What to Expect

11 am Celebration

Multicultural, Family-friendly, Spiritually Vibrant

The 11 am gathering is a new service, launched in the fall of 2016. It lasts about 70 minutes and is designed to be energetic, family-friendly, multicultural and multi-ethnic, and empowering to those who want to live more fully in the rhythms of the Spirit and the way of Jesus.

At this service, we emphasize gospel music and world music. Each week we celebrate Communion, a sacrament where all who desire to affirm grace, that they are loved without condition, are welcome to come forward and receive bread and grape juice.

People tend to dress in a variety of ways, from fancy to casual. Coffee and healthy snacks are available throughout. It’s a new and growing service, and right now about 50-75 people show up to this gathering, including many kids.

4 pm Celebration

Participatory, Inclusive, Community-Building

The 4 pm gathering is designed to be a fresh and engaging experience, especially for those uninterested in, or simply bored by, more conventional church services. This Celebration is designed to be participatory, relationship-oriented, and spiritually inclusive.

It takes place in 3 movements. The first movement is a mix of music and quality content for spiritual reflection – either an engaging message or an interview with a thought-provoking community leader.

In the second movement we break into “Encounter Groups” for 15 minutes, where you can choose from a variety of spiritual practices in a sort of choose-your-own-adventure format. Examples are: singing, yoga, meditation, making sandwiches for the street ministry, taking action on a social justice issue, lectio divina (sacred reading), silence, or discussing that day’s message/interview.

The third movement is a simple meal (gluten free and vegan options) that we share with each other as we build relationships. The meal starts around 5:00 pm (you can go then if you need to). This is meant to be an intimate service and about 25-40 people on average show up.

Children's Ministry

V&M Kids program offered at 11 am and 4 pm services

Children are very welcome at Valley & Mountain! Programming is designed and overseen by Rev. Emily Tanis-Likkel, our Minister of Spiritual, who brings together spiritual depth and expertise in childhood education. Families stay together for the first 15-20 minutes of the service and then kids are invited to join the program in the children’s space for about 30 minutes (families can stay together if they choose). At the 11 am service we have more kids so we have multiple classrooms for the different age groups. At the 4 pm service, we have just one program, centering on different spiritual education Montessori-style play stations, to make it possible for a range of ages to have meaningful experiences. We take the spiritual lives of children seriously and offer a play-based, story-centered, empathetic, liberatory form of spiritual education that moves beyond black-and-white moralism and indoctrination, and into helping kids develop compassionate ethics and a genuine spiritual imagination.

Contact Emily

Reflections

Messages and Interviews each Sunday

An engaging, relevant, provocative reflection or interview is part of both Celebrations each Sunday. We plan to provide an archive soon. For now, you can link to one of John's reflectons by clicking below (you'll be directed to a youtube page).

Listen to a reflection

Music

The 11 am service offers a world music mix, with an emphasis on gospel music. Our leader is Yasmin Ravard-Andresen, who also directs the Resistance Choir.

The 4 pm service is even more varied in terms of genre and style. We led by Andrew & Hannah Brenlan.

Interested in music? We hold a monthly Music-a-long gathering where you can learn new songs and rehearse to play or sing with the music teams on Sunday.

Celebration