Two Sunday Mornings on Industry Way
Silver Creek Fellowship meets at 822 Industry Way NE in Silverton, Oregon, a small Willamette Valley town east of Salem. The church runs two Sunday morning services at 9:00 and 11:00 am, along with a full week of ministry for children, students, men, women, and the wider Silverton community. Its purpose statement, displayed across the campus and printed on its planning materials, reads: "Together discovering God's dream for our lives by loving Jesus, being part of God's family, becoming more like Jesus, serving in His church and sharing the good news with the world."
The Senior Pastor and his wife, Kurt and Summer Barnes, were both raised in Silverton and have made their family home here with their two children, Keegan and Kyler. Their connection to the town shapes the church's self-understanding as a community-rooted congregation that invests heavily in the next generation. The building is set behind a parking lot served by a volunteer parking team that walks guests to the door with umbrellas when it rains. Inside, a Welcome Center staffed by friendly volunteers is a first stop for anyone new, and complimentary hot coffee and tea are available before each service.
What a Sunday Service Looks Like
Both Sunday gatherings share the same format: a contemporary worship set, a Bible-based and life-based sermon, and a closing "response time." Visitors can expect the service to run about an hour. The dress code is casual - "come as you are" - and those who prefer to dress up are welcome to do so. Musicians lead the room, then one of the pastors teaches from the Bible in a way the church describes as "practical, exciting and applicable to our everyday lives." At the end of every service, musicians return for the response time, when congregants can pray, light a candle, share communion, or sit quietly and consider how to respond to the message. Stations in the auditorium represent prayer, communion, and candles - symbols of offering personal concerns before God.
Giving is presented as an act of worship, not an expectation of guests. Connection Cards passed out during services let visitors mark a "Tell me more about" bubble; a pastor follows up during the week. The first Sunday of every month is a "Meet & Greet" after each service, where newcomers can chat briefly with Pastor Kurt and enjoy snacks. The service is also livestreamed every Sunday at 9:00 am for those joining from home - through the online church portal and the Church Center app, with access to message notes, sermon audio, and weekly resources.
SCF Kids: A Major Investment in the Next Generation
SCF Kids, the children's ministry for nursery through sixth grade, runs alongside both Sunday morning services. The church describes it as "one of our highest priorities" and invests significant "time, talent, people and money" to support it. SCF Kids exists "to bring children into age-appropriate WORSHIP where they can BELONG to the family of God, BECOME more like Jesus, learn to SERVE and then go SHARE Christ in the world." The team partners with parents rather than replacing them, with the conviction that children should begin taking their place in the body of Christ "as they grow up, not when they grow up."
On Sunday mornings, families check children in at the SCF Kids station in the lobby and receive a name tag with a random family code; the matching tag stays with the parent for pickup. New families are encouraged to pre-register online so that first-time check-in is quick at a self-service station. Three program levels are offered. Nursery (0-3 years) cares for babies and toddlers in the lobby or Room 2 with sanitized toys and attendants ready each Sunday. Preschool (3-5 years) gathers during both services for Bible stories, guided activities, and lesson review. Elementary (K-6) starts together for large-group time, then splits by grade for age-appropriate teaching. A family room is available in the lobby for parents who prefer to keep their children with them.
Child dedication is offered as a way for parents to make a public covenant to raise their children in the faith; baptism is reserved for those old enough to make a personal decision for Christ, and usually happens by immersion. Summer Blast (Vacation Bible School) is a highlight of the summer for kids from preschool through sixth grade - a week of Bible lessons, crafts, games, snacks, songs, and outdoor recreation.
SCF Youth: Wednesday Nights and an Internship Track
SCF Youth, the student ministry for sixth through twelfth grade, gathers on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:30 pm for teaching, worship, small-group time, games, and prayer. Youth is described as a place where students "connect with God and others," with leaders walking alongside them through their teenage years and into adulthood. The program does not meet on November 25 and December 23 and 30. Beyond the weekly gathering, students are encouraged toward baptism, the Next Step Growth Track, serving, and (for a select group of older students) the SCF Youth internship, where they study the Bible, explore calling, grow in faith, and serve the local church.
The ministry also offers a small-group pathway for young men called Rooted, which meets Tuesdays at 6:30 pm in Room 6 (upstairs). Rooted runs during the fall for high-school-age men through age 29 and aims to give "a biblical understanding of what a man should be as opposed to what the world says." Young women's ministry includes Flourish, a Bible study for women in their twenties and thirties meeting Mondays at 6:30 pm in Room 5.
Men's Ministry and Women's Ministry
Silver Creek Fellowship organizes men's ministry around the conviction that "Christian men fellowshipping together is critical in nurturing the kind of spiritual maturity that leads to individual, family, and ultimately, church health." The men's ministry runs a free monthly breakfast on the third Saturday at 7:00 am in the lobby, with a short devotion and time for fellowship. A group called Iron Men serves the church and the community through physical projects - yard work, moving, heavy lifting - and is available to anyone in the church family who needs help. Men's small groups, including Rooted, supplement the monthly breakfast.
Women's ministry aims at "friendship, discipleship, personal and corporate growth, and the development of hearts that are readily inclined to reach out to our surrounding community." A monthly Women's Breakfast on the fourth Saturday at 9:00 am features breakfast, conversation, and an optional craft, teaching, or speaker. Term-based Bible studies run throughout the week on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays at 10:00 am in The Lodge and at 6:45 pm on Wednesdays and 6:15 pm on Thursdays in The Cabin. Recent studies have walked through Revelation, 1 Corinthians, and Women of the Bible using the Precept inductive method with workbooks. The ministry also hosts a yearly women's retreat.
Mission of Hope: The Food Pantry That Started Under a Bridge
Mission of Hope is Silver Creek Fellowship's community food ministry, born as an outreach to the homeless serving meals under the Center Street Bridge and now operating as a food pantry serving Silverton and the surrounding area. The ministry partners with Marion Polk Food Share and has distributed thousands of pounds of food. Distribution happens every Wednesday from 2:00 to 4:00 pm at the warehouse on the SCF campus at 822 Industry Way NE.
Volunteers are needed for welcoming, warehouse work, cooking, and meal serving. The pantry maintains an Amazon Wishlist for staples like pasta, dried pinto beans, and rice that can be shipped directly to the church. Mission of Hope operates under the standard USDA nondiscrimination statement and explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. Prayer is offered to anyone who comes through the line.
Small Groups on a Term-Based Model
Small groups are the primary vehicle for pastoral care and discipleship at Silver Creek Fellowship. The church describes them as "how we care for each other." The current model is term-based, with three twelve-week terms per year in fall, winter, and spring. Groups form around shared interests - Bible discussion, parenting, marriage, finances, sports, creative arts, mom's groups, and sermon-based study - and meet in homes, coffee shops, parks, or on the church campus. Anyone can join a group for a single term and try a new one next season. The fall term runs September 13 through November 22.
Group leaders are required to have completed the Next Step Growth Track and, where children are present, to pass a background check. Anyone can apply to lead a new group if they have completed the Growth Track. The Church Center app hosts the searchable online directory of groups.
The Daniel Plan, Pain to Purpose, and Health Ministry
Silver Creek Fellowship runs an active health and wellness ministry based on Rick Warren's Daniel Plan, built on the five essentials of Faith, Food, Focus, Fitness, and Friends. The current rolling program is Amen WHOLE-4, a faith-based, Bible-rooted curriculum that blends biblical truth with brain health principles to renew mind, body, relationships, and spirit. Eighteen sessions are split into Foundations (Wednesdays in early fall) and Mastery (Wednesdays from mid-September through mid-December), running 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm in the Fellowship Room.
Pain to Purpose is an eleven-week workshop held twice a year on Monday nights from 7:00 to 8:30 pm for those working through loss, trauma, or major life change. The cost is $25 and includes a guidebook; registration closes after the first meeting so a cohort can move through together.
Prayer as a Way of Life
Silver Creek Fellowship describes itself as "a praying church." Prayer requests can be submitted online through the Prayer Request form on the website or via the Church Center app; submitters choose whether to share their request with staff and pastors only or to send it to the broader Prayer Chain. The Prayer Chain is open to active attenders who have completed Next Step Step 1. A Tuesday morning prayer gathering meets at 6:30 am in the lobby to pray over the weekend's connection card requests.
During Sunday services, the response time is one of the church's defining habits: trained intercessors from the Response Time team are available to pray with anyone who would like personal prayer after the service. Online service viewers can request prayer in real time from an online host during the livestream.
What Silver Creek Fellowship Believes
Silver Creek Fellowship is a non-denominational church and a member of the Association of Related Churches (ARC), a cooperative of independent churches from different denominations, networks, and backgrounds that strategically resources church planters and pastors. The church calls itself a "Purpose Driven Church" and organizes its life around five values borrowed from the Purpose Driven vocabulary: Worship (Love Jesus), Fellowship (Belong to God's family), Discipleship (Become more like Jesus), Ministry (Serve in His church), and Mission (Share the good news with the world).
In its own statement of priorities and beliefs, the church holds that personal intimacy with God grows through prayer, Bible study, and worship; that the Bible is taught in a way that is practical and applicable to everyday life; that the Holy Spirit is available and active today, sent to help believers become all that Jesus desires; that sharing what one has found in Christ is central to the church's mission; that small groups are the primary means through which members receive pastoral care; that "every member is a minister"; and that children and youth are among the church's highest priorities. The church practices believer's baptism by immersion and offers child dedication for parents who wish to make a public covenant before God.
Leadership and the Eldership
The pastoral team is led by Kurt Barnes (Lead Pastor & Elder) alongside his brother Rob Barnes (Pastor & Elder). Both grew up in Silverton, and Kurt preaches most weeks in the current Book of Exodus series. The eldership includes Steve Tipton, who also serves as Director of Outreach & Evangelism; Jeff Davidson, who preaches occasionally; Tim Aman; and Dick Stonex. Renee Hunter directs Family Ministries, overseeing children, youth, and women's ministry strategy. Jacob Rider directs SCF Youth and Young Adults. Ashley Chaparro leads the Worship & Media area. The office is run by Brenda Geiger.
The elders and staff make themselves available for baptism conversations with children and adults, child dedications, and Next Step follow-up. Pastoral staff also pray with people during Sunday response time and throughout the week by appointment.
Next Steps: Growth Track, Dream Team, and Baptism
The Next Step Growth Track is a four-step process run in sequence. Step 1, on the first Sunday of every month, introduces the mission, history, and beliefs of the church and the path to membership; Step 2, on the second Sunday, covers spiritual habits like Bible reading, prayer, and tithing; Step 3, on the third Sunday, looks at personality, gifts, and ministry fit; and Step 4, offered quarterly, connects participants with a Dream Team placement. Completion of Steps 1-4 is a prerequisite for most volunteer teams, for small-group leadership, and for many Dream Team roles.
The Dream Team organizes every serving opportunity in the church into four families: Host Teams (Welcome, Parking, Coffee, Auditorium, Baptism, Facilities, Setup/Takedown, Safety, Events, Administration, Next Step, Welcome Center), Creative Teams (Content Creation, Online Host, Production, Social Media Engagement, Worship), Ministry Teams (Care, Prayer, Response Time, SCF Cares), and Next Gen Teams (Drama, Nursery, Resource, SCF Kids Check-In, SCF Kids Classroom, SCF Youth). Several teams are open to youth as young as 12 with parental involvement, and the Coffee, Events, Setup/Takedown, Welcome, and Resource teams welcome 12- and 14-year-olds specifically. The Safety Team, Response Time Team, and Care Team require a 21+ age minimum and a background check. Baptism is offered every Sunday for anyone who has decided to follow Christ, with a brief conversation with an elder required before a child is baptized.
RightNow Media and Ongoing Learning
The church provides its attenders with free access to RightNow Media, a video library of more than 6,000 Bible-based resources accessible on phones, tablets, computers, Roku, and Smart TVs. Invitations come from media@rightnow.org, and account setup is done through the church's dedicated link. The Church Center app also hosts event registration, small-group sign-ups, giving, the connection card, and the prayer request form - effectively serving as the digital front door for the church.
The Growing Together Building Campaign
Silver Creek Fellowship is in a capital campaign called Growing Together, with the stated goal of raising $1 million in additional gifts above regular tithing and borrowing $3.5 million to fund a new building. The campaign's framing: "As long as someone within driving distance of our family is still living outside of God's perfect dream for their lives, we must continue to grow and make room for new people." The vision is to expand ministry space for children, youth, the food pantry, and other ministries; gifts to the campaign are tracked separately on giving envelopes, through online giving, and by check. Regular tithes and offerings remain the main operational funding of the church.
Stories From the Congregation
The church collects and shares long-form stories from its people. The Thomas family found their church home at SCF after a long stretch away from church and now describe a small group that "feels like family" and a sense that every prayer has been answered "tenfold." The Bullock family credits the church for stability after loss - Jon describes the SCF community as a chosen family. Rachel's story tells of a last-minute decision to join a Samaritan's Purse DART medical mission to Ukraine and the ripple effects of obedience back in Silverton. Mark Hunter's testimony traces a relocation from Arizona through an RV in Silverton to staff work at Union Gospel Mission. These stories, video testimonies, and the Storyteller Team are part of how SCF invites newcomers in.
Online, On Demand, and Across the Week
For those who cannot attend in person, Silver Creek Fellowship operates SCF at Home, an online weekend experience that streams live at 9:00 am Sundays and remains available on demand through the YouTube channel. Resources for at-home worship include the message notes, the YouVersion Bible App, an online Prayer Request button, candle and communion instructions, and links to RightNow Media. Those who want to follow along with the current preaching series can do so on their own at scf.tv.
Throughout the week, the campus hosts a steady rhythm: Monday Women's Study and Young Women's Flourish on Monday; Tuesday morning prayer, Tuesday Women's Study, and the Rooted young men's Bible study; Wednesday's packed slate of ladies' studies, the Amen WHOLE-4 program, the youth group, and Mission of Hope food distribution; Thursday evening ladies' study; and monthly men's and women's breakfasts on the third and fourth Saturdays. A live prayer team is on call throughout the week, the office is open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, and giving is available online, by text ("GIVE" to 844-713-3140), or by mail to PO Box 8, Silverton, OR 97381.
Silver Creek Fellowship describes itself in five sentences: "We do this by loving Jesus, belonging to God's family, becoming more like Jesus, serving in His church, and sharing the good news with the world." Everything on Industry Way - the auditorium, the SCF Kids wing, the youth room, the warehouse where Mission of Hope distributes food, the offices where the pastors pray - is meant to bend toward that single mission.