ALLENTOWN (BRN) — Tucked away in the gentle hills of eastern Pennsylvania rests the bustling countryside of Lehigh Valley. Lehigh Valley consists of two counties – Lehigh and Northampton – and three major cities – Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton. The area has grown to be the third largest urban area in Pennsylvania, right behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
“It’s the third largest area in Pennsylvania. [It] is a beautiful community that has, really, a major city feel, but also not too major – in the sense that doesn’t have a lot of traffic – and kind of has a small-town vibe to it as well,” shared Riverbend Community Church Pastor Joseph Velarde.
“You can easily go hiking, go for bike rides, or be outside…there’s a lot of dynamics to what it is without, you know, all the traffic that some of the major cities would have. So, yeah, we’re loving living here in the Valley.”
Velarde is originally from Smyrna, Georgia – a city right outside Atlanta – but moved to upstate New York to attend college, where he met his wife. She was from a little-known region in Pennsylvania called Lehigh Valley.
“As we were dating – and then got married – God made it very clear that we were to join Him here in the Lehigh Valley,” said Velarde.
The couple has been in Lehigh Valley since 2004, with Velarde starting ministry at Riverbend Community Church in 2009.
“Really, our heart is – when you look at our tagline – about living for Jesus in the everyday, ordinary moments of life, or extraordinary moments of life, and then loving the Valley as he’s loved us. So, we’re just grateful that we’ve been able to, by His grace, be here.”
During their 12 years of service to the Lehigh Valley community, Riverbend Community Church has come to recognize the importance of collaboration, especially when pursuing ministries and outreach opportunities.
“I started to realize, as I was working through just different things that were happening, that in order for us to effectively reach and connect to our community, we needed to practice collaboration. We needed to really work with our community to discern, first of all, what is the need of the community and then, secondly, to share in partnership,” shared Velarde.
From that realization, came the ministry opportunity known as “Night to Shine,” a ministry sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation that is committed to celebrating individuals with special needs.
“The reason why we did it was we really wanted to care for the least, the lost, and the lonely. We wanted to join Jesus in, as he says in the Gospels, throwing a party for those who cannot pay you back.”
Velarde continued: “So, part of It was saying, ‘Hey, how do we do this?’ Because, as you think about something like that, to pull it off requires a lot of resources and not just money, but people…you want to serve those families well.”
As the church began to prepare for the Night to Shine event, they started to see the local community take an interest and rally around making the event a reality.
“What we started to realize, as we were going through that process, is that people In our community were looking for an opportunity like this to get behind. And not only get behind it, but so many of them were business leaders of different companies and not all of them were followers of Jesus…what they saw was the Kingdom piece of what we were doing,” said Velarde.
“It speaks to the, as Ecclesiastes talks about, eternities written in every human heart. So, this echoing of a way that it’s meant to be, you know, harkening back to before the fall…this desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. So, we saw people in the community rally around this event, to serve at it, [and] to be a part of it.”
After that moment of collaboration and serving together, God burdened Velarde’s heart to do more to bring the church and the community together.
“God really made it clear to me that there wasn’t really – and I’m not saying I’m the only one to think about this – but I did not hear a lot of people bringing people together to highlight the people and the places of the Lehigh Valley. So, that began to birth in me this desire to start something to help leaders and to encourage them.”
He continued: “It led to the launch of what’s called, ‘Vision for the Valley.’ So I launched ‘Vision for the Valley’ with that whole emphasis. So, there’s a site with it – visionforthevalley.com – and then we have a podcast where [we] interview people from the Valley [and] share different stories.”
Velarde also shared that the ‘Vision for the Valley’ project served as a way to remain connected to the community through the COVID-19 pandemic. It allowed him to share the Gospel with regional leaders, celebrate with local business owners, and grow relationships in “the Jesus way.”
“That all happens because a relationship, that all happens because of proximity, connection, and not losing site of the center of it all, [which] is to walk in the Jesus way…to demonstrate the Gospel and to proclaim the Gospel,” said Velarde.
“Oftentimes we choose one or the other, but Jesus was about both. He served people, He shared with them what He came to do, He met needs, He allowed himself to sit with people, and even at times to be ministered to. I think He models for us this way of being full of grace and truth. So what that does, over time, is it’s spilling over into different things that we’re doing here.”
Check out the “Vision for the Valley” project and more about the Lehigh Valley community here: https://www.visionforthevalley.com.
Listen to the Podcast interview.
The “50 Stories of Transformation” series, told in honor of the Baptist Resource Network’s 50th anniversary, highlights the many ways God has moved throughout Pennsylvania, South Jersey and beyond. Your generous support of the Cooperative Program makes this ministry possible and fuels evangelism and outreach in our local churches and all over the world! Thank you!
