Valley Friends Church
                          

                                         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.)