+Vision/Mission/Values
+The Norwood Manifesto
+Leadership at Vineyard Central
+Who Is VC?
+VC History
+VC Missions

…

+Vineyard Central Vision/Mission/Values
The Vision of Vineyard Central
Practicing resurrection in west Norwood, encouraging it everywhere

The Mission of Vineyard Central
We Love God through the rhythms of prayer, worship, work and rest.

We Love One Another by living out the vision of Jesus for a new kind of family: we live simply, pursue peace, offer forgiveness, share meals and resources, have conversations of consequence, and promote one another’s gifts.

We Love our Neighbors by serving them: we restore and beautify homes and land, plant urban gardens, foster local economic development, and create opportunities for conversation and celebration.

The Values of Vineyard Central
We aspire to be Jesus-centered and kingdom-oriented, to honor the legacy of spirituality and live today expectantly, to express faith holistically, to offer hospitality radically, to nurture relationships through community, and to cultivate beauty.

…

A working model to depict relationships within VC and with neighborhood Partners in West Norwood.

A working model to depict our developing leadership structure within Vineyard Central.

…

+The Norwood Manifesto by Kevin Rains
God’s Spirit is on us to restore, to heal, and to beautify west Norwood. We are called to restore people, buildings, lawns, gardens, businesses, public spaces, private homes. We welcome all to join us: those who share our faith, those who do not. We welcome the tired in need of a new life, the depressed in need of a greater purpose, the child in need of a future, the elderly remembering the good old days, the broken hearted in search of a fresh start, the abused, the neglected, the rejected, the rich, the poor, the dark skinned and the light skinned and every shade in between, wrinkled skin, tattooed skin, pierced skin, the handicapped, the able-bodied, the overweight and overwhelmed, the underachiever and the underdog, the sick, the mentally ill, those grieving a deep loss, the drug addicted, alcoholics, shopoholics, the whatever-o-holic inside us all. We’re all getting free from something.

We believe the best is yet to come in Norwood. We believe that her best days are in the future, not the past. From the rich soil of a prosperous history a beautiful new tree is growing. God is creating a new heaven and a new earth. We’re all a part of that future and can enact elements of it here and now. Signs pointing to that bright future.

So, together…

We plant gardens to remind ourselves that all creation is still good and loved by God…

We start business in abandoned buildings reminding ourselves that God’s kingdom is a family enterprise.

We buy homes that are fixer-uppers on the ‘wrong side of the tracks’ and beautify them, saying to our neighbors, “We’re here for the long haul.”

We renovate and restore ancient ruins like St. E’s, our beloved old lady…

We share meals in each other’s homes and we’re reminded that we will one day share a feast; a banquet that is calling to us from the future…

We offer space for the weary and worn out, to refresh, renew, retreat…

We plant flowers for the sheer joy of it and trees that will shade our children’s children as they learn to walk…

We throw parties to celebrate the life we’ve been given and the life yet to come…

We practice hope…

We are a people of the Resurrection…

+Leadership at Vineyard Central
…is probably best defined by three groups (in no particular order):
• The PC (pastoral council) aka The Trellis
• The BoT (Board of Trustees)
• The LC (Leadership Community)

The Pastoral Council
The Pastoral Council is a group of leaders volunteering for one-year terms to care for the health and vision of Vineyard Central.  Each council position is listed here, along with the person currently volunteering in that role.

Pastor / Interior

To serve Vineyard Central by overseeing the “inner life,” with particular attention to the training of teachers & pastors, the systemic implementation of discipleship training, and building of “relational glue” among the network.

• teaching at monthly festivals
• teaching at weekly mid-size gatherings
• developing additional teachers
• developing additional pastors for HCs
• defining / writing discipeship curricula
• leading house church / setting baselines for HCs
• visiting house churches
• meeting 1-on-1 w/ house church pastors
• support newcomer orientation / sync with discipleship
• support network gathering

Steward of this position:  Dave Nixon

Inward Focus:   The aspect of this role that excites me the most is the chance to craft and refine with others a christocentric discipleship curriculum that can be implemented throughout our network. This is also the most challenging aspect for me.

Outward Focus:  To me the most beautiful things about VC is the multi-layered texture of the larger community, experienced in house churches, festivals, special projects, living in proximity & bumping up against one another on the streets, in yards, etc. But I also long for us to be with our neighbors, those who are unlike us, and to be intentional about inviting them into the life we have.

Pastor / Exterior

To serve Vineyard Central by overseeing and equipping the House Churches and individuals in their “relationship to a task.”

• share the teaching responsibilities at monthly VC Gatherings
• work with VC HCs to launch a HC specific mission (if that HC does not have one, assist to expand the current mission, and work with the HC to help them in their current mission
• support local outreach efforts, cultivate relationships with: St E’s Arts foundation, 1801 Mills, Urban Harvest, NSL, Speckled Bird, The Convent …
• facilitate Pastoral Council Meetings
• lead and care for the group of mentors working with individuals at River City Correctional Center
• develop/enhance/celebrate local and international mission opportunities: La Limonada, Norwood Rugby, Direct Relief for Neighbors, Cincinnati Faith and Justice, S. Africa/Haiti (O. Brock), Germany (D. Nixon)

Steward of this position: Joshua Hanauer

Outward Focus: My family and I still feel quite new to this way of doing church. We see great strength in the House Churches and believe the best is yet to come. Our hope lies in the Spirit of God working in the lives of those who have chosen this life together. We have a unique collection of people striving to bring more of the Kingdom into reality and I am blessed to be along for the ride.

Inward Focus: The bottom line is Vineyard Central spends more on outreach than any other line item in the budget and I have never experienced anything close to that before. The fact that 50% of the operating dollars are put back into the hands of the House Churches represents are incredible opportunity to do great things in our community and well beyond.

Administrative - admin@vineyardcentral.com

To serve Vineyard Central with administrative and organizational support for the pastoral staff positions.

• attend regular meetings with pastoral staff
• maintain relevant records (written or electronic)—may include mtg. notes from staff or council meetings
• identify details essential to carry out pastoral tasks and facilitate implementation of planned events
• assist pastors in communicating with council members and community at large
• be available to aid other council members when needs arise in their respective areas

Steward of this position: Janet McNeel

Inward Focus: I see myself as a task-oriented, more practical versus visionary type individual. I was encouraged to consider assuming this role in the pastoral team largely for this reason (along with the added female perspective). I look forward to working closely with Dave and Josh and want to make their role easier to perform in whatever way I can.

Outward Focus: After 2 and 1/2 years as a part of the VC community, I am thankful for the opportunity to live as the church in a new way for me. I have found myself stimulated and challenged in many areas of my life. I hope to find new avenues of ministry both personally and collectively.

House Churches

TBD

Network Finances - finance@vineyardcentral.com

To develop a strategy for getting VC on a path to financial sustainability and to ultimately grow VC’s financial resources such that resurrection ministries can be implemented in West Norwood and encouraged elsewhere.

High-Level Responsibilities:

• Develop VC Budget
• Meet with members of leadership team to understand their vision for their assigned ministry and help them to develop the resources to meet that vision
• Establish financial milestones
• Develop ways to increase financial investment of the community
• In conjunction with Pastors, make decisions regarding large expenditures

Day-to-Day Responsibilities:

• Collect Tithes and make bi-weekly deposits
• Pay bills at least bi-weekly
• Maintain VC financial files
• Track building studio rentals
• Track YMCA memberships
• Generate monthly financial reports
• Generate year end giving letters
• Maintain quickbooks (or other financial tracking software)
• Handle mission budgets
• Serve of point of contact with Payroll Partners

Steward of this position: Greg York (interim)

Network Gatherings – gatherings@vineyardcentral.com

Steward of this position:  TBD

Network Communications - communication@vineyardcentral.com

Facilitate the communication needs of the Vineyard Community by leveraging diverse modes and systems of information distribution. Help other leaders meet their communication needs. Maintain channels of communication linking the community with the staff and council.

Responsibilities

• send weekly emails
• update / maintain website
• assist other leaders in meeting their communication needs
• maintain PC/congregation transparency
• document major events / stories
• develop robust communication processes

Stewards of this position: Sam Hatchett + Amanda McLaughlin

Inward Focus: Amanda hopes to help VC folks develop a way of life in Norwood that takes advantage of our luxurious close proximity to each other.  Sam wants to contribute his technical and process-oriented skills to help this group self-organize and spread love more abundantly.

Outward Focus: Amanda hopes to help information be communicated to folks who are curious about VC and to those who simply happen to live in the midst of VC, in a way that is transparent, practical, and full of love.  Sam believes that VC’s growth has been stunted by lack of transparency and communication – he hopes to widen this bottleneck and make the rough roads plain.

Newcomer Orientation - newcomer@vineyardcentral.com

The Director(s) of Newcomer Orientation oversees the assimilation process in which people become connected to VC and engaged in fulfilling the mission and vision of VC. The Director(s) will provide vision casting, supervision and leadership development of the assimilation process. Namely, the Director(s) is responsible for welcoming, informing, and integrating new guests, overseeing newcomer events, and initial VC orientation as well as assisting with the ongoing development of new house church groups.

Support to Senior Leadership

• Communicate accurately the vision and values of VC and senior leadership to newcomers and house church members.
• In conjunction with the Pastoral Council, the Director(s) is responsible for the leadership development of goals and objectives of VC and will meet on a monthly basis.
• Responsible for reporting to the Pastoral Council the progress of each newcomer orientation and assimilation events.

Major Responsibilities

• Develop and oversee effective newcomer orientation events.
• Develop and maintain an effective house church development process.
• Develop and maintain close working relationships with other ministry leaders within the Pastoral Council.
• Develop and host effective “Come and See” gathering events.
• Develop and maintain regular in-person meeting routines with newcomers and current members; individually and in group settings.
• Assumes primary responsibility for introducing new members to the church via formally during festival gatherings and/or through the weekly newsletter.

Steward of this position: Christiane Sears

Inward Focus: To provide hospitality and a warm welcome to new guests of VC that will encourage and invite people to take part in all that VC has to offer.

Outward Focus: To instill a servant’s heart within our church and provide opportunities to minister to and meet the needs of our community. To increase spiritual growth by providing teachings and classes. To advance the kingdom of God by providing training and evangelism opportunities. To see VC growing and thriving as an essential resource that provides a safe haven and place of love to our community.

Children - children@vineyardcentral.com

Responsibilities – Young children

• Coordinate activities and care for large group gatherings
• Meet with parents of young children to determine ministry needs, direction

Responsibilities – Older children

• Develop a house church environment for students ages 10+ to participate in on a weekly basis.
• Develop a list of volunteers and coordinate volunteers for activities and events.
• Have a bi-monthly service event and a social activity the other month.
• Coordinate with house churches to develop a plan for older children to participate in their parents’ house churches.
• Work with the large gathering coordinator and committee to develop opportunities for students to serve the larger community during Feasts and Festivals.

Steward of Young Children: Maurie Hanauer

Steward of Older Children: TBD

Both inward and outward focus can be summed up with this one phrase, Passion for Christ, compassion for others.

Facilities - facilities@vineyardcentral.com

Foster an environment of beauty within St. E’s, which allows for relational, familial, community events, as an outflow of Vineyard Central’s core beliefs.

• Establish a stewardship team to care for and maintain St. E’s
• Meet with the stewardship team on a regular basis to;
• Pray
• Identify, prioritize, and address building needs
• Streamline processes
• Set up maintenance programs for the building.
• (i.e. cleaning gutters, flushing boiler on a regular basis during the winter months, scheduling annual inspections, etc.)
• Communicate with building renters/users to identify additional needs and maintain a quality standard for building use.
• Cultivate a relationship with the Pastoral Council/Trellis to ensure that the building is available for VC events.
• Work closely with the team that will be established to explore the 501c3 status of St. E’s, to ensure that any restoration/modifications to the building are in line with long term goals.

Steward of this position: Jeremy Eyre

Inward Focus: Good stewardship

Outward Focus: Engage the immediate community and beyond, to raise awareness of this wonderful gem and to draw in those like-minded individuals, with a desire to invest time, energy, and resources to the upkeep and beautification of St. E’s.

Preservation

We are currently seeking a leader willing to champion the preservation of our old cathedral.  Get in touch if you’re interested!

Board of Trustees
The Board cares for real property, meaning they oversee property and budget, plus hiring personnel and any legal matters. They are:
Owen Brock
David Thompson
Kevin Rains

The Leadership Community
The leadership community is made up of those who are actively leading home churches and ministries within Vineyard Central. This group meets reguarly for worship, prayer, and training at the convent 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. and is for VC members that currently lead or co-lead a house church or are interested in leading/starting one in the next 6-12 months. For more information, see the Leadership Community paragraph on the Housechurch page.

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+Who Is VC? by Dave Nixon
“Divorced white male, professional, well-mannered, good build. Loves deep conversation, good music, interesting movies, exotic foods. Seeks professional female with similar interests for long-term relationship.”

So maybe you think this guy might work out for you, but over the course of several dates you find out the following: (1) he’s a professional clown, not the engineer or doctor or lawyer you had hoped for; (2) his manners don’t cover the practice of belching; (3) deep conversation is limited to the fields of college and professional sports; (4) he has a shrine in his living room to AC/DC; (5) the movies he finds especially interesting involve chain saws and pretty co-eds; (6) exotic foods mean anything other than fast food; (6) one year to him is a really, really long time.

Welcome to the weird world of self-marketing, where what you see isn’t always what you get. Like individuals, churches can, unfortunately, get caught up in this same weirdness. We’ll do our best to avoid that.

This isn’t the place for a polished, company-style spin on who we are, something written by PR folks attempting to make us look lovely to you. We’d prefer just to be honest and speak sanely. But even so, defining ourselves is tough to do for three reasons in particular.

First, Vineyard Central is composed of over 120 people. To find out who we are, what we think, how we act, you’d really have to interview in depth everyone who’s a part of us. There’s a lot of diversity among us, but we see this as a good thing.

Second, though we try to say only what’s true, we have to admit that how we see ourselves may not be how you see us. (After all, maybe the guy in the personal ad really does think Slasher Films are very interesting!)

Third, we can only give you a snapshot of who we are via this website. You can, after all, say only so much in personal ads (unless, of course, you’re loaded with dough, but even then others will want a first-hand look). We hope it’s a good picture here, but keep in mind it’s a Polaroid, not a feature-length film.

Despite what you read and see here, your best way to catch the spirit of Vineyard Central and know her people is to hang out with us a bit, to go on a few dates we might say. In the meantime, however, this is an okay place to start. And with that preamble out of the way, here are some things we feel confident in saying:

We’re a collection of home churches. This is where church life feels most real and raw, like a hands-on experience. But we also like to gather for larger, monthly celebrations on Sunday mornings.

With Vineyard Central, you haven’t come to a pep rally with cheerleaders and pom-poms and eloquent speeches. You’ve come to something like a music festival or maybe a picnic at the park with some good friends.

We see ourselves as a web, not a ladder; as a family, not a business; as organic, not synthetic; as real, not slick.

If you hang with us, you sweat some and your fingernails get dirty. It’s hard at times (like life), but we also know how to laugh and have fun.

We’re young or young at heart, desiring to experiment even at the risk of “failure.”

We’re a mix of singles and married folk with a beautiful flock of young children mixed in.

We like indigenous music. Although we sing other people’s music, we prefer to write and play a lot of our own stuff. It forces us to express the creative gifts among us.

We like candles, quiet prayer, meditation, and chanting, but we also like a festive throng of people raising their hands and singing their hearts out to God.

We feel called to live and work and serve in urban areas (starting but not ending with Norwood), believing God has placed us in the heart of the city in order to express his heart to the city. We’re attempting to serve the poor of Norwood and build bridges into their lives by living among them. We have room for you.

VC is part of VineyardUSA in the Great Lakes Region. (We love our tribe!)

+VC History by Dave Nixon
After some behind-the-scenes planning, we officially began as a local church in January, 1993. Our core team was made up of a dozen people who came as a “planting team” from Vineyard Community Church in Tri-County. From January of 1993 until August of 1994 things went as we expected. We were young, excited, and attracting new people. But I knew something wasn’t right. We were, in my opinion, just copying our parent church, and I sensed that God wanted to do something very different among us.

In August of 1994, things changed quickly. While away in Cleveland on a business trip, I got an urgent call from my wife. She told me she had just been informed by a city official that we had to vacate the building in which our church had been meeting for over a year (the Norwood Community Center). The city’s building inspector and fire chief had given orders to chain and lock the doors to it, citing fire hazards and structural instability as their concerns. In fact, we were told over the phone that we had just 48 hours to remove all our belongings.

Losing the building, while difficult, also opened some new and exciting opportunities. Around this time the vision for a grassroots-driven church emerged in my head and heart, grabbing me in a serious way. Also, the word “community” lodged itself in my brain and wouldn’t leave. The only problem was how to process this information and move forward.

Losing the Norwood Community Center was the key. When I returned from Cleveland, our leadership team got together to pray about what to do next. During the course of the meeting, Dave Barr (one of our pastors) felt a strong impression that the entire church was to break up into smaller-sized groups and begin meeting in homes on a weekly basis and cancel the weekly service. The comment raised more than a few eyebrows! But as we prayed more about it the impression was confirmed and a sense of excitement began to grow. The following Sunday morning, huddled together in an overcrowded basement cafeteria, we enthusiastically announced the plan to over 130 people, giving people a chance to bail out. Only one family got up and left. The rest of us, right there in the cafeteria, broke into 6 smaller-sized groups (based loosely on geography) and chose leaders, assistants, hosts, and worship leaders. We purposed to meet in homes for the next three Sundays and then come back together in a rented facility on the fourth Sunday. After praying together we left full of faith and expectancy.

During that first month we received all kinds of enthusiastic comments, and when all six groups (plus curious newcomers) came back together at the end of four weeks we had a record attendance and an exciting meeting! It was then that I also announced we would continue to meet in homes and get together once a month for what’s now come to be known as our “AllGroup” time. Needless to say, we thought momentum, excitement, and numbers would just continue to grow.

Over the next 6 months our church of approximately 140 people “grew” down to 70! As the romance and initial excitement of this new direction began to wear off, we found ourselves to be rather barren and unpracticed in the art of being together. We found we had much to learn about practically loving each other as family and discovered we were reluctant to share the responsibility of reaching our neighbors with “The Really Good News.” We also discovered that old habits of “doing church” die miserably hard. But God, whose desire is for us to have deep community both with him and one another, patiently coached us through profound frustration, stinging disappointments, and hundreds of stupid, shortsighted mistakes. He put us through the most effective schooling possible: The School of Doing It. And the only thing that kept us from dropping out was a dogged conviction that we were being obedient to the vision God had placed in our hearts.

We firmly believe that learning to be together as the church can only be accomplished by actually being together and trying to act as the church-with God’s help, of course, because no true community of hearts and action happens apart from the work of his Holy Spirit. No book can teach you about it, at least not in a penetrating, pervasive way. Learning of this sort is only gained in the doing. And in the doing you become wise. Over the past few years God has washed away much of our naïveté, giving our thoughts and actions some weight, though we would be the very first to tell you that our learning has just begun. Soul work is truly the work of a lifetime. We invite you to join us on this pilgrimage of faith.

+VC Missions
Everything we do is driven by a desire to help bring the kingdom of heaven to earth, and specifically in this little slice of Norwood. And while we put a lot of stock in being good neighbors locally, we also value being good neighbors worldwide in a world that seems to be getting smaller and smaller through globalization. The VC folks listed below have developed relationships with some amazing saints who live and work amongst the poor and oppressed around the globe, and they would love to help you experience these places for yourself. Here is what’s going on so far….

Africa
Owen Brock

East Berlin, Germany
Dave and Jody Nixon

Guatemala
Jeremiah and Sarah Griswold
Kevin and Tracy Rains
Rebecca Gant

Haiti
Owen Brock

India
Travis and Liz McAfee
Dave and Suzie Kretz
Pete and Fio Hicks
Jill and Jonathan Hicks

Review our Mission Outreach Overview Policy.