"Many people feel that the economy, housing market and job security are failing us, and they really are looking for hope they can depend on," Sexton said. "It is not our intention to get people to join our church. We just want to share the hope that can be found in Jesus Christ." No offering will be taken during the service, nor will there be a request for donations, he said.
Sexton embarked on his own personal journey of faith by a circuitous route.
Though he lived in Ellicott City during his school-age years and graduated from Mount Hebron High in 1990, he moved back to Florida to attend college. That's where he met his future wife, Cameron, and where a friend introduced them to Calvary Chapel-Gulf Breeze.
"I was hooked the very first time I went to services," said Sexton, who had graduated from the University of West Florida with a degree in history. He took a job for two years managing the church's coffeehouse, where he spent a lot of down time studying the Bible.
Soon, he and Cameron married and he became an assistant pastor at Gulf Breeze. She also was employed by the church, they owned a home that faced a bay, and life was good, he said.
But the Lord had another plan in mind, he said, and the couple left family and contentment behind to move to Ellicott City.
"We just showed up in 2003, not knowing anyone," Sexton said.
When he held his first service in August at the Kiwanis-Wallas Recreation Center off U.S. 40, four people came. The second service attracted the attention of Jason Meyerson, an Ellicott City chiropractor who said he was familiar with the teaching approach of Calvary Chapel churches.
"I grew up Jewish and then became a follower of Jesus, but I'd never found a church that felt like home," Meyerson said.
After attending, he and wife Kimberly, who was raised Christian, became faithful followers of Sexton's.
"Dan has a real gift to share the Scriptures," Meyerson said.
"Teaching the Bible simply - that's our schtick," said Cameron Sexton, who is expecting the couple's third child. "We want to bring the Gospel into public view."
Calvary Chapel-Ellicott City is affiliated with 1,500 churches in the United States and overseas, Sexton said. The first Calvary Chapel was founded in 1965 in Costa Mesa, Calif., and grew from 20 members to the 15,000 or so it has today, he said. That church also has television and radio ministries.
