Our church began as a Thursday evening Bible Study in the home of Charlene Stone in early 1986. In addition to Charlene, the earliest attendees were Roberta Stone, Doug and Connie Keup, and Gene and Dolores Harmon. The Harmons were instrumental in locating and bringing this small group together.
Since the Temecula/Murrieta area was without a congregation of the Church of Christ, the idea to begin a new church was an early vision of this group. The Bible study grew and was attended by advocates from the Hemet congregation like Mr. and Mrs. Dale Sexson and Mr. and Mrs. Ted Burton.
On May 4, 1986, the first Sunday church service was held in the Murrieta Elementary School auditorium with 76 worshippers in attendance. The lesson that day was delivered by Dale Sexson. Coordinating the service was Rob Stone and leading singing was Jeff Henry. Four Sundays later, Tom Begin, now one of our Elders, was the guest preacher.
Guest speakers continued to serve this fledgling congregation during the remainder of 1986 until December. At that time Mark Guy began to preach on a regular basis, even though he already had a full-time job. Late the following year, Peter Mostert, a former missionary to South Africa, started guest preaching and, in April, 1988, became the regular preacher for the congregation. At first this was in addition to another job he held in the Escondido area. With financial assistance from the Bell Trust and the Escondido Church of Christ, Peter was hired as our first full-time minister. He and his wife Leslye moved to Temecula in May, 1989, with their two children, Peter, Jr. and Adrienne. Peter continued in this position for nearly seven years, leaving in 1996 to work with the Yucaipa congregation.
In September of that year, Doug Cole, previously the youth minister at the Culver Palms congregation in Los Angeles, became our second, full-time minister. Doug remains in this role today.
During the first four and a half years, the church was led by a men's committee. In January, 1991, Richard Husband and Douglas Keup were installed as the first Elders. Tom Begin and his wife Jeanie moved to the area in 1994. In November of that year, Tom was added as the third Elder. In April of that same year, the first Deacons were selected. They were: Leonard Beitz, Howard Erikson, Rusty Garbett, Gene Harmon and Bill Sheppard.
Over the years, we have met in several temporary locations:
- Murrieta Elementary School in Old Town Murrieta
- An insurance office in Temecula
- A building on Diaz Road in Temecula
- A theater/office complex on Ynez Road in Temecula
- An industrial building on Enterprise Circle North in Temecula
- Shivela Middle School on Lincoln Avenue in Murrieta
From the beginning, this congregation had the vision of building a church facility of our very own to be used as a tool in the evangelizing of the Temecula Valley. A building fund was established soon after we began meeting. We also began a tradition which continues to today: We have a special offering the first Sunday of every month to fund our building and expansion programs.
In 1997, we purchased five acres of land on Lincoln Avenue in Murrieta on which to build our facility, and on January 14, 2001, we broke ground. Construction was completed eight months later, and we celebrated our first Sunday service on September 16, 2001. Our new facility includes a 440-seat auditorium, a fellowship center, kitchen, nursery, offices and 14 classrooms.
Because our area of the Temecula Valley was originally referred to as simply Rancho California, during the early years of the church, we were initially established and later incorporated as Church of Christ Rancho California. Subsequent to the Town of Murrieta’s incorporation and our becoming permanently established in our new building, in December of 2002 the church’s name was officially changed to Murrieta Church of Christ.