In a broad sense, God has called the church to reach all peoples and all tribes throughout the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus saves us and then sends us into missions.
Jesus has called us to:
1. The gospel (loving our Lord)
2. The culture (loving our neighbor)
3. The church (loving our brother)
As it pertains to Valley Fellowship Church and our specific ministry here in the Walton, Peru and Logansport communities, the leadership of Valley Fellowship Church clearly believes that God has directed, super- naturally provided facilities, and given his church a clear target of which we are to reach.
In one sentence, we believe God has called Valley Fellowship Church to aggressively pursue the un-churched, non-believing age demographic of the eighteen to 40 year old young adult.
Although a person of any age is welcome and will find a place at Valley Fellowship Church, We have a special burden to meet the growing needs of the young family that our ever changing culture puts upon them. The majority of people in this age group have spoken out. In a study published in a book called Unchristian, a survey of un-churched think that Christianity is out of tune with the real world choices, challenges, and lifestyles they face.
In fact, 75% of those surveyed said, present day Christianity could accurately be described as old fashioned, and seven out of ten believe the faith is out of touch with reality.
Researcher George Barna gives four insights into why church attendance is in decline:
1. People avoid church because they perceive church life as irrelevant.
2. They have vivid memories of bad personal experiences with churches.
3. They feel unwelcome at churches.
4. And they lack a sense of urgency or importance regarding church life.
Unfortunately, many churches are like the restaurants where the service is lousy, the atmosphere is uncomfortable, and the food is bad. Too many churches are to busy answering questions no one is asking. A quote I came across recently sums up the problem:
“It has taken the church 2000 years to make Jesus, the most compelling attractive person who ever lived and walked the face of this earth, boring!”
What is the result of this?
People are leaving the church in droves.
There are over 3000 churches that close their doors every year!
Battle Cry, a ministry to youth states the following, very startling message:
If the trends of the recent years continue, only four out of 100 young people that are in the church today will be attending a church when they hit their late twenties. 96 out of 100 of our young people will walk away from the church when they leave home.
So, can anything be done to correct this trend?
In his book, “Who Stole My Church?”, Gorton McDonald states;
“Churches that refuse to change to meet the needs of an ever changing culture will most probably be out of existence within ten years.”
It has been said, the most important decisions you will make in your life will do with what you will or will not change in your life.
The leadership of Valley Fellowship Church is committed to making the necessary changes in the way we do church in order to make worship and the study and application of God’s word interesting and exciting.
The church must never compromise or attempt to change the message of the gospel.
Our goal is to creatively engage the current culture with the life-changing message of the gospel of Jesus Christ without compromising the message of God’s word.
God has miraculously provided for our church the facilities of Sangralea Valley in order to accomplish this vision.
Everyone craves a cause to fight for. We love to be part of something that is making a difference
I invite you to give your life for the greatest cause of earth – the cause of Jesus Christ and his church.
I believe that the most exciting and productive days of our church history are just around the corner. Will you reposition yourself by committing to this cause?
The un-churched and un-saved in our community are waiting for us to get to it!
Come, join us as we reach our generation for Christ.