Mountain View Bible Church was officially “launched” Sept. 27, with 175 people attending.

To accommodate the expected crowd, a tent was set up outside the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Route 309, New Tripoli, which now shares its building with Mountain View.

Jeff Barbieri, church planter and pastor, said he and wife, Lorie, have started five churches around the country.

“We came up just to preach in January 2014. They asked me to come as an interim pastor for one year,” said Barbieri. “We saw there were good people here who don’t know how to start a church.”

He was extended a permanent call and began to consider building infrastructure and encourage people’s lives.

“We saw people loved the Word and just wanted to grow,” Lorie Barbieri said.

In 2014, the church was chartered and a set of core values and statement of faith were drafted. Biblical principals were laid out.

They worked on the infrastructure, set up a website (mountainviewbiblechurch.com) and developed a logo last year, all of which helped them reach out to the community.

An official church, a community launch was planned.

Some 5,000 postcard invitations were mailed to homes in an expanding area from the church location. There are 70 attendees normally, but an extra 105 attended the launch meeting.

“We were thrilled that we could touch the community,” Pastor Barbieri said.

Pastor Barbieri is self- publishing a book “Christ-Centered Living,” which will contain 25 lessons for small groups and will be used as a church text.

“We think the church is unique,” Pastor Barbieri said. “We believe the Bible is God’s Word with a message of God’s Grace.

“It is a relationship with Jesus providing a love for Him. It’s a freeing approach to be completely accepted.

“Every believer should be equipped as a follower of Christ.”

Some 90 percent of the congregants are involved in the church, as a church should not be pastor-centered.

Pastor Barbieri began seminary studies in 1983 at Northwestern Baptist Seminary in Tacoma, Wash.

“I wanted a seminary that would make me an expounder of God’s Word,” he explained. It is one of the finest schools in the country. I have a Master’s degree in divinity.”

He and his wife met while he was in the seminary.

“We are optimistic about the future,” he said, adding the church has 12 to 15 members who worked at the Twin Towers on 9/11 but for various reasons were not at work on that day.

“We hope to grow a church and would like to build in this area,” he said.

The church logo, with mountains in the background and the invitation to “Come share the view,” shows the love of the natural area and the love for people.

The theory of church planting is to always move close to a high population area, but we feel like part of a family,” Pastor Barbieri said. “People have been very kind.”

One word to describe us is “loving,” Lorie Barbieri said.

Mountain View Bible Church is nondenominational and independent.

“That is the way it was aligned under Christ,” Barbieri said.