A Pentecostal Family on the Corner of I Street and Stanford Way
University Family Fellowship gathers each Sunday morning at 1125 Stanford Way in Sparks, Nevada, a low-slung building set on the corner of I Street just east of Victorian Avenue. From the outside, the address is easy to spot: this is a place where the doors open early, the greeter is already smiling at the entrance, and the worship team is warming up inside. The room reads as a Spirit-filled fellowship that is comfortable being called a family. The Ohana, a Hawaiian word the congregation has taken as one of its own, is a fitting shorthand for a place that has spent more than four decades gathering the people of Sparks around Jesus, the Bible, and one another.
University Family Fellowship was founded in 1983 by Pastor Robert Owens, who held the first services in his own back yard near the University of Nevada, Reno. What began under a tree beside a college rental is now a multi-generational Pentecostal church on Stanford Way, still rooted in the same impulse: to serve the community in love and truth. The current senior pastor is Dan Sipma. He and his wife Karen have been part of the church since 1989, when they walked into an Easter service being held at the Pioneer Theater in downtown Reno, heard the congregation singing "Our God is an Awesome God" with hands lifted, and knew they had come home.
From Pioneer Theater to Stanford Way
Dan and Karen Sipma joined University Family Fellowship at Easter 1989, taught Sunday School for many years, and eventually helped start a junior high and high school program after both of them sensed the same nudge from the Holy Spirit on the same Sunday. What they had planned as a marriage ministry turned into a decade of youth ministry, followed by mission trips to Mexico, China, and the Dream Center, before the call to pastoral ministry became clear. "Since answering the call," they write, "the trials have been many and yet each trial has served to refine us and grow us in ways that help us focus on what truly matters - sharing The Trinity and the message of Eternal Life to all."
The church's welcome is shaped by that same posture. Pastor Dan and Karen pray out loud for visitors: for wounded hearts to be healed, for those who need to be forgiven, for those who need to forgive but do not know how. "We invite you to come as you are," they write. "We pray that as you desire to draw nearer to God, you can find true peace in knowing you are a child of the One True King - you are made for Glory, you matter and Jesus truly does love YOU!" The Philippians 4:7 prayer that runs through the same welcome - "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" - is the verse they want new faces to carry out the door.
Sunday Mornings at 9:30
Service is every Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on the corner of I Street and Stanford Way, with fellowship after the service. The format is worship and the Word, with the doors open early enough that guests are greeted before they ever reach the sanctuary. Greeter Bill, who works in the security field and also plays violin on the worship team, arrives each Sunday to open up and hand out a special welcome treat to first-time visitors. He does it because 1 Corinthians 16:30 calls believers to "greet one another with a Holy Kiss," which the fellowship reads as love, forgiveness, and unity. By the time the service starts, the room is already full of that spirit.
The order of service leans into the Pentecostal tradition: extended praise and worship, prayer, Scripture, and a message from Pastor Dan or, in his absence, another pastor from the rotation. Guest and associate ministers have included Pastor Ako, Pastor Jose, Pastor Brian, Pastor Linda, Pastor Jason Sheffield, and Rev. Dr. Henrietta, each of whom has preached on Sundays over the past several years. The atmosphere is open and expressive. The people who have been coming since the Pioneer Theater days remember hands raised and voices singing together, and the practice has not changed.
The Worship Team and the Battle That Was Already Won
The worship team at University Family Fellowship is the heartbeat of the Sunday gathering. The team rehearses weekly during the week and rises early on Sunday mornings to lead the congregation in praise. They frame their ministry around a story from 2 Chronicles 20: in the middle of a battle King Jehoshaphat was told not to be dismayed, because the Lord was with him. The king appointed singers to march ahead of the army, singing "Praise the Lord, for His Mercy Endures Forever," and the Bible says the battle was won. The team's own work is to "unselfishly serve and go before in praise and worship, reminding us the Lord Our God is always with us."
The standard the team sets for itself is John 4:23-24: "the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth." Music, in other words, is not performance; it is the congregation's way of drawing near. The team's commitment to weekly rehearsal and Sunday morning faithfulness is one reason the church lists worship as a ministry in its own right, with room for vocalists, instrumentalists, and the violin that greeter Bill brings to the platform each week.
Children's Ministry: Bible Stories, Crafts, and the Love of Jesus
The Children's Ministry at University Family Fellowship is built around a Bible-based curriculum with the same arc the children's ministry leader grew up with: Old Testament stories, New Testament stories, worship songs, memorized verses, and crafts that drive the lesson home. The standing text on the wall is Matthew 19:14, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven," joined by Proverbs 1:7 ("The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge") and Proverbs 22:6 ("Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it"). The vision is straightforward: every child who walks through the door should know that they are "Precious in His Sight."
The current ministry leader, who grew up in Sunday School herself, frames the work as a legacy. "It's because of this foundation that was poured into my life," she writes, "that I am not only blessed to be a Sunday School teacher but to now be the Children's Ministry Leader." An open invitation to parents: bring your children, let the church share the Word of the Father with them, and let the next generation be built on the same truths that built the generations before them.
Youth Group on Wednesday Nights
The Youth Group meets every Wednesday from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. upstairs in the Youth Room. The teaching is built around the idea of "kingdom dynamics" - seeking first the Kingdom of God, pursuing His will, purpose, and glory, and learning to recognize the still, small voice of God in the everyday. The anchor verse is Matthew 6:33: "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
Pastor Dan and Karen came to youth ministry the long way around. They had originally planned to start a marriage ministry at the church, and the youth room is one of the places where that decade of their own lives is still being invested. Middle schoolers and high schoolers gather weekly for Bible study, conversation, and prayer in a space designed for them, and the door is open for new faces each Wednesday evening.
Wednesday Night Bible Study in the Fellowship Hall
Adults who are not in the youth room meet in the Fellowship Hall on Wednesday nights at 6:00 p.m. for Bible study. The format is open and conversational, with the same posture that runs through the rest of the church: an open Bible, prayer, and the chance to ask honest questions. Because the youth group is held upstairs in its own room, parents can drop their children and head downstairs without splitting the family up for the evening. The two rooms often let out together, and the parking lot is full of parents reconnecting with their teens at the end of the night.
Food Pantry on the First and Third Saturday
On the first and third Saturday of every month, the church's Food Pantry opens its doors from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The mission, in the church's own words, is "to serve God and His people, to demonstrate the Love of Jesus through the Food Pantry by providing food that will nourish their physical bodies as well as showing them spiritual love with smiles, prayers and hugs." The text from Matthew 14:19 - the five loaves and the two fish, blessed and broken and given to the multitudes - is the verse that hangs over the work.
To receive food, guests are asked to bring a photo ID, fill out an intake form, and show proof of residency. Volunteers are organized through an online sign-up page, and the church's framing is simple: a bag of groceries and a hug, side by side. For Sparks families stretching between paychecks, the twice-monthly pantry has become a regular stop.
Bethlehem Nights and the Drama Team
Every Christmas Eve, the courtyard at University Family Fellowship is transformed into the little town of Bethlehem. The tradition, which the church calls Bethlehem Nights, began in 2010 and has been a draw for the neighborhood ever since. From 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. on December 24, visitors walk through the gates of the village and meet a working bakery (with fresh bread to bake), a metal shop (where guests forge a Star of David), a candle shop, a candy shop, a leather shop (where children make a bracelet), a carpentry shop, a paint shop, a pottery shop, and a scribe shop where you can write your own name in Hebrew. The path leads to the manger. At 11:00 p.m., the same evening closes with the Candlelight Service, the church's traditional late Christmas Eve gathering.
The Drama Team is the engine behind Bethlehem Nights, and it carries the rest of the year as well. Each year the team rehearses and performs a Christmas play and a Resurrection play, plus several skits throughout the year, all built on scripts the team draws from the living Word of God. "We pray you have an opportunity to witness and receive one of these performances," the team writes.
Daughters of the One True King and the Men's Conference
Women in the church gather several times a year for a brunch series called Daughters of the One True King, a Saturday morning meal held at the church from 9:00 a.m. to noon. The planning team prepares the main course, and the rest of the table is built by volunteers who sign up to bring desserts. It is a chance for the women of the church to slow down, eat together, and share a season of study and conversation.
Men are invited into a similar rhythm through the church's connection with a neighboring fellowship. The men of University Family Fellowship regularly travel together to the Church of Jesus Christ Spirit Filled in Sparks for joint men's conferences and other gatherings. The same neighboring church hosts the Northern Nevada Prayer Night, a Monday-evening hour of prayer that the Sparks community gathers for together.
MasterLife, Missions, and the Wider Church
Discipleship at University Family Fellowship is structured around a MasterLife program, a small-group discipleship course that has been a part of the church for years. The program continues to mark seasons of growth for members who are ready to go deeper in their walk with Christ. Mission has been part of the church's DNA since the days when Dan and Karen Sipma were leading youth mission trips, and the church has sent teams to Mexico, China, and the Dream Center.
For visitors, the practical effect of all of this is a church that is unusually well-networked in the Sparks and Reno Christian community. The men know the men of Church of Jesus Christ Spirit Filled, the worship team knows how to plan a Christmas Eve around a courtyard full of children, and the food pantry has a rhythm of its own. There is a place to belong at almost any hour of the week.
Messages, Livestreams, and a Long Archive
University Family Fellowship keeps an unusually thorough archive of its Sunday messages. The audio and video recordings go back to 2017 and are linked under the Messages page on the church's site, with newer messages added each week. The most recent messages are typically posted to Facebook Live, and the church also distributes the audio through a podcast on Spotify. Anyone who misses a Sunday, or who wants to revisit a message from the previous year, can find it on the church's Messages page.
Visiting University Family Fellowship
The doors at 1125 Stanford Way are open early on Sunday mornings, and the greeter will hand a first-time visitor a small welcome treat before the service starts. The Sunday gathering begins at 9:30 a.m. and is followed by a fellowship time. Children are welcomed in the sanctuary, and the Children's Ministry runs alongside the main service. Dress is whatever is comfortable; the people who attend come as they are. The church phone, for anyone who wants to call ahead, is 775-359-2222.
For families with middle school or high school students, Wednesday night is the rhythm to try: Youth Group upstairs from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Bible Study for adults in the Fellowship Hall at 6:00 p.m. For anyone in the neighborhood who needs food, the pantry is open on the first and third Saturday of the month from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The Christmas season brings Bethlehem Nights on December 24, and the late evening Candlelight Service that follows. There is a place to grow here - that, in the end, is the name of the church and the point of everything it does.