I don’t know what your image of church is; maybe its hard wooden pews, dreary old hymns and blokes in funny outfits droning on incomprehensibly.

But what if church could be different? Imagine a church that was simply about meeting Jesus, discovering the amazing things he’s doing in the world and the exciting challenge of being part of it.  Imagine a church of real, local people working together to understand what Jesus was on about and how it can transform us and our families in this 21^st century world.

That’s the church we dream of being.

There are a lot of things we could tell you about ourselves, but here are a couple:

That implies all sorts of things, but most fundamentally:

• We’re convicted that the Bible is the word of God and so we strive to have our hearts and minds immersed in the things that God says in the Bible and shaped by them.
• The death and resurrection of Jesus are at the heart of our worldview:
  • According to the Bible Jesus died bearing the penalty that we deserve for refusing to trust God as God over us. In the death of Jesus God himself takes on the penalty for our rebellion.  He does it to give anyone who will turn to Him with trust a fresh start.  We will discuss that reality, we will help others work through their questions about it but we will never let go of it.
  • Jesus’ resurrection marks the beginning of a whole new world that we become part of when we come to trust in him.  As a church we strive to honour Jesus as the risen Lord of the universe and we look forward to the day he will return to deliver perfect justice and to finally establish his people in perfect, eternal, resurrection life.
• The news of Jesus death and resurrection is great news.  We think it is such great, significant and important news that we are committed to sharing it with other people so that they have a chance to start to trust Jesus too.

We’re part of the Springwood / Winmalee Anglican Churches in the Diocese of Sydney.  To find out more about our parish visit swac.org.au.

While there’s not a lot about us that’s ‘traditional’, we value the stand taken by the Anglican reformers of the 16^th century and the sacrifices they made.  We consider the documents they hammered out (the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles) to be excellent expressions of key Biblical truths.

We regularly celebrate the Lord’s Supper and practise baptism and confirmation.

See here for a little bit more about what we believe.

Neil Atwood and his wife Robyn have been 'mountain people' since the early '80s when they bought their first house at Leura. Ministry has taken them to many parts of Sydney, but they began living and working in the Mountains full time in 2007. Neil became pastor of Valley Heights Community Church in July 2008.

Neil writes: "When not teaching the bible, telling people about Jesus and other ministry stuff, I'm passionate about fine coffee (roasting my own), IT and web stuff, hanging out with our four (grown up) boys, V8 Supercars , renovating our house and... did I mention great coffee?"

Craig Schafer was our founding pastor.  Craig and his wife Julie moved to the mountains at the beginning of 2005.  They have two daughters Emma and Zoe.  Craig and his family moved to Pennant Hills parish at the end of June 2008