Our History

In the fall 1982 a small group of believers started a home Bible study in South Tampa. On April 3, 1983, the first worship service was held at Plant High School with sixteen people attending. (This is why we were excited to host our 35th Anniversary Celebration in April of 2018). Richard Parker came down from Gainesville to serve as our first Lead Pastor. Around the time that Richard came, the church decided to affiliate with the Evangelical Free Church of America. 

After helping the young church get organized, Richard was called back to his sending church in Gainesville. A year later, in 1987, Paul Phair was called to be the next Lead Pastor, a role he faithfully filled for the next twenty-eight years. The church met in Gaither High School for two years and then spent a year and a half in a strip mall on Gunn Highway – changing our name from Trinity Evangelical Free Church to Oakwood Community Church in 1992.

Around this time, the Lord miraculously provided twelve acres of prime real estate in Carrollwood. On January 24, 1993, the first worship service was held at 11209 Casey Road, with 174 grateful saints gathered. The church rallied around the mission to transform ordinary people into fully devoted followers of Christ and saw the Lord fulfill this as hundreds of lives have been changed by the Gospel.

The church grew and flourished, hiring additional staff and adding new buildings in 2000 and in 2005. The vision was to  reach more people for Jesus, so a group of fifty was sent to Land O Lakes to start Candlewood Community Church in 2007.

Pastor Paul stepped down from his position in early 2016 and the Lord led Pastor Darin and his family to move down from Chicago in August of 2017. God has been faithful to Oakwood through nearly four decades of Bible-based, Gospel-centered ministry. And we remain committed to the mission of transforming people through the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Check out our 35th Anniversary Celebration for more insight into our history!