At South Mountain Community Church in Utah, the closing of one of its six campuses has created space for another campus to call home. With the closing of its West Jordan (Utah) Campus, SMCC’s International Campus, which formerly met in Draper, has moved into the space. Meanwhile, West Jordan attenders have transitioned to the South Jordan Campus seven miles away.
What became known as West Jordan was initially launched as an SMCC church plant in 2003 under the name Shadow Mountain Community Church. But 12 years later, Shadow Mountain was struggling, and, after the resignation of the church’s pastor, the board reached out to SMCC for help, says SMCC lead pastor Paul Robie. The congregation voted to become a campus of SMCC, and SMCC spent more than $100,000 on facility repairs and upgrades. SMCC hired Kile Baker as the West Jordan campus pastor in 2015.
“Three years later, the campus was again struggling, and it was decided that the right thing to do was to encourage the people at the West Jordan Campus to move to the South Jordan Campus,” Robie says. “We had just built an 11,000 square foot building about seven miles and 15 minutes-drive time from the West Jordan location.”
More than 95 percent of the West Jordan attenders, as well as a large number of former attenders, made the move to South Jordan, Robie says.
“They added a great deal of energy and excitement to an already healthy and growing campus,” he says. “The result is that our South Jordan Campus has doubled in size and now has three services with 600-plus people.”
SMCC’s Spanish-speaking International Campus is now using the West Jordan location.
“There are more Spanish speakers in that part of the Salt Lake Valley, and the move gave us an opportunity to start our worship service in the morning,” Robie says. “The International Campus, under the leadership of Alberto Lopez, has doubled in size as well.”
So, while it may look a little different, ministry continues in West Jordan.
“The building we own in West Jordan has had a few different signs out front,” Robie says. “But SMCC has had a commitment to the community and kingdom expansion there for a long time.”
Janae Rempel Shafer is the Christian Leader associate editor. She joined the CL staff in September 2017 with six years of experience as a professional journalist. Shafer is an award-winning writer, having received three 2016 Kansas Press Association Awards of Excellence and an Evangelical Press Association Higher Goals award in 2022. Shafer graduated from Tabor College in 2010 with a bachelor of arts in Communications/Journalism and Biblical/Religious Studies. She and her husband, Austin, attend Ridgepoint Church in Wichita, Kansas.
