{"id":69983,"date":"2025-12-10T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/?p=69983"},"modified":"2025-12-08T15:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T20:02:08","slug":"florida-church-serves-military-families-gulf-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/florida-church-serves-military-families-gulf-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"Serving Those Who Serve: Florida Church Engages Military Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pictured above: David Falldine, pastor,\u00a0Sunrise City Church<\/a>, and Chris Tesseniar, worship pastor, seek to engage the military community located within minutes from the church by doing life together. One way they do that is weekly workouts with military servicemen.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MARY ESTHER, Fla.<\/strong> \u2014 Military men, women and families looking for a home church while stationed along the Gulf Coast are welcomed with open arms at many Florida Baptist churches\u2014whether they are in the area for a few months or several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur heart is for immediate connection, discipleship and for military members to find a place to use their gifts,\u201d said David Falldine, pastor of Sunrise City Church. The church, located less than a mile from Hurlburt Field, hosts monthly gatherings to help families build relationships and find community quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Military families are often far from home and need a strong support system. Sunrise City Church saw the need and answered the call to serve those who serve by investing in military families and inviting them to \u201cdo life together.\u201d One way pastors do this is by working out with service members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve committed to working out with some of the military guys, and one of my close friends is an Army 7th Group guy who works out with our worship pastor and me every week when he\u2019s not deployed. Doing life together like this creates natural opportunities for ministry,\u201d Falldine said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Thanksgiving, Sunrise City Church partnered with Operation Warm Heart to collect holiday meal necessities for military families. Deployment can take a toll, and the church strives to care for families with deployed spouses. Pastors are also well-connected with other churches in military communities and can help families find a new home church when the military sends them elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to family ministry, the church offers a men\u2019s ministry that engages military members through campouts featuring food, fellowship, Bible study and shooting activities. Situated near a military base\u2014and in a town where many servicemen and women choose to retire\u2014the church has \u201can incredible opportunity to disciple and send people all over the world as gospel lights,\u201d Falldine said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An estimated 50% of Sunrise City Church\u2019s membership is active-duty military and another 25% is retired military, making the mission field of serving those who serve especially ripe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want to hear from you! <\/em><\/strong>Is your church involved in military ministry as well?  Please email communications@flbaptist.org<\/a> and let us know what you are doing. <\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pictured above: David Falldine, pastor,\u00a0Sunrise City Church, and Chris Tesseniar, worship pastor, seek to engage the military community located within minutes from the church by doing life together. One way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":69984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2617,22,25,51],"tags":[773,247,3004,402],"class_list":["post-69983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-providing","category-stories","category-region-west","tag-david-falldine","tag-military-ministry","tag-operation-warm-heart","tag-sunrise-city-church"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69985,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69983\/revisions\/69985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}