Pastor Chris Woodard

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Valley Presbyterian Church community,
I am thrilled and humbled to be called to serve as VPC’s Senior Pastor. Brianna and I have been blessed to be part of this community for years, and we are excited continue to raise our family here as we do life together. Thank you for the countless kind words, texts, phone calls, cards, and even flowers! Your support and encouragement is a testimony to VPC’s flourishing community. I thank God every day for this wonderful church and how it is a blessing to me, to you, and to the Valley. As we look forward to where God is moving, may our hearts seek a deeper relationship with Jesus and an openness to the movement of the Spirit in our community. 
Recently I walked to my office alongside Mike Roth, Awaken Café Manager (it is good to have friends that walk alongside you). I had just presided over an interment in our Memorial Garden and was on my way to meet with a young couple to discuss their baby’s upcoming baptism. He observed, “You are covering both ends of life today.” I responded, “Life happens here at the church,” and it’s true. From births to memorials, from milestones to the mundane, from celebration to crisis, the church is the one place where we gather and support each other across the spectrum of our lives.
This Fall marks the next chapter of God’s story at VPC. God is on the move and will continue to be on the move. I see it happening in your lives every week! I see you grow closer to Jesus through authentic worship, be formed through prayer and engagement with Scripture, and shaped by a congregation where disciples make disciples. I see God transforming our communities through your work. I see us doing life together. What a joy it is to be part of what God is doing here at VPC, Life Happens Here!
Our Valley Day School is kicking off its 63rd year, and it is so fun watching children run around, cry, fall, laugh, climb—it is holy chaos. I’m excited to engage with these young parents as they figure out this new chapter of life! Now that I am an experienced and wizened father (with all of six years under my belt), I have plenty of wisdom to share, but only one piece of advice: find a faith community where your family can flourish. At VPC people and families flourish and connect across every stage of life. I continually see people grow in friendship and discipleship, inspired in worship, and cared for when life gets hard.
We lost some great saints this past summer, and I am grateful to have been a part of their lives. They were earthly examples of how to receive and carry the Good News in Jesus. After these services I was approached on four separate occasions by people asking me to someday preside over their own memorials. What a statement of faith this is! In one request they are declaring to live the rest of their life in community at VPC. Their commitment personifies what real community is; people being formed by God through worship and discipleship, people dedicated to the call of God to transform our city, a people dedicated to doing life together. What a blessing it is to be part of this wonderful church. Life Happens Here!
In worship, on campus, and with each other, we move in God’s direction for VPC. Please pray for me, Brianna, Max, and Oliver as we live into this transition. I will also pray for you and for God to continue blessing our community as a place where Christ’s transforming power and eternal salvation is lifted in worship, classes, our relationships, and in service to one another. Life Happens Here!
We were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our very lives as well because you had become so dear to us.
-1 Thessalonians 2:8
In His Name,
Pastor Chris Woodard
Pastor Chris Woodard is an Arizona soul. Whether up at his family’s cabin in Pinetop or his in-law’s house in Yuma, from visiting his parents and siblings in Tucson or at his house in South Scottsdale, Chris is at home in the Grand Canyon State.

Raised in Tucson, educated at the University of Arizona, and serving on staff at Valley Presbyterian Church since 2007, he has spent his life building community in his family, city, and church. His ability to foster meaningful relationships, strengthen community, and bring people together is one of the many reasons the Pastor Nominating Committee has nominated Pastor Chris Woodard to be the sixth Senior Pastor at VPC.
 Pastor Chris grew up at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Tucson, attending ski trips to Sunrise Ski   Resort and summer camps at Montlure Camp, both in Greer, AZ. Most formative, though, were mission trips to Los Angeles and Mexico. Often encouraged to pursue a career in ministry from mentors and other Pastors, Chris instead had dreams of being a scientist. Enrolling at the UofA , he sought out community, volunteering in various philanthropic organizations and honor societies. He volunteered with Student Ministry at his church, coached basketball and baseball at a local elementary school, and was a research assistant at the Lung Injury Lab. Chris graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology with a Minor in Chemistry and an emphasis in Comprehensive Mathematics.
This degree led him straight to Huntington Beach, CA, where he worked at golf courses and restaurants to support his habit of trying to be a surfer. Although Chris connected with the Young Adult community at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian in Newport Beach and enjoyed his time in the surf and sand, his roots as a true desert rat moved him back to Tucson to be closer to family. Returning to his home church of St. Andrew’s, Chris was again encouraged to pursue ministry full-time from an incredible mentor. This time he listened, leaving a bank job and taking the reins for Student and College Ministry, along with managing an emergent worship service at St. Andrew’s.
After moving to the Valley in the Spring of 2007, Chris joined the VPC staff that summer as one of two new Student Ministry Directors, where he served for seven years. There he was blessed to take part in camps, retreats, Bible studies, prayer times, mission trips, and his first of many trips to Malawi. He then shifted to work with Mission and Men’s Ministry while also completing his Master of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary and begin the ordination process. Ordained in 2019, Chris added leadership of Discipleship and Spiritual Growth at VPC while serving on the board at Family Promise of Greater Phoenix and Villages in Partnership. In 2025 he began to oversee Congregational Care. He volunteers with MentorKids USA and has a heart for mission, leading multiple trips to Malawi and the Yucatan.
It was during a Yucatan trip in 2013 that Chris met Brianna. While building houses in the jungle they started talking and haven't stopped talking since. They both left that mission trip knowing that they would marry each other, which they did on Palm Sunday in 2015. 
They love to hike, having backpacked in places like Olympic National Forest in Washington and the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru. Brianna, a second-grade public school teacher in South Scottsdale, can periodically be found playing violin at the 10:30AM service. They have two sons, Maxwell, born in 2020, with Oliver arriving in 2022. You can find them eating lunch at Awaken Plaza on Sundays, the soccer field on Saturdays, and playing Lego on the living room floor every day.

Want to Grab A Coffee With Pastor Chris? Email Lauren