“Family feel,” “patient,” and “relationship-centered” are all words that can easily be attributed to Mountain View Church in Oakdale. These words are manifested at the very core of the church, and bleed out through their community, especially as the church starts to celebrate its five-year anniversary and members begin to get excited about finally finding a building.
While Mountain View Church (MVC) is currently meeting at Fair Oaks Elementary School on Sunday mornings, with various other locations for small group meetings, events, and youth group, they now finally have a more permanent location: 7818 Crane Road.
“The area was in our hearts where ideally we’d like to go,” Lead Pastor Ron Speer shared.
The location does prove to be advantageous for both the town’s growth and because it’s still not too far from where the church is currently meeting.
Associate Pastor Clifton Curry agreed: “From day one, if we were to target the area we were hoping for, it was over there because that’s where a lot of new homes are coming in.”
MVC was officially established nearly five years ago, on Aug. 25, 2013 by a team of pastors. In the beginning, though they tried to tier their advertising to internet searches, the church mainly grew and flourished by word of mouth. This especially built the church’s relational feel. In fact, the plethora of relationships within the church became a catalyst to spearhead the property project. By keeping the funds and connections local, the process to obtain the land went smoothly.
“Our church has the opportunity to know each other really well and really be involved in each other’s lives,” Curry explained. “We enjoy having a church where it feels like it’s your family, and you know people, and you have those relationships and get connected.”
Their vision for a future church is a balance between constant growth and striving to maintain a family feel. Though the land doesn’t boast extensive acreage, a large church is truthfully not exactly what MVC is aiming for.
“We wanted this church to be kind of a flagship, and then we can start other campuses in the future,” Speer relayed.
Rather than become one huge church building, the desire to preserve the small-church and family feel is more important. Much like how small groups function as “little churches,” that’s what the long-term goal of MVC has the potential to look like.
For now, the church is content with moving on with the new property step-by-step.
“That’s how we’ve run, even from the beginning,” Speer said of the church’s patience. “We pray for things, talk about things, move in a direction, and don’t rush. If a door opens here, then we move to the next thing ... we’re always moving forward, not rushing, but we try never to stand still.”
They’re thankful for the school district for the use of Fair Oaks, but it’s not hard to see how much more freedom and availability will come of the new building. MVC loads equipment in and out of the building each Sunday morning, including instruments, sound systems, classrooms, and more. When the new cafeteria was installed in Fair Oaks, the church donated screens and a sound system in hopes to give back. While this makes Sunday mornings a little easier, the technology will stay at Fair Oaks once a building has been constructed.
Though the property on Crane Road may not see a building until the church pays off the property, the mere sign that says “Future Home of Mountain View Church” has already brought people into the church.
“The bottom line is that we’re here to enjoy our relationship with God and share our relationship with other people. The building isn’t for us to be comfortable or look good or anything else, the building is there because it’s a tool for us to help people,” Speer concluded.
For more information on Mountain View Church, visit their website at mvcoakdale.com or visit Fair Oaks Elementary on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m.
