How does a new church begin? Most will agree that a church begins with a vision and the people to make the vision into reality. In the special case of Oconee Presbyterian, a new church began with a vision bequeathed by a congregation of the past to the Oconee County of today.

West View Presbyterian Church met on Sunday mornings on the Atlanta Highway, across from the present-day location of Sam's Club. It was a small church, in the style of intimate country churches of memory. Margaret Moore, who taught Sunday school at West View Presbyterian for several years, recalls the atmosphere as "delightful". She states, "You'd get up and report things to the congregation right from the pew." Former member, Joy Wootton, still treasures pleasant recollections of "the atmosphere of sincere faith" at West View, and of the people she knew there. Of course the area was different in West View's prime, but there were already signs of the staggering growth and change taking over Oconee County. By 1987 the congregation of West View Presbyterian Church was very small, and it became clear to the remaining members and to the Reverend Martha Courie that the church could not continue as it was.

Although the structure of West View Presbyterian still stands in that unlikely spot, the transformation of the surrounding area is testimony to the pace of change that left it behind. It is a familiar story: a church that is home to many people begins to dwindle in number until the remaining members have to say goodbye. What is less familiar perhaps, is the success of this particular congregation in making certain their church lived on. Those dedicated members, few of whom survive today, voted to dissolve West View Presbyterian and to place the property in legacy with the Northeast Georgia Presbytery in trust for a church to come in Western Oconee County. Fittingly, the last service at West View Presbyterian was on Easter Sunday, 1989. Reverend Martha Courie envisioned "a death and a resurrection."

This resurrection had been a long time coming, but it arrived. In October, 1997, the Northeast Georgia Presbytery committed to the development of the Oconee Presbyterian Church. In January, 1999, the New Church Development Task Force was formed and began to search for an organizing pastor. West View Presbyterian was at last going to have its final wish fulfilled. What was needed was someone willing to begin from scratch and to build a church without benefit of a sanctuary, a church secretary, or even a congregation.

Reverend Pamela Driesell was the person they found to take on this worthwhile challenge. Following her graduation in 1998 from Princeton Theological Seminary, Pam Driesell moved her family to Oconee County. Speaking at Pam Driesell's installation, the Reverend Martha Courie stated, "although Pam does not yet have the traditional furnishings of a church, she has a dream." She has a deep sense that God has called her to plant a church." Pam's dream, along with a sense of excitement and commitment to church building, is what Pam Driesell would claim as her greatest qualification for the job. The founding of a church is a long, uncertain and arduous process - one that few pastors rush to undertake. Why would someone do it? Pam recalled her professors at seminary asking the very same question - but, to her it always seemed to be "a job people would line up for." She was attracted to the idea of people getting together with a dream and working to make it a reality. She also saw a new church as an opportunity for trying innovative things in worship and outreach - a chance for all people to contribute.