Announcement about Danny & Penny

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The last two months have been one of the most extraordinary seasons in the history of our church. God has granted us the gracious privilege of seeing several hundred people respond to the gospel in the last seven weeks. Eighty-four people (an all time high) were baptized this past weekend. Our attendance is up an average of nearly 1400 since August and we've had several weekends in which 6000 people have been at our worship services.

But numbers are insufficient to tell the real story of what has been happening in the lives of individuals in our church. This past weekend I preached a message about the power of Jesus to change people's lives. My message was drawn from Luke 7 concerning the story of the prostitute who anointed Jesus' feet with her tears and wiped his feet with her hair. After one of the services, a woman approached me and said, "You know, Rich, you were speaking directly to me today." (I had prayed before the service that God would use this message to speak to at least one individual in a very personal and direct way.)

I said to her, "Really? Tell me why the message spoke to you."

She responded, "I have been a hooker for x-number of years and also a crack addict. I have been in recovery and am now working the fourth step of my recovery. But up until tonight I didn't have Jesus in my life. Tonight I have Jesus."

Two of her friends who were listening in on the conversation, said to me, "We've also received Jesus in the past few months. We are three peas in a pod."

It's easy to look out on a congregation like ours and believe that everyone is middle class, super healthy, and comes from a church-going family. But the truth is that every week there are lots of people who don't fit the middle class, church-going profile, whose lives are being changed. And, to the glory of God, the lives of middle class church-goers are also being changed.

In my opinion, morale in our church has never been higher. There seems to be a fresh wind of God in many of our ministries. Joshua House has seen an upsurge in attendance, in salvations, and in the experience of God's power. I have received several reports of individuals who claim to have medically verifiable healings that have taken place in our church services. There appears to be a great grace on our ministry to Hispanics, our ministry to the poor, and on our teen and middle-school ministries.

In the midst of this marvelous season of grace, I have some bittersweet news to announce to our Vineyard family. After 27 years of leadership here at the Vineyard, Danny and Penny Meyer (our associate pastor and women's ministry pastor) feel a strong call by God to plant a church in the Delaware/Sunbury area. I fully support and am totally behind Danny and Penny's decision. But it is one that is extremely painful for me personally. Danny is my dearest friend and I have always assumed that we would work together on the same staff for our entire ministries. Each of us have regularly been told what a fine complement we are to one another. Although this is personally painful for me (and likely for many of you who are learning of this for the first time), I do believe that God has been sovereign in all of this and that in the end this decision will work out for our good and for God's glory.

Because of the importance of this decision for our Vineyard church family, I need to immediately assure you what is NOT happening with regard to this church plant:

1. There is absolutely no relational problem between Danny, Penny and me or anyone else on staff. My relationship with Danny is as good as it has ever been. In fact, in the last year, we have had the opportunity to express the kind of affection for each other that is rare in male friendships.

2. There is no vision, values or philosophical conflict between Danny and me or what Danny and Penny hope to see in church life and what our church has been. The fingerprints of Danny and Penny are all over our church. The Delaware church plant will not be formed in reaction to Vineyard Columbus. Of course, the church plant will feel a little different than Vineyard Columbus does because of Danny's gifts and temperaments. But Danny and Penny love the church they have helped to build, and plan to employ the same vision, values, and philosophies in their church plant.

3. No other staff are leaving our church to move to Delaware or anywhere else.

Many people have asked me, "Why don't Danny and Penny stay and let's send someone else to plant the church in Delaware?"

We would happily do that, except that God has not chosen to give us that option. We have always had as a central philosophy in this church to "give away our best." It's easy to say that in the abstract, but God frequently tests our commitment by asking us to send dear friends such as the Sapersteins or the Parkhursts halfway around the globe to Central Asia. In this case, God has asked our leadership team if we really mean what we say by "giving away our best." Will we give away the Meyers, who have been so dear to us, in order to spread the Kingdom of God in the fastest growing county in the State of Ohio?

Our mission statement is very clear: to intentionally develop passionate, mature reproducing disciples and to aggressively plant passionate, mature reproducing churches. What we are doing with Danny and Penny is simply fulfilling our mission statement. The Kingdom of God never advances without paying a price. Jesus said in John 12, "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it dwells alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit." Someone must be willing to die, if not physically, at least to his or her own dreams and ambitions, relationships, etc., in order for the Kingdom to advance. There is no glory, according to the Bible, without suffering. There is no resurrection without a crucifixion.

We love Danny and Penny and will sorely miss their regular presence here at Vineyard Columbus. But I am thrilled at the prospect of Danny and Penny fulfilling the calling of God upon their lives and the opportunity for planting a healthy, vital Vineyard church among people who will receive eternal life because we made this sacrifice.

I also believe that our church will emerge stronger than ever from this. We cannot out-give God. When John Moriarty left to plant on the Eastside of town, God supplied. God did the same when other leaders left to plant. He has always supplied for this church's needs-indeed, God has more than supplied.

Danny and Penny are planning to hold two interest meetings for those who live in the Delaware/Sunbury area in the month of November. Their target date for "going public" with this new church plant in the Delaware/Sunbury area is Easter Sunday (March 31, 2002).

Please pray for Danny and Penny and the successful launching of this new church plant. Pray also for wisdom for me and our church leadership as we seek to fill the roles played by such wonderful and valuable friends and leaders. God bless you.

With much affection,
Rich