Just off N.E. Jacksonville Road in northeast Ocala, Oak-Griner Baptist Church has anchored the spiritual and civic life of Marion County for more than a century. The congregation traces its roots to 1915, when fifty Christians began gathering in the Griner family barn during the First World War. Today that barn has been replaced by a campus with a sanctuary and ballfields, but the pioneering spirit the founders carried into their very first meetings has not faded. The church keeps a packed weekly schedule that begins on Sunday morning, runs through Wednesday-night programs for every age, and extends out into the surrounding community through a monthly food pantry that now serves about one hundred local families.
From the Griner Family Barn to a Marion County Campus
Oak-Griner's story begins in 1918, when a small group of Christians committed themselves to ongoing fellowship in Marion County and started meeting each week in the Griner family barn. Those meetings have continued without interruption ever since. The barn was eventually replaced by what the church today calls a beautiful campus, complete with baseball fields and a sanctuary. The original gathering of fifty has grown into a body with a reputation for first things: Oak-Griner hosted the very first AWANA ministry in 1994 and continues to host local baseball games on its fields for the surrounding community.
The church is Southern Baptist by conviction, and the congregation is a principled gospel presence that, while distinctly Baptist, is always looking for new ways to share the gospel and make Jesus known in Marion County. That posture shapes everything the church does, from how it preaches on Sunday morning to the way it plans a Wednesday-night program for a kindergartner, a teenager, and a retiree in the same building.
Sunday Mornings in English and Spanish
Sunday is the anchor of the week at Oak-Griner. Bible study for adults begins at 9:15 a.m., giving the congregation a more intimate hour to work through Scripture in smaller groups before the gathered worship services start. Two services then meet simultaneously at 10:30 a.m., one in English and one in Spanish, so that the bilingual identity of the church is visible from the moment worship begins.
The English-language service gathers in the main sanctuary. The Spanish-language service is the heart of a sister congregation called Iglesia Ebenezer, a church-planting work led by the church's Spanish pastor. Children's church runs during the morning worship hour for ages three through fifth grade, and childcare is available for babies through three-year-olds so that parents can take part in the service.
Wednesday Nights for Every Age
When the school year is in session, the church's Wednesday-evening programming lights up three rooms at once. At 6:30 p.m. the children's wing fills with Club 3:16, a program for three-year-olds through fifth graders that combines solid Bible teaching with crafts, games, and snacks. Down the hall, the youth room welcomes students in sixth through twelfth grade for their own gathering. Across the building, adults settle in for an hour and a half of Bible study that runs from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Adult Bible Study actually meets twice a week. In addition to Wednesday nights, the same study resumes on Sunday mornings at 9:15 a.m., right before worship. It offers a chance to explore the wonders of Scripture together with the broader Oak-Griner family, and the consistency of the schedule makes it easy for newcomers to plug in on whichever day fits their week.
The Oak-Griner Food Pantry
For more than two decades, the Oak-Griner Food Pantry has been one of the most visible ministries of the building to the surrounding neighborhood. Each month the pantry distributes free food to about one hundred family units, and volunteers pair the groceries with prayer and spiritual care.
Distribution runs on three Tuesdays each month: the second and fourth Tuesdays from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and the third Tuesday from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. for those who cannot come during the workday. Appointments are required, and the pantry currently serves residents of zip codes 32113, 34470, 34475, 34479, 32617, and 32686. To schedule, callers reach the pantry line at 352-629-2395 on Mondays to reserve a Tuesday slot.
Iglesia Ebenezer, the Spanish-Language Congregation
Oak-Griner's Hispanic ministry is organized as a separate congregation sharing the same campus. Iglesia Ebenezer meets for its own Servicio en Español at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, and its identity as a church-planting work is central to its leadership. The Spanish pastor and church planter leads the congregation with the explicit goal of establishing a self-sustaining Spanish-speaking body, while still enjoying the facilities, staff, and resources of the parent church.
For anyone who has wondered whether Oak-Griner is simply an English-speaking church that translates a few songs, the answer is no. Iglesia Ebenezer is a parallel congregation with its own worship gathering, and the church encourages Spanish-speaking neighbors to consider it their church home rather than a satellite program.
What Oak-Griner Believes
The church's statement of beliefs is unusually thorough and mirrors the historic Baptist confession of faith article by article. The church teaches that the Holy Bible is God-breathed, entirely trustworthy, and the supreme standard for Christian life and doctrine. There is one true and living God, infinite in holiness, who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit without division of being.
Christ is confessed as the eternal Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and fully God and fully man. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, died in the place of sinners, was raised in a glorified body, ascended to the right hand of God, and will return personally and visibly to judge the world and to complete His redemptive mission. The Holy Spirit is honored as fully divine, the one who inspired Scripture, illuminates truth, regenerates sinners, baptizes believers into the body of Christ, cultivates Christian character, bestows spiritual gifts, and seals believers until the day of final redemption.
Salvation is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and it covers the whole person across regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Christ. The church also confesses the historic Baptist convictions about the security of the believer, the priesthood of all believers, the autonomy of the local congregation, and the two ordinances Christ left for the church: believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper.
Marriage is described in biblical terms as the lifelong covenant union of one man and one woman. The office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture, while recognizing that both men and women are gifted for service in the church. The statement also affirms the separation of church and state, religious liberty for all, the right of conscience, and the duty of Christians to seek peace, oppose racism and greed, care for the orphaned and helpless, and contend for the unborn.
Preaching That Walks Through Books of the Bible
Anyone browsing the sermon archive can quickly see the preaching diet at Oak-Griner. The church moves book by book through Scripture, exposing whole congregations to extended series rather than hopping from topic to topic. Recent series have included walk-throughs of the Gospel of Mark, the early chapters of Acts, the life of David (under the umbrella title Growing Through Conflict), the Sermon on the Mount material in Matthew, and an extended study of the solas of the Reformation under the title In Christ Alone.
Individual sermons carry titles that suggest a careful, expositional pulpit: What is Spiritual Blindness in three parts, The Prophet Killers, The Unveiling of Jesus, A House Divided Cannot Stand, Recipe for Rest, The Hidden Treasure, and The Suffering Servant all appear in the most recent rotation. Doctrinal messages on the church itself sit alongside evangelistic ones like The Call to Evangelism, Proper Evangelism, and Are You Moved with Compassion, reflecting the congregation's stated emphasis on making Jesus known in Marion County.
The combination of structured series and clear doctrinal series also makes the sermon archive a useful entry point for newcomers who want to know what kind of teaching they will hear on a given Sunday before walking through the door.
Men's, Women's, and the Team That Holds It Together
Two auxiliary ministries round out the week. Women's Ministry gathers for monthly meetings that vary in format and topic, and Men's Ministry meets on Monday nights at 6:00 p.m. for弟兄们 who want a regular, peer-oriented setting around the word.
The pastoral and ministry team is small and identifiable. Matt Campbell serves as lead pastor. Héctor Valdivia Valle leads the Spanish-language work as Spanish pastor and church planter. Nick Mims directs the student ministry that meets on Wednesday nights, while Carey Grant oversees the children's wing and Club 3:16. Wes Grant leads the congregation in gathered worship as worship leader. Together they reflect a church that has organized its staff around its actual weekly life: a Sunday service in two languages, a Wednesday night for every age, and a food pantry that opens its doors three Tuesdays out of four.
Joining the Story
Oak-Griner's stated mission is to meet the needs of Marion County by making Jesus known in Marion County, and its stated vision is to see Marion County full of passion, empathy, and grace. From a barn in 1918 to a bilingual congregation with a sanctuary, ballfields, a food pantry, and a Wednesday-night program running three tracks at once, the church continues to pursue that mission in the same pioneering spirit that brought its first fifty members together in the middle of the First World War.
Visitors who want to see it for themselves can stop by the campus at 6422 N.E. Jacksonville Road for Sunday-morning Bible study at 9:15 a.m. or for worship at 10:30 a.m. in English or Spanish. Those who want to support the work financially can give online, and anyone interested in serving can sign up through the church's volunteer portal.