Outward-looking Alive Church opens in Bradenton's Bayshore community

MANATEE -- Pastor Nelson Ferrer would be the first to admit planting a new church in the Bradenton area was not part of his original life plan.

Born in Puerto Rico the youngest of 13 children and raised in Brooklyn, his journey included eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps, including service in the first Gulf War, followed by a career as a web designer.

With the clarity of hindsight, he now believes he was called to start Alive Church, which had its first service Jan. 31 in leased space at Bayshore Elementary School, 6120 26th St. W.

"The Lord really started speaking to me in 2008," Ferrer said.

After coming to Bradenton in 2010, he was a member of Church of the Rock in Palmetto for several years, and later a member of Bayside Community Church where he served as missions and outreach director.

"God was preparing me at the Bayside West Campus," Ferrer said.

He would often wake up to the word "alive." In the scriptures it says: "In Christ we are made alive," he said.

He knew the new church was going to be named Alive.

Before opening Alive Church, Ferrer spent a year visiting other churches in the Bradenton area, seeing how other congregations worshipped, how

they "served God with excellence," and building relationships.

Through building relationships, church members believe they have an opportunity "to reach the lost, forgotten and broken in this city."

Ferrer might have been more comfortable staying at Bayside, but he felt the need to step down in order to follow the call and start a church.

With a core group from several other churches, Ferrer and his wife, Amelia, set up 150 chairs at their first service at Bayshore Elementary, and filled half, which he calls an encouraging start.

Alive Church is Christ-centered, nondenominational and multicultural.

"I recognize the fact that this area needs a body of believers," Ferrer said.

As such, Alive Church seeks to be a congregation that loves members of the community, meets them where they are and serves practical needs.

"I believe the church is called to be outward focused through relationships," he said.

That focus is what attracted Elder Chris Shuck to Alive Church.

"The focus is outside the church walls, rather than inside," Shuck said. "I like a church whose focus is outside helping the community and spreading the gospel outside the church walls."

Church members have spread the word of the new congregation through door knockers, social media and the web.

Shuck has known Ferrer about nine years, and likes his rich sense of humor, but most of all his "devotion to the cause of Christ."

Even though Alive Church is new, it has already established an outreach, what Ferrer calls "among them," to Horizon Bay, a senior living facility in Sarasota. It also has a community cleanup to pickup trash and is serving the practical needs of those who need help with plumbing, painting or other household tasks.

Services start at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

Information: 941-254-3250 or mychurchisalive.org.

James A. Jones Jr., Herald reporter, can be contacted at 941-745-7053 or on Twitter @jajones1.

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Outward-looking Alive Church opens in Bradenton's Bayshore community ."