A Brief History of Coast Community Church
In March of 1983, John Worcester and his wife, Diane, planted a new church in Huntington Beach. Beginning with evangelistic home Bible studies designed to reach the unchurched, "Coast" was conceived.On May 22, 1983, the first Sunday morning worship service was held on the beach with 22 people.
Norm Wakefield served as an associate pastor with John from 1984-85. Through support from various Southern Baptist churches (Saddleback Church; Park Avenue Baptist Church in Titusville, Florida; Christ Community Church) and the Orange County Southern Baptist Association, Coast Community Church was born. Coast continues to be affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention for mission purposes, but functions as an autonomous body of believers.
On July 18, 1983, Coast began holding worship services at Murdy Recreation Center in Huntington Beach.
In 1987, Coast moved to Golden West College. John Worcester served as pastor of Coast from 1983-88. In 1988, John left Coast to plant another church in Huntington Beach (Seabreeze Church). Norm Wakefield then returned to serve as Pastor.
In 1991, Coast moved to the Rossier Center in Fountain Valley (the old Fountain Valley Elementary School). Norm Wakefield served as pastor from 1988-96. In June of 1996, Earl Miles joined Norm as a pastor at Coast. In December of 1996, Norm left to become involved full-time in his ministry to men and families called Elijah Ministries. Earl has served at the pastor of Coast since that time.
In 2001, Coast was required to move due to the sale of the Rossier Center. We began meeting on Saturday nights at the Huntington Beach Baptist Church. In January of 2007, Coast moved to Thomas Paine Elementary School and began meeting again on Sunday mornings.
