The Impact of PVUMC

We offer many opportunities for faith formation from weekly sermons to small groups and service opportunities. Our youth ministries offer a great introduction and development of faith for children through high school, and our young adults and adults find support in our many groups and events. We’re blessed to offer a church that shares God’s love with families of any shape and size.

Marty McCarty and her husband Timm moved to our area in the late 1960s. New to the area, they were among strangers in an unfamiliar community. They wanted desperately for their children to experience a Christian upbringing, and turned to PVUMC.

Turns out, that decision benefited the family in more ways than they could have imagined. Early on, they were involved in two trips to Mexico organized by the membership committee - trips that enabled lasting friendships, some which remain today. Relationships have been a theme of their journey here, whether through social events or other initiatives of the church.

Marty’s four children were baptized and raised under the guidance of the spiritual community at Paradise Valley United Methodist Church, and all four children married under this roof - happily now on to raise families of their own.

The congregation at PVUMC became her “church family,” and she says they continue to enhance their everyday throughout this lifelong relationship.

“It has helped us mature in our own faith journey,” she said, “and it has given us the opportunity to serve our community through the many mission opportunities that we have supported. Now, we are at a point that we are ‘aging,’ and it is helpful to know that we have church relationships that are right there with us, in this part of our lives, too.”

Marty’s story is one of many: David and Chris Henderson joined when their children were middle schoolers, and PVUMC provided a much desired faithful youth program for their kids; Neil Tang said his family is now much more engaged in the community thanks to the influence from the PVUMC ministry; and Jenn Coughlin, a member since her own youth, now brings her two sons to Sunday school while she attends the Ignite service.

“To say PVUMC has shaped or impacted an area in my life would not accurately represent its presence in my life,” she said. “PVUMC is not just a part of my spiritual life; it is a piece of my identity.”