volunteers to help us with everything from setup for gatherings, administrative support, and much more. If you are willing and have a good attitude, we can use you!

FINANCIAL SUPPORT – As described in our financial overview, there are certainly expenses associated with the ministries and needs of our church. Monthly, on-going supporters will allow us to step boldly into all He’s leading us to do. In addition, our church will face significant start-up expenses such as children’s supplies, audio-video equipment, and more. Providing even a one-time financial gift would help tremendously toward needs like these.

CONTACT

If you have interest, questions, or just want to connect, we’d love to hear from you! Our current email address is info@shorelineknox.com. We’re also on Facebook and Twitter. And, of course, we’d love to connect by phone or in person. We’ll have a website and other communication channels available in the near future.