Mariners Church

Mariners Church began as a small group of Christians who met for Bible studies in homes in the Newport Beach area starting in 1963. In 1964, this group organized the first Newport Beach Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, an event that has occurred annually ever since. As the church grew, it moved from holding services in a family home, to a series of rented locations, including Monte Vista School, Mariners Elementary School (the location from which the church derives its name), Corona Del Mar High School, and the Community Room of the Bank of Newport building on Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach.[6]

The Kids Building

In 1967 the first full-time pastor was hired. The church purchased and built its first owned facilities at the corner of Bison and Jamboree in Newport Beach. In 1980 the church split, and a portion of the church formed a new church called South Coast Community Church on a portion of the property where the church is located today. In 1996, the church reunited. For several years, services were held in both locations.[6][7]

In 1998, the church swapped the Bison property with Liberty Baptist Church, which had a property adjoining the South Coast Community church property. Finally, the church purchased another adjoining property from the Irvine Company for $18 million, expanding the campus by 18 acres (73,000 m²) to reach its current size. The church built and opened Port Mariners children’s building in June 2005 and the new Worship Center, bookstore and café in November 2005 at a cost of approximately $35 million. In November 2006, the church raised initial funds to build a new student ministries facility (Student Center), a chapel, a parking garage (completed October 2007), and remodeling of the administrative building, at an expected cost of $33 million. The project was completed in October 2008.[7]

The church has tended to avoid social and political controversies, and has been described as providing "a very safe, non-threatening, easy access to the Christian life."[8] However, its longtime leader Kenton Beshore came from an evangelical background, having been educated at Biola University, and the church is commonly described as evangelical.[4]

In 2001, the director of women’s ministries outed the choir director to the church's board, and the church responded by offering him therapy to "cure" him of his homosexuality, then firing him when he refused.[8] The church was sued, and defended itself successfully through a long-running series of appeals on First Amendment grounds, saying that 'an admission of homosexuality could be interpreted as "moral and sexual actions that are a sin."'

In 2013, politically conservative church members were offended when Beshore traveled to Washington, DC, to lobby for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.[9] According to a Wall Street Journal interview, 'Mr. Beshore said some members (of Mariners) accused the church of taking a political position that flouted U.S. law after preaching about immigration in the fall. "I tell my people they need the poor far more than the poor need them. That’s what a follower of Christ should do," said Beshore.'[10]