SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP SERVICE
Quite
often, the first impression our guests have of Orchard Valley Christian Church
is what they discover about us when they step into a Sunday worship service. The
first thing you may notice is that we have a congregation full of children, youth,
and adults of all ages who place a high value on being a "come-as-you-are"
church. It doesn't matter what you know, bring, or wear to OVCC, as long as you
bring a heart receptive to God. Everyone is welcome here! The second thing you
may notice is that we place a high value on worshipping God in a way that's personal,
truthful, authentic and contemporary. Nobody should have to be anyone but him/herself
to worship God. The third thing you may notice is that we place a high value on
teaching the Bible in a way that is accurate, honest, easily understood, FUN,
and relevant in addressing the real life issues we face today. (Did we also
mention, "fun?") Last, but not least, those who visit us often say that
we're among the friendliest churches they've ever visited! Come and see if these
impressions of OVCC become yours as well. Our worship service runs from 9:00 to
10:30am, followed by a time of fellowship and refreshments. Our children are invited
at 9:30am to
attend their respective classes.
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION / CHILDREN'S MINISTRY
At
OVCC, we are very excited about the quality of our children's ministry. Not only
is it important to teach spiritual values to our children, but we believe that
our teaching must be done effectively. Recent church-wide studies have shown that
traditional church methods of teaching the next generation are not working. Over
75% of children walk away from their faith after they leave home. To us, this
is unacceptable. Realizing that teaching mere information does not address the
real life issues of our children, our CE program is built around the strategy
that church leaders and parents must partner together to move from an information-based
ministry to an influence-based ministry. The goal of our Christian Education program
is to assist families in learning how to raise up a new generation who will influence
the world, not be influenced by it. Come see how OVCC does children's ministry!
Our children's ministry program is held on Sunday mornings at 9:30am. (The children
are led to class from the service.) Our weeklong Vacation Bible Camp is held at
the end of July.
YOUTH GROUP MINISTRY (JUMP)
Among
the strengths of OVCC is our very active youth ministry, affectionately known
as J.U.M.P. (Jesus and Us Ministering to People) This ministry is divided into
a Junior High (6th thru 8th grade) and Senior High group (9th thru 12th grade)
and meets at church every Friday night at 7:30pm. OVCC lives by the philosophy
that our youth are not the future of our church but are the "now" of
our church where our students, through group discussions and active service, are
trained to become the influential people God desires them to be. (This teaching
philosophy is called "praxis," where learning comes by practicing virtue/truth
instead of gaining mere head knowledge.) In addition to meeting on Friday nights,
JUMP gathers on Sundays for worship and enjoys activities throughout the year.
These activities include ice cream socials, recreation nights, dinner outings,
Praise Hula dancing, drama teams, camping trips/retreats, VBS, participating in
worship services, and service projects like caring for the world's hungry children.
If you are in Junior High or High School, come join us and make friendships that
will last a lifetime! If you have any questions, please contact Joe Castillo,
our Director of Student Ministries:
HOME GROUP MINISTRY
We have a dynamic small group ministry called Home Groups. At OVCC we like to say that we are not a church with small groups, but that we're a church of small groups. We value our Home Groups to this degree because we believe that the place where life-change and friendship-building happens best is within the context of these small and intimate weekly gatherings. Imagine a place where you can go each week where it's safe for you to meet new people and be accepted and loved for who you really are; where you can grow deeper in your understanding of God and yourself in relationship to Him; where you can learn how to apply God's timeless truth to the difficult, real life issues we face in life. In a region like the Silicon Valley where families are inundated by hectic lifestyles, we're pleased that over 75% of our adults are involved in a home group. As a church family, we've declared war against the kind of excessive busy-ness that sabotages what we want most out of life: deep and satisfying relationships. We invite you to learn more about our home groups that meet throughout the valley. Currently, we have groups in San Jose, Campbell, Cupertino, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, and Fremont.
SPORTS MINISTRY
The purpose of our Sports Ministry is to promote fun and fellowship between the church members and their invited friends. (Read: Absolutely no skill, experience, or age requirements are needed!) The various sporting events are designed to be a low key venue for church members and guests to have a great time as they grow to know one another. These events, held about every other month, include flag football, softball, basketball, golf, tennis, soccer, ice skating, and even ballroom dancing lessons. Tennis and soccer clinics have also been offered by various church members. Please check our online church calendar for our next sports ministry event.
CHURCH FAMILY OUTINGS
Of course, when we start building and enjoying friendships with one another at church, it increases our desire to find more reasons to spend time together. In addition to our sport outings (as mentioned above), we have fellowship activities throughout the year. In the spring, we go Strawberry picking at Gizdich Ranch, followed by an outing at the beach (with games for the children). In the summer, we spend a weekend camping out in the majestic redwoods in the nearby Santa Cruz mountains. In the fall, we host our huge Ohana Luau dinner at the Campbell Community Center (with entertainment worthy of island hospitality!), and in the winter we host a Christmas dinner at the Saratoga Community Center. If you want a taste of OVCC, please join us for any of these events! On top of these quarterly events, we enjoy a fellowship hour every Sunday after morning worship where we gather with friends as we enjoy great tasting coffee (our coffee loving elders insist on that!), finger foods, and watching our children to play on the playground equipment nearby. (Ahhh, the good life!)
MOTHER'S SUPPORT GROUP (MSG)
Our
MSG Mother's Support Group is a group designed especially for mothers of young
children. We meet once a month (typically the last Saturday of the month) for
brunch, fellowship and Bible discussions with an emphasis on mothering and how
to manage this important and crucial time in our children's lives. We are a small
group of women who are great cooks, have practical experience in raising children
in the Lord, and can pray for one another and help each other through the questions
that come with raising children. Informally, several of our mothers go out for
coffee each week simply to chat. It is our hope that as we grow as mothers, our
children will also grow spiritually closer to God by our parenting influence.
KNITTING MINISTRY (HAWK)
H.A.W.K.
stands for Happy Asian Women Knitting.?Actually, you don't have to be happy, Asian,
or even a woman to hang out with us. For that matter, you don't even need to know
how to knit! All skills levels are welcome. (We also crochet but HAWK&C makes
a lousy acronym.) You can bring your own projects, or see what projects we're
doing and learn. It's just another excuse to get out of the house and enjoy one
another's company and make new friends, right? We meet at church on the second
Sunday every month. If you want to see more about the type of projects HAWK does,
visit www.happyasianwomenknitting.com.
LIBRARY
As
OVCC places a high value on learning, we are proud of our library, which is actually
quite extensive for a church our size! We offer both Christian fiction and non-fiction
books for all ages, magazines, along with Christian music on CDs, and videos and
DVDs. For the children, we have a dedicated book section for beginning and primary
readers as well as a video/DVD collection of VeggieTales, Donut Man, Storykeepers,
etc.??You can also request CDs of our sermons and DVDs of church outings. For
those serious about Bible study, we have a well-stocked reference section and
have access to Pastor Curt's personal library. Every summer we organize a Summer
Reading Celebration for all ages with awards given for the number of books read.
Please come in and browse!
MISSIONS MINISTRY
We've listed this ministry last because our aim is to be more than a church with a missions program. Instead, we are in the process of moving from being a church with a missions program to being a missional church. We feel that our church's identity is to be understood not merely as senders but also as being a sent people into the world where we daily live. This paradigm shift allows us to recognize that the mission field is right outside our front door instead of thinking that it's "out across the ocean somewhere." Yet, this is not saying that we're not engaged in overseas missions. Currently, we're in active partnership with missionaries in China, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Paraguay. Several of our members are also involved in the JEMS Special Camp ministry to the developmental disabled. In addition to supporting these ministry workers, OVCC supports opportunities for our members to participate in Christ's Great Commission through short-term mission projects. If you want to understand more about what we mean by being a missional church, find the link to Pastor Curt's downloaded sermon, "From Sending To Being Sent" in the sermon section of this website.