Getting to know Valley Friends Church....
How does one describe Valley Friends Church?
I suppose we could start at the beginning. VFC was a church plant in
1986 by Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends Churches, an organization
that covers Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The Society of Friends, or
Quakers, is the context for understanding VFC. That might
be confusing because the history of Friends has been varied. You
can find Quakers that follow fundamental Christian tenets and those who
don't. There are Universalist/Unitarian Friends, there are Protestant
Friends, Anabaptist Friends and even Zen Friends. Northwest Yearly
Meeting
has it's roots in the Evangelical tradition.
What does that mean?... Well, at the risk of being
stereotypical, it means we believe in the basic Christian doctrines of
the Trinity, the Inspiration and Authority of the Scriptures (Old and
New Testament), the Deity of Christ and his Humanity. We believe that
salvation is found only in him, through his death and resurrection. We
believe in the Virgin birth, the work of the Holy Spirit, the Fall of
man, the importance of the Church, and much
more. (You could look at our section:
The Storehouse for a growing picture of these things). Though VFC has it's
foundation in the Evangelical tradition we have an Anabaptist, rather
than a Protestant flavor, if that helps at all. And, we are a
small group, somewhere around 50, who gather together.
What's important to us? Well, we want
our daily practice to match our belief system. We want to conform to
Christ and not the pattern of this world. We want to become like
him, as we repent and follow him. In fact, we believe the will of God is that we become like
him in this life, slowly duplicating his character, finding confidence
in our 'changing'. We believe this 'changing' is what life is all
about. We also believe that he has given us everything we need to
overcome our old nature by his grace. And that life is a progression of development, a mutual growing
together into what he wants us to be, which leads us into what he wants us to
do. We believe we change as we invest ourselves self-sacrificially into
those around us, either to encourage others to know him, or to stand
with them as they become like him. And, we desire to give
ourselves fully to the work of the Lord.
Logistically, as a local church, we have chosen not to purchase
a building, but rent so that our funds can be more directly used in the
ministry of the Gospel, not burdened with building maintenance. Our
staff is bi-vocational, our government is formed by a plurality of
leadership. We try not to begin programs and then recruit workers to fill them.
We attempt to
nurture ministries from the heart of our people, supporting them in what
they are assigned by God to do. Sometimes our people work individually,
other times as teams. In any case we experiment in the ministry to
see where God is leading. Sometimes we seem to fail, feeling as if
we're obstacles to God's work rather than vehicles for a new life.
Other times we seem useful in his hands, which can be very encouraging.
But in the end, all we can do is be sensitive to what he wants and act
on it. There's no failure in trying, in learning and in understanding what we
couldn't see before. Our heart is to become a people of kindred spirit with our
Father.
In general at VFC, we shy away
from entertainment in worship. We try not to draw the masses to our
meetings, but would rather connect with people one on one. As we
gather, we seek to create an environment where people can come to
repentance, an environment where we can begin to develop the life of Christ as
individuals, while joining together as a community. We all need a
springboard from where we can be released into a world that needs us.
For that reason, we try to cut through the fog of American
religiosity. We seek him so that he may ferret-out our blindnesses
which cling to the superficiality of our old nature which tells us lies,
lies which we are naturally desirous to believe.
We want to
live a quiet life, mind our own business and work with our hands.
We attempt to avoid the monastic and the popular, especially the school
of thought that attempts to run the church as a business. We encourage
each other to draw lines in our personal budgets so that we know when
enough is enough, therefore creating excess. Then out of our excess we
share with
those in need, drawing from our time, emotions and economic
resources. Within these acts of kindness we attempt to process the Gospel
with those who are responsive, trying to ever be on the look-out.
We realize there is no short-cut in processing the Gospel, it takes time. We
try to make sure our lives are 'interruptible', so that we have the time
to help when that window of opportunity opens. We also prepare
ourselves to be spontaneous and flexible, trying to keep up with what
the Holy Spirit is doing in lives all around us.
These are a few things, a brief
sketch if you will, of who we are; a people who were designed by him, to be fulfilled with him, in a life abandoned
to him. So, what is Valley Friends Church? I guess we are a
people effected by our history, challenged by the ministry at hand and
inspired by our future. We are a people trying to live in the present, behind the scenes,
incarnate with those in need, wishing to point everyone we can to Christ.
Perhaps this is partly who we are, and partly who we want to be. May you
find Him as well, he who is life itself.
If you have any questions please
contact us at:
Questions@valleyfriendschurch.org
(By the way, we won't add you to a mailing list if you e-mail us.)