Veradale's Verse-by-Verse Church on Sullivan Road
Tucked into the Spokane Valley just east of the city of Spokane, Valley Bible Church gathers every Sunday at 3021 S. Sullivan Road in Veradale, Washington. The building sits on a single campus with a large front parking lot to the west and overflow parking in the north and east fields when the lots fill up. Inside, two identical services run each Sunday morning, and the preaching style, the music style, and the schedule for the Lord's Supper are exactly the same at both: worship that is rooted in Scripture, preaching that walks through books of the Bible one verse at a time, and communion open to anyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ.
The church's motto is: Proclaiming Truth. Cultivating Relationships. Valley Bible Church calls itself evangelical, non-denominational, and Bible-believing, and it is led by a team of elders who oversee the teaching, the decision-making, and the direction of the church. Members and regular attenders come from across Spokane Valley, Post Falls, and the surrounding communities, and the church has been a steady presence on Sullivan Road for decades.
Two Sunday Mornings, One Service Shape
Valley Bible Church runs a 9:00 am service and a 10:45 am service on Sunday mornings. The format is the same at both: music rooted in Scripture, expository preaching through a book of the Bible, and the Lord's Supper each week. Communion is held weekly during every service, and anyone who professes belief in the Lord Jesus Christ is welcome to participate in what the church describes as this family meal.
Dress is whatever a person wants to wear. The congregation ranges from shorts to suits, and the only stated goal of the dress code is to worship God and honor one another. A nursing room for mothers who want extra privacy sits in the back of the auditorium, and changing tables are in the North Hallway restrooms. Ushers can hand out hearing assistance devices for anyone who needs one during the service.
Visitors are asked to fill out a Connection Card so the pastors can follow up after a first visit. After the service, the Welcome Counter gives out a welcome gift with helpful information about the church, and one of the pastors will send a welcome letter in the mail. Anyone wearing a VBC lanyard - members of the welcome team, hospitality team, greeters, ushers, elders, and deacons - is ready to answer questions.
Sunday services are livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel each week, and sermon notes, the bulletin, Life Group questions, the online Connection Card, and Spotify and YouTube playlists of the morning's music are all posted online for those who cannot attend in person.
Life Groups: The Real Ministry of the Church
Valley Bible Church is explicit about what it considers the main engine of discipleship. Sundays are the corporate worship time, the church teaches, but weekly Life Groups are where the real ministry of the church takes place. Life Groups are home fellowships of eight to twelve adult attenders who commit to meeting on a weeknight to study God's Word, pray, invest in one another, and look for ways to reach out into their community together.
Life Groups meet on different evenings of the week in homes throughout Spokane Valley and Post Falls. Members arrange their own childcare, though nursing newborns are welcome in every group. The study time is built around the previous Sunday's Scripture passage; questions are printed in the Sunday bulletin and emailed out each Friday evening, and groups work through them together when they meet. Each group also takes on a built-in service project so that the life of the group spills out into Spokane and the surrounding area.
Life Groups run in three sessions a year: a Fall Session that begins in mid-September and runs through mid-December, a Winter Session from early January through late March, and a Spring Session from early April through early June. Pastor Caleb Klontz oversees the ministry and serves as the church's main contact for anyone wanting to plug into a group.
VBC Kids: Partnering with Parents
The children's ministry at Valley Bible Church is built around a simple purpose: to partner with parents to help children know God through His Word, serve His people, and love their family and peers. Sunday School classes for preschool through 5th grade run during both the 9:00 am and 10:45 am services, and nursery care is provided for children from birth through age three during the same services.
Parents are welcome to keep children with them in the auditorium for the entire service, but those who want their children in Sunday School or nursery check them in at the start. The nursery is in Room 122, and the Children's Wing is reached through the North Hallway. The check-in system uses the Church Center app for regular attenders; first-time visitors check in at the Check-in Attendant in the Children's Wing foyer. When parents pick up their children, they show a security code, either on their phone or as a printed label. Anyone without a check-out code is not allowed into the Children's Wing, a security rule the church takes seriously.
Sunday School classes work through the Old and New Testaments using curriculum from the Gospel Project and the Answers in Genesis Sunday school line. Vacation Bible School is held each summer. Jennifer Dokken, the Children's Ministry Coordinator, oversees day-to-day scheduling of children's ministry volunteers, child and youth protection policy, and the secure check-in system, alongside the rest of the Children's Ministry Team. Pastor Caleb Klontz is the elder who oversees the VBC Kids ministry as a whole.
VBC Youth: Connect, The Pursuit, and Courageous Conquerors
The youth ministry focuses on middle school and high school students. Two named programs make up the bulk of the work. Connect serves 6th through 8th grade, and The Pursuit serves 9th through 12th grade. Both lay a foundation for the Christian faith through biblical instruction, Christian fellowship, and opportunities to serve. The church treats the discipleship of its teens as a serious charge, partnering with parents as students move toward adulthood.
Sunday School for middle and high school students meets at 9:00 am. Middle school students study a New Testament Survey in Room 151, and high school students work through Systematic Theology in Room 150. On Wednesday evenings from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, both groups gather at the church for singing, Bible study, activities, and time in small groups. The youth ministry also publishes a written dress code that applies to Wednesday evenings, camps, and youth events.
Alongside Connect and The Pursuit, Valley Bible Church runs a third Sunday School class called Courageous Conquerors for individuals with special needs who benefit from a class adapted to varied learning styles. The class welcomes students ages middle school through adult, meets at 9:00 am in Room 152, and is coordinated through the church office. A youth dress code is published as a PDF for any parent or student who wants to read it ahead of time.
Adult Ministries Across the Stages of Life
Beyond Sunday School, the church runs several adult-focused ministries that fit different life stages:
- Ignite is a gathering for college- and career-aged adults between 18 and 28.
- VBC Singles is for single adults 21 and older. The group meets the first Saturday of each month at 5:30 pm in Room 150 for a meal, a short devotional, and time to get to know one another.
- Men's Ministry centers on the Men's Leadership Initiative, which has nearly 100 men in small Fire Team groups that meet for study, accountability, and prayer. A monthly Men's Breakfast meets the second Saturday of the month at 8:00 am in Room 130.
- Women's Ministry offers studies September through May, a monthly Women's Breakfast on the third Saturday at 9:00 am in Room 130, a Titus 2 Mentoring program built around Susan Hunt's book Spiritual Mothering, a Reception Committee that serves at memorial services and Meal Trains, and a Blanket Makers group that creates comfort quilts for people in the church, the Spokane community, and global outreach partners around the world.
- Northwest Institute of Christian Studies (NICS) hosts conferences and seminars throughout the year for further study.
For seniors, Valley Bible Church runs a free driving service called Rides for Seniors. Volunteer drivers take seniors to medical appointments and other essential appointments when they cannot get there on their own. Requests go through the church office and need to be submitted at least 48 hours ahead of the appointment.
Valley Biblical Counseling Center
For one-on-one discipleship and pastoral care, the church runs the Valley Biblical Counseling Center. Jerod Jarvis, who also serves as Ministry Director of Youth, oversees counseling in addition to his youth responsibilities. The counseling center is staffed by the church's pastors and trained counselors and serves the VBC family and the surrounding community.
Twelve Partners, Four Continents
Valley Bible Church supports twelve global outreach partners and their families in eight countries on four continents. The church's stated goal is not just financial support but ongoing personal relationships that encourage the missionaries along the way, and the church aims to send short-term teams annually or semi-annually to serve alongside its partners. One Sunday each quarter, called GO Sunday, features a partner in person or by video to share about the work.
The publicly listed partners include:
- Rich and Joyce Mattocks with Tyndale Bible Translators, serving in Papua New Guinea
- Carmen DeVries with Ethnos360, serving in Papua New Guinea
- Joseph and Hannah Grewe with Grace Ministries International, church planting and training leaders in Spain
- The Burkholder family with Africa Inland Mission
- Jason and Sarah Koppen with the Indigenous Bible College in Arizona
- Ján and Jána Mahrik pastoring, church planting, and community outreach in Slovakia
- Stuart and Ellsye Rowell with European Christian Mission International in Eastern Europe
- Szczepan and Kamila Cackowski serving in Poland
- The B Family with Last Frontier Global in Southeast Asia and Alaska
- Josiah Painter with Word of Life in Taiwan
- Elio and Nicoletta Vannelli with Serenissima Ministry Group International in Trieste, Italy
Pastor Caleb Klontz, who himself served with his family as a missionary in Trieste before rejoining the VBC staff in 2025, is the elder who oversees the Global Outreach ministry.
What Valley Bible Church Believes and Teaches
The doctrinal statement begins with the Trinity: God exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three distinct Persons who are one in essential nature and will. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, fully divine and fully human, conceived by the Holy Spirit, who lived a sinless life, died on the cross for the sins of man, rose bodily from the dead, and will return. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, regenerates those who believe, baptizes them into the body of Christ, indwells them, distributes spiritual gifts, and sanctifies the believer.
The Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God and the supreme and final authority for Christian faith and daily living. The Church is not a building or a denomination but the body of believers who have placed their faith in Christ, called to use their gifts for the growth of the whole body and to represent Christ to the world. Salvation is a gift from God, given sovereignly to all who acknowledge their sin and trust in Jesus Christ; the believer is justified by faith alone and eternally secure because of the complete work of Christ. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the two ordinances commanded by Christ for every believer.
Marriage, the church teaches, is the lifelong union of one man and one woman, and sexual intimacy is reserved for the relationship between a husband and wife within marriage. The church holds to a pre-millennial, pre-tribulational view of the rapture and a literal understanding of the millennial kingdom. It teaches complementarianism, the view that men and women are equal in dignity and in access to God but have distinct and complementary roles in the family and the church, particularly that the office of elder and pastor is reserved for men.
The church also teaches the sanctity of human life from conception until natural death, affirms the goodness of adoption, and counsels caution on IVF and surrogacy as commonly practiced because of the way those industries often treat human embryos and surrogate mothers. On sexuality, the church teaches that God has created two biological sexes, that each person is to accept the sex he or she was given, and that all sexual intimacy is reserved for the marriage covenant between husband and wife. The church holds a cessationist view of certain spiritual gifts - specifically tongues, prophecy in its New Testament sense, healing, and the office of apostle - while affirming that God can and does work miraculously in every generation.
These teaching distinctives are held as the unified position of the elders and are stated plainly so that anyone considering VBC knows what will be taught from the pulpit.
The Pastors, Elders, and Deacons Who Lead the Church
The teaching staff includes Pastor Chris Martin, who has been ministering at Valley Bible Church with his wife Izumi since 2010 and serves as one of the elders overseeing the church's ministry and preaching. Pastor Caleb Klontz and his wife Linda came to VBC in 2015; Caleb joined the pastoral staff in 2018, and after the family served as missionaries in Trieste, Italy, he returned in 2025 to serve as Pastor of Life Groups and Global Outreach and as an elder. Pastor Ben Orchard has been on the pastoral staff since 2005 and is a retired Navy Reserve Chaplain with degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary and Western Seminary.
Ben Doehle joined the staff in 2021 as Ministry Director of Corporate Worship, overseeing the music side of the Sunday services. Jerod Jarvis joined as Ministry Director of Youth and Counseling in 2024 and oversees both youth ministry and the Valley Biblical Counseling Center. Jennifer Dokken serves as Administrative Assistant and Children's Ministry Coordinator, and Stephanie Painter serves as Office Administrator. Amanda Jarvis is the Communications Coordinator, handling the church's print and web presence.
The elders who oversee specific ministries include Ken Ainsworth, a retired Village Missions pastor who oversees the Singles Ministry; Gerry Caesar, who joined the music ministry in 2010 and has been an elder since 2015; Toby Erickson, who joined the elder team in 2025 and is active in the Children's Ministry; Doug Snook, an elder since 2006 who is heavily involved in music and global outreach; and Ken Wendt, an elder since 2015 who serves on the Sunday morning worship team.
The deacons serve the congregation in practical ways. Don Beydler oversees congregational care and hospitality. Andrew Burnett oversees the church's technology needs and also serves on the sound team and as a Life Group leader. Darrell Lambert cares for facilities and widows. Greg Lancaster cares for facilities and personnel. Larry Shockey serves as Facilities Manager and cares for widows. Dave Sutton, a retired pastor of fifty years, coordinates congregational care and the widows and orphans ministries. Ken Turnbull cares for facilities. Dan Woodard rounds out the deacon team.
Music, Worship, and the Sunday Bulletin
The music ministry at Valley Bible Church is led by Ben Doehle, the Ministry Director of Corporate Worship, who oversees Sunday morning services and helps to create an environment in which the church gathers, sings, and grows in Christ. Music is rooted in Scripture, and Spotify and YouTube playlists of each week's songs are posted alongside the sermon notes. The church uses the Church Center app for giving, event registration, volunteer scheduling, and the secure children's check-in system, and it publishes a sermon podcast on Apple Podcasts so that sermons can be heard throughout the week.
Bible Reading Plans and the Afterthoughts Blog
Valley Bible Church curates a list of Bible reading plans to help members work through Scripture on their own. The list includes the church's own Book-at-a-Time Bible Reading Plan, Professor Grant Horner's Bible Reading Plan, the Bible in 365 plan, To the Word (separate tracks for men, women, and Spanish speakers), the Commuter Bible Podcast, the Daily Audio Bible, and the Daily Audio Bible for Kids. The Afterthoughts Blog carries additional written reflection from pastors and ministry leaders.
Getting to Valley Bible Church
The church is located at 3021 S. Sullivan Road, Veradale, WA 99037. The phone number is (509) 928-5161, and the office email is vbc@spokanevbc.org. Office hours run Monday through Friday from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm. Sunday services are at 9:00 am and 10:45 am, and the Church Center App is the easiest way to register for events, sign up for service projects, give, and check in children. Newcomers are invited to a Newcomers' Luncheon several times a year to meet the pastors and ask questions in a smaller setting.