SEVEN in 11: Randy Bezet

WHY HE MATTERS
In March 2010, Bayside Community Church Pastor Randy Bezet welcomed the East County community to his church's new home — a 54,000-square-foot behemoth on State Road 64. Despite its size, Bayside already has reached capacity. Rather than launch another campaign to expand, Bezet and his Bayside team are planning to open a campus in West Bradenton in February. In doing so, Bayside will become the first East County-based church to expand into another area.

Just three weeks before Pastor Randy Bezet was set to preach Bayside Community Church’s first sermon in September 2002, he still had no idea where that service would take place.

After scouring the East County for a location, Bezet found Bashaw Elementary School. But Principal Minnie King originally wasn’t supportive of the idea of hosting a church in her school; she had had a negative experience with a similar partnership in the past.

“We needed to print postcards to advertise, and we didn’t even know where to tell people to go,” Bezet remembers.

But then, in what Bezet calls a “God moment,” Bashaw Head Custodian Rex Ballenger learned of Bayside’s situation. He and several teachers pleaded with King, who finally agreed.

“There was so much emphasis on that first service,” Bezet says. “But we didn’t know if anyone was going to show up.”

Much to Bezet’s delight, 220 packed into Bashaw on Sept. 18, 2002, to hear that first sermon.

And now, just eight years later, Bayside has grown into one of the East County’s largest churches, attracting nearly 4,000 attendees each week. The church moved into its permanent home, a 54,000-square-foot behemoth on State Road 64, in March, but already has outgrown its building.

On Feb. 13, Bezet and his Bayside team will again facilitate a launch — this time of a satellite campus at Bradenton Christian School in West Bradenton. In doing so, Bayside will become the first East County church to expand outside of the community.

For Bezet, innovation and creativity always have been critical to the Bayside ministry.

“I didn’t want Bayside to be just another church,” he says. “I wanted it to be different. And it isn’t just about what goes on inside these four walls (of the church). We wanted to be integrated into the community. We want to be making this a better community.”

THE DAY
Bezet was just 13 years old when he first considered ministry as a career.

“I had this vision of me doing ministry,” he says. “There was a multitude of people, and I was encouraging them, giving hope. There were miracles. Marriages were being restored.”

Originally from Baton Rouge, La., Bezet’s parents were Baptist. Throughout his childhood, Bezet and his family attended several churches — some good, some bad. The discrepancies discouraged Bezet, and by the time he enrolled at Louisiana State University, he had decided on another career path.

“I was running from God,” he says.

Bezet pursued a degree in physical therapy and eventually took a job in outside medical sales. The job was perfect for the adventurous 20-something. Bezet spent long hours on the highway and used his innate charm to climb the company ladder. He was successful.

But not fulfilled.

“It came time to make a decision with the company: Do I take a promotion?” Bezet remembers. “It was at that moment that I had to ask, ‘What is the will of God?’

“That’s when I decided I had to quit running from what God showed me when I was 13,” he says.
The day was Jan. 30, 1992. And at just 24 years old, Bezet made one of the most important decisions of his life.

INTO MINISTRY
Bezet began his work in ministry at Bethany World Prayer Center, serving as junior high pastor, assistant cell coordinator and associate pastor.

After six years, he moved to Tampa to be executive pastor at Living Water Church in 1999. Three years later, he took an internship at Seacoast Christian Community Church in Charleston, S.C., while also pursuing his theology degree from Life Christian University.

When he returned to Florida, Bezet began searching the country for a place to plant a church. One day in February 2002, his search brought him to Bradenton. He pulled his car off Interstate 75 at State Road 70 and turned left. He reached River Club Boulevard just as Braden River Elementary and Braden River Middle students were leaving.

“I was out here before I even knew what ‘out east’ meant,” Bezet says. “There were all these families out here — all these parents in their cars and golf carts waiting to pick up their kids. At that ‘God moment,’ I felt the Lord prompting me.”

Seven months later, those 220 people sitting in Bashaw’s cafetorium confirmed there was work to be done in the East County.

After a year at Bashaw, Bayside moved to Freedom Elementary, where it remained for the next six-and-one-half years. Bayside launched its building campaign, Living the Dream, in October 2006. By then, Bayside had ballooned to five services (two on Saturday and three on Sunday) with an average attendance of about 2,600.

“That was hundreds of man-hours,” Bezet says of the set-up and tear-down work required to operate in Freedom.

In addition to its services, Bayside made its presence felt in several unorthodox ways as well. Shortly after its 2002 launch, Bayside partnered with Walmart to purchase school supplies to donate to families in need. In 2004, the church was scheduled to celebrate its two-year anniversary with a birthday bash. But after Hurricane Charley rolled through, the church decided to donate all its celebration food to residents who sought refuge at the Freedom hurricane shelter. And several times throughout its stay at Freedom, Bayside contributed money to pay lunch bills for students who were on the reduced-lunch program.

LIVING THE DREAM
“I’m pleasantly frustrated,” Bezet says of his career thus far. “It’s just awesome how many people we’ve been able to help. But I’m frustrated because there still are so many people struggling.

“I don’t see other churches in the community as competition,” he says. “Seventy-seven percent of people in Manatee and Sarasota don’t go to church, so there definitely is a need for more churches.”

Which is precisely why one of Bezet’s main goals for 2011 is to get Bayside’s West Bradenton campus open.

“Thirty percent of the people who come here (to the East County campus) are from out there,” he says. “We want to bring the church to them.”

And with 519 people on the launch team, the West Bradenton campus promises to be a success from the start.

Bezet says Bayside also will continue work in the Pride Park community in Sarasota. The church currently runs a weekly outreach ministry there and hopes to work toward building a community center to offer education, trade training and medical assistance to homeless residents.

Bringing those ministries into West Bradenton and Sarasota will allow for more growth at the East County campus, where Bezet’s focus will remain true to his original goal: building strong families.

“Bayside is a place where people can find a sense of family,” he says. “It’s a place to belong. It’s the way I always wanted church to be.”

Contact Michael Eng at [email protected].