Valley Creek Leadership Academy was once a one-year program. Now, it is expanding into Valley Creek College, a four-year educational experience that aims to grow students academically as well as spiritually.
“We wanted to create an experience where students could discover their identity, grow in their relationship with God and step into their purpose,” said Valley Creek Leadership Academy Pastor Dr. Chris Searcy.
The program began as a one-year experience in 2017. It was a good start, but Searcy said one year just wasn’t enough time to achieve their goal of preparing students to be agents of change in the world.
Valley Creek became a two-year institution in 2021 after finding an academic partner that would provide accredited classes.
“We knew no parents would send their kids to a two-year gap program,” said Searcy. “So we needed academics to be a part of the picture.”
That’s when they brought in Southeastern University, a private, Christian university based in Lakeland, Florida.
SEU hosts online classes, but Valley Creek sets them up in a traditional, in-person classroom setting at its Flower Mound campus.
So far, Searcy said the program has had more than 70 graduates. The incoming class in the fall is expected to be about 20 students. That will add to the 20 already-enrolled students that are either in their first two years or will continue their junior or senior-level classes under the new four-year curriculum.
Searcy said he wanted Valley Creek College to be a not-so-new educational concept.
“This isn’t a new trend,” he said. “It’s pretty ancient that the family raises children, prepares them for the world by educating them and then gathers regionally to worship together.”
Searcy added that it goes along with God’s plan that was laid out in Deuteronomy 6 when Moses teaches what it looks like to live as the people of God.
“Students are trained to be kingdom citizens of the world,” said Searcy. “We feel like this move to four years is going to give us more time to help them become who God has called them to be.”
The program will allow students to get degrees in different areas of study, not just to set them up for work in the church.
Searcy also said the program is hoping to approach higher education in a more progressive way.
He talked about the amount of students that change majors during college, take longer than four years to graduate, transfer to different schools and finish with a lot of debt and said it can really hurt graduates transitioning into the workforce.
Valley Creek College hopes to focus its education on students’ character, integrity, honesty, faith and hard work, no matter what job they go into afterward.
Since the program is partnered with SEU, students can apply for federal financial aid and loans. The church also has donors that have set up financial need-based scholarships and merit-based scholarships.
Along with classes and work in the church, Valley Creek College’s tuition includes a fully-paid international mission trip each year. A month ago, Searcy took students to Africa for a mission.
There are currently no housing options for students, but there are host-homes set up for students outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, by request.
Right now, classes are hosted in Valley Creek’s Flower Mound campus, but Searcy said the group hopes to build a college-specific campus in the fall of 2026.
“We want to have kingdom-minded people in government, kingdom-minded people as first responders, realtors, scientists and coaches,” said Searcy. “That’s really what we’re looking for.”
To apply or to get more information on Valley Creek College, visit the website or email info@valleycreekcollege.com.
