The history of Mt. Olive Ministries spans back to 1913 when God impressed upon the people of the White Oak Community to begin a church. Mt. Olive’s humble beginnings would lead them to begin meeting in a converted farm building. The ministry joined the Church of God movement in 1919 and continued to grow both spiritually and in number. By the mid 1930s the congregation had outgrown its facility and began its first building project. However, only thirteen years later they had outgrown their first building and began another building campaign. This building remained the home of Mt. Olive until 1979 when it was outgrown once again and another building capable of seating 450 people was built.
Gary W. Sears was named senior Pastor of Mt. Olive in August of 1990. In the past, both spiritual and physical growth had defined Mt. Olive, but that which was to follow the next three years was beyond expectation and unprecedented. During this time, Mt. Olive experienced some of the greatest growth in its history. This came as a result of a fresh encounter with God and a vision to see people “come home” to a relationship with Christ. Despite adding another service to Sunday’s and other attempts to accommodate our growing church family, each service was packed over capacity creating the need for additional space.
In 1994, Mt. Olive constructed its new and current sanctuary just yards away from the previous one. Subsequently, another Sunday morning service was added, the Family Ministries Center was constructed, the SAM’s building was purchased, and the previous sanctuary was converted to our current children’s facility.
It is doubtful that those who saw our beginning could have imagined who we would grow to become. Could anyone have believed that Mt. Olive would become such an impacting ministry, reach beyond our boarders to more than seven countries, or play a key roll in beginning more than ten new churches around the world? It is because of the faithfulness of God and only to his glory that we have become who we are today.