This coming Sunday, October 26th, is Owen Valley Christian Fellowship’s (OVCF) 21st anniversary. OVCF is the church I have had the privilege of being the pastor of since November of 2005. If you do the math, you will figure out that the church was just over a year old when I came. Down through the years people have asked me if I started the church. My stock answer has been, “No, but I sure feel like I did.” Let me explain. 

In 2004 there were several people who were part of another church in town who were disgruntled with several things, things that were never going to change. One serious breech was when the old church decided to cut back on and withhold mission giving. Struggles with leadership structure loomed large.  Another struggle was with the old adage of “We never did it that way before.” While some wanted to move forward and try new things, the old guard was saying absolutely not. The transition from a much-loved and long time pastor to his successor was not going well. A new building was rejected by the old guard. One expressed it as “There are no stain glass windows. I’m not going there on Sunday morning.” (Another reason the church is not a building, but the people). There were more, but I will leave it at that. 

After butting heads for some time, a group met to discuss a new church fellowship. IMHO even though I am against church splits, sometimes it is necessary. This one was.  The meeting spawned OVCF. It had humble beginnings. They settled in at the sports complex, which had a distinct smell. Rented office space. And no pastor. They eventually asked the “succession pastor” from the old church to be their leader, but after about 3 months he said, “He wanted out. Not acrimoniously. He had lost his heart for preaching. He is back in the pulpit now. 🙂 

Long story short: after 9 months of itinerant people filling the pulpit, they asked me (and Jo) come to Spencer. How I heard about Spencer and ultimately applied here, is another story in itself. We came to meet the people in September and I preached for them on September 11, 2005. Just over 2 months later we moved here to begin what has been THE MOST EXCITING AND SATISFYING ministry I have ever had.  That first year was filled with meetings and dreaming and forming a Mission and Vision Statement. (It has been revised several times since then).  We bought the current building in 2010. Have remodeled it. Added a youth addition. And now stand on the cusp of opening our new addition which includes a worship area, new nursery and a meeting room. All done in cash as God has blessed. We have been saving for 7 years to finally get to this point. Besides God’s faithfulness, there has been one other constant. Diana, the church secretary, started the same time as me. 

I close with this: “To God be the glory great things He has done.” I hope you have enjoyed reading a little bit of our history. There is more. I’ll share it down the road.