The Valley
Location:
Vilonia, ArkansasPlanter:
Matt RothacherMatt and Julie Rothacher were youth pastors for nearly 11 years before God called them out to start the Valley. Matt has a heart for the Word and seeing it come alive to those who haven’t experienced it before, and Julie is a gifted writer and has the extraordinary gift of hospitality. They have four beautiful children (Maggie, Izzie, Jamin, and Ellie), and love serving as a family.They moved into Vilonia Arkansas to live among the community and loving it as Jesus does.
Vilonia, Arkansas is a bedroom community where the majority of its population work in the outlying larger cities (Little Rock, Conway, Cabot, Jacksonville, etc.). The average age of Vilonia is approximately 32 which places it substantially younger than the national average. We believed God was leading us to start a different expression of the church in vilonia, to provide opportunities to reach this younger demographic. The target of the valley is those we classify as dechurched and unchurched. The dechurched have at some point in their history experienced church and have either left, fallen away, or been hurt by the church in their past. The unchurched are those that have little to no experience with church or the things of Jesus. What we’ve found is that dechurched people, after years of being dechurched, are usually surrounded by unchurched people. As a result of the April Tornado that tore through Vilonia and Mayflower our opportunities to help those who are hurting and to share Jesus have continued to increaser.