Planted in 1990 by Lead Pastor Quintin Stieff, Valley Church in West Des Moines, IA now reaches 4,000–5,000 worshippers across nine experiences in multiple venues.

In 2013, after a phase one Clarity First Vision Framing process with Auxano, Valley Church expressed their Great Commission calling as a deep desire to connect and serve their community and city well. While this had always been a part of Valley’s DNA, a conviction grew to press into this vision and ask God to multiply the work He brought before them.

“We Love You Des Moines” emerged in this season alongside the construction of a 29,000-square-foot facility called the Valley Community Center (VCC) on 35 acres directly across the street from Valley Church. VCC launched as a gift to the community of Des Moines, owned and operated by Valley Church, but offering programming and opportunities to partner and connect with the city as a way to do good works to build good will to share good news. The vision of using VCC as a hub “Doing Good for the Community, with the Community” resulted from their Clarity First Vision process with Auxano. Today, it reaches people throughout the metro area of 600,000 in partnership with more than 100 community organizations.

In the first year alone, more than 100,000 people came through the doors of Valley Community Center, certainly a marker of great success. But, despite significant numbers, a nagging suspicion lingered that something was missing, even if church leadership couldn’t pinpoint exactly what that was.

It became clear that some of the questions revolved around what depth the people of Valley Church were not simply excited about the vision but engaged in it.

Download the full story of how a new process called “Mind the Gap’ measured and closed the distance between the words of Valley Church’s calling and the disciple-making growth of Valley Church’s congregation.