The vote for elders included a tie, leaving us with six. Nathan Myers was one of those six, but after further reflection, he decided to withdraw. The five remaining elders are Thurman Allen, Angie Ferrell, Amanda McLaughlin, Laura McNeel and Joshua Stoxen. There will be a time of consecration for them during the Sunday gathering on Jan. 8. Thank you to all those who prayerfully participated in this process. May we all be in prayer for what God has in store for our church and for our community in the year ahead!
members
The following people have agreed to be candidates for eldership and will appear on the ballot for this Sunday’s vote:
- Thurman Allen
- Matt Dawson
- Jeremy Eyre
- Angie Ferrell
- Kenny Havens
- Mandy McLaughlin
- Laura McNeel
- Nathan Myers
- Josh Stoxen
On Sunday, members will each vote for five of these candidates. Please spend some time prayerfully considering those who have decided to put their names forward. Click here to review the role that elders will play in our church.
The vote will take place immediately following the gathering on Sunday. Since Tom and Natasha are not candidates, they will facilitate the voting and the counting of the votes. If you are a member and are unable to attend this Sunday, please vote in absentia by emailing your vote to vcelders@gmail.com before noon on Sunday.
We are happy to report that as of this writing, 40 adults have committed to be members of VC. In many ways this feels like a harvest after the long growing season of the Discernment Process, and we are very encouraged. This Sunday, Dec. 11, there will be an official welcoming of members as part of our gathering.
We have also received nominations of 20 different people to serve as elders for our church body. This is a testament to the leadership gifts that are evident among us. Those who have been nominated will be receiving a letter with questions to prayerfully consider as they decide whether to accept their nomination. We are asking nominees to decide by next Tuesday, Dec. 13, and to communicate those decisions to a member of the Discernment Team (Natasha, Laura, Nathan, Josh, or Tom). If more than five people accept, there will be a vote after our gathering on Sunday, Dec. 18 to choose five of the nominees. Names will be made available ahead of time, so that people have the opportunity to prayerfully consider the nominees and vote in absentia if they cannot make it to the Sunday gathering.
Our apologies for the delay, but here are the documents we promised!
Click here for the elder nomination form. Please print out, complete, and bring the form to the Sunday gathering. Click here to review the expectations and responsibilities of elders. The last date for receiving elder nominations is December 4th.
If you have yet to sign the membership covenant and are desiring to do so, click here to access that document. Please print out, sign, and bring the covenant to the Sunday gathering. The last date for receiving membership covenants is this Sunday, November 27th.
As with other things in our Discernment Process, if you cannot be present at the worship gathering this upcoming Sunday, please email one of the members of the Discernment Team (Natasha, Nathan, Joshua, Laura, or Tom) with your intention to covenant with VC and sign the covenant as soon as possible. Please submit any questions or problems with the links in the comments section below. Thanks!
This Sunday we will be making a final decision about whether to have all volunteer elders or to pay one of the elders to serve in a vocational capacity. Both perspectives will be concisely presented prior to taking a vote from those present at the gathering. If you are unable to make it this Sunday, but would still like to vote, please contact Laura, Natasha, Nathan, Tom, or Josh.
We will also have membership proposals available for people to sign and return as pledges of their intent to become covenant members. We are planning on a Dec. 4 consecration service for all those who commit to covenant membership. You can view the membership proposal here.
Covenant members will also be invited to begin nominating people in our church who they feel would be qualified to be elders. We are encouraging members to nominate up to five people, as there will be five positions available. Forms for this purpose will be available on Sunday. A description of elders and their responsibilities will be available this Sunday as well. See you then!
Tuesday at 3:30pm
Hannah has stabilized since this morning and remains in the NICU. Of primary concern is the development of her lungs. Nathan and Bethany have gotten a little sleep, and were heading back down to pray with Hannah. Bethany is set to be discharged tomorrow (Wednesday) and seemed to be in good spirits. Nathan expressed deep gratitude for everyone’s prayers and for God’s faithfulness through a very trying night. The best way to support them right now is to keep praying. Stay tuned for details on providing meals for them in the days to come.
(For those who do not know, Hannah was born at 26 weeks, weighing 1 lb, 9 oz, nine weeks after Bethany’s water broke.)
To view the slideshow describing the membership proposal from this past Sunday, please click the link below. Keep in mind that the sections on corporate and individual practices are unfinished. Please send any comments, suggestions, or questions you have our way!
As the people of God, we feel called to be present to the place in which God has planted us. We seek to proclaim and embody the Good News that God has not abandoned us but has come to dwell among us and redeem us. By God’s grace, we seek to be imitators of Christ and live incarnational lives among our neighbors here in Norwood. We are a diverse people, seeking to embody a generous orthodoxy that stands in solidarity with the church historic and global. As we’ve laid out different models for VC over the last several weeks, there seems to be a shared hope to continue being a church in this neighborhood, a church that has a more definitive structure and yet retains an organic and intentional presence in the community.
As we have listened to God and to each other over these last several months, we feel confident in proposing a parish church model for VC that also incorporates elements of both the house church model and the intentional community model. The hallmark of a parish church model is a pastoral commitment to shepherd the people of a specific geographical location. Everyone within that boundary is seen as part of the church’s parish, regardless of their commitment to the church. For VC, this would mean an intentional commitment to caring for the people of Norwood, especially those within the immediate vicinity of St. Elizabeth.
Regular, smaller gatherings of us will be vital to the continued growth and discipleship that house churches at their best provide. These smaller gatherings can be based on geographical proximity, life stage, interest or missional cause. Distinct layers of commitment to the church will allow for clarity, more of a sense of ownership, and the pursuit of a more intentional life together. Each layer will invite people to a deeper commitment to God, each other, and the work of God in this place. Membership in the church will be possible without committing to all aspects of intentional community. Specific practices and covenants will be drawn up to give substance and distinction to these commitments. Further marks of this model are as follows:
A parish model of church would seek to cultivate our relationships with God by
-rooting ourselves in God’s faithfulness and love, seen most fully in Christ and His redemption
-regularly coming together as the gathered body of Christ for worship, prayer and fellowship
-taking seriously the call to proclaim and embody God’s love and justice
-committing to intentional practices of individual and corporate devotion
A parish model of church would seek to cultivate our relationships with our neighbors by
-committing to intentional practices of community presence and neighborly love
-providing a weekly gathering for worship that is accessible to them
-offering pastoral care and other services throughout the week that empower and encourage
-partnering with them in local activities, organizations and initiatives
A parish model of church would seek to cultivate the lives of its members by
-providing preaching, teaching and pastoral care that exhorts, equips, and encourages
-providing teaching and shepherding for children and youth
-coordinating opportunities for small group fellowship and discipleship
-committing to intentional practices of fellowship and accountability
Membership in this parish model would
-be centered around a covenant commitment
-be reviewed on a yearly basis
-include a commitment to mutual accountability with other covenant members
Leadership in this parish model
-would come from covenant members exercising their God-given talents and abilities
-would ultimately rest with a body of elders who represent covenant members
-may include a paid pastor and additional staff positions
The building in this parish model would
-be a visible and tangible hub of the church’s work in the community
-function as both a spiritual hospital and a launching pad for ministry out in the community
-get used throughout the week for various activities that serve the community
The following was sent in by Mary Ellen:
As some people probably already know, the Courtland Ave House Church (that meets at Ben and Mary Ellen’s house) has been working since February with the city of Norwood to get improvements done to Upper Millcrest Park. This Thursday August 11 we are having a community meeting at the Community Center (the big brick building behind St. Elizabeth’s). It will be from 7-9 and is a vital part of moving forward toward a master plan for the space. We have hopes that the mayor will be there, and are working towards asking the city to allocate money for this project. Please come if you can, even for part of the meeting.
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
The following comes to us from Becca Swartzendruber. She and her husband, Nathan, are expecting the arrival of their first child in about two weeks!
Nathan and I are asking for help with house projects such as scraping, painting and moving furniture in the next few weeks as our due date approaches. Any help you could offer would be much appreciated. Email us at beccajayne1@gmail.com or fishpatrol@gmail.com.
On Thursday June 23 Courtland Ave House Church is having a work day at the upper millcrest park. Please consider coming out and helping us if you can. It is going to be potluck dinner. 6:30 -9pm
We will be
- tilling up the picnic area and planting mulch
- Cleaning up the plantings that we already did and maybe adding some annuals
- Planting some more around the bath house
It seems like the best bet for planting around the picnic area would be in planters. Does anyone have any or know where we could get large ones, preferably plastic, or something not glass.
Mulch has been delivered. Picnic tables have been delivered. Now we just need to finish phase 1 of this project!
–
Mary Ellen Mitchell
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.
As promised in this afternoon’s worship gathering, two polls have been initiated that give VC folks the opportunity to offer our perspectives on where and when our Discernment Gatherings should take place each week during the season of Pentecost.
Each poll has three options: Yes, (Yes), and No. The (Yes) option says you’re willing to meet in the space or are ok with the time, but not necessarily passionately for or against.
The first poll is an attempt to answer the question:
“What time will we gather in the season of Pentecost? Should we continue meeting at 4 pm followed by dinner together? On the morning at 10 am? At 11 am? Either morning option, we would follow up with lunch.”
Click on this sentence to follow the link to the poll.
The second poll is an attempt to answer the question:
“Where will we meet in the season of Pentecost? Will we meet upstairs (where a window A/C unit will help deal with the heat from being higher up), or will we meet in the large worship space downstairs?”