Coastal Family Bible Church officially began November 6, 2011. However our story goes back a little farther than that. Four of our founding families came from First Baptist Church of Bay City (FBC), including our Pastor, Cody Burris. Cody came to Bay City in 2005 after serving in youth minstry in serveral churches before that. He was blessed to served as youth minister for six years at FBC leading up to the launch of Coastal Family Bible Church (CFBC). After numerous months of prayer, reading the scriptures, and seeking wise counsel, Cody and his family, along with three other families from FBC felt the LORD leading them to plant Coastal Family Bible Church. FBC, along with their Senior Pastor, gave their blessing to the four families and prayed over them in the summer of 2011. Our heart was to plant a church that looked as much like the early church as possible in our philosophy, function, and leadership. We visited numerous churches and sought the scriptures with fervor as to help give us guidance.
So beginning in early Fall of that year we began meeting in homes and a few more families in our community got word about what we were doing and began to join us. We never sought to pull members away from other churches in our town as we see them as teammates rather than competitors. Any time over the course of the life of this church that someone has approached us about becoming a member we have encouraged them to first talk with their current pastor and church leaders if they were coming from another church in the Bay City area. It was evident that the Lord was calling new families to CFBC and after a couple of months, we decided to gather in a meeting room of a local hotel. This would continue for three months and was a blessing, but we were constantly praying about another possible venue to meet in that wouldn't require us to set up and take down every week. In February of 2012, we found a store-front building on the south side of town and happily met there for a couple of years. The building we were leasing changed ownership and we found ourselves seeking a new facility to call our home. The Lord provided our current building/property at that time and we have been blessed to meet in it ever since.
If you talk to any of our current members they will likely all speak of how much they have grown in their faith, understanding of God's word, and seen their walk with God strengthen since they first came to CFBC. To God be the glory, great things he has done!