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What Kind Of Church Is This?

    Orcutt Christian Church is not a building – it’s a community of people who gather together to learn from Jesus Christ and to follow him in daily life. We do this in many ways, but it all centers around God’s word the bible. We believe that the bible is the inspired word of our Creator God and it contains everything for life. Not least of all, it brings us to know Jesus Christ, the Son of God - the one person who is qualified to save us from the penalty and power of sin.  We sincerely feel that every believer who worships with OCC is an Minister of Reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).

    Our greatest joy in ministry is to see people involved in intimate relationship with God. The word church in the New Testament simply means a gathering of called out ones. Therefore, our Gathering becomes the expression of our love and appreciation to God for all that He does in our lives as we walk with Him. We then involve ourselves in study opportunities to get to know God better. Finally, we love each other by reaching out to the world around us with this message of hope. As the worship, study and fellowship opportunities grow at The Gathering, it would be a joy if you would join us in worship. Please come and see what God is doing.

Bro. Archie Miller, Preaching Minister

What Must I Do To Be Saved?

Acts 16:30 (TLB) 30  (The Jailer) brought them out and begged them, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

We must believe. The first words out of the mouths of Paul and Silas were, Acts 16:31 (NASB) 31   They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."  Thus, a mere belief in God will not suffice. Neither will a mere belief in Jesus suffice, for Paul and Silas said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” We must recognize the authority of Jesus as Lord and acknowledge Him as the risen Christ. Clearly, our salvation is conditioned upon our belief in Jesus.

We must repent. Granted, Paul says nothing specifically of repentance to the jailer, but the account does tell us that Paul and Silas Acts 16:32 (NASB)
32   And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.  Jesus taught that repentance is essential: Luke 13:3 (NASB) 3   "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.  On the day of Pentecost, 33 A.D., when over 3,000 men were gathered in the temple, the first gospel sermon was preached.  The Results?  Acts 2:37-38 (NASB) 37   Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" 38   Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus, to include repentance in the conversion of the Philippian jailer is consistent with the teaching of Jesus and Peter.

We must confess. We include confession in the conversion of the Philippian jailer for the same reason that we include repentance. Though Acts 16 says nothing of confession, Paul and Silas “spoke the word of the Lord to him.” Paul writes in: Romans 10:9-10 (NASB) 9   that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10   for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

We must be baptized. Jesus said it: Mark 16:16 (NASB) 16   "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.  Peter said it: "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38)

And that is exactly what the Philippian jailer did after Paul and Silas “spoke the word of the Lord to him”. Baptism is the point at which our new life in Christ begins:  Romans 6:4-6 (NASB) 4   Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5   For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6   knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

   We do not wish to leave anyone with the impression that this is all that is involved in our salvation. In Romans 6:4-6, Paul wrote that baptism is the point at which our new life in Christ begins. What we have considered in this brief article is how one becomes a Christian. Once we have become Christians, it is time for us to walk in newness of life - rejoicing in the salvation of God, as the jailer rejoiced, and putting our wills to death so that God may now be glorified in us.

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.  —C.S. Lewis

Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

          —1 Corinthians 4:2

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.-Peter F. Drucker

Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. -Jerome, A.D. 340-420

To get the full flavor of an herb, it must be pressed between the fingers, so it is the same with the Scriptures; the more familiar they become, the more they reveal their hidden treasures and yield their indescribable riches.-John Chrysostom, A.D. 347-407

The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New -Augustine, A.D. 354-430

All troubles of the Church, all the evils in the world, flow from this source: that men do not by clear and sound knowledge and serious consideration penetrate into the truths of Sacred Scripture. - attributed to St. Theresa of Avila, A.D. 1515-1582

Our Mission

To reach the unchurched in the Orcutt area  [Mt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8]

To mature into the image of Christ  [Eph. 4:12-14]

To serve our community so God is given the glory  [Mt. 5:16]

To spread the gospel beyond our community  [Mt. 28:18-20]

Our Ministry

The congregation is shepherded by a team of Elders, assisted by a Board of Directors.

Our Staff      Our Men      Our Women

Our History

   The Orcutt Christian Church came into being in 1957 when 15 or 16 members of First Christian Church saw the need of a Restoration Movement congregation down here in the “Y” area, where the road south branched - one road going to Los Alamos, and another going to Lompoc.  They met in a garage on Elizabeth Street in Santa Maria for over a year. Dr. Don Jarman, who was the minister at First Christian church at that time, shared that this was an area of pig farms, and the folk in Santa Maria dreaded when the wind shifted and brought the stench north.  These pilgrims were looking into the future and visualized houses, loving families, churches, and schools.  

   The Orcutt Christian Church congregation was established in November of 1958 on a former chinchilla ranch to serve the southern Santa Maria area. Robert Stockberger arrived in September of 1959 and became the first located minister.  

   On August 7, 1962 the congregation went through the process of becoming a State of California 501(c)(3) incorporation [EIN # 952577218].  The former chinchilla farm was reconstructed into our present Sanctuary.  What had been the ranch house became the Parsonage,.  Later a fellowship hall and office were constructed as an add-on to the parsonage.  Then the parsonage became our kitchen and prayer rooms.

   The Orcutt Christian Church family has grown and shrunk and grown as the military situation ebbed and flowed, and the local economy changed.  The congregation presently runs around 30+ worshippers per Lord’s Day.

   We are connected with the oldest mainline Protestant movement founded on American soil, the Christian Church (Churches of Christ). Many people are confused because many of our churches simply go by the name "Christian Church", a sort of plain label, generic title. But there are over two million believers who adhere to our beliefs in the United States.

   There are over 30,000 congregations of the independent Christian Churches / churches of Christ with over five million individual members world-wide. The numbers and sizes of congregations vary geographically and they exist in every state of the union and in 109 other countries.

   We Christians have always followed a theology which challenges people to think for themselves and get involved in loving God by serving others. Our only creed is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We are dedicated to making Jesus of Nazareth known to the world as the Christ of God. We wish to invite the world to the Lord's table, and take the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day.

   Our roots take us back to the Reformation spirit of the European Renaissance of the 14th and 15th centuries. Early leaders such as William Tyndale, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Jacob Arminius lamented the fact that the established church had become burdened with tradition and hindered by hierarchy and abuses of power. They sought to reform the church and bring it closer to Christ’s intention.

   The modern form of the American churches of Christ traces back to the Restoration Movement of the early 1800’s. Influential leaders at that time were Barton W. Stone of Kentucky, Alexander Campbell of Virginia, “Raccoon” John Smith of Kentucky, and Walter Scott of Ohio. Convicted by Christ’s prayer for unity in John 17:20-23, these individuals returned to the Scriptures to see what the church was in its beginning and moved to “restore” the essence of the early church in modern times.  We are Believers ... in Unity ... Living under the  Authority  of The Bible.  Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone were dedicated to returning to the “church,” the “primitive church in the Bible.”

   Since God has vested all authority in Christ (Matthew 18:18), and since Christ serves as God’s representative today (Hebrews 1:1,2), it is our conviction that only Christ has the authority to say what the church is and what the church should teach. Because the New Testament sets forth Jesus’ instructions to His disciples and the apostles’ instructions to His church, it serves as the basis for our religious teaching and practice.

  The Old Testament should be a part of every Christian’s life. It sets forth many examples of who God is and how He relates to humanity, and it looks forward to the coming Savior. Nevertheless, it is the New Testament which gives instruction for living under the covenant of grace brought by Christ.

Ministers of The Orcutt Christian Church

Robert Stockberger  …  9/1959 - 5/1963

W.R. McDowell  …  8/1963 - 7/1964

Roland Bond  …  8/1964 - 4/1968

Richard Bloodworth  …  7/1968 - 10/1970

Herbert George Horton, Jr.  …  1/1971 - 10/1974

Kevin Don Levellee  …   8/1975 - 5/1977

Wayne McKellips  …   9/1978 - 7/1979

Rodger Elliott  …   8/1979 - 10/1981

James VanWormer  …  4/1982 - 1/1984

Charles Fairbrother  …  5/1984 - 6/1997

Archie Miller  …  7/1997 - Present