Britt and I planted The Valley Church midway through 2024. We have SO much to do, SO much to learn, but we’re SO happy to see God moving in so many people’s lives already. Here are five different learnings we’ve been able to experience so far:

1. The Great Commission (TGC). While Britt and I both knew what TGC meant theologically, our perspective has shifted because of the need for our words to be met with action. We’ve spent hours in prayer by ourselves and with others, seeking direction from the Spirit regarding our church vision. In response to TGC, we’ve decided that The Valley Church will be ‘Christ-centred, community focused, and committed to making disciples in The Valley’. 

2. It Takes A Team. As we began the process of planting the church, we came to the realisation that we don’t need all the bells and whistles in order to host a service, but rather what was important is a space where people can connect with Christ. God doesn’t need the perfect location to meet with people! What He does want is willing hearts to create a space where He can move. We’ve been blessed with people who understand this concept too.

3. Planting Requires Creativity. Our goal is to see God’s Kingdom expanded and in order for us to do that, we knew we needed to be in the community. We’ve gone through a process of breaking down preconceived ideas and years of patterns to work out how we can truly be involved within our local community. Through brainstorming and strategy meetings, we’re coming up with non-traditional ways of doing church, and at the moment, this looks like different styles of Sunday services. Two examples of this are when we ditched a planned Sunday service in order to be a part of our annual Lilydale Fair, and the other was singing Christmas carols at the local aged care facility around the corner – a slice of heaven for both residents and staff. We’re committing to Serving Sunday’s monthly (where we physically go and practice being like Jesus) because we want to make it normal for the rest of our week to look the same.

4. His Timing Is Perfect. One thing Britt and I have experienced is that God’s timing is impeccable, however we’ve only ever experienced it in the context of our own lives. Now that we’re bringing people on the journey with us, we’re beginning to understand how perfectly God manages to hold everything together, and that His timing is clearly unmatched in their lives too. The core planting team each have their own stories of how the Spirit was calling them out of Resound Church and then stepping into The Valley Church. I can say that for everyone involved, the transition from one church to another was done gracefully, respectfully, and with complete support from Resound Church, because of God’s timing.

5. Blessing. I understand that a lot of church plants might find the startup process frustrating as there’s so much to organise before even committing to a gathering of people. But what I can say is that The Valley Church has been so BLESSED! We’ve been blessed with a complete sound system, an enclosed trailer with a huge road case for equipment, and dozens of cables, extension leads and the like. We’ve been blessed financially, with two churches giving a substantial amount of money, and one local Lilydale church giving a significant amount of money also. We’re also so blessed to be able to apply for grant money from Acts Global Churches which have a church planting vision fund. Even the building we’re in is a massive blessing: It’s got a 70-person hall, a separate kids space, commercial kitchen, disabled access, great toilets and even air-conditioning in every room. The icing on the cake – we’re only having to pay $15p/h for venue hire, right in Lilydale, VIC! 

GOD IS GOOD!