Anniversary Sunday (2000)
Tom Shrader marks the ninth anniversary of East Valley Bible Church by tracing its origins to a small gathering in 1991 with no building, budget, or plan—only a commitment to Scripture. He walks through the four non-negotiables of Acts 2:42—apostolic teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer—and shows how those have shaped the church's distinctives, including expository teaching, active worship, small groups, and weekly communion. The purpose statement he anchors everything to is straightforward: to help one another learn God's truth and live biblically changed lives.
“We exist to help one another learn God's truth and live biblically changed lives.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: EVBC Anniversary Sunday - 2000
Recorded: 2000 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 31 min
Themes: church community, fellowship, scripture, worship, prayer, communion, faithfulness, belonging, new believer, church planter, feeling disconnected, young adult, longtime church member, searching for community, new to a church, pastor
Scripture: Acts 2:42
Theological Themes: ecclesiology, church structure, expository preaching, biblical authority, ordinances, Lord's supper, sanctification, apostolic teaching
Full Transcript
Nine Years of East Valley Bible Church
Today is Anniversary Sunday, and it was nine years ago this weekend that East Valley Bible Church began. That may surprise some of you. Many of you would look at East Valley Bible Church and look at the time we moved into this building, which was October of 1997, and assume that was the beginning of the church. But that is not the case at all. A group of men and women got together in the summer of 1991 and thought that perhaps God was doing a work in the East Valley, and that we might be part of a new church.
We were not a very creative group — thus the name, East Valley Bible Church. We meet in the East Valley, we teach the Bible, and we are a church, so that became the name: East Valley Bible Fellowship, now East Valley Bible Church. We began with no congregation, no constituency, no plan, no building, no money, and no idea of what we were doing, to be really frank. We simply sensed that if we were faithful to what God had said in Scripture, He might honor that.
The Four Non-Negotiables from Acts 2:42
Acts 2:42 became the verse we taught the very first time we gathered together. It tells us about the early church — thousands had just become Christians under the teaching ministry of the Apostle Peter. The word "continually" is an important idea there. It is the idea of a truly converted person. Somebody who is truly a Christian does not just have a jackrabbit start in his faith and then stop; there is a continuing, a persevering.
They continued in four areas. The first is the Apostles' teaching — studying the revealed word of God. That is the foundation for us; it is essential for our growth. One author writes: "A believer should count it a wasted day when he does not learn something new from, or is not more deeply enriched by, the truth of God's word."
The second area is fellowship. The word means literally partnership or sharing — a sense of connectedness. As you read through the New Testament, you see it in the "one anothers": love one another, confess your burdens to one another, care for one another, pray for one another, serve one another. There is the idea throughout that we need to be connected.
Last evening I was standing at the counter and there was a copy of Prevention magazine. I would not typically pick it up, but there was a headline that read, "The most important thing you can do to stay healthy" — and underneath in fine print it said, "and it's not diet or exercise." I thought I had better look at this. I opened it up and here is what it said: people who have intimate, connected relationships with more than four people have fewer colds, less flu, tend to have less serious illness, and when they do fall ill, recover more quickly and tend to live longer. That health magazine said, "You need one another." That is exactly what Scripture says. That is why God gave us that command.
The third non-negotiable is the breaking of bread — communion. They celebrated that continually as they gathered. The fourth is prayer — both individually and corporately. These four areas became the pattern for us. As we looked at the genesis of East Valley Bible Church, we said that if we are truly going to be faithful to Scripture, these are the non-negotiables. They must be present in the body.
What Makes East Valley Bible Church Distinctive
At the same time, we understand there are preferential issues that will change from body to body, from church to church. What I thought was important for us is to be able to articulate the things that are unique or distinctive about East Valley Bible Church. They should be things that, if you were around for several weeks, you would recognize even if no one mentioned them to you — issues that come up again and again because they are genuinely important to the church.
Here is a partial list to give you a sense of what we are talking about. The first is the teaching of God's word — it all starts there. This morning the junior highers and then the high schoolers met at the 9:30 hour. Much to the amazement of some adults, if you visited those two classes, here is what you would find: students worshiping through music and then receiving verse-by-verse teaching of God's word. At a time when we are told junior highers cannot possibly sit still for more than fifteen minutes, you will find them in that room for an hour and fifteen minutes, spending thirty-five to forty minutes of that time studying and learning God's word — and then coming in here at eleven o'clock for another forty minutes, followed by discipleship. There is something about the power of God's word, and so it is at the core of everything we do. There are few sounds sweeter to the ears than "Open your Bibles, would you please?"
The second distinctive is active, God-centered worship. So often in the church we can fall into the trap of thinking that the singers and musicians are up front performing and you are the audience watching them worship. No — the audience in our worship is God Himself. We come together in song, in praise, and in worship that we pray is focused on God and pleasing to Him. He is the audience. You are actively engaged in worship. It is not a passive activity.
Small Groups and Discipleship
We have somewhere between 600 and 700 people in small groups. On a typical Sunday, there are about 2,300 people in worship. Now, if you pull out those who really are not candidates for small groups — students, children, C2 participants who would not be in our small group program, or people who are new to the church and have not yet decided that East Valley Bible Church is home — when you get down to a core number, I believe close to 50% of the people who consider East Valley Bible Church home and fit that category are involved in a small group. That is an incredible number.
The students are another example. If you come back at 1 o'clock after the last service on a typical Sunday, you will see 150 students all over this campus in discipleship. That is where you grow. If you are not plugged in to an in-depth ministry like C2, junior high, high school, or music, and you are not plugged in to a small group, then we are limited in what we can do for you as a church. It is critical that you are involved in a small group.
The most valuable underutilized tool on this campus are men's growth groups. The investment is minimal — it does not take a lot of preparation. It is three or four guys who meet once a week to pray, to share one another's burdens, and to talk about the message from Sunday. They are a great tool, and you need those in your life.
This is distinctive of the church. We do not just say small groups are important and then tell you to go form one. Rather, it is a deliberate, proactive way of preparing leaders for organized small groups. All of this is meant to be practical — practical in your life. We are not just studying to get really smart so we can win Bible trivia. We are studying so that it affects how we live.
Supporting the Family
Consider also our commitment to supporting the family. When we began nine years ago, most of the families represented in the church were probably biological mother and father with their children. That has changed radically, and I am grateful for that. I am grateful that God has given us opportunities to support the family in whatever unit you are in.
It is not at all unusual for us to find single moms, single dads, and blended families — different compositions of what used to be called family. We are here not to judge those families, but to support them.
Changing Lives
We are all about change here. If you have been involved at East Valley Bible Church for any significant period of time and your life is the same as when you started, then we are not happy with what we have done, because your life ought to change. And when your life changes, you will inevitably be used by God to change other people's lives.
Communion and the Collection
There is one more distinctive that so many of you have mentioned. When I am out teaching during the week, I will meet people from all over the valley. I will meet somebody from Peoria and ask where they go to church, and they will say East Valley Bible Church. Here is what they will often say next: "Isn't that the church that has communion every week and doesn't take a collection?" I hear that all the time, and those, I suppose, are distinctive to us.
Communion is not negotiable to us. I know it is negotiated away in many places — delegated to a Sunday night service once a month — but from the very beginning, we decided that was not acceptable. I had a friend in town who asked, "How much money do you think you lose by not passing the plate?" Let me tell you what I said: none. We may lose a small amount from a visitor or someone who does not understand what is going on, but from the very beginning, we trusted God's people to meet the financial needs of this church. As you look at the bulletin, you can see that God has been faithful to us in that way as well.
Our Purpose Statement
Now, if you take those distinctives and those non-negotiables and put them together, here is what we want to arrive at: a purpose statement. Why do we exist?
Open your bulletin to the center panel — the one you look at every week when you come in. This is important. We did not simply say, "Let's put a vine there and a purpose statement and fill it up." No, there is a purpose to what is presented there. By the way, that image is not a tree — it is a vine.
If East Valley Bible Church is your home church, you ought to be able to answer the question: what is our purpose statement? It is right there every week when you come in. We exist to help one another learn God's truth and live biblically changed lives. That is our purpose.
Helping One Another Learn God's Truth
Our purpose as a church is to help one another learn God's truth — not just for me to teach you, but for you to teach me, and for us to teach each other. We teach it in so many different ways. It may be in a formal setting, it may be as we go through a passage, or it may be as we teach compassion, suffering, understanding, and wisdom to one another. We help one another learn God's truth so we can live biblically changed lives.
Our lives ought to be changing. If somebody asks you what the purpose of this Bible Church is, you ought to be able to say: to help one another learn God's truth and live a biblically changed life. Every Sunday, it is right there in front of you.
This is not a closed club. Our membership here is not full, and we want you to be able to invite your friends to be part of it. When people come in, they should feel welcome. Every Sunday is someone's first Sunday on this campus, and it is your privilege to make them feel welcome.
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