Valley Real Life Church Update

Announcements

Article by Jenny Arellano, Current ICPA Executive Admin

On September 17th , 2023 with the help of Valley Real Life and the ICPA Kelly Armstrong who is supported by his wife, Brandi Armstrong and an amazing team planted Valley Real Life, Riverside in heart of Northwest Spokane, Washington. This is a campus of VRL that will be released as a plant.

Valley Real Life Campus Pastor , Kelly Armstrong and his wife Brandi Armstrong.

Valley Real Life (03) started as a small church of 125, since then it has become a multigenerational church of about 2,500 people.

Their Vision

Reaching the world for Jesus Christ, one person at a time

Their Mission
To be and make disciples of Jesus.

Their emphasis on imperfection really sets them apart. Their staff values relationship, intentionality and BEING REAL.

Their values are engrained in all the work that is done in their ministries.

Valley Real Life Staff

Valley Real Life Staff

Valley Real Life is on month 6 at the Riverside Campus.

They just completed their second Lift Group launch.

The building block of VLR model is their Life Groups. They harbor a total 55 Life groups that are available for any season on life .Their focus on life groups ensure their members are involved in their community- in their church

Derek Murphy, the ICPA Executive director, said it best . “Church is just code word for people and specifically people who are following Jesus. If you can come here leave and not know any body you are not going to church “

As of right now they have around 250 members attending church on Sunday.

They are reaching more into the community every month, meeting and exceeding expectations. As of now they are preparing for their Easter service together rallying the church to reach more friends and neighbors. Please pray for Dan Shields, lead pastor at VRL and Kelly Armstrong this season as they lead their church into Resurrection Sunday.

Cultivate Community Church Launching Sunday Sept 18th

Article by Derek Murphy

There is not one day more exciting in the life of the ICPA than launch day for a new church. This Sunday, September 18th, is one of those days. We get to see Cultivate Community Church launch in South Jordan, Utah. We are excited because new churches like this are by far the most effective way to help people who are far away from God experience and surrender to Jesus. When it comes to religion, Utah is a unique state—there are a lot of churches, but only 3% of the state attends a Christian church. This will be the first week some families attend church in their life and we’re ready to celebrate.

Dustin Hicks, Lead Pastor

Cultivate is 10 years in the making. Dustin and Glory Hicks moved to Utah from Texas to help with a church called One Community. They fell in love with the state and the people. Dustin trained under Tony Simoncini and sacrificed a lot to do so. He made almost no salary for awhile, while Glory worked full time to provide for their family. Earlier this year, the church that Dustin and Glory had invested in merged with another local church. When that happened, Dustin was unsure about whether he should step into a lead pastor role, so he joined the merger under the leadership of Sego Church. In the months following, things changed quickly for Dustin. Something started to stir in Dustin’s heart. God moved to give him a vision for the type of church that could exist if he stepped out of what was comfortable and took a step that seemed very risky. Dustin and Glory decided to accept that call despite the risk and plant a new church. Cultivate is the byproduct of that new thing God was doing in Dustin and Glory, and others responded.

The second week of May, Dustin and Glory met with 20 people in their backyard to speak to the vision God had put on their heart, and others they knew responded to this vision. You can see the launch team below.

Cultivate Launch Team Leaders

Through the summer months Cultivate met in Dustin and Glory’s basement. Week by week they packed out their house and decided earlier than expected to start holding public services at Rooted Academy. Cultivate also has 2 “house churches” (its small groups) and is looking to reach new people through those groups.

If you are interested in joining them this Sunday, here are the details:

TIME: 10am

LOCATION: 11477 South Redwood Road in South Jordan

25 Years of Faithful Service

From Derek Murphy, New ICPA Executive Director

After 25 years of service as the Executive Director of the Intermountain Church Planters Association (ICPA), Stephen Edwards is stepping down from that position at the end of August, 2022. On September 1 2022, I will become the new Executive Director. I have asked Steve to remain with the ICPA, part time, as one of my staff members. Over time, I will be asking Steve to share some of the insights he has gained over the years. I know he wants to publicly thank some of our most faithful partners from years past, especially faithful members of our Board of Directors. Please keep your eyes open for the articles that will be coming. 

In 25 years, Steve and our association of churches had the opportunity to see 27 churches planted, where more than 25,000 Christians gather to worship and hundreds are baptized every year. Steve would want me to give proper credit. It has not been all his work, it is the work of the Lord and the churches we have partnered with and planted. We have also seen 3 movements of church plants from our investment. Eagle Christian ('95) has grown itself and has gone on to launch several churches as well as 3 campuses in the greater Treasure Valley. Real Life Ministries ('98) has planted over 10 churches in Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington and Plant Utah ('16) in Utah County has seen 4 churches planted in one of the most unreached people groups in the country. 

In the last few years Steve has started some of the most important work of his life, in my opinion. Five years-ago he started a Life Transforming Group (discipleship group) with 2 Boise Bible College students and out of that group of 3 they have seen over 100 individuals actively engaged in disciple making, weekly. This meets one of the largest problems we are facing in the church today, raising up leaders. Steve is doing something about that problem and personally investing in young men who will be our future. I don’t know another Executive Director doing work like this at this level. He is doing something bold to meet our church leadership crisis.

During the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020, Steve started diving into prayer in ways that never seemed possible when he was on the road. He began prayer walking 8 miles each day in order to keep himself healthy and to sit at the feat of his Father in Heaven. Ever since I have known Steve he has said, “Every move of God starts with Prayer.” He has lead the way in prayer over every church plant in his 25 years, but Since 2020, he taken his commitment to prayer to a whole new level. He has experienced the presence of God in ways that taught him new insights into the fear and wonder of God. I watched this in real time and saw the new life inside of him. Steve is in his 70’s and I saw how real the gospel is, how it is just as relevant at 77 as it is at 17. His journey gave me hope to renew my prayer life in 2021 and start prayer walking daily because of his example. The number of people Steve prays for by name every day is astounding to me. If you are reading this article it would not surprise me if you are one of them.

I, Derek, will be stepping into the ICPA Executive Director role starting Thursday, September 1st. Along with Steve, I will be taking my ICPA role Part Time as God also uses my life to plant a new church planting church in Salt Lake City.  It has been my privilege over the past 20 years to be Steve’s friend and partner, please join me in congratulating Steve on 25 years of faithful service, doing his part to see God’s Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven. Please pray for us as we move forward together as a team to see His mission continued forward. We are praying for 100,000 souls in the next 10 years!