Our History

Messiah Community Church was founded in July 2000 by Pastors Wayne and Betty Fox along with 5 other families.  Our first Sunday meeting was held the last Sunday of August 2000.

The focus was to develop a church that mirrored as closely as possible the New Testament model from the Book of Acts.

Messiah Community is a church without agendas. Pastor Wayne and his wife Betty have been through “political” church and church with agendas.  In the inception of Messiah Community they determined in their hearts that the only agenda would belong to Christ Jesus as the head of the church.  They believe the church should be a place of healing and not hurt.  This mindset is found throughout the ministry as people are encouraged to exercise ownership and to get involved.  Our pastors and leaders exercise grace and patience in every effort to help people find their place in the body.  

The goal is to grow people individually not people generally. In other words, the church was not founded to have a volume of people but to grow one individual person at a time into a fully developed powerful believer worthy of the name "saint".  We believe in the commission to make disciples of the entire nation.  The vision for Messiah Community is to fill one house at a time.  In other words, we want to help people develop their God-given gifts so they can go plant a Messiah Community in another community.  In this way we can reach our city, our state and our nation through tightly held together families of believers having Christ as the center of their hope and faith.  A community based church where the members know each other in close relationship forms a much greater bond of relationship between the believer and the Creator.     

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Matthew 28:19 (NKJV)

The teaching is Bible based from a fundamental standard aimed at developing healthy relationships with God and men.  Pastor Wayne recognized that a gap existed in many of the popular “Spirit Filled” congregations in that so much of the faith experience was based in “feelings” and emotions and not in the truth of the Word.  Messiah Community was established to be a teaching church which bases its experience on the facts of the Word of God.  The Pentecostal or Spirit Filled church experience is only as good as the metal it is made of.  Solid teaching of doctrine from the Word of God is essential to building a strong structure that cannot be shaken by human error or supernatural experience. 

The manifestations of the Spirit are allowed to operate decently and in order through the Eldership and the members of the body.  People have always been encouraged to freely exercise their gifts and to allow the manifestation of the Spirit as the Spirit wills.  This is a church where the Spirit is permitted to flow freely and where people are comfortable with supernatural experiences without allowing them to be the basis of their faith but rather the result of their faith.  Messiah Community has always been a place where miracles happen.  As one member put it, “We have had more real healings happen in this little church than any other big church I have been in.”

A social government with Elders, Deacons and Ministry Gifts all in their proper order serving the Body of Christ was established early to give the natural organization structure as well as to provide proper spiritual covering for the Pastor and the leadership.  Pastor Wayne is the visionary head but is a servant to the body of believers. In developing a healthy and safe atmosphere for people, safeguards were installed in our bylaws that allow for a "balance of power" so that Jesus Christ remains as the Head of the Church.

We determined at the onset of the church that our worship style should be open allowing all Biblical forms of expression including raising hands, bowing, dancing, clapping, shouting, and spontaneous song.  Almost from the beginning we have had live music with various instruments and original songs often being part of our worship experience. Trenet’ Worlds, who lead our first efforts into live music, set us on our way to our current model for worship.  Over the past 20 years we have had several very talented musicians who have helped to perfect our team concept of worship leadership.  We are deeply grateful for all of their efforts and impartations.  We determined to have a worship that was not focused on any one individual but on a team of worshippers that could work in unison to bring about a wonderful worship experience for the congregation.  Today we operate just that way.  A team of nameless, significantly talented people provide a great experience in the throne room of glory every week.  Our belief is that worship opens the hearts of people to receive the Word and allows God to minister supernaturally to the worshipper's heart.

In February of 2002 the church moved from The Harbour Club halls in Mt. Healthy to a location in Wyoming. God richly blessed us to give us our own facility which we believed would be a permanent home for the ministry. To get this facility with only being a 2 year old church was a miracle.  The miracle for MCC continued in the early summer of 2016 when we were gifted a nearly 22,000 sq. ft. facility in Silverton, Ohio.  This facility has provided opportunity for us to spread the Gospel of radical grace to a new area and expand the ministry.  God has richly blessed us with an amazing facility without any mortgage.

Starting from scratch as an independent church has been a grand adventure. It has been an opportunity to build something as we believe the Lord leads us without following someone else’s pattern or having the dictates of a hierarchy to tell us how to do it.  Messiah Community has been built from the ground up to follow the Biblical example from the book of Acts.  In searching for our identity so we could answer those who ask, “What kind of church are you?” the Lord gave us our calling card identity.  We are a “Relational Church”.  Everything we do is to bring people into relationship with Christ and each other as members of Christ Body, the Church.  We have made some mistakes along the way but we are always pressing toward the mark for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  

Join us as our history continues to grow under the guidance of the Lord.  God has recently given us (free & clear) a new 22,000 square foot church at 6969 Montgomery Rd in Silverton, OH.  We believe this facility will be a great opportunity to do more ministry works and expand the influence of the relational church. This is a continuing story of walking by faith.  The favor of the Lord is upon us that we might preach the Good News.

Messiah Community Church © Copyright 2000-2010