Valley Forge Presbyterian Church

VISION FOR VFPC FUTURE: AUTHENTIC, SUSTAINABLE, MISSION-DRIVEN

The Valley Forge Presbyterian Community is in a critical season of discerning a fresh and exciting vision for our future! The world is changing rapidly and the Church must adapt, lest we risk irrelevance and closure. The world may no longer need (to the same degree) the Church as we have known it as a social institution for the last centry, but the world certainly still needs the Church to make it's foundational claim: that living with love for others has the power to heal so much of that which ails our world and to make our communities stronger and more united!

Zandra Maffett, Kathy Knoebel, Eileen Wilkie, Betsy Develin, Mike Henry, Lynne Klepacki, and Pastor Tim have been working for years in partnership with key voices from outside our community to discern and recommend necessary adaptations in our shared life for the sake of maintaining an authentic, sustainable, and mission-centric Christian witness in this community unto the future.

This vision was officially adopted by the congregation on November 14, 2021 - thanks be to God! It will be difficult to implement, but we trust that it is good, beautiful, authentic, sustainable, and consistent with our mission as the Church to serve NOT the self, but the most vulnerable of our neighbors with intentional, loving actions and interventions.

Scroll down to learn more about the three major areas of focus within this vision of creativity, compassion, and sharing!

VISION FOCUS #1: ENABLING THE FEEDING OF THE HUNGRY

We envision that the Fellowship Hall level of our building will be committed in perpetuity to the operation of the Upper Merion Area Community Cupboard in order that our hungry and food-insufficient neighbors might be fed. We willingly sacrifice and surrender our ability to hold meals and programs for our own enjoyment and upbuilding in this space, acknowledging with love for neighbor a priority on the well-being of our neighbor. Because of its size, accessibility, location, and proximity to the parking lot, this location is perfectly suited to enable this invaluable and Godly work of compassion, and because of VFPC sharing space as a mission (rather than charging rent), UMACC is able to save tens of thousands of dollars.

VISION FOCUS #2: ENABLING THE HOUSING OF THE VULNERABLE

We envision that the Christian Education building on the VFPC campus will be retrofitted to house 20 apartment units for use by some of our most vulnerable neighbors. We intend to host youth/young adults aging out of foster care who are participants in the Supervised Independent Living Program of Delta Community Supports. We intend to host adults who are intellectually disabled and/or on the Autism spectrum who are participants in the Montgomery County program for persons with developmental disabilities. We intend to host local individuals and families who cannot find affordable housing options elsewhere, and who belong in our community as neighbors. As of JANUARY 2024, we have received grant funding commitments of $4,000,000, with an expectant hope that we will be fully funded and beginning renovations by mid-2024!

VISION FOCUS #3: ENABLING THE AFFORDABLE CARE OF CHILDREN

We envision that the VFPC Sanctuary will be remade into a flexible use space that can be used Monday-Friday to welcome and nurture the children of our community whose parents cannot afford traditional day-long care options. At this time of celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Valley Forge Presbyterian Nursery School, we are grateful and excited for this new opportunity to evolve and expand our capacity to care for children such that we are able to meet the needs of families as they exist today. We willingly sacrifice our sense of connection to this room as it has been in the midst of births, baptisms, weddings, funerals, and so many more of life's moments of beauty and truth. Although we envision the removal of our pews and other structures, we cannot remove the Spirit of love and compassion from the room! As people are gathered on Sunday mornings into this space, new chairs will be underneath of us as we open our hearts to God and one another!