For nearly ninety years, Chippewa Valley Bible Church has gathered in a Wisconsin town best known for the river that runs through it. The non-denominational congregation first met in a home on East Spruce Street in 1934 and now worships on East South Avenue, across from Halmstad Elementary School, under the leadership of Teaching Elder Troy Solava and a council of lay elders. CVBC's motto, Love God, Love People, captures the heart of a church that takes the Bible seriously, opens its building for community life, and works to keep its teaching and its practices pointed at the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sundays at CVBC: Two Services, One Message
From September through May, CVBC holds two identical Sunday morning services at 9:00 and 10:30 a.m. Both services feature the same music and the same preaching, so families and friends can choose the time that fits their week. Each gathering runs about seventy minutes and centers on worship, teaching, and corporate prayer. Music is led from the front with the intent of centering hearts and minds on the Lord, and worshipers are free to stand, sit, or raise their hands as they feel led. The teaching is expository and Bible-centered, and prayer is woven into each service as an intentional act of praising God and bringing needs before Him.
The Lord's Supper is celebrated on the first Sunday of every month. All who confess Jesus as Lord and Savior are welcome to participate. Baptisms also take place in the Sunday morning service when the opportunity arises, usually at the close of the gathering, as a public profession of faith.
During the school year, Sunday school classes for everyone from 4K through adults meet at 9:00 a.m. Nursery care is offered at both services for children from birth through age four. Once a week, an usher can direct families to a Family Room - Room 60 - with a live video feed, available during the 10:30 service in the school year and during both services at Christmas, Easter, and throughout the summer, for parents who want their children to have a bit more room to move.
Summer brings a slight change. Weekly services move to 9:00 a.m. with nursery provided for infants through preschool, and once a month the service shifts to 10:00 a.m. and is followed by a church-wide lunch. On the first Sunday of every month, a Sunday Evening Prayer Service gathers at 6:00 p.m.
Anyone is welcome at any service. CVBC teaches that the gospel unites believers from every background, tradition, and distinction, and the congregation invites people from any season of life - whether hardship or celebration - to come and worship.
What a First-Time Visitor Should Know
CVBC sits on a six-acre property with two parking lots accessible from East South Avenue, and visitors are welcome to use the marked spaces in the east lot. Once inside, the main lobby is an open space between the sanctuary and the education hallway, with coat racks available during the cooler months. Children are checked in at a counter in the education hallway, opposite the sanctuary entrances, before heading to their classrooms. The dress code is intentionally relaxed: most people dress casually, and the full spectrum of styles shows up on any given Sunday. Ushers are ready to help find a seat if a service is already underway.
For those who cannot make it in person, services are livestreamed on Facebook, and the sermon archive goes back more than a decade and covers book-by-book series through books of the Bible including Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Ruth, Esther, Psalms, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, and Revelation.
Children's Ministry: BLAST and Sunday School
CVBC Kids partners with families from birth through fifth grade, with the goal of helping children grow in their love for God, their love for others, and a desire to see lives changed by the gospel. The children's ministry is led by Children's Ministry Director Madi Satinover and runs a creative, biblically grounded, and relational program that walks alongside parents in nurturing Christian values at home.
On Sunday mornings during the school year, CVBC Kids runs a fast-paced program for 4K through fifth grade at 9:00 a.m. Kids check in for a name tag and parent number, then experience small-group time each week, with discussion and activities that make the lesson personal and age-appropriate. Parents are encouraged to serve in the program as a way of getting to know the format and helping their children build friendships.
On Wednesday evenings, BLAST (Bible Learning And Studying Together) meets from 5:45 to 7:30 p.m. for children from 4K through high school. The program launched in September 2018, replacing the longtime Awana club that had carried a charter since 1971, and uses Gospel Project for Kids. BLAST is built around Scripture memorization, music, games, large-group teaching, and small-group Bible study, and it exists to plant lasting faith foundations in the next generation.
Student Ministry: Building an Army of Changed Teenagers
The student ministry, led by Student Ministry Director Riley Larson, gathers grades six through twelve most Wednesday nights from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The vision is to build an army of changed teenagers who faithfully follow Jesus Christ; the mission is Loving God, Loving People, Changing Lives. The ministry runs on a clear philosophy: connect through relationships, grow in small groups, and serve on ministry teams. The motto, dynamically uncompromising to biblical truth with the message, yet culturally relevant in methods, sets the tone for how the students engage their world.
Parents and students can sign up for the year and stay current with weekly meetings and special events.
Adult Ministries: Men, Women, Seniors, and Small Groups
CVBC's adult ministry work is built on the conviction that the Christian life is meant to be lived in community.
The Men's Ministry helps men grow in their faith and build Christ-centered friendships. Three regular Bible studies meet at the church: a Monday evening study from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., a Tuesday morning study from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m., and a men's breakfast on the first and third Saturday of each month from 7:30 to 8:45 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall. Connect events take place on Monday nights every other month throughout the year, and an annual spring retreat brings men to a local camp for two days of teaching, small groups, and prayer. Men's mentoring groups of two or three meet regularly for the kind of trusted friendships in which confession, encouragement, and accountability can happen.
The Women's Ministry focuses on biblical teaching, an annual retreat, mentoring, and fellowship events. Led by a Women's Ministry Team of McKenzie Jensen, Sue LeMay, Taylor Reiter, Lindsay Solava, and Shari Strasburg, the ministry equips, connects, and disciples women to spiritual maturity through Bible studies, fellowship events, a newsletter, mentoring relationships, and a library of resources.
The Senior Connection ministers to the church family and friends who are 55 and older through prayer, encouragement, visitation, and special events like theme dinners, holiday gatherings, and old-fashioned hymn sings. The team also sends cards, prays for personal requests, and visits members in hospitals and care facilities.
Small Groups meet on various days, times, and locations throughout the week. Coordinated by Alan Dunham, they provide a smaller community to pray together, study the Bible, and challenge one another to grow in faith. Adult Sunday school gathers in the Fellowship Hall at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings from September through May.
Music, Tech, Drama, and Library
The Music and Tech team, led by Music Director Jaki Mueller, serves the gathered church each Sunday morning and supports the broader ministries of the body. The Drama ministry has a long history of using the dramatic arts to illustrate Scripture, and the Library is a quiet resource for readers, students, and teachers. Boy Scouts Troop 72 also calls CVBC home - the troop famously built the picnic tables for the pavilion on the church's lawn. Technology Director Joe McPhail keeps the audio, video, and livestream running.
Beliefs Rooted in Scripture
CVBC's essential doctrines are rooted in the Evangelical Free Church of America statement of faith. The church confesses belief in one God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - Creator of all things, holy and infinitely perfect. The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is taught as the verbally and plenary inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority for faith and life.
The church teaches that human beings are made in God's image, that Adam and Eve fell into sin, and that every person is a sinner by nature and by choice, under God's wrath, and in need of rescue. Jesus Christ is confessed as God incarnate, fully God and fully man, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, who lived a sinless life, died on the cross, rose bodily from the dead, ascended to heaven, and now sits at the right hand of the Father as our High Priest and Advocate. His atoning death and victorious resurrection are the only grounds for salvation. The Holy Spirit regenerates sinners, indwells, guides, and empowers believers, sealing each one eternally secure in Christ. The church is the body of all who are justified by grace through faith, manifest in local congregations of believers, and observes two ordinances - baptism and the Lord's Supper - that visibly and tangibly express the gospel. The church also teaches the personal and bodily return of Jesus Christ, the bodily resurrection of the dead, final judgment, and eternal life with the Lord in the new heaven and new earth.
On a number of secondary issues - the age of the earth, the millennium, the continuation of sign gifts, the meaning of Melchizedek, and others - CVBC is intentionally charitable. Leadership has laid out a framework for distinguishing essential doctrines from non-essential ones and a three-tiered approach for weighing how tightly a church should hold any given belief. The church practices complementarianism, meaning men and women are created equal in worth and image but differ in role: the office of elder and the regular public preaching of the Word are restricted to qualified men, while women are encouraged to use their gifts in music, women's teaching, children's ministry, and co-teaching settings under the authority of the elders.
Church Government: A Plurality of Elders
CVBC is self-governing. The Council of Elders serves as the spiritual and administrative head of the church. The current elders are Dave Daniels, Alan Dunham, Tadd Hohlfelder, Brent Tilton, Chad Strasburg (currently on sabbatical), and Troy Solava, with Micah Burch and Dave LeMay serving as elder candidates. Teaching Elder Troy Solava carries the regular preaching responsibilities.
Elders are recognized through a process of prayer, identification, consideration, and presentation that typically takes six to eighteen months, with the church family invited to weigh in. Once affirmed, an elder serves as long as he desires the work and continues to meet the biblical qualifications of 1 Timothy 3. The council meets at least once a year to review each elder's continued qualification and to consider sabbaticals when needed. The deacon team supports ministry teams across the church, including the fellowship fund, the ministry of mercy, hospitality, counting, events, facility care, and visitation. Officers and committees - including an Administration Team, an Office Manager, and, when applicable, an Administrator - handle the day-to-day business of the church.
Missions and Outreach: A 90-Year Send
From its earliest days, CVBC has been a sending church. The missions budget grew from about $25 a year in the 1930s to roughly $51,000 in recent years, and the church now supports a long list of missionaries and partner organizations working in the United States and around the world. Affiliations include Wycliffe Bible Translators, Partnership Mexico, Church Resource Ministries, Converge, Commission to Every Nation, Cru, Biblical Ministries Worldwide, New Tribes Mission, Ethnos360, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Missionaries serve in countries including Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Latvia, Western Europe, New Zealand, and Brazil, with others ministering in the Twin Cities, Madison, Florida, and other U.S. locations. CVBC members also serve locally in jails and prisons, lead trips to Mexico and Guatemala, and partner with local ministries such as Ruby's Pantry for food distribution, Good News Global for jail and prison ministry, and Apple Pregnancy Care Center.
A Building Shaped by Generations of Faith
The congregation has met in several Chippewa Falls locations over the decades. After the original meeting in the O.A. Bollom home, the church moved to a store building on West Spring Street, then to a former theater on North Bridge Street. In 1942 the church purchased a building at the corner of East Columbia and North Prairie Streets, where it remained for more than twenty years. In 1964-65, a new 6,000-square-foot building went up at the corner of Irvine Street and Chapman Road, and on the church's fortieth anniversary, November 10, 1974, the mortgage was burned and the name was officially changed to Chippewa Valley Bible Church.
Growth brought the move to the present property on East South Avenue. Ground was broken in July 1984 for a 12,000-square-foot facility, and a 1998 classroom addition on the south side made room for Sunday school, Bible studies, BLAST, and youth ministries. In 2005 the church purchased a two-acre lot to the west, centering the existing facility on the six-acre property and creating both east and west entrances. The 2005-2007 Arise and Build campaign added a larger kitchen, a fellowship hall, more restrooms, storage, and a new west entry with a carport and more than forty parking spaces. The 2014 outdoor pavilion, built with help from the Boy Scouts, opened up the lawn for picnics, potlucks, graduation parties, weddings, and the occasional outdoor worship service. In 2019 a large four-car garage with upstairs storage was added to support the Ruby's Pantry food distribution ministry and to house the church's 15-passenger vans.
Office, Contact, and Giving
The church office is open Monday from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and on Friday by appointment. Monday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 are set aside for a staff meeting and prayer. The office is closed on weekends.
Anyone can get in touch by phone at (715) 723-2872 or by email at info@cvbc.net. The mailing address is 531 East South Avenue, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729. Online giving is available through the church's giving portal, and the church's facility can be reserved for outside events by submitting a Facility Use and Event Planning form.