Christ’s Church of the Valley

This past week I got to hang out with the guys on our senior management team at Granger and talk about where we’re going next in ministry. One of the afternoons we were in Phoenix, we took a couple of hours to tour the campus of Christ’s Church of the Valley in Peoria, Arizona and talk with CCV’s Senior Pastor, Don Wilson. Don is the founding pastor. He launched the ministry over twenty years ago, and now the church has an attendance of over 10,000 people each weekend.

After spending an hour with Don, there were two things that really struck me: Don has a clear target for who he’s trying to reach, and he has a laser-focused strategy. CCV is designed to reach men. Everything they do and how they do it has men in mind. Don figures if he can reach them, he can also reach their families. Their mission? To win, train and send. Win, train and send. We must have heard him say that a couple of dozen times. Everything they do is designed to win people to Jesus Christ, to train believers to become disciples and to send disciples out to impact the world. Win, train and send. I’m guessing everyone knows the mission at CCV.

The church has an incredible campus. It’s obvious that they were very strategic in how the campus was developed taking into consideration not only their mission but their location. Let’s face it–you have a lot more flexibility in developing campus space in Phoenix than you do in Northern Indiana. CCV has taken advantage of the Phoenix climate to create an incredible open campus where the space outdoors is just as integral to the ministry as the space in their facilities.

This weekend, if I wasn’t back home at Granger for the second weekend in our "Mad Money" series, I would have stuck around Phoenix for a couple more days to check out a service at Christ’s Church of the Valley. They have a clear mission and a focused strategy, and that makes them my "Cool Church of the Week."