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What Can We Expect At Vineyard Columbus In The Next 20 Years?At our weekend services on September 8 and 9, Vineyard Columbus had the incredible privilege of celebrating our 20th anniversary as part of the Vineyard movement, and my 20th anniversary as our senior pastor. For those of you who attended the services, I’m sure you would agree with me that the worship was awesome! There was an extraordinary spirit of celebration and gratitude for God’s goodness to our church and his blessings to us over these past two decades.During the worship service, we had an opportunity to look back at some of the wonderful things that God has done in our midst. Many of these things will, by God’s grace, continue to characterize our church for the next 20 years. It is our intention to continue to preach the gospel with passion and power so that those who do not yet know Christ will believe and, thus, receive eternal life. We intend to continue to invite people into relationships of love and grace as we practice Christian community together. We intend to demonstrate God’s heart for the least, the last, and the lost through acts of mercy and justice. We intend to have a racially diverse church and a leadership team that demonstrates the reconciling power of the cross to the watching world. We intend to continue to go after the power of the Holy Spirit so that the sick will be healed, and the oppressed will be delivered. And, of course, we intend to build a community of passionate worshippers, who love Jesus more than we love anything else. But what else can we expect at Vineyard Columbus over the next 20 years? Are there any new emphases that God might add to our midst? Here are some of the new things that may unfold in the nearer term: 1. Did you know that today there are more Americans that are over the age of 65 than under the age of 18? Over the next decade, we must continually call aging Baby Boomers to use their increased discretionary time not for self-indulgence, but for Christ. It is an absolute imperative that our church successfully passes the baton to the next generation. So there will be an increasing focus upon inviting older adults to engage in purposeful volunteerism and activities that improve the quality of life of our church and our community. 2. Continual growth in our world missions involvement. Vineyard Columbus recently adopted 41 Indonesian church plants. As a church, we are heavily investing in the most populous Muslim country in the world. We are already seeing hundreds of people coming to faith in Christ through these church plants. Along with Central America, Brazil, Tanzania and Indonesia, we are also focusing attention upon Western Europe (Amsterdam), Morocco, and the Sudan – where our church is building a community center and helping to support a church plant. And we are expecting mission involvement to be increasingly local as Vineyard reaches out to the growing community of internationals in our city. 3. A greater emphasis upon historic spiritual disciplines such as prayer, fasting, journaling, meditation, etc., through the building of a Vineyard Retreat Center. Vineyard Columbus was recently given 32 acres of land northeast of town near Utica. We are developing plans for the creation of a retreat center for our small groups and leaders to deepen our walks with Christ. 4. The growth of diversity in our church which will increasingly include Latinos and Asians as well as an increased diversity in our worship style and the release of dance and the visual arts in the church. 5. Development of partnerships in our city with government, business, and non-profits in order to tackle some of the larger community issues which no one entity can handle on its own such as affordable housing, health care for the uninsured, and safe, quality schools for our children. 6. A greater focus on foundation building for new Christians. My dream is that Vineyard members would have hundreds of one-on-one meetings taking place throughout the week in coffee shops, bookstores, lunch rooms, restaurants, homes, etc., in which an older more mature Christian guides a new believer into a deeper knowledge of God’s Word and the mentoring of new patterns of obedience to Christ. 7. The expansion of our church’s outreach through multi-site videocasting of our Sunday worship services to other sites around Ohio. 8. Much more emphasis on web-based learning and the building of web-based community through the improved use of technology by our church. As always, we believe in a God who can do more than we can ask, or think, or imagine through the lives of people who seek his face and whose attitude is characterized by Luke 5.5, “Because you say so, Lord, we will…!” |
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