As the Lead Pastor at Mountainview, Tom Santiallanes is responsible for the spiritual instruction and strategic leadership of the congregation, staff, and ministries of the church. He is accountable to the Elder Team and serves as a non-voting Elder in addition to supervising the pastoral and administrative staff. He loves people and wants to see them become more like Jesus by learning to think like him and do the things he did. Tom began vocational ministry in 1999 as a Youth Minister. He has been at Mountainview since 2003 and served as the Associate Youth Pastor, Youth Pastor, Children’s Pastor and department lead for Student and Youth Ministries before assuming the role as Lead Pastor. He loves that at the heart of our church, we are a family, and he is continually blown away by MV’s generosity and heart to make a difference. His favorite Scripture verse is 1 John 3:16, which says “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for others”. He also believes that it is important to “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are” (Theodore Roosevelt).
Tom was born in Wyoming and moved to Oklahoma at the age of 10. After attending college in Missouri, he also spent some time in Texas. He considers himself an Oregonian because he has lived here longer than any other place. He is married to Sara and they have 2 kids.