Love God. Love People. Love Life.
A letter from our pastors
We believe that God is transforming the world through people like you. That’s what it’s all about—people. Our desire is to listen, connect, organize, gather, and build a community of people being transformed by God. We want to be a neighborhood church with a region-wide impact.
More than anything else, we want to see all people be transformed by the person and power of Jesus. One of the best ways to connect with others who have that same desire, is through planting new churches. We believe that the Saco Bay region, with all of it's renewal, growth, wonderful families, retired folks, farmers and yes, even tourists, is in a unique place for a faith community to grow together.
We have seen that the ocean communities of Maine are peppered with individuals and families that are longing for a supernatural encounter with a true source of light, hope and love. We believe that source is Jesus and that everyone in our saltwater neighborhoods deserve to encounter that love. Sadly, many who feel the draw to grow in their spiritual life have not considered Jesus because they have had one too many negative experiences with religion. Our hope is to have a community that loves our neighbors so well that they will ask the questions, "who is Jesus and how does Jesus affect my daily life?" and have an authentic space to process those encounters.
We also know that many people in America who aren’t going to church did go at one time in their life. This means that they stopped going. Some stopped going because it wasn’t relevant to them, or because they were hurt by the church. We have a heart for reaching people who have had negative experiences with the church and for those who never have been to church, but view Christianity as irrelevant.
This is why we’re setting out on a journey—a journey to launch a church for spiritual seekers, cynics, doubters, and thinkers. A church for people like you, with all your fears, questions, strengths, and beauty. A church for the Saco Bay region.
We trust that God will use this church to transform people’s lives, and in return, transform the region.
We hope that you will join us on this journey.
Sincerely,
Shawn & Jenna Stepp
The Saltwater Team
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About our pastors-
Shawn and Jenna are excited to be leading the launch team for Saltwater Vineyard. Born in Maine, Jenna grew up in a missionary family in Santiago, Chile and then returned to Portland for the high school years. Shawn hales from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and, even though he is a Steelers fan, fell in love with New England as he fell in love with Jenna. After graduating from college with degrees in New Testament (Shawn) and international business (Jenna), they joined forces for a life-long commitment to love God, love all people, and intentionally enjoy life. This began by serving the people of Framingham, Massachusetts as youth pastors. They also spent some time in the Philippines doing medical relief work and working in the anti-human trafficking efforts there but returned to Maine to further their medical and theological training. During this time, they became leaders at the Pathway Vineyard Church in Lewiston, Maine.
While at Pathway, they helped launch the Heroic Leadership Institute, a gap year training program that now serves the entire Vineyard network of churches. Over the years, with a love for nature, creativity and seeing God birth new ideas of what faith communities could look like, they began to feel the "tug" to see what community God might be asking them to invest in as a family. It was soon clear that the Saco Bay area (where they spent most of their free time anyway) was going to be home. They love this community, the ocean, the mills, the farms, and the family life and are so excited to help launch a new community of Jesus followers in this area.
At Saltwater, Shawn leads the worship team and also overseer the youth team. Jenna is the primary teaching pastor and oversees the discipleship track for the church. Both love seeing Jesus move through kingdom hospitality and seeing the whole church engaged in their gifting and calling!