Clergy profile

Doug Posey When Doug Posey felt the calling to plant a church, he looked at the fertile soil where his own roots were nurtured. Three years later, Living Oaks Community Church is flourishing.

"The Lord prompted me to plant a church," Posey said.

In June 2004, Posey began the seedling church in a gym at Borchard Community Park in Newbury Park. In February 2006 an 18,000-square-foot Newbury Park warehouse at 1033 Business Center Circle was converted into a church, and a 10,000-square-foot administration office was opened nearby.

Now close to 900 attend on the weekends, with about 1,700 calling Living Oaks their church, Posey said.

"A vision has become a fully functioning church with a wide range of ministry for the whole family," Posey said.

Sunday celebrations are at 9:15 and 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Midweek activities include child care for children from birth to kindergarten, with Bible study classes for firstgraders to adults from 6:45 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays. A separate high school group will begin on Thursdays.

Posey was born in Dearborn, Mich., but was raised in the Conejo Valley after his family moved to Thousand Oaks in 1963.

Both he and his wife, the former Wendi McPherson, graduated from Thousand Oaks High School, he in 1972.

The 6-foot-8-inch teen liked to play basketball. In fact, he used a basketball scholarship to Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, formerly Southern California College, to earn a bachelor's degree in religion/ biblical studies.

He returned to Thousand Oaks after he graduated in 1976 and asked a church he'd attended as a young man if he could teach Sunday School. Because of his qualifications, he was offered a position as the youth pastor, he said.

He held that position in three Conejo Valley churches over nine years.

He later earned a master's in Christian education at Talbot School of Theology, a graduate school of Biola University in La Mirada.

For more than 14 years, he served as a teaching pastor and pastor of adult discipleship at Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village.

Posey, who was ordained in 1992, said he became known at Calvary for his strong commitment to teaching with Biblical integrity.

"I teach verse by verse. I don't skip controversial or not politically correct topics- I teach these topics with love- and I feed the flock on a well-balanced diet of the whole word," Posey said.

Posey and his wife live in Thousand Oaks with their three children.