Our History

A Quick Synopsis

The Mountain View church traces it's origins to the late 1860's, within 10 years of the time the Mormons were first sent here from Salt Lake City on the orders of Brigham Young, erstwhile head of the Utah Mormons.  According to published sources, the church in San Bernardino began just a few years after the seed was planted for a church of the Lord in Fremont.  At that time, Fremont was quite the transient community, due to the coincidence of time with the Gold Rush and the growth of San Francisco.  But, that gave the San Francisco Bay area a headstart, if only from the standpoint of people flowing into and out of that area.

On the other hand, the growing importance of Southern California, and particularly the San Bernardino area gave it a unique position, also.  Not only was San Bernardino strategically located at the base of one of the most significant mountain passes (now known as Cajon Pass), but that location was undoubtedly a principle factor in the development of the major railroad presence that has defined San Bernardino for 120 years.

A New Beginning

Around the turn of the 20th century, the church in San Bernardino ceased to meet for some time.  It is postulated that this may have been due to the growing division in the disciples of Christ, particularly as was evident surrounding the introduction of the Missionary Society (c. 1849-1865) and instrumental music (c. 1870-1890) controversies.  This unfortunate, but apparently necessary separation of those who had formerly worked and worshipped together, resulted in the distinctive identities of the undenominational church of Christ and the denominationally organized First Christian church.

Following a few years of having no undenominational church of Christ in San Bernardino, a group of charter members met in October 1908 to agreed on their intentions and began to pool their resources and abilities in order to accomplish their goal to be a simple, New Testament-based, church.  It is this reorganization that is the direct ancestor of the current Mountain View church.  Extant records from that date forward exist and are available for on-site research to qualified students.

Oversight

According to extant records, sometime prior to 1925, the church had elders/pastors/bishops (Acts 20:17-32, cf. with 1 Peter 5:1-4). For some reason, the church "lost" those elders, perhaps due to death or other cause of attrition, or through loss of qualification [1 Timothy 3:1-7, cf. Titus 1:5-9]), but in 1932 three new elders/pastors/bishops were appointed, Earl Berry, Gowan Evans and john Gravley.  Brethren Evans and Gravley, served the church as elders for 55 and 58 years, respectively.  Interestingly, several of their descendents, including children, children-in-law, grandchildren and relatives by marriage continue as members of the Mountain View church, today. 

The Meeting House

For many years, the church apparently met in a temporary facility, the Woman's Club building.  Then, in 1925, the church built its own permanent facility on Belleview Avenue, a building which is still standing and is being used by a Spanish-speaking, Iglesia Christiano (Christian Church).  For those who are interested in such things, that building is located several blocks South of 2nd street and 1 block West of Mountain Vernon, on Bellevue Avenue.

In 1946 the church built its current facility, drawing from a design which had been used by a church in Orange County.  The "foreman" of that project was Wright Randolph, then local evangelist, who pressed every detail until the building was completed.  Although building has served adequately, there were a number of mistakes made during construction, including putting all the windows in...backwards! 

--and the rest is still before us, wherever and in whatever ways the Lord may take us.