Serving Jesus.
Caring for people.
LEADERSHIP
Our leadership team is committed to building a Christ-centered community where people are known, loved, discipled, and encouraged to follow Jesus in every area of life.
LEAD PASTOR
& CHURCH PLANTER
Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Steel, PhD
Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Steel has devoted more than 26 years to full-time pastoral ministry, serving churches and communities in the United States and abroad. His ministry journey includes 16 years of service in London, England, and his academic formation includes a PhD from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
Jeffrey is married to his wife, Shirley Steel, and together they share a beautifully blended family of nine children and three grandsons. At the heart of Jeffrey's life and ministry is their shared desire to love people well and introduce them to the transforming and saving grace of Jesus Christ.
An avid surfer and waterman, Jeffrey has always felt a deep connection to the ocean. At home in Volusia County, you'll often find him around the breaks at Sunglow Pier, Ponce Inlet, and New Smyrna Beach.
BEYOND SUNDAY
Caring for people through every season.
Jeffrey is the Founder and Director of Surf & Solace, where he serves as a Certified Ocean Therapy Practitioner. Through Surf & Solace, he combines his experience in grief care with the therapeutic benefits of the ocean and surfing, helping people navigate loss, grief, and major life transitions.
Professionally, Jeffrey serves as a Hospice Grief Specialist and is also involved in education surrounding Alzheimer's disease and dementia, bringing compassionate support to individuals and families walking through some of life's most difficult seasons.
“Even the waves
obey Him.”
MARK 4:41
THE VISION BEHIND WAVES OF GRACE
Lives transformed by Christ where land meets sea.
Waves of Grace Church grew from Jeffrey and Shirley’s desire to see a Christ-centered community take root within the coastal culture of the Daytona Beach area—a church where people are not simply gathered into crowds but are formed as disciples of Jesus Christ.
The vision of Waves of Grace is simple:
To see lives transformed by Christ in the place where land meets sea.
Waves of Grace seeks to be a church deeply rooted in the life of the earliest Christian community described in Acts 2:42–44—a people devoted to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer.
For Waves of Grace, church is more than attending a Sunday service. It is sharing life together around Christ and His table. It is studying Scripture, praying together, caring for one another, serving the community, welcoming those who feel far from God, and carrying the grace of Jesus into the places where people actually live.
That calling has a particular expression along the coast. Waves of Grace desires to serve surfers, watermen and women, families, first responders, those carrying grief and loss, and the wider beach community while creating a place where anyone can encounter the love and grace of Christ.
Jeffrey’s heart for Waves of Grace can ultimately be expressed in one picture: a community gathered around Jesus, formed by His Word, strengthened at His table, committed to one another, and then sent back into the world to live as His disciples.
Serving together.
Following Jesus together
OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM
LAY ELDER
Justin Gore
Justin Gore serves as a Lay Elder at Waves of Grace Church, helping provide spiritual leadership, encouragement, and care to our growing church family.
Justin is married to his wife, Amber, and together they are raising three boys. Family is an important part of Justin's life and reflects his desire to see marriages, parents, children, and families strengthened through a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and life within the local church.
Justin shares the heart of Waves of Grace to build a Christ-centered community where people are known, loved, discipled, and encouraged to follow Jesus in every area of life.
His approach to leadership reflects our conviction that the church is not simply a place we attend, but a family in which we worship, grow, serve, and share life together.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
ACTS 2:42
Alongside Pastor Jeffrey Steel and the leadership of Waves of Grace, Justin helps cultivate the kind of church community described in Acts 2:42–44—a people devoted to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, prayer, generosity, and genuine life together.
Justin also serves as President of Surf & Solace, a nonprofit organization founded by Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Steel that uses the therapeutic benefits of the ocean and surfing to support individuals navigating grief, loss, and significant life transitions.
His involvement with both Waves of Grace and Surf & Solace reflects a shared passion for serving people throughout the coastal community and meeting them where they are—with compassion, friendship, and the hope found in Christ.
As a Lay Elder, Justin desires to help Waves of Grace remain faithful to its calling: making disciples rather than simply gathering crowds, caring for one another deeply, serving our neighbors, and carrying the saving grace of Jesus Christ into the beach and surf communities of Volusia County and beyond.