There are many options. But I prefer the good old dwarf in armor and shield ready to hold the line, and able to heal afterwards.
When you build a cleric, you need a clearly defined role to assist in making your decisions.
You can heal well, fight well, or be good (but not awesome) at both.
If you are building your cleric as a melee substitute you will prioritize Str, Con, Wis, Cha=Dex, Int
Good feats will be Toughness, Power Attack(after 3rd level), Combat Casting, Shield Focus
This style is more kick but and less heal and buff, feat are to keep you alive and viable in the middle of combat.
I won't post anything on a healer build, you are a cleric, it's already in the bag.
If you follow this avatar back to its page, Vashti was built with a 20 point buy, specifically as a generalist cleric.
She isn't fantastic at any one thing, but is good at many.
Starting Stats S13 D12 C14 I10 W16(14+2) CHA14
Healing is done by channel out of combat, except in dire emergency.
Defense is solid with medium armor and shield.
Combat casting lets me get the spells off in melee with confidence.
Toughness and favored class bonus in hit points keeps me on my feet in most every combat.
Friendly Switch lets me pull someone out of danger, to safety, very quickly.
Damage is reasonable, but in combat, I normally Aid Another as a way to contribute.
There are also some Guides here that my be useful!
I really like one level of fighter for melee clerics. For one level of spellcasting you get heavy armor, any relevant weapon(probably the least relevant since their are so many ways around it), and a feat. If spellcasting isn't as much of a focus, which it seems like it won't be, then that seems like a great trade to me.
Three build styles really jump out to me that would fulfill what you want to be doing. The first is a reach cleric that uses trip tactics and buff spells to defend, the second is the sword and board cleric Vashti outlined and the third is a negative energy channeler. The last one could be a much more focused spellcaster. Just grab the biggest shield you can and spread decent AoE damage with your channels. Any of those can dedicate a good amount of their spells to healing spells.
You could also just focus on summoning with the summoning feat line. Summon a monster to help hold the front line while you heal/buff people or sword and board it.
clerics have a lot going for them.
One of my favorite five level builds I've theory'd so far is a reach cleric. I'm considering him for an upcoming campaign actually. He's made for a three person team where being self sufficient and bulky are the top priorities. I'm more than a bit biased towards trip builds, but maybe this will help fuel ideas.
Human Fighter 1/ Cleric 4
Domains: Feather(Animal), Growth(Plant)
Level 1: Fighter 1-Combat Reflexes, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip
Level 2: Cleric 1-Swift Action Enlarge from Growth Domain
Level 3: Cleric 2-Power Attack/Combat Casting
Level 4: Cleric 3-
Level 5: Cleric 4-Animal Companion from Feather Domain, Boon Companion
This post is already pretty long so I won't go into the fluff. The nuts and bolts of the build are a skilled polearm fighter that uses his nature based powers to fuel his combat and his companion's combat. First level you're just a MAD fighter with good AC and nice defensive capabilities from reach+trip. Second level the cleric madness begins with enlarge as a class spell and a swift action enlarge 3+ times a day. Fifth level I have this guy getting a full powered Axe Beak companion through the Feather Domain and Boon companion feat to form a deadly tripping duo. The feather domain also gives flight spells which are great for overcoming flying opponents immune to trips and just well, flying.
The Growth domain seems extremely powerful for any melee cleric, but neither is by any means a necessity. A bunch of other domains offer awesome tools for a melee cleric and choosing them is a great way to focus a cleric down to what it wants to do best.
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Healing is best out of combat, in my experience. I would vote Melee and something like:
Before Racial Mods, 20 point build
16 Strength, 14 Dex, 12 Con 10 Int 13 Wis 10 Cha (+1 Wis at level 4; +1 Str at levels 4+)
After Mods:
18 Str, 14 Dex, 12 Con, 10 Int, 13 Wis, 10 Cha
Get Belts of Str/Con as soon as you can afford them. Get headbands of Wis as soon as you can afford them, and don't worry overly about upgrading your longspear. If you have a glaive, try to get it adamantine and keen.
For race, I vote Human for the +Wis, +1 Hp/Level, +1 skill/level, and +1 Bonus Feat.
Level 1: Combat Reflexes; Improved Initiative - This lets you go first a lot, and lots of Attacks of Opportunity (4).
Level 3: Power Attack - This is just for the damage increase
Level 5: Spell Focus (Conjuration) - Pre-requisite for the Augment Summons.
Level 7: Sacred Summons - Swap this with Augment Summons if you won't get any good standard action summonable creatures until Summon Monster IV or V.
Level 9: Augment Summons - Better summons, and a pre-requsite for Superior Summons.
Level 11: Divine Interference - AMAZING. Basically lets you ignore up to one crit/round at one spell slot per use. . . and it imposes a penalty. . .
Level 13: Superior Summons - Never get a 1 on the roll for how many lower level summons you get again! This is super good.
Pick up Str belt, Wis Headband, and a nice longspear or glaive if you follow Shelyn.
Swap Str and Wis if you want to be more caster-ish. Summons and Heals do not deal with Saves or SR. Generally, your allies will not want to save v. heals and buffs. You will have plenty of versatility with the cleric spell list. Just avoid the Save or Die type spells, your will do just fine.
Minor/Major Spell Expertise: The beauty of these is they make spells spell like abilities. Spell like abilities do not require components. If you have a spell that you use regularly and has a high material cost, or a difficult to obtain material . . . The Minor is just a pre-requisite to the major. . .
Action Economy Stuff:
Weapon Cords coupled with Metamagic Rods make the Quickdraw Feat nice. let go of reach weapon with one hand (free), quickdraw rod (Free) activate (swift), drop rod (free), hand back on rod (free). Sadly, this trick will not work on Quicken rods since you burned your swift action on the activation.
Quicken spell is always a reasonable choice at higher levels.
Although familiars are AMAZING, (essentially +2 to all skills you are trained in thanks to Aid Another, and double your actions/round since they can act independently. . . ) I am not convinced they are worth the investment of at least three feats (Skill focus Knowledge ___, Eldrich Heritage (Arcane), and Improved Familiar). They certainly are not worth 4 feats (Iron Will, Familiar Bond, Improved Familiar Bond, Improved Familiar).
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20 point build..
16 str, 14 dex, 14 con, 10 int, 14 wis, 10 cha
You don't need 18 str to kick @ss in melee, 16 is fine. I find that to get 18 in one stat is overkill unless you're an SAD class, ie, wizard/witch.
12 con is a bit low for front line work. So I would rather not have that much str but more con.
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Here's a list of the different types of clerics described in the various Cleric Guides. Since your group needs a front line fighter, yet they also need some support, it sounds like a battle cleric would be appropriate. A battle cleric can fight about as well as a full BaB martial combatant (worse when not buffed, slightly better when fully buffed), is just as good a support caster as the default support cleric, and heals about 80% as well as a dedicated healer.
Now, there are a bunch of ways to play a battle cleric. All the suggestions above are good. For example, one person above suggested a heavily armored & shielded dwarf cleric. Another person suggested dipping one level of Fighter, which works especially well for said heavily armored dwarf. Let's call this the Dwarven Brick battle cleric approach.
My personal favorite type of battle cleric is the reach cleric. A reach cleric fights with a simple longspear (or a more exotic reach weapon) and uses reach tactics. This turns out to be a surprisingly optimal combat style. Note how, in the above reach tactics link example, the PC using reach tactics gains up to a factor of six advantage over conventional tactics during combat round one. This is a good option if you like tactical play and intend to pay a lot of attention to what's happening in combat. If you dislike tactical play this may not be your best option. If your GM does not use a tactical combat map then don't play a reach cleric, period.
A Reach Cleric uses a Longspear and smart tactics to do full spellcasting while using Combat Reflexes and Attacks of Opportunity to deal out martial damage. One common example would be the Reach Cleric positioning themselves 15 feet away from the enemy and then casting a spell. If the enemy wants to close the distance, the Reach Cleric will get the attacks they didn't take during their own turn.
This means the martial aspect and the spellcasting aspect no longer conflict over the standard action. The spellcasting is done on the Reach Cleric's turn, while the damage dealing is done on the foe's turn.
If you choose the dwarven brick cleric approach I suggest you dip a level of fighter. This gives you access to heavy armor, some excellent exotic dwarven weapons (e.g. dwarven longhammer, others), and an extra feat. This will be a boost up through about level 8, but the lost caster level will hurt a bit by the time you hit 9th level. This bruiser can switch between all-offense, perhaps with a longhammer (thus also a reach cleric, technically), and all-defense with a big sturdy shield.
If you choose the reach cleric approach human is probably a better option, and probably stay all cleric with no dipping. Human gives a much-needed bonus feat, better mobility is more valuable than heavy armor, and longspear is a perfectly good primary weapon. You will be feat-starved, so carefully consider your feat plan. You won't be quite as tough in combat as the dwarven brick, but you'll be more nimble and do not give up any caster levels. Here's how Magda, a PFS Evangelist archetype Reach Cleric of Shelyn who fills the front line tank role, played at first level.
Were I to choose between those two approaches, my decision would be based on the personalities of the friends I play Pathfinder with. If my friends habitually charge the foe without considering the tactical situation, and really don't want to think about tactics, I would choose to the Dwarven Brick Cleric and would eschew reach tactics. If my friends are tactically aware, and particularly if some already use a reach weapon, I'd choose the reach cleric approach. Having several reach weapon wielders is very effective, because they reinforce each other. E.g. like a pike formation.
P.s. Whatever sort of cleric you create, consider getting good at damage mitigation. The most efficient way to heal your allies is to proactively prevent incoming damage. A shield mitigates damage coming at you. A reach weapon mitigates damage coming at you or any squishy allies sheltering in your reach shadow, because foes often choose to stay away from you rather than give you free AoOs. This effect is not mentioned in any rule book, because it's a tactical effect.