EDITORIAL: In the Shoreline of duty: Church shows the way

They call themselves “the Church for the Real World.” They meet in places like a movie theater, a coffeehouse and a bar.

Born in 2004, Destin’s Shoreline Church is likely the city’s youngest congregation, but its many members have made a difference in the community that demonstrates wisdom far beyond its years.

Most recently, the church represented a saving grace to a single mother who lost her home in a fire in Niceville. Shoreline members quickly put the family up in a new home and provided her with a pile of gift cards to replace the Christmas presents that were consumed by the blaze.

Needless to say, mother of four Angela Armstrong was profoundly touched.

“Amazing, amazing people ... There’s no words to describe the generosity,” she said while fighting back tears.

The Log applauds Shoreline and the city’s other churches that selflessly serve and represent a unified body of believers to a struggling world.

With the Week of Blessings and the recent Christmas on the Field events, there has been much talk of the Church of Destin. It’s one church, many congregations, organizers say. The Rev. Mike Hesse on today’s Faith pages on B4 echoes this same point.

Shoreline embodies this concept of a church without traditional walls. We wish them — and all Destin’s churches — a barrier-free path to success.