For web, phone or regular mail questions, please send an email to communication@vineyardcentral.com. Mandy or Josh will respond as they are able. A big thank you to Sam for his time serving in this role. He will continue to provide technical support as needed.

Hello to everyone viewing this post.  This post is specifically for persons who would self-identify as a part of Vineyard Central.  If you are not, please welcome this post as an opportunity to see the work of our community from afar; in challenge and in joy.

As we spoke about yesterday, we are moving in our Discernment Process as a church towards more specific conversations about

1. who we are,
2. how we organize ourselves, and
3. what it means to be Vineyard Central together.

Together with the grassroots thinking of those who have regularly participated in the discernment gatherings, we have discerned that there are several prominent themes that we will focus on going forward to gain clarity about what decisions we need to make.  Those themes are: Structure, Leadership, Membership, Building, and Neighborhood.

We introduced the conversation around Structure yesterday in our worship gathering.  We put together a sheet that has three viable options for how our community could organize ourselves.  The sheet is not intended as a “final draft,” but instead as a “rough draft” that helps to give people something specific to look at and consider.  Please click on the below link entitled “Structure Options” to access the document.  If you have problems, please comment  underneath the post, and we’ll find a way to get you a copy.

Thank you,

The Discernment Team

StructureOptions

This is the third in a mini-series of gatherings before Pentecost and in the early Pentecost season focused on knowing the story of Vineyard Central.

We apologize that this event invite has not gone up earlier.
Tonight, June 14th, from 6:30-8 p.m. we will gather at the Speckled Bird and we as a community will continue sharing and listening to the oral history of VC. Those involved in sharing this evening will be those who have joined Vineyard Central’s story in recent years.

We believe that in listening to the story of God’s faithfulness in our collective life together we will come to care more deeply for one another and better understand how God has guided and will guide us as a people

Starting this Sunday, June 12, and throughout the season of Pentecost, we will be meeting in the “upper room” studio at the back of St. E’s, and we will be meeting at 10am. These changes are in keeping with what many of you indicated as you as your preferences on the two polls sent out a couple weeks ago. Hope to see you Sunday!

Hello Vineyard Central brothers and sisters,

We’re on the brink here of the third movement of our Discernment time: Pentecost and following. We’ve had an eye on this time since we began the Discernment period. In a number of ways, as we’ve communicated before, the seasons of Lent and Easter served as preparation over a longer term for the specific conversations we will be having in the season of Pentecost.

We have met weekly, and engaged in rhythms of song, prayer, listening, and Sabbath rest together in our Sunday gatherings.
We have eaten together, sharing a common table that has deepened our conversations with one another and begun to be a space for interaction with others in our neighborhood.
In the season of Lent, we practiced the spiritual disciplines of lament and relinquishment; of at least beginning to sort through the way we feel about VC, about our personal lives and stories as a part of VC’s story.
In the season of Easter, we practiced the spiritual disciplines of proclaiming hope, of seeking to speak out a variety of hopes; hopes that we feel have been dead, hopes of healthy aspects of our community we desire to continue, and hopes that we can organize around a meaningful sense of unity together

As we stated earlier in this process and continually throughout, the weekly commitment to being with one another is not something we take for granted. It has had a leavening effect on us (we hope), opening up space in our relationships where tension and mistrust may have had a negative effect if we had intense conversations right off the bat. Those who have faithfully gathered in this season so far are now more prepared to speak with more courage, to hear with more depth, and to pray with more desperation. If you are reading this, and you have not participated in the process so far, waiting for the conversation time when we finally “talked about what mattered,” you are encouraged to (and will be reminded to) commit to a disciplined period of silence and listening in the larger public forms of our conversation for a period of several weeks as you engage with a process that has been going for a long time now.

We must not take the gift of gathering together for granted, and need to protect the process and God’s work among those who have gathered.

Over the next two (or three) weeks, depending on how the conversation progresses, we will begin our conversation with the opportunity to
1) Offer very concrete, very specific affirmations of where we see health in Vineyard Central, and
2) Offer very concrete, very specific sharing of where our community is compromised, is dysfunctional
In response to these two things, your response might be: “But I thought we addressed these issues in Lent and Easter?” We did, to a degree, but we spoke in broader contours, in more general statements as we tried to embrace the process. The next several Sundays, we’re encouraging one another to be systematically, rigorously specific with our thoughts. This is no hoping for what could be, or general lament for what has not been. It is a commitment to specifically affirm specific aspects we see as healthy in the present, and it is a commitment to specifically state specific dysfunctions or sickness we observe in the present. Do you hear the word specific?  

The seasons of Lent and Easter served as opportunities to deal with these issues in a more general, broad categories kind of way. The season of Pentecost offers us the challenge now to be courageous, to be truthful, to be transparent, to deal with what is without hemming and hawing around. Because if our community is compromised, and if we desire healing and hope, we cannot afford to fail to deal clearly with what is.

We cannot afford to maintain where we are at right now.

So, we hear the words of God proclaimed to us as God proclaimed them to Joshua when he was faced with the giant task of following Moses as the leader of Israel. He felt inadequate, afraid, struggling to hope and trust. God said,

“Be strong and very courageous… Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

This coming Saturday night Dave & Jody Nixon will host/guide at the Convent an extended time of prayer for Vineyard Central. Start time is 7:00 p.m. End time is 1:00 a.m. Six hours total. Come as you’re able and for as long as you’re able, even if that’s only 30-60 minutes. This is a space for us as a community to do that thing of “waiting on God” as we enter into this final season of our community discernment. (Because of the late hours, this is an adult-only affair. Parents of children might consider tag-teaming so that both spouses can be present at different times.) If you have further questions, please contact Jody Nixon.

In our gatherings, an observer may see that the issues raised are very specific to where we’re at as a community.

In the season of Lent, for example, we cleared out significant space in our worship for confession, for relinquishment, and for lament specifically focused on our community life together. At times this was very personal and at other times led to some discomfort and tension in the room. We were trying to ask questions like “Where have we struggled and/or failed to carry God’s desires for our community?” and “What hopes have we carried for VC that seem to have died?” and “What deep lament do we carry, for God, or for ourselves?” We were primarily led every week by the words of David in Psalm 22 that Jesus invoked on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

In the season of Easter, an observer will see us specifically giving “Confessions of Hope,” short times of sharing where a VCer will speak out their hopes and desires for our community. We will focus weekly on being led by the words of the poet in Psalm 116, who celebrates that through all circumstances, God is the God who “hears us,” who identifies with us in our pain and gives hope. Easter is the season to focus on resurrection hope beyond and in spite of circumstance

In Pentecost and the season following, we will significantly shorten the “typical” worship gathering elements and focus most of our attention on the important conversations we need to have about the decisions we must make going forward.  In short, we will trust the conversations as a worshipful responsibility too; one that requires a deep hearing of one another along with the courage to speak.  The trust we carry is that the commitment to be with one another in the seasons of Lent and Easter will bear fruit in a deep listening, an honest sharing, and a God-centered commitment to forgive and bear one another’s burdens as we work in conversation together.

The Sunday evening gathering is meant to be a springboard for a variety of other ways to discern. House churches are continuing to meet in this time, morning prayers take place weekday mornings at 7 am at St. Elizabeth’s, other groups meet for Bible studies and regular dinners together, and periodic nights will be scheduled specifically related to be an outgrowth of what is taking place on Sunday evening.

We desire to live our lives and seek God as transparently as possible in our community. Sometimes this gives us feelings of closeness to one another, and other times this introduces tension and frustration with one another. In all emotions, we trust God is at work when we, in vulnerable trust, choose to live life oriented toward Him and toward one another.

This past week I shared on the fifth statement of Jesus on the cross — I’m thirsty — so I’d like to summarize my points here and place them in the context of our life together.

This expression of primal human need is a poignant and intimate picture of Jesus. It comes in the final moments of his life and at a time when, pinned to the cross, he was physically incapacitated and unable to help himself. If any liquid was to make it to his mouth, it would happen only because someone responded to the need he voiced.

In the story of his life we find other other very human moments as well:
• he becomes intensely hungry after fasting
• he’s exhausted from a long, multi-hour trek from Judea to Sychar and sits by a well
• he asks a Samaritan woman for some water
• he falls into a deep sleep on a boat caught in a squall
• he cries at the tomb of Lazarus
• he asks his disciples for company, to pray with him and be near him in the garden
• he experiences emotional desolation before his crucifixion

The list could be longer, but this is enough to form a picture of a very human Jesus, one who experiences the limitations and weaknesses of humans. As the author of Hebrews puts it, we have a High Priest (Jesus) who “understands our weaknesses, for he faced all the same testings we do.”

The sole point I wanted to draw from this was that the presence of need and the expression of weakness are part of the garment, so to speak, of Jesus. It’s as important to see the humanity of Jesus as it is to see his divinity. It’s also important for us to acknowledge our own need and weakness — unless, of course, we think we’re better than the one we follow.

The earliest record of the church (taken from Acts) is of needy church. But we also read about the church responding to those needs. Needs become known and needs get met as members of the church respond. We’re told in Scripture to “love one another” and be “devoted to one another,” but our love and devotion are compromised and watered down when human frailty is kept under wraps. Privatizing weakness won’t do.

I’ve realized recently in some very explicit ways that my own desire to hide need, pain and weakness are rooted mostly in pride. I want to look good, want to look like I’ve got my act together . . . after all these years. I fear that if others see the very messed up parts of my life then I’ll lose my glitter. After all, I’m supposed to be a leader. But maintaining the illusion of respectability or togetherness is a damnable and unnecessary burden. This past weekend I shared with you my own experience of taking a risk, of going to others and talking about an area in which I feel especially weak. And I told you how I wasn’t met with disdain and revulsion — “Away from me you wretch!” — but with love, acceptance and . . . drum roll, please . . . substantial help. Isn’t that’s the way it should work?

If we’re going to grow toward community, then we have to grow toward transparency. Sharing our needs and revealing our weaknesses should become a routine and very matter-of-fact occurrence among us. It will keep religiosity at bay, create the soil in which concrete love can be expressed, and allow the power of God to be revealed more sharply among us.

Finally, here are some questions to consider:

(1) What real needs do you have that you’ve been unwilling to share with others? What are the weaknesses that you don’t want others to know about? Name them. Write them down.

(2) If you came up with something, ask yourself, “Why have I been unwilling to let others know about x, y or z?” Name the reasons. Write them down. (E.g., I’m afraid of what people will think, I feel driven to project an image of success, I don’t believe others are trustworthy, I don’t know who to turn to, etc.)

(3) What are a few practical things we could do to foster a greater degree of transparency.

Peace to you,
Dave Nixon

For those in the VC community and friends who contributed financially to VC in 2010,

There has been an unforeseen delay in getting the end-of-year Donor Statements out the door by the end of January.  I have been having some technical difficulties with the program used to generate the statements.  I’ve been working with a tech support person for the program and hope to have the issue resolved shortly. I apologize for any inconvenience.  The statements will be sent out as soon as possible.  Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Peace, Marissa

Check out THIS new page, which will link to short articles written by our pastors.  This is intended to be something pastoral, encouraging and envisioning.  The first post, “The Saint is a Medicine” is already up!

VC Community!  Our first “Town Hall” meeting of 2010 will be held on Saturday, July 10, at 6pm, in St. Elizabeth’s.

Join us there for a quick rundown of what the Pastoral Council has been working on in the following areas:

• finances
• building
• house churches / hospitality (structure)
• neighborhood

This should take approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours.  Please come with any questions related to these topics.  If you have a pressing question that doesn’t fit in this meeting, send them this way.

There’s still time to cast your vote on the naming of these events!  (survey is not scientific)

cforms contact form by delicious:days

As a body, we’ve long had conversations about the need (or non-need) for a formal definition of membership.  Do we really need to have requirements for membership?  What does that even mean?  Who’s asking??  Regardless of how you answer those questions, or how you avoid answering them, it may be helpful to start somewhere.  There have been so many folks involved with VC in the past, and so many different versions of contact lists, that we just don’t have any way to keep track of everyone.  Please take 10 seconds and fill in this simple survey.  Use your own definition of what you think “member” means for now, and we’ll deal with the rest later.

Please understand that in filling out this form, you are NOT subscribing to the email newsletter.  You can do that over here – it’s a different system entirely.

Peace.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

PASTORAL COUNCIL MEETING

March 28, 2010

Present:  Jeremy Eyre, Dave Nixon, Mandy McLaughlin, Sarah Ross, Janet McNeel, Christiane Sears, Owen Brock, and Josh Hanauer.

Meeting led by Josh Hanauer.

Brief updates shared by each member.

Mandy (Communications) – Reports 172 people are on the VC email list (about 50% regularly open the message).  Recent addition of the PC minutes on website was most popular page.  Plan to encourage joining email list.

Christiane (Orientation) – Kenny Havens has stepped down from co-leadership of this area.  Christiane is in the process of setting specific dates when the orientation group will be offered.

Dave (Pastor – Internal Focus) – Has been working on House Church Handbook.  Also plans to offer opportunity for 15 weeks of discipleship teaching on Sunday evenings – venue will be either Speckled Bird (or possibly 1801 Mills).  To start this on April 25 and continue until early August, then break for few weeks, resuming next 15 weeks (repeated topics) in late August and run until December.

Sarah (Finance) – Stewardship Committee is going to meet in next 1-2 weeks, looking at ways to strengthen financial status.

Jeremy (Facilities) – Two house churches have taken on room remodeling/improvement Projects.  Mills HC is doing children’s room; Hearth has selected room at front left (formerly S. Brock’s area).  Planning to set up yearly maintenance schedule for St. E’s.

Considering fundraising concert with local group for the fall.

Janet (Admin/Support) – Assisting Dave in reviewing HC Handbook and planning for discipleship group meetings.  Has reviewed bylaws and will assist Bd. of Trustees with revisions.  Trying to be informed in all areas and available to help as needed.

Josh (Pastor – External Focus) – Shared that he has recently sold his home in Cheviot and will soon relocate to Norwood.  Will involve two moves due to timing—first move to Speckled Bird apartment on April 30 and second move into newly acquired home on Spencer Ave. on May 27.  (Side note:  Jill and Jonathan Hicks have recently moved to Red River Gorge area).  Josh has attended meetings of the Cincinnati Faith and Justice Group.  There will be a workshop/conference soon on April 30 and May 1^st at the First Christian Assembly Church.  Topic is Re:Discovering Biblical Justice with special speaker coming to present.  More information will be shared soon.

Easter update – Hispanic mass will not be happening.  Attempts to reconnect with individual at Su Casa have largely been difficult, not as warmly received.  Decision has been made to look for other ways to extend outreach to our Hispanic neighbors.

Josh has been working on a mission idea/project which will involve selecting a school in South America that does not have a library.  Plan will be to fill a large shipping container with books and sent this to the school (e.g. children’s books available in Spanish to be purchased — available fairly inexpensively).

AGENDA  (Reviewed by group, all but one selected by voting)

1) Way to Present Items to PC in the Future

Josh has recommended book Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott, will start using format suggested there,  members complete form beforehand and share via email or bring to next meeting with information filled in.  Josh will put this form on Google Wave.

2)  Who is a Member/Who is a Friend of VC

Owen explained how this issue arose a few months ago when this PC model was implemented.  Discussion followed regarding how various other churches address the matter of membership and what if any of those elements would be valuable to consider.  General consensus is that this is a very important topic and that membership needs to be delineated in some manner.  Owen volunteered to complete form referenced above as a way to capitalize on important aspects.  He will bring this to next PC meeting.

3)  Hospitality Committee

Unable to discuss due to PC member not present today.

4)   Building Issues

—Maintenance
—Renovation
—Need to remove this from responsibility of either pastor
—There had been a committee looking at options. Options such as selling, retaining ownership but involving another entity (leasing?), tearing down bldg. and rebuilding.
—Wedding business and how this would be related to building needs to be clarified   (This item generated discussion as to status—Owen and Dave and Greg will discuss this as Board of Trustees, will meet soon).

Mention was made of need to catalog what is going on at VC.  Mandy will explore and together with Sam determine how to present this on the website with brief sentences and photos.

Josh gave an update about Norwood Rugby and his goal to have volunteers (at least 6-10) involved in tutoring (Rugby players must maintain 3.0 grade point average).  This rugby will be co-ed.  It will be primarily through Norwood Middle School.  Will be 6 week long program probably in the summer.  The tutoring relationship will continue throughout the year.  This is flag rugby (noncontact).  PC gave support to Josh to continue his involvement as a outreach ministry for VC.

Dave mentioned that the Regional Conference for Vineyard Churches will take place in Columbus, Ohio, May 11-14 if anyone is interested in attending.

Next meeting of Pastoral Council will be Sunday, May 2 from 1:00 – 4:00 (at Tilden Ave. – Brocks’ home).

If you’d like to stay up-to-speed on all things VC, then you’re in luck.  Check out these options:

• Subscribe to the email list!
• Follow @VineyardCentral on Twitter!
• Join Vineyard Central on FaceBook!
• Subscribe to our RSS Feed!
• Subscribe to our events calendar (copy the link)!
• Stick your head out the door and talk to somebody!
• Podcasts coming soon!

However you stay connected, we’d like to be there for you.  So if you have any other ideas for sharing in this newfangled electronic community, or if you have an announcement that you’d like to see on this page, send your comments to communication@vineyardcentral.com