This is Valley.

VALLEY BIBLE CHURCH is a community of people who celebrate our hope in Jesus and bring that hope to those around us. Valley, as we call it, is a regional church with people who gather in Haddam from over twenty towns in the Southern Connecticut Valley. These towns range from Cromwell to Old Lyme and from Colchester to Durham though a majority comes from Haddam and East Haddam.

The Church began in 1978 when a group of people who had been attending churches in other towns began to meet together in homes in Haddam on Sunday evenings for Bible Study and prayer. In 1980 the group began conducting regular Sunday morning worship services, and in 1981 called the church’s first full time pastor. Rev. John Westerholm became the second pastor in January of 1990. Pastor John has been the Senior Pastor at Valley until November 2017 and currently continues on staff in an Associate role. In November, 2017, Rev. Chad Hemphill became the Senior Pastor. Chad had served as Associate Pastor at VBC since January of 2010.

Valley Bible Church associated with the Evangelical Free Churches of America in 1979. Our desire as a church is to teach and preach the Word of God, but even more importantly to live it.

In 1984 the church purchased property on Turkey Hill Road in Haddam, In November 1986, the building opened for worship services utilizing a multipurpose room/gym in addition to classrooms. The present two-story worship center and classrooms addition opened in 2005. In 2016 the lower level was converted to a Children’s Ministry Center to accommodate a growing Children’s ministry while the larger upstairs multipurpose room became the Student Ministry Center. There is a robust children’s ministry called “Journey With Jesus” that meets with a separate program during each of the two Sunday morning services. Students grades 6-12 have their own time to meet on Wednesday evenings from 6:45 to 8:15pm.

Since the early ‘90’s Valley Bible Church has had a goal “to be and make disciples of Jesus”. Today discipleship happens primarily through Life Groups that meet weekly in homes. These groups meet to study God’s Word on a deeper level in order to translate the teaching and preaching from the Bible on Sunday morning to daily life throughout the week. One of our favorite phrases is that we seek to “do life and mission together.”

From its beginning, Valley Bible Church has maintained a strong missions presence. This includes involvement and support of those who serve the Lord in the local community, as well as in other countries.

In 2017 Valley Bible Church began to hold an exciting free family event called “Eggstravaganza.” Its purpose is to give as a gift to anyone in the community. The day consists of games, crafts, food, egg hunts, and many other activities put on by the church to provide a safe and fun time. In 2019 the Eggstravaganza will be Saturday, April 6 from 10am to 2pm.

Valley Bible Church began holding Vacation Bible School even while the church was meeting in the schools. That continues today. VBS is another exciting event held the week after school dismisses at the end of June. This time is for children ages 4 through 6th grade and involves about 150 children and about 100 workers each morning for a week. It consists of games, crafts, and snack time built around a Bible lesson taught through a Bible drama. It is a wonderful week that only seems to get better each year.

Currently, Valley Bible Church holds two identical worship services on Sundays at 8:30 and 10:00am. Services consist of singing contemporary worship songs with a worship band and a message from the Bible. Everyone is welcome. Dress is casual.

At the beginning of our story, we identified our purpose as a church as sharing our hope in Jesus. It is that hope that gives us confidence as we look to the future. We look with hope, not in our past or in our present but in the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe Jesus is not only Lord of the church but is also Lord of all history. We believe that all of history moves toward the day when Jesus will be recognized as King of kings and Lord of lords. We are pleased and desire to be a faithful part of his work until that day comes.