A Quick History
Shoreline Baptist Church is blessed to have a gymnasium on site, and God has blessed our use of the gym. A much greater use started in 1996 when the founder of Upward Basketball approached us about his Christian-based basketball program on the East Coast. He was expanding it to the West Coast, and he was looking for churches that wanted to offer the program.
We jumped at the chance and started that summer with camps, then a league each year for many years. In 2007, the program grew so large that we decided to add an additional season, then very quickly a third season during the school year. God was blessing us with thousands of players yearly!
We have offered both the leagues and summer sports camps since we started in 1996, but our leagues eventually outgrew the Upward design, so the leagues came under the banner of Shoreline Sports in 2007. That was also approximately the time the church generously updated the gym, and we began offering adult basketball leagues.
When the gym was updated, we knew that our program would grow, and boy did it! We began to experience more than 2,500 campers in the summer and more than 1,200 players in our leagues. Our numbers have settled down from that high, but God richly blesses us with thousands of league players, campers, and adult players each year.
A Little More About Us
Shoreline Baptist Church has been blessed to host Shoreline Sports for more than 20 years.
Over these years, the program has grown from one basketball league and one camp to a year-round sports program teaching more than 2,500 children and youth annually in basketball, volleyball, soccer, football, and baseball. The major focus of the programs is to help teach Christian values and to develop Christian character in the young people.
The Shoreline Sports leadership team creates the devotions for use in all our leagues and summer programs. The focus is on creating user-friendly material that presents the gospel of Jesus Christ and His desire to have a personal relationship with each of us. The summer programs include our church-run VBS program that features dozens of our sports summer camp workers in leadership roles and an all-day Activity Camp that is entirely developed and led by our summer sports camp staff.
During the school year, we offer four seasons of Instructional basketball leagues: Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer as well as two basketball clinics and two volleyball clinics, one in the spring and one in the fall. During our Winter basketball season we also offer a Cheer Program. For summer, we have a full slate of week-long camps that include sports camps and an additional Performing Arts Camp. Pre-school through high school students can learn and grow with us.
An Overview of our Spiritual Purposes
Statement – Shoreline Sports exists to use sports as a vehicle to raise awareness of Jesus Christ in our community, to educate participants in His Word, and to train fellow Christians to serve and to lead.
Spiritual Base – We use I Timothy 3:6-16 as a starting place to link the community that is seeking to find purpose in life and the believers who desire to fellowship and grow.
The process – Our five value statements grow out of the idea that everything we do has a four-step process based in scripture. Our comprehensive look at the program explains this in greater detail. In brief, the 4-steps are: principles, philosophies, policies, and procedures (in that order).
The values – We strive to incorporate these 5 value statements into our program:
1. As a community outreach, we never deny access to anyone who genuinely wants to become involved in the program.
2. We want every participant to sense the warmth and welcoming of a Christian community through fellowship and common purpose.
3. All workers should demonstrate Christian characteristics including patience, compassion, commitment and integrity. We aim to be “always available”.
4. Through scriptural instruction, we desire to open the community’s eyes to Christian basics.
5. We strive to expose them to the nature and value of church through providing resources and promoting relationships through church programs.
For additional information, you can also contact the Shoreline Sports Director, Steven Herd, at 714-951-7503 or sherd@shorelinebaptist.org.