Rev. Brock Patterson leads Longboat Island Chapel

When looking for jobs online, Rev. Brock Patterson tried “beach pastor” as a hopeful search criterium, not knowing exactly what he'd find. 

The Longboat Island Chapel came up and after a few months, Patterson packed his life and his dog into a truck and moved to Longboat Key from Little Rock, Ark to live out his beach pastor dreams. He’s the new lead pastor at the church, replacing Rev. Bill Friederich who recently retired. 

Patterson got quite a welcome, as Tropical Storm Eta bore down on the island just days after he arrived. He spent one of his first mornings on Longboat Key packing sand bags to put around his new church. 

“I understand tornadoes, I understand accumulation of ice and freezing rain and snow,” Patterson said. “I understand all that. But I do not understand what all this means.”

Patterson comes to Longboat Key at the urging of his youngest daughter, who sat him down the night before she left for college and told him to do something for himself now that all the kids were out of the house. 

“We were having dinner and she said, ‘You should go do something you want to do. You should do something for you (now that) you don't have to take care of us now,’” Patterson said. “I thought about it overnight, and I woke up the next morning, and … this came up … Longboat is where God brought me.”

Patterson was once in the corporate banking world, but from 2009-2019, Patterson had been the founding and lead pastor at a United Methodist church, but had been feeling God calling him to something different, he said. He stepped out of his position, planning only to take a sabbatical, but then COVID hit and changed his plans. 

Of the two “beach pastor” jobs he applied for, Patterson heard back from both. He came down in September for a visit and preached on a Sunday. 

“I received more from the congregation than I was looking for,” Patterson said. “It's just fantastic down here, (from) the entire interview process and the way they worked with me, and the way that I felt like they were taking their own careful steps on who they needed.”

From the first, Patterson felt a connection to the chapel, not only because of its volunteers and the congregation, but also because of its organization and leadership. Having led a church of his own, he knows what the process of replacing a pastor is like. There’s strong leadership here, but Patterson is looking forward to making his way. 

“There's a lot of opportunity here,” Patterson said. “The people are so knowledgeable and they are so experienced, but most of all, they're very, very faithful. I was excited about that, and excited about working with that kind of leadership.”