2014 Leadership
Pastors:
Phil Foster
Deacons:
Tim Kayser,
Deaconess:
Marlys Krohse
Trustees:
Cal Hopson, Randy Ray, Craig Oney, John Pettus
Financial Officers:
Treasurer: John Pettus
Financial Secretary: Kathy Oney
Missions:
Joanne Hopson, Julie Walters
Pastors:
Phil Foster
Deacons:
Tim Kayser,
Deaconess:
Marlys Krohse
Trustees:
Cal Hopson, Randy Ray, Craig Oney, John Pettus
Financial Officers:
Treasurer: John Pettus
Financial Secretary: Kathy Oney
Missions:
Joanne Hopson, Julie Walters
This is our Church song for this year
Pastor Phil Foster
And his Family
His life verse: Matthew 6:33 (New International Version)
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well
.”Pastor Phil has been at Valley View since August of 2010. Before coming to VVBC he served as an interim pastor at churches in Western NY.
His background includes retiring from the Army Reserves and also Web Design and Graphic Design for 15 years.
He was born in the Eastern Hills of KY but lived most of his life in Western, NY (home of the Buffalo Bills!). He also loves to play fooseball, singing, and spending time with others having a cup of coffee at a coffee shop or Smores around a fire pit.
Please feel free to call him at the church or via email anytime. He would love to answer any questions concerning your faith or this great church we call home and a group of people we call family!
Sr. Pastor Phil Foster
319-364-6267
[email protected]
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well
.”Pastor Phil has been at Valley View since August of 2010. Before coming to VVBC he served as an interim pastor at churches in Western NY.
His background includes retiring from the Army Reserves and also Web Design and Graphic Design for 15 years.
He was born in the Eastern Hills of KY but lived most of his life in Western, NY (home of the Buffalo Bills!). He also loves to play fooseball, singing, and spending time with others having a cup of coffee at a coffee shop or Smores around a fire pit.
Please feel free to call him at the church or via email anytime. He would love to answer any questions concerning your faith or this great church we call home and a group of people we call family!
Sr. Pastor Phil Foster
319-364-6267
[email protected]
Pastor Phil's Life
As he tells it
I grew up in a non-Christian home and had very few Christian influences in my life. I was born in KY but grew up in NY but my mother’s family all lived in KY and that is where my Christian roots were. My mother’s father was a part-time Reverend in a small Baptist Church in Eastern KY so when my family visited about once a year with them, we would go to church on Sunday. Other than that, I had a friend that invited me to Vacation Bible School when I was a child and I really liked it but never went back after that one experience.
I was the youngest child in a family of 6 with two older brothers and a sister. Most of the influences on my life came from my siblings (who seemed to always get into trouble) and my peers who weren’t any better most of the time. I learned early on that doing the wrong things would get you an undesired response from my parents. I was the child who always did the right thing most of the time and even felt bad if I did it and got away with it. I guess I was labeled, the good kid from an early age.
My grandparents I am sure prayed for my family and I even though we were miles away. I guess they must have because as I got older, I can reflect back and see that I was somehow delivered from getting into too much trouble. As I grew and my siblings each moved out, I started experimenting and being influenced by my peers and experimented with drugs and alcohol.
Soon I was on my way to going in the wrong direction and living for the flesh. I remember doing things and not really caring much about doing those things as I had in the past. I had the long hair past my shoulders, drank every weekend and seemed to be just living and getting by as long as I felt happy.
In my Senior Year of High School a friend of mine influenced me to go into the Army with him and deep inside I just knew it was the right thing to do. I signed up and went in, leaving my days of alcohol and drugs far behind me and never looking back. In the Army I found my happiness in doing the right things again and living for something bigger than myself. It felt good to excel among my peers and to be focused on good things both mentally and physically.
While in the Army I was called to serve my country in Operation Just Cause, SA. I remember landing and experiencing something that I had never before. I prayed that the Lord would keep me and help me to do my best no matter what. I loved being a soldier and knew that I was very good but I didn’t know what experiences lay ahead in my time of war. I came home pretty much unscathed from the military conflict.
After my tour of duty at Fort Ord, CA I decided to go back home to NY. But there was a problem, during my time away my parents had divorced and there was no home to go back to.
I found my way and lived with my sister and friends over the next couple of years and seemed to be like a fish out of water. I went to Art School and earned by Associates Degree as well as joined the Army Reserves and became a Drill Instructor.
Things were going well until I met a young lady and she ended up getting pregnant. During that time I was still getting my degree from the Art Institute and for some reason, once she got pregnant she didn’t want to be with my anymore and it broke my heart. So, now I had a child out of wedlock and I was trying to understand why this happened. I was supposed to be the good kid and things weren’t working out very well.
My boss Art Passente at my part time job while I was attending Art School was a believer and I was sharing with him what was going on. I know now that he was witnessing and planting seeds in my heart at the time although for some reason I didn’t recognize it.
Months later I met a young lady who really stole my heart and I found out she attended church. I asked if I could go with her and she was very excited to say yes! Well only a short time later we started getting serious in our relationship and so we met with the pastor about wedding plans.
Over the months that the young lady (now my wife Jennifer) were together, her church loved on me and helped me to understand what it was like to be in a church family. My wife and I joined in leading the youth program and were in a Sunday school class and all the while, I felt good about myself again. But no one knew I had a son out of wedlock and about my past with drugs and alcohol.
When we met with our pastor David Johnson about having him marry us he asked if I knew if I was going to go to heaven. I said I thought so as I was a good kid and nice young man and even though I was not perfect, I did the right things most of the time. The Pastor shared the gospel truth about me not being even close to perfect and that I was a sinner (boy did I understand my falling short). And I prayed to accept the fact the Jesus died on the cross for my sins.
Before my wife and I were married, we were both baptized together in following the example that Jesus did for us. I am pretty sure it was explained to me that baptism was just what the next step in my walk with Jesus entailed and I was happy to do it. We were buried in the water in his likeness of the grave, rose out just as he did from the grave to new life being filled with the spirit. I remember learning that this made the Father in heaven happy with Jesus as well as with my future wife and me as we did it together.
My call to ministry started years before I even accepted Christ as my personal Savior. I received training in the Army Reserves in leadership as well as in being an instructor and course writer. I really enjoyed teaching and sharing with others how to live like professional soldiers.
After getting married to my wife we spent the next few years starting our family and we also enjoyed being active in the local church. If the church was open, Sunday morning, evening and Wed nights, we were there! I started singing at church instead of at Karaoke. I started teaching youth and adults instead of in the Army Reserves (although I was still active). I started doing outreach basketball and was encouraged to see unbelieving guys start to come to church.
My wife and I loved church and it was a large part of our lives. We didn’t want to go back to living for the weekend and drinking and partying as we had all the fun we could ask for in just enjoying our church family and living life with them. In looking back I can see how we were living the early church life from Acts and loving it!
Over the years I found that teaching and leading in the Army Reserves transferred well over into the church setting. Before long I became a deacon (after 7 years in my walk with the Lord) and it seemed a bit overwhelming but I had a fellow deacon who took me under his wing and showed me how to help a family through tragedy as well as disciple a unbelieving man at the church.
After about 17 years in the Army Reserves and being a Graphic Designer in the civilian world for the same time I had something strange happen. What began was a barrage of people in the church telling me that I had blessed them and they wondered if I had ever considered being in the ministry. I even had a good friend of mine who was not a believer tell me that he thought I should go into the ministry.
As I began to consider the thought of what that would mean for my family and me, it was very confusing and I thought that perhaps when I retire from Reserves and am done with doing Graphic Design for a living. I was open to the idea but had no idea of the timing that God had planned.
I received a phone call in the middle of the night and it frightened me as at the time my mother was dealing with some major health concerns and I thought perhaps she had passed away. On the phone was my brother telling me that my mother’s second husband had just died from a massive heart attack. It was a shock to hear and no one expected it to happen, he was a very healthy man and was only about fifty years old.
It was a very sad time and as I was travelling to KY to see my relatives and take part in saying goodbye to Mel (my mom’s husband that had passed). I realized that my family that had a reverend as their father, had all walked away from the Lord. I knew that I had to share at the wake and I knew the perfect story, the Prodigal Son. I did research and planned to share from the Word as well as my heart. What I didn’t know is that there was a gift for me waiting at the front of the church. As I looked at the front of the church at the start of the service there was a picture of Mel being baptized and it brought me back to the past 5 years that I had been praying for Mel that someone would reach out to him with the truth about Jesus Christ.
So I shared about what the Lord had done in response to my prayers and encouraged the church and thanked them for being the hands and feet of Jesus. Then I shared the story and my heart about the Prodigal to all my family members who had walked away from the Lord. I remember the Pastor who followed me said, “Well I don’t even know if I need to share another message after that testimony!”
In my heart I had not planned to “give a message” in the sense that the Pastor had just said but I knew I had to as I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do. Two days later my mother and I had to say our goodbyes so that I could get back to NY with my family. As I went to give her a hug my mother had tears welled up in her eyes. She said, “Phil, I have to tell you something. The Pastors wife at the church said that you’re being called into full time ministry.” My only response could be… “I know mom.” And I knew right then, that there was no turning back from the call into ministry.
I had no idea what the next step was so I just started to pray and started checking into places to go for college. I knew that if I was going to do this, I had to go to school and probably get a degree. I found a college online, Liberty University, that would give me military credits, tuition discounts, and would allow me flexibility to still work and have family time.
I also found out that I had money available to me from the Army Reserves that I didn’t know about to help cover the costs. I still had a huge uneasy feeling about all this and wanted to be sure it was the Lord leading and not me. My wife then revealed to me that she knew we were meant for ministry for about four years… I had no idea!
So I lined up the classes at liberty and had money to go, but I didn’t know if I had the time to do it all. The day to start online classes was September 7th and I went to work just like I normally would that Monday morning. At the end of the day my boss came into my office for a short meeting and had his boss with him as well which had never happened before.
As I sat there, my boss shared with me that they had to let me go from my job because they were restructuring the marketing department. This was the perfect ending and closure on my career as a Graphic Designer and the beginning of my journey into full time ministry.
Since then, I finished my Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Art which from being a Christian school, gave me a great background and base of the OT and NT and a start on theology from the Bible. I then went on to finish my Master’s Degree in Religion (MAR) and have over four years as a Sr. Pastor at Valley View Baptist Church.
There is no doubt that my 20 years in the military leadership and teaching have allowed me to be prepared to go into full time ministry along with my Bachelors and Master’s Degree through Liberty University.
My growth in Christ has been exponential in the recent years as I finished my MAR Degree online. Since then, I continue to do things like read through the Bible in a year, read disciple books with my Associate Pastor, and attend Pastoral Conferences at least every other year. I also have a prayer group at the church that meets every week which I believe to be crucial to my growth as well as for the church.
I believe for Pastors that there is always something that they are working through. Most recently I have been working through different avenues of how to present the gospel in different ways that make it clear, applicable and most importantly true to the scriptures. I have some great online and text books that are helping me to work through the process as well as peers to talk through on a regular basis. It is amazing to me how different faiths and denominations have such a diverse understanding of the scriptures and I take very serious the job of rightly dividing the Word of God as I know it is a high calling to teach and share the Truth.
My family has always been an integral part of the Ministry that the Lord has called upon my life as they know it impacts their relationship with me and I have made it very clear that they take precedence over ministry. Before going into full-time ministry we prayed together and all had to agree to follow the Lord together, and praise the Lord, we all agreed!
As my children are now growing and preparing for high school and college, my wife and I are mindful of meeting their needs and preparing them for their future lives outside our home and from under our parental guidance. We are allowing them to be challenged and grow in their own walk with the Lord and have helped them to find their own place within the church family. It has been exciting to see them come to know Jesus personally and grow in learning from the Word of God.
The future in ministry is slowly becoming my wife and I and just as how the Lord brought us into ministry, He will continue to mold, shape and move us as He sees fit. We believe that He will never leave us nor forsake us and that as long as we are in His will, we will go wherever he takes us.
Here is what you can expect on a typical Sunday morning At VVBC:
They normally have between 80-100 people on Sunday morning at the service. The dress is casual from Jeans to dresses and Pastor Phil will wear a tie once in a while because he enjoys dressing up for church but he will also just wear jeans and a nice shirt. They don't have anyone wearing full suits except for once in a great while or at weddings and funerals.
The service is a contemporary one with some hymns mixed in that are more upbeat. There is a nice mix of ages from the nursery to the grands in their nineties. It is known as a loving church that welcomes anyone and loves to greet one another during the greeting time. The greeting time usually takes about 3-5 minutes on Sunday morning so people will come right over to you during that time.
Communion is on the first Sunday of the month as well as a fellowship lunch down stairs in the fellowship hall to spend time together (food is free and smiles are plenty).There is listening devices for the hearing impaired, a wheelchair ramp into the church as well as a chairlift going to The lower level so that everyone can feel welcome and right at home with the church family.
Greeters are at the door so you should get a handshake, welcoming smile and bulletin with more information about the church when you come in.
The service is a contemporary one with some hymns mixed in that are more upbeat. There is a nice mix of ages from the nursery to the grands in their nineties. It is known as a loving church that welcomes anyone and loves to greet one another during the greeting time. The greeting time usually takes about 3-5 minutes on Sunday morning so people will come right over to you during that time.
Communion is on the first Sunday of the month as well as a fellowship lunch down stairs in the fellowship hall to spend time together (food is free and smiles are plenty).There is listening devices for the hearing impaired, a wheelchair ramp into the church as well as a chairlift going to The lower level so that everyone can feel welcome and right at home with the church family.
Greeters are at the door so you should get a handshake, welcoming smile and bulletin with more information about the church when you come in.
The Grands
The Grands are a group of church members that have been on the earth a little bit longer than the average person. They meet once a month to do or visit something of interest.
Below are some pictures of some of the things that they have done.
Below are some pictures of some of the things that they have done.
At Balltown |
At Norma's |
At Randy Ray's
A Bike Blessing
In 2012 the church did something a little bit different. They invited the
members of the Christian Motorcyclists Association and others to bring their bikes to church to have them blessed. Below are some pictures of that event.
A Block party
In June of 2013 the church had a block party and invited our neighbors and others. Here are some pictures taken at the party.
Harvest Dinner
Every Autumn Valley View has a dinner to celebrate and give
thanks to our Lord for all he has done for us in the last year.
thanks to our Lord for all he has done for us in the last year.
Out Door Baptizing
For the last two years Valley View has met at a pond at one
of our members homes and baptized anyone that wants to
be baptized and has excepted Christ as their savior. They
plan to makethis a yearly event the Lord willing.
of our members homes and baptized anyone that wants to
be baptized and has excepted Christ as their savior. They
plan to makethis a yearly event the Lord willing.
2012 |
2013 |
2015
In The Church On Jan 18th 2015 |
|
Valley View's Out Door Chapel
Valley View's Out Door Chapel was started in the summer of 2013 and the trustees had it ready for use in early summer of 2014. Below are some photos of the work that was done to get it going. It is used once in a while on Sunday for Sunday service and on Easter For a Sun Rise Service and it has been rented for weddings; if you are thinking about getting married consider this as the place to do it.
Easter Sunrise Service In The New Outside Sanctuary
Now The Cross Is Added
Sunday service at Valley View Bapltist Church
Outdoor Chapel- 7/13/2014
Easter Sunday 2015
Pictures taken of our inside Chapel on Easter
Sunday
Something to ponder...
1) God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs... For example: -the
eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days -those of the canary in 14 days -those of the barnyard hen in 21 days -The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days -those of the mallard in 35 days -The eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days. (Notice, they are all divisible by seven, the number of days in a week!) 2) God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant: The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction. No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge body--too large to live on two legs. For this reason, He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily. The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first. A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first. 3) How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation! God's wisdom and perfect order is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains. Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the rind. -Each orange has an even number of segments. -Each ear of corn has an even number of rows. -Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains. -Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number. The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather. All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundred fold all even numbers. 4) God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day. Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture, and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed! 5) The lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful way for His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life. If you try to regulate your own life, it will only be a mess and a failure. Only the One Who made the brain and the heart can successfully guide them to a profitable end. I HOPE YOU FIND THIS AS FASCINATING AS I DID. May God Bless You In Ways You Never Even Dreamed. |