Strategy
This website is a tool to help your church become externally focused.
The Lord has blessed the Valley Vineyard with this material and the opportunity to apply it in our
community. Now we want to pass it on to you in the hope that the Lord will use it to extend His
kingdom in your community through your church or fellowship.
Do not mistake MISSION: RESEDA for a program; it is instead one way to bring God's kingdom
into a dark and hurting world. It reflects our unique experience with God in getting us out into our
own community. We recommend that you think of our experience as a general guide, not as a set of
directions to be followed in every detail. The Lord may lead you to adjust it to suit the place where
you are serving and the workers you put at His disposal.
After all, our churches are different from one another and they are located in communities that differ
in a variety of ways as well. The Valley Vineyard, for example, has many members who do not live in
the area immediately surrounding the church itself. And the community around us is culturally and
economically diverse. This may or may not be true of your church and community. Having said this,
we also note that some pastors have said they want to work the plan we used. If that is the case for
you, please feel free to do so. Our only aim is to bless you in the Body of Christ that you might bless
many others.
Think of MISSION: RESEDA also as something that is alive and growing. We have only seen the
beginning of what God has in mind for the community of Reseda. We refer to the undertaking
described here as Phase One. (In fact, we have already launched Phase Two and now Phase Three.
More information on these will be provided separately, but they are described briefly later in this
handbook.) As we move ahead with this good work, we look forward to the doors the Lord will open
for us. We eagerly anticipate what the Father has planned.
As you read through the history behind MISSION: RESEDA, you will see that it is related to the Los
Angeles Police Department's Adopt-A-Block Program in a number of ways. Adopt-A-Block is a
community policing program designed to build bridges between the police who directly serve a
neighborhood and the residents of that neighborhood. The most essential idea is that police officers,
who are committed to protect and serve, can better accomplish their mission if they know the people
they serve and are in turn known by them.
MISSION: RESEDA takes up that basic notion of building bridges, in our case between the
church and the community around it. We are called to serve not only our own congregations
or the church as a whole, but the wider community all around us. In order to give them what
we have to offer—which is of incalculable worth—we need to know them and be known by
them. We need to forge relationship and bonds of trust. We need to demonstrate the kind of
life and love available to them in Jesus. We need to serve those in the community around us
and put into their hands the tools that we use to live more fully in the Kingdom of God.