A Lutheran Anchor on Calaveras Boulevard
Mount Olive Ministries sits about a mile east of Interstate 680 on East Calaveras Boulevard in Milpitas, tucked between the hills and the South Bay's fast-growing tech corridor. The congregation describes itself with a simple phrase: connections that matter. From the sign out front to the work of its many volunteer-led ministries, that phrase shapes the rhythm of the week. People gather here on Sunday mornings for worship and Bible study, on Monday nights for Scouting, on Wednesdays for men's Bible study and food distribution, and on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday mornings and evenings for a fitness program that doubles as a faith community.
Mount Olive is a member congregation of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and belongs to the Synod's California - Nevada - Hawaii District. The mission of the church, in the words of the congregation, is "connecting people to Jesus Christ, one person at a time." That focus shows up not only in sermons and small groups but also in a Community Life Center that opens the building to the wider Milpitas community for receptions, conferences, and respite afternoons for children with special needs.
One Sunday Service, Two Worship Styles
Mount Olive currently offers a single blended worship service each Sunday at 9:00 a.m. in the sanctuary, also available as a livestream through a Zoom-based service that can be joined from a computer, tablet, or phone. The same stream continues into the adult Bible class that begins around 10:30 a.m., with remote participants able to speak and be heard in the room.
The blended service weaves together two musical traditions. The traditional style is organ-led and built around the great hymns of faith and the Lutheran heritage of worship. The contemporary style is led by a worship band and features modern songs drawn from artists such as Hillsong, Elevation Worship, and Vineyard Music. Recordings of the praise band - including songs like "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)," "10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)," and "Revelation Song" - are available through the church's Live Worship Music podcast.
A typical order of service includes a confession and absolution, a responsive Psalm, readings from the Old Testament, epistles, and Gospels, the Nicene Creed, prayers and the Lord's Prayer, a sermon, and a closing benediction. The Lord's Supper is celebrated on the second, fourth, and fifth Sundays of each month, with the Body and Blood of Jesus understood to be truly present in the bread and wine. An audio system carries the service into the nursery for parents of infants and toddlers, and a soundproof viewing room is open to anyone whose child needs a quieter space.
Grace First, the Bible Always
Mount Olive teaches the historic Christian faith as it has been confessed in the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. The congregation belongs to the Lutheran tradition rooted in the Reformation, and the central doctrine is grace. Salvation, the church teaches, is a gift received through faith in Jesus Christ. The acronym GRACE - God's Riches at Christ's Expense - captures the heart of the message: there is nothing a person can contribute to earning it. Ephesians 2:8 - 10 is a recurring touchstone: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith."
The Bible is held to be the Word of God, communicated through forty writers across roughly 1,600 years and therefore without error or contradiction. The doctrinal writings of the Lutheran Church, gathered in the Book of Concord, are regarded as true and correct expositions of Scripture. The two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, are practiced and emphasized. Baptism is offered to "all nations" - which the church reads as including infants and children - and the Lord's Supper is celebrated as the true presence of Christ in, with, and under the bread and wine.
Worship is understood as a two-way experience. God communicates love and forgiveness through Word and Sacrament, and the congregation responds in gratitude through prayer, song, and the offering of their lives. On the end times, Mount Olive takes an amillennial view, in line with most Lutherans: Jesus will return at the end of time, his millennial reign began at his resurrection and ascension, and the church's energy is best spent on kingdom work rather than speculation.
Children, Youth, and amp'd Ministries
Children are a visible part of life at Mount Olive. Kids' Sunday School, called J.A.M. (Jesus and Me), meets after the worship service at about 10:30 a.m. in the Education Wing for children who are at least three years old and potty trained. Lessons use Bible stories, songs, and art projects to walk through themes such as Jesus as the light of the world and the call to love one another.
The Nursery Room is set up for children from birth through age four and is staffed by volunteers during the education hour and other events. The soundproof Viewing Room next to the nursery lets parents keep small children with them while still hearing the service.
For middle and high school students, amp'd youth ministries exists to meet young people where they are, invite them into a relationship with Christ, grow them in God's Word, and encourage them to share their story. amp'd meets through J.A.M. Sessions on Sundays from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Older youth have traveled on summer mission trips, and the church has a long-running vacation Bible school program with annual themes such as Kingdom Rock, Shipwrecked, Cave Quest, Everest, and Roar!
Scouting on Monday Nights
Mount Olive is the charter partner for three Boy Scout units that meet on the campus every Monday evening at 7:00 p.m. Cub Pack 102 serves boys in first through fifth grades, Boy Scout Troop 92 is for male youth 11 through 17, and Venturing Crew 92 is a co-ed unit for young adults 14 through 21. The church describes Scouting as a way for families to grow together in fun activities and to shape young people into citizens of good character.
Body & Soul: Where Faith and Fitness Meet
One of the more unusual offerings at Mount Olive is Body & Soul, a faith-based fitness program that has been part of the church's ministry for many years. Body & Soul is a national organization established in 1981, and the Mount Olive chapter runs Power Strength classes for both women and men in the Multipurpose Room. Workouts blend strength training and stretching, use contemporary Christian music, and include prayer. All fitness levels are welcome, a certified instructor leads each class, and new students can try a class for free.
Three weekly sessions are offered. The Monday 9:00 a.m. and Friday 9:00 a.m. classes are available on Zoom, and the Tuesday 5:00 p.m. class is offered both in person and on Zoom. Classes run year round, and participants are encouraged to join at any time.
Men's Ministry and Wednesday Nights
The men's ministry at Mount Olive is built around an ordinary conviction: that men grow when they are connected to other men of faith. A mid-week Bible study meets on Wednesdays from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in the Church Library, led by Roger Rehse. The men also gather for periodic Saturday activities in the Multi-Purpose Room, with Dan Sievert as the point of contact. A tradition of men's retreats goes back at least to the early 2000s.
On the first and third Wednesdays of each month, the same building serves a different purpose. Mount Olive hosts a Second Harvest of Silicon Valley food distribution from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. Anyone in need of food support can come to the campus on a distribution day to enroll, and Second Harvest reports that one in ten people in Silicon Valley receives food through the network. Volunteers are always needed.
Connecting Hearts: Women's Ministry
The women's ministry at Mount Olive is called Connecting Hearts. Its purpose is to reach out with the Gospel of Christ to all women, to connect them to Jesus and to one another through caring relationships, and to serve the community and the world. The ministry recognizes that the women of Silicon Valley lead full and busy lives and aims to develop connections that matter in the present moment.
Connecting Hearts gathers women around Bible studies, prayer, meaningful worship, and special events. The women also collect mites throughout the year, supporting mission projects in cooperation with Lutheran Women in Mission of the CNH District. Periodic retreats and Saturday gatherings have been a long-running part of the calendar, and Body & Soul fitness classes are open to women as well as men.
Life Groups Across the South Bay
For people who want something more than Sunday morning, Mount Olive runs a network of Life Groups that meet in homes throughout the South Bay during the week. The groups are designed to build real relationships, deepen faith, provide support in times of crisis, learn Scripture in a comfortable setting, and discover the power of prayer. Specialized groups gather around shared interests and stages of life, including families with children, empty nesters, married couples, men's and women's groups, mixed adults, young adults, and groups organized by neighborhood.
Missions from Milpitas to Kyrgyzstan
Mount Olive understands mission in concentric circles: close to home, across the state, and to the ends of the earth. The church's most far-reaching partnership is in Kyrgyzstan, where it helps reach the Dungan people, a virtually unreached group, by building friendships and maintaining a summer English program at a local school. Tom Taylor is the contact for those who want to be involved.
Closer to home, the church supports a steady list of practical efforts. The Teen Challenge Paper Products Drive collects toilet paper, paper towels, feminine products, and napkins for the Teen Challenge NorWestCal Nevada recovery program. The Family Giving Tree, the Milpitas Food Pantry, the Back to School Backpack Drive, a sock drive for the homeless, a coat drive, and a Thanksgiving food drive round out the local mission calendar. Mount Olive also works with other Milpitas Christian congregations through Milpitas Cares on respite events and campus beautification projects at local schools.
Beyond the immediate area, the church highlights support for international relief and development organizations including World Vision, Samaritan's Purse, Living Water International, Blood Water Mission, Compassion International, Food for the Poor, and SmileTrain, and it participates in the Advent Conspiracy movement.
Care Connections and Respite for Special Needs Families
Care Connections is Mount Olive's outreach to people in the congregation or the wider community who are going through a time of need or crisis. Coordinated by Apryl Roberts, the ministry organizes meals and services for those facing illness, bereavement, or other life challenges. Team members sign up to help as much or as little as their own circumstances allow, and the coordinator matches offers of help with specific needs.
Respite events take that same spirit of care and turn it outward to the broader Milpitas community. Held two or three times a year on Saturday afternoons from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., respite gives parents and caregivers of children with special needs a much-needed break. One or two volunteers are matched with each child, ages 5 to 14, for an afternoon of one-on-one fun. The program is also open to siblings of special needs children. Special training is required for volunteers, and families interested in registering can contact the church office.
Online Church, Podcasts, and RightNow Media
Mount Olive takes seriously the distance between Milpitas and the rest of the world. The livestream at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time, accessible by computer, tablet, or phone, carries both the worship service and the Bible class. A call-in option from a mobile or landline phone works for those who want to follow the audio only. Zoom dial-in numbers and a meeting ID are available for those joining without the app.
Sermons are archived online, with recent messages preached by Vicar Silas Perez of Good Shepherd Hayward and Patrick Wilson, Scouting America Chaplain. The sermon archive runs through forty-six pages of messages from a long list of guest and vacancy preachers. A separate podcast feed carries the Sunday Bible class and a third feed shares recordings of the worship band's contemporary songs, all covered through a CCLI streaming and podcast license.
Every member of Mount Olive also has free access to RightNow Media, an extensive video library often described as a kind of Netflix for Bible studies. The collection includes content for kids, youth, parents, married couples, college students, single adults, and working professionals, and small groups are encouraged to draw from it.
Community Life Center and Renting the Building
The Community Life Center is Mount Olive's most flexible space, a 5,000-square-foot multipurpose room that can be configured into two rooms by a floor-to-ceiling operable wall. The room seats 250 in theater format or 200 at round tables, is supported by state-of-the-art sound, video, media, theatrical lighting, and satellite broadcast systems, and connects to a commercial, restaurant-style kitchen. Eight configurable stage sections and ten breakout rooms in an adjoining wing make the building well suited to wedding receptions, dinners, fund-raising events, conferences, musical performances, training events, and theatrical productions. Volleyball and basketball courts with bleacher seating and a computer-generated scoreboard round out the setup.
Individuals from the greater Milpitas community, non-profit organizations and churches with their own 501(c)(3) designation, and members of Mount Olive and other LCMS congregations are welcome to inquire about renting the facility. For-profit businesses cannot be accommodated because of the church's tax-exempt status, and no organized acts of worship that conflict with Mount Olive's beliefs are permitted. All events are subject to church approval.
Giving, Leadership, and the Year Ahead
Giving to Mount Olive can be made through the offering plate during worship, through automatic giving via the Vanco Mobile app, or online through Vanco. The church also continues to participate in Thrivent's Simply Giving program.
Mount Olive is currently in a pastoral call process, with Pastor John Gross - a retired LCMS pastor who previously served parishes in Torrance, Roseville, Mammoth Lakes, and San Luis Obispo - serving as vacancy pastor on Saturdays and Sundays. Guest preachers and visiting vicars, including Vicar Silas Perez and Patrick Wilson, fill the pulpit during the interim. Day-to-day ministry is supported by staff member Lachele Auvigne, and the church office is open Tuesday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Mount Olive's hope, stated simply, is that anyone who walks through the doors - in person or through the livestream - will find here a secure rope, a rock to lean on, and a place to feel connected.