Newport Beach Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, an event that has occurred annually ever since. As the church grew, it moved from holding services in a family home, to a series of rented locations, including Monte Vista School, Mariners Elementary School (the location from which the church derives its name), Corona Del Mar High School, and the Community Room of the Bank of Newport building on Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach. In 1967 the first full-time pastor was hired. The church purchased and built its first owned facilities at the corner of Bison and Jamboree in Newport Beach. In 1980 the church split, and a portion of the church formed a new church called South Coast Community Church on a portion of the property where the church is located today. In 1996, the church reunited. For several years, services were held in both locations. In 1998, the church swapped the Bison property with Liberty Baptist Church, which had a property adjoining the South Coast Community church property. Finally, the church purchased another adjoining property from the Irvine Company for $18 million, expanding the campus by to reach its current size. The church built and opened Port Mariners children’s building in June 2005 and the new Worship Center, bookstore and café in November 2005 at a cost of approximately $35 million. In November 2006, the church raised initial funds to build a new student ministries facility (Student Center), a chapel, a parking garage (completed October 2007), and remodeling of the administrative building, at an expected cost of $33 million. The project was completed in October 2008. In 2020, to serve the Southern California community during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mariners Church opened additional neighborhood congregations and now meets at 7 locations including Irvine, Huntington Beach (opened in 2017), Mission Viejo, North Irvine, Santa Ana, Tustin, Oceanside as well as a congregation that meets online each week. In 2020, Mariners Church also launched Mariners Hosted Here as a way for church members to meet in homes and worship together. Since then, Mariners Hosted Here has grown, bringing worship services to traditionally closed facilities like senior living homes, mental health treatment centers, prisons, and more. Social and political controversies The church has tended to avoid social and political controversies, and has been described as providing "a very safe, non-threatening, easy access to the Christian life." However, its longtime leader Kenton Beshore came from an evangelical