Featured Church Plants

MarkLee_VantagePoint_PictureVantage Point

Moving from a church plant in 2003, Mark Lee started a position as a young adult pastor at Diamond Bar Evangelical Free Church thinking it was time for him to learn from a bigger church and more experienced pastor. He thought his church planting days were over.

At Diamond Bar EFC, Mark met Tom Lanning, another staff member who would eventually become his worship leader. Both noticed many of the people from the church moving out to a newly developing area of Los Angeles known as Eastvale. As the land was being developed into houses, parks and stores, they recognized there was a need for new churches as well. With only a handful of churches in Eastvale at the time, it was evident God was moving them to start a new church for a new community.

However, their vision was not to plant just another church. They began to seek God’s heart for VantagePoint Church, not drawing a diagram of their own master plan, but rather by asking God this question: Can a group of people doing simple acts of kindness really change the life of an entire community? They envisioned a church that didn’t simply gather for Sunday worship, but one that would mobilize itself to make a difference in the life of its community.

Since its beginning, the group of people making up VantagePoint Church have passed out over 10,000 bottles of water, washed cars, painted local schools, fed the homeless, brought down the price of gas, adopted teachers and taken down Christmas lights, all as free services to show God’s love in tangible ways.

Their proudest moment yet came, not with the 414 people that attended the VantagePoint Church Easter service in 2008 or the 2,000 people that came out for the Easter Egg Hunt. God’s vision became much clearer when the church celebrated its first baptism. Seven people shared their new found love with the Lord–two of them having received a free bottle of water before they ever received God’s free gift of eternal life.

Mark Lee was honored with the 2008 EFCA Church Planter of the Year award at the EFCA Leadership Conference in St. Louis.

Watch Video