Covenant News

'Church Within a Church' Revolutionizes Ministry

PHOENIX, AZ (January 8, 2001) - Most churches would tell you it's difficult enough to program for one congregation. Paradise Valley Covenant Church (PVCC) is trying to meet the needs of two congregations within its administrative framework. So far the experiment has worked.

In this "church within a church format," one congregation is gearing its ministries around a more traditional worship service, a service designed primarily for those who have a church background. The newer congregation, composed mainly of those who are new to the concept of church, has a more contemporary, informal worship service called Crosspoint. Although youth group activities and Bible studies are open to both congregations, each congregation has its own primary pastoral staff.

"We've taken the church planting strategy of the Covenant via Dave Olson and Gary Walter (administrators with the Evangelical Covenant Church in its Department of Church Growth and Evangelism) and applied it to our setting," said pastor Pat Stark. "This is much more than just tweaking a service or starting a contemporary one."

Paradise Valley has been in existence for 16 years and is the largest Covenant church in Arizona. In 1995, after the church celebrated its 10-year anniversary, PVCC formed a long-range planning team that evaluated the ministries of the church.

From that evaluation came a new ministry goal - reaching the unchurched in and around Phoenix. To accomplish this, the evaluation team recommended that PVCC create a worship service where non-Christian people could be invited by core believers and hear God's message in a way that could be easily understood.

In April 1996, PVCC eliminated one of its two Sunday worship services and invited the current congregation to meld together in one service. The PVCC staff envisioned an outreach service format and enlisted a core group of 50 who would commit to help develop this new ministry. They agreed to invite non-Christian friends and build relationships with others not involved in the church. "We very much wanted people to have entrenched in their minds that when we started the (new) outreach service, this was going to be a completely different animal," Stark said.

PVCC hired a three-quarter-time music and program director, a part-time arts director and moved Stark from his role as youth pastor to that as the lead speaker and pastor for Crosspoint, which launched its first service in January 1997. Within a few months, Crosspoint had attracted more than 100 individuals. Growth continues with 225 in average attendance in 1998 and between 250-270 in 1999.

Since then, PVCC has added an outreach service called 242 (from Acts 2:42) to accommodate the growth. Frank Switzer, a relatively new staff intern, preaches at this newest service, which began in March 2000. The midweek service was designed for new Christians desiring more contemporary worship. It has also been a way for both congregations to meet around a common worship format.

What has made this a positive experience? According to Stark, a great deal of credit goes to senior pastor Bill Notehelfer for smoothing the process of employing two staffs for the two different congregations and helping the two staffs meld their individual roles and share the vision. "The senior pastor is the key link in the change. If it weren't for Bill Notehelfer's leadership, vision and ability to let other staff people have significant control in the ministry, this wouldn't have happened, Stark said."

Stark said that creating opportunities for the two congregations to better know each other has been critical to the transformation of the church. A key part of this step was assuring the initial congregation that their ministry was not only viable, but also valuable to the additional ministry created at PVCC.

"We have tried hard to challenge our believers to invest in serving our non-Christians and new Christians through small-group leadership, teaching and mentoring," Stark said. "We have social events that provide a chance for our folks to mix as well."

A final step for the church was remaining faithful to the ministry and not comparing one ministry to the other. A look at the PVCC web site name - www.wedontthrowstones.com - makes it clear that a judgmental attitude is something the church tries to avoid.

For more information on the "church within a church" ministry at PVCC, contact Stark at 602-992-8999.

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