Associate Lead Pastor

VALLEY CHURCH

West Des Moines, IA

VALLEY CHURCH AT A GLANCE

Valley Church and Valley Community Center

MISSION

Mobilizing everyone's God-given potential to deeply love Christ and their neighbors

Valley Church sits on 45 acres in two main facilities (75K square feet of church building and 30K square feet of community center across the street). The main auditorium seats 1050; chapel 300. They are adjacent to the city campus of West Des Moines, which includes City Hall, a library and school facilities.

The church was started in 1990 and Pastor Quintin Stieff became the church planting pastor in that first year. Over the next decade the church grew from three couples to 700 in average weekend attendance. Then from the years 2000 - 2024 grew from 700 to 2700 folks regularly attending each weekend, plus another 600 online. But theirs is no story of rapid growth and frequent turnover; three of the pastors, Linton Lundeen, John Glad and Quintin Stieff have shared over 30 years of brotherhood and ministry together.

Founding Pastor Quintin Stieff

At Valley Church they major on the majors, focusing on what Christians have believed and taught for over two thousand years. See those core beliefs HERE

Flowing from these core beliefs, Valley Church holds to these core values:

We major on the majors.
We help relationships thrive.
We love our community.
We pursue boundless generosity.

Valley hosts activities for the whole family, including small groups, music and worship, children and youth, local and global service opportunities and many more.

See more DETAIL

Valley Community Center - a beautiful 30,000 square foot multi-use facility on a scenic 35-acre campus aims to become “A hub for partnerships doing good for the community… with the community.” Neighboring Valley Church founded the Community Center as a gift to the community, to fulfill their desire to mobilize everyone’s God-given potential to deeply love Christ and their neighbors. The Associate Lead Pastor will take responsibility for the community engagement strategies of Valley Church, and expand and encourage partnerships in greater Des Moines, Iowa using the Community Center as a hub. over 100 non-profit and community organization partnerships since 2013.

Take a look inside the Center

Valley Community Center is owned and operated by Valley Church as a gift to the community. The facility and the work of the center is an expression of the church's highest calling: to love God and to love their neighbors. The budget of the Community Center is provided entirely through the generosity of Valley Church as a regular line item in their budget. The Community Bridges budget is currently $1.1 million (includes $540K devoted to Global Opportunities). Community Bridges is further resourced through the support services of Valley Church, including operations, facilities, communications, graphic design, and IT, for example. The Community Center currently employees 3 full-time staff and 2 part time staff, plus quite a few volunteer leaders.

See regular VCC programming HERE

The "Love You Des Moines Days" is an annual 10-day celebration for the community with 400+ free fun, meaningful, and exciting activities for all ages hosted by the Valley Community Center.

Find out more about the Community Center HERE

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Opportunities

Centered upon the good news of God’s grace, Valley Community Center leverages the unique strengths of the unity of a strong local church, a vibrant community outreach, and an established emphasis on healthy relationships (especially families). They welcomed over 200,000 visitors in the last year through its various programs. They have a fantastic location: Valley Church and Valley Community Center are adjacent to the city/school campus of West Des Moines, which includes City Hall, a library, and school facilities. Two miles from the community center is the Jordan Creek Town Center, a 200-acre retail, dining, entertainment, and recreation development. The proximity to such a high-use area makes the Community Center ideally situated to increase in influence in the community, doing good works to create goodwill to share good news.
The Associate Lead Pastor will report directly to the Founding Pastor of Valley Church. The potential for next-generation leadership through mentorship and collaboration in a healthy, growing church is almost unmatched anywhere.
Valley Church has experienced significant growth since 2020. They have not only grown larger, but younger. They launched the "Make Room" campaign to expand the facility. This will include compassion efforts, building renovation, and new additions to both the church building and the Valley Community Center. $9-$15 million project with no longer-term borrowing anticipated (i.e. build and expand as the Lord provides).

In May 2024, the church announced they had received commitments of $13.5 million toward the Make Room ministry expansion. This ministry expansion empowers the church to advance the gospel in their community, through major building renovations, new construction, and launching two new community compassion initiatives.

Challenges

The thriving Community Center and the growing church need to be more vitally and regularly connected in their rhythms and activities. The pastoral staff seeks to mobilize 1000 Valley Church members into the next level of meaningful, ongoing volunteer ministry (in church + community). Then they'd love to elevate a collaborative culture through restructuring and tools/training to deepen volunteer involvement and partnerships.
In 2024, the church completed the most successful campaign in its history, raising over $13.5 million with the "Make Room" Campaign. As they "make room"
for God to move, to be the family, and to grow the family, the church prayerfully anticipates growth and change in the church, propelling His work forward. Inevitably change brings challenge and stress as everyone adjusts to the new realities.
The next leader will need to MAXIMIZE Community Bridges to grow VCC guests to a new high of 365,000 a year. They will build the Valley Church-VCC “connection awareness," to a more robust level, and have 100% identified bridging next steps for VCC attenders to connect with Valley Church.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

Associate Lead Pastor

Objective: The Associate Lead Pastor serves the mission of Valley Church through teaching the Scriptures, serving as one of the Core Leaders (senior directional team), and leading the Community Bridges ministry.

Teaching – Speak regularly on the teaching team for the weekend worship gatherings. Messages are primarily expository through books of the Bible, with occasional systematic/topical teaching. Weekend attendance is about 2800 in-person, plus about 600+ online in three auditorium live preaching venues, and two on-site video venues (with live worship), and two additional on-site venues (with live worship and a mix of live and video teaching).
Core Leaders – Serve on the directional team of the church. The core leaders include the lead pastor, and the four overall ministry directors (Worship, Christian Life, Community Bridges, and Catalyst). These leaders give strategic leadership to the overall mission of the church and work closely with the lead pastor in planning and implementing the vision for the entire church.
Community Bridges - Give overall leadership of the Community Bridges ministry, which is of great significance at Valley Church and is a signature ministry of the church. Oversee the Community Bridges team (6 FTE staff members) with an annual budget of $1.5 million. Oversee the Valley Community Center ministry located on a beautiful 35 acres campus adjacent to the church building (30,000 sq ft facility plus a refugee farm, sports fields, accessible playground, picnic pavilion, outdoor patio etc.). The Valley Community Center welcomes 200,000 community guests annually and is a primary bridge for initial connection to the gospel and to the church.

The Associate Lead Pastor is…

Carrier of the DNA: Fully owns and represents the mission, values, strategy, and impact measures of Valley Church and is wholeheartedly aligned with the statement of faith and ethos of the Evangelical Free Church of America. Deeply committed to theological and biblical fidelity and depth in a “major on the majors” evangelical church.
Spiritual and Strategic Leader: High-capacity pastor who can serve the current and future needs and opportunities of the church and community -- with a wise, humble, bold, and winsome leadership style for the church staff team and the church family.
Outstanding Communicator: Excels in the preaching and teaching role with (mostly) expository, biblically faithful, relevant, energetic, relatable, and practical messages to large and diverse audiences.
Ministry Builder: Has an outstanding track record of building a significant ministry with the capability of giving next-generation leadership to a church of 5000+ attendees. Excels at mobilizing the church into its mission and vision.
Collaborative Leader: Exhibits a team player attitude on the senior directional team for planning and implementing the strategic mission of the church, and in close partnership with the lead pastor.
Good News Ambassador: Has a deep heart for advancing the gospel in Des Moines. Passionate about building bridges between the people of Valley Church and the people of metro Des Moines to build upon and advance the already-strong community engagement, neighboring, and relational evangelism emphasis of the church.
Des Moines Fan: Fully embraces the “Love You Des Moines” mission and vibe of Valley Church, and is enthusiastic to serve in the fastest-growing metro in the Midwest with its growing diversity (nearly 100 languages spoken in the local school district).
Team Coach: Cares for the spiritual, emotional, and familial health of the staff team, and specifically the Community Bridges staff team. Coaches them in positive ways for sustainable and fruitful ministry and impact.
Experimenter: Learns by testing new and out-of-the-box approaches, partnerships, communication strategies, etc. Embraces a “go bold” mentality and enjoys creativity.

The Associate Lead Pastor is NOT…

Ministries director. Is not responsible for small groups, discipleship programs, counseling, shepherding ministries, or Bible studies (adults, students, or children).
Executive pastor. Is not focused on facilities, finances, HR, support staff, etc.
Worship director. Does not lead the worship ministry, creative arts, or communications.
Program facilitator. Is not responsible for actively running regular programming in Community Bridges or other ministries.

PERSONALLY: The Associate Lead Pastor is . . .

Humble: Can take direction and feedback well and has a deep desire to learn. Exhibits healthy self-awareness and a servant heart. Demonstrates an open hand and open heart approach to all life and ministry.
Co-laborer: Loves working with senior leaders to help everyone achieve the mission-aligned goals of our church.
Highly Relational: Loves, enjoys, and excels at building Christ-centered relationships. Skilled at relating to individuals within the staff team and church family as well as unchurched members of the community. Demonstrates joy, trust, and love in all relationships.
Energetic Multi-Tasker: able to work on a broad range of projects and levels.
Conflict resolver: able and unafraid to work through interpersonal conflicts, ministry misalignment, or issues of sin. True peacemaker.
Healthy at home: no concerns related to spiritual or emotional health issues within his family.
Time manager: does not require external systems to prioritize; is intrinsically motivated.
Trustworthy: Has unwavering loyalty to Christ, senior leaders, and Valley Church. Understands sensitive situations and maintains complete confidentiality. Skilled with diplomatic endeavors.
Flexible: Understands the complexity of working with a variety of staff and perspectives, and collaboratively works with patience, flexibility, and grace.
Person of integrity: at the core, he makes solid decisions based on lifelong, biblical values.
Self-aware individual: knows where he is weak; finds others to fill in those gaps. Emotionally intelligent and healthy.
Disciple: fully devoted to following Jesus in everything he does. Seeks to be filled with the Holy Spirit and faith every day.

JOB: The Associate Lead Pastor…

Is present: available to the lead pastor, core leaders, and community bridges team.
Builds the team: identifies, equips, empowers, and leads the community bridges team to mobilize everyone’s God-given potential.
Connects: meets frequently with the lead pastor and core leaders; attends the weekly all-staff meeting; meets at least weekly with his staff team; meets with members of other leadership staff as requested. Connects vitally with other key leaders.
Communicates: keeps the lead pastor aware of the successes and struggles taking place in the ministry areas he leads by proactively and consistently sharing stories and reports.
Is an expert: learns the people, issues, needs, concerns, history, and demographics of the church and the community.
Is flexible: understands that on occasion he helps others outside of the typical responsibilities of his role.

RELATIONSHIPS of the Associate Lead Pastor include…

Reports to: Lead Pastor
Works closely with Core Leaders: Lead Pastor, Director of Worship, Director of Christian Life (oversees the directors of adults, students, and children’s ministries), Executive Pastor (oversees Catalyst team). Also works alongside the Director of Collaboration and Culture.
Leads: Community Bridges staff team

SUCCESS of the Associate Lead Pastor is defined by…

Enthusiastic alignment and action: there is excitement and intentionality about mobilizing everyone’s God-given potential in the mission, values, strategy, and impact of our church, in faithful and joyful collaboration with the lead pastor and core leaders.
Impactful teaching/preaching: his teaching of the Scriptures is marked by biblical faithfulness and impacts the wide-ranging, diverse attenders (both veteran Christ-followers and spiritual explorers) positively and profoundly. His preaching helps “church insiders” to grow deeply in their faith, and “spiritual outsiders” to consider and connect with the gospel and biblical teaching in life-changing ways. This impact is seen in the gathered church’s attentiveness, encouragement, strengthening, and responsiveness in faith, hope, and love.
Building bridges: the community bridges ministry is vitally connecting members of the community to the Body of Christ; and vice versa. Mobilizes community bridge building as a passionate priority of all ministries of the church.

Desired Characteristics:

Character:

A gospel-centered person, who loves doing good works to develop good will in order to share good news.
Possesses wisdom that is demonstrated by ability to make tough choices in ambiguous circumstances.
A Humble learner who can take direction and feedback well and has a great desire to learn.
Has a demonstrated love of neighbors, that can be directed toward the people and area of Des Moines, Iowa.

Competence:

Strategic developer can maximize existing resources to significantly impact the community
Influential Community Ambassador and anointer of ambassadors.
Has experience and expertise in building high performing teams of staff and volunteers.

Chemistry with Culture:

A “team player” who can creatively adapt ideas from the creative staff environment of Valley Church and selectively and effectively adapt them for excellent results.
Must wear “hustle shoes” and consistently demonstrate determined effort, despite obstacles. Should be highly entrepreneurial.
A bias towards mobilizing rather than doing. Accomplishes goals by helping others succeed.
Can agree with and thrive in the “Leadership Covenant” with other staff.

Nice to haves

Experience serving in a community
Values diversity
Experience in programming
High Drive, high influence personality
Lead pastor experience in a multiple-staff church
Ordination in the EFCA

Compensation Package

Annual salary (based upon experience, credentials, etc.).
Benefits include group health insurance, paid vacations, etc. Refer to Personnel Policies for details. (Director level)
Vacation: 3-5 weeks (depending on experience/tenure)
Relocation: The church provides for relocation expenses
Travel expectations: Generally, less than two weeks per year (for conferences, continuing ed)
Other: Up to 10 days off per year for global opportunities (missions) trip (national or international)
Sabbatical: 30 days off every five years of employment at the director level

About the Des Moines Area

Valley Church and Valley Community Center are in West Des Moines (WDM), the second largest city in the Des Moines metro area. Defying common stereotypes, there are over 90 languages spoken in the West Des Moines public school district. Because of a strong job market and a welcoming spirit, Des Moines has attracted people from all over the world and at all socioeconomic levels in the last decade.

Des Moines is the fasting growing metro in the Midwest, and the capital of the state of Iowa. It's a prosperous city that has been recognized by many national magazines as one of the best places in America to live, raise a family, and work.