Neighborhood Health Care and The Jaymie Jamison Foundation for Hope bring you:

Cervical Cancer Awareness & Action January 2012 Kickoff 6 out of 10 cervical cancers occur in women who have never received a Pap test or have not been tested in the past five years.

You can schedule your Women’s Health Exam today at one of our five Neighborhood Health Care health centers or pass the info on to a neighbor! Locations in Mt. Auburn (close to University of Cincinnati), Walnut Hills/Evanston, East End, Norwood (close to Xavier) and Harrison.

Low Cost to No Out of Pocket!!!

Call 221-4949 to make an appointment.

January 28, 2012 - 9:00am - 4:00pm

When: Saturday, January 28, 9am-4pm

Hi VC’ers

To brighten up Winter I’d like to offer a marriage seminar Saturday, February 4^th from 9am to noon. Let me know if you’re interested by replying to this. Judging by the cheer that went up when I announced this last Sunday, it sounds like we’ll have a lively group.  Bring enough healthy and unhealthy breakfast food to share, and I’ll provide coffee and tea. BYO mug, pen, paper, and Bible. I’m going green: no handouts, no photocopies, no power-point (I don’t know about you but I usually take all the binders and handouts home, mean to reread them, put them on a shelf, and forget about them). I’m working on getting childcare; I’ll let you know when it’s secured (If you have someone else to leave your kids with that would reduce the need/cost; if any of you have good leads for childcare I’d be glad for the input). Suggested donation of $10 per couple to cover heat and childcare.

Peace,

Dave Barr

• 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 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.

Here’s the layout of the next few weeks for your preparation:

Nov 27th: First Sunday of Advent
Worship gathering: 10 am
Last day for membership covenant commitments
Evening worship gathering for singing and praying: 5 p.m.

Dec 4th: Second Sunday of Advent
Worship gathering: 10 am
Last day for elder nominations
Evening worship gathering for singing and praying: 5 p.m.

Dec 11th: Third Sunday of Advent
Worship gathering: 10 am
Covenanting ceremony for members during worship gathering
Evening worship gathering for singing and praying:  5 p.m.

Dec 18th: Fourth Sunday of Advent
Worship gathering: 10 am
Elders elected directly following worship gathering
Evening worship gathering for singing and praying: 5 p.m.

Dec 24th: Christmas Eve
Worship gathering: 5 pm

Dec 25th: Christmas Day
Worship gathering: 10 am

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!

Unfortunately this year (due to an internal audit & new management) the Norwood YMCA will no longer be offering discounted memberships to Vineyard Central members.  If you are already a member, they will waive the one time $50 activation fee, but we will have to pay regular rates now, like everyone else. They do, however, offer a sliding scale payment if that is helpful.
Here are regular prices:

Membership Type / Monthly Rate

Adult $56
Family/Household $83
Two Adult Household $73
Senior Adult $39
Senior Family $50

Here is their link if you want more information:http://www.cincinnatiymca.org/our-ys/branches/re-lindner

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!

Our “Intercambio de Idiomas” or “Language Exchange” will begin on Saturday, October 29^th. It will be held here at Su Casa on Saturdays noon until 1 PM. This is an opportunity for native Spanish speakers to practice English and native English speakers to practice Spanish, and is free of charge. Please tell everyone who you think would benefit. Have those interested contact me if they have any questions: 513.761.1588, ext 14.

Please join the Courtland Ave. House Church at Upper Millcrest on October 30th for a celebration of the space, as a thank  you to the neighborhood for allowing us to use it this year. There will be facepainting, pumpkin decorating, free lunch and desserts and a chance to view the long-term plan for the park. The event will be from 12:30 – 2:30

From Molly at Xavier University:

I’m writing to invite you THIS SATURDAY to a big day at the NEXUS Community Garden. From 9AM-1PM on 10/29, we’ll be “Putting NEXUS to Sleep” for the season and completing the “Color Your Block” Community-wide Mural Project (see attached flyer for details). Come for a few minutes or a few hours to see all the great things going on in and around the NEXUS project and lend a hand. We’ll need help adding compost to plots and preparing the garden for winter and all are invited to paint a block or more on the back of McGrath Health & Wellness (1714 Cleneay Ave.). All needed tools and supplies will be provided. Food, drink, and great people will be available.

Many hands make for light work and many minds and hearts make for great community. So, please come on out and contribute!

It was proposed that selling the building be an additional sixth option. It was also proposed that a new committee be formed to pick up where the last one left off, with a specific deadline for making a decision within the coming year.

Laura McNeel issued a call to more faithfully steward the building in the meantime. Don McNeel issued a call to join together in prayer to discern what God’s purposes are for the building and how we as a church are to be a part of that. Mark Bruner suggested that repairing the building may be something people from the community would be excited to be a part of. Stephen JohnsonGrove suggested that like St. Elizabeth the person, we might have to leave the building behind in order to more faithfully serve those around us.

Moving forward, we need to assemble a team of people to advance these discussions. If you are interested, please contact a member of the discernment team (Natasha, Laura, Nate or Josh). We also need to have intentional times of prayer together over the coming year. Caring for the needs of the building may also be included in what it means to be a member of VC during the year ahead.

The Courtland House Church and other friends of the park will be hosting a neighborhood gathering in Upper Millcrest Park on Sunday, October 30 from 12:30 -2:30. Lunch will be provided, along with games and pumpkin decorating. We will also be presenting the long-term vision for the park. Please come down and support the effort, and invite neighbors. We want to use this event both to thank West Norwood for allowing our community to use the park, particularly for the garden project, and also to invite our neighbors to be a part of the planning process.

Christ the King Sunday is Nov 20, and that is the final gathering of the discernment process. Here is the plan for the remaining weeks:

October 16- Building discussion, pt. 2; exploring the purpose(s) of the building in what God is calling us to as a church in light of the financial realities of the options discussed last week

October 23- Relationship to Vineyard USA; theological affirmations

Hello VCers.

As you know, we’re in the midst of an important Discernment Time for our church community, and we’ve been spending time on vital issues for our community one after another since Pentecost.  This upcoming Sunday, October 9th, we will begin what will be a 2-3 week conversation regarding our building, St E’s.

In the recent history of Vineyard Central, some among us dedicated an important chunk of time and energy to considering options for the building going forward.  As an affirmation of their important work, and as a confession that we’re not re-inventing the wheel now, several members of what was known as the St. Elizabeth’s Explorers will share with us their work, give us recommendations, and have some time to respond to questions we might have.

It will be a panel format, with those who can make it sitting together up front. Angela Pancella will begin with an overview of what the team discovered and the options they had been working on. The other panelists can chime in and add details as they see fit. Then there will be a time of Q&A for the whole gathering. If there is time, we will conclude by giving each panelist a couple minutes to share  their personal recommendation/desire for the building. So a general timeline:

• We recognize the need for us to be filled with the love of God ourselves, so that everything we do flows out of that. We love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). We also recognize the need for consistent, intentional practices that we can commit to doing together, even (and especially) when we might not feel like it. Love in the Bible is always tied to action, not just feelings.
• We affirm the need for both proclaiming the Good News in words and embodying the Good News in deeds. We want to honor Jesus with both our words and our actions, following both the Great Commandment (Mt. 22:37-40) and the Great Commission (Mt. 28:18-20). We desire to live out a holistic view of the Gospel that sees God’s redemptive work reaching every facet of life.
• We desire to have a presence in our community that is enlivened by the Holy Spirit and characterized by the fruit of that same Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. We want to see the gifts of the Spirit manifested among us in ways that bless our neighborhood and remind us that God is with us.
• We desire to cultivate good relationships with city officials and others in positions of authority. We want to build bridges with those who serve our city in this way and follow God’s command to respect and pray for them. Only then will we be able to address any issues of systemic injustice that we may encounter.
• We desire to be a church that consistently prays with and for its community. For those who commit to membership, actively praying with and for our immediate neighbors and blocks could be part of the covenant commitment.
• We desire to be a church that is real and genuine in our interactions with people in our neighborhoods. We acknowledge our own brokenness and seek to point to our hope in Christ and in His Spirit working to transform us and mold us into new people.
• We desire to share whatever gifts and abilities God has given us with each other and with our neighborhoods. We hope to bring some unity to all of our different visions for what God is calling us to, while also recognizing that God is already at work all around us. We want to look for Christ in the faces of all we interact with and recognize the gifts God has given them, too.

Below is a short synopsis of our conversation from this Sunday (October 2nd). A strong attempt has been made to group together the thoughts and responses that were most connected to one another:

Joshua Stoxen kicked off the conversation with a reflection on how we might seek to see where God is already at work and join Him and others there.  He recalled Dave Barr’s sharing of the image of a open cistern with God’s water being poured in and overflowing outwards to bless others.  Joshua reflected that in a sense, there are cisterns all over Norwood; we are not the primary bringers of God’s Spirit, but companions with other.  He asked, “How do we listen and humbly join with others that God is pouring into?”  He also recalled the work of CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) and their work in the larger church to bring together the call to social justice and the call to evangelize with words, reminding us all that the good news is not either/or, but the deep togetherness of both.  So, the great call in Matthew 22 to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind” and “love your neighbor as yourself” is the framework for all we work towards.

Laura Menze:  Sensitive to and aware of mental illness/addiction present in our neighborhood.  In her work with Summit, she is sensitive to God’s beauty displayed through mental illness.  That also brought to mind for her a desire for the building to be handicap accessible.
Angie Ferrell responded that she would love for chances to be educated about how to connect with and communicate well with persons with mental illness.

Angie moved on to wonder how we could partner with other churches to use our building in a more full way
Joshua Stoxen responded that in the Norwood Ministerial Association meeting last week, he mentioned the possibility of St. E’s as a church-based health clinic
Sandie asked, “Would there be a conflict experienced with the Norwood Health Clinic?”
Stoxen: “That’s a good question.  One advantage of a church-based health clinic is that they have more freedom for spiritual conversations and therefore a more holistic care of persons.”

Mary: Could the building be used for child-care?

Don: “There’s a very diverse group of people here. Spreading our unique knowledge we might carry (hanging dry wall, mechanical, mental illness, etc) could be a practice we commit ourselves to (consistently spending time teaching others in practical, shareable skills)

Juli Thompson; “With just moving and around all new neighbors, I’m aware of the need for us to be authentic in our family-dynamics with our neighbors, to portray authentically who we are in interactions with them.”
Leslie Nixon: “It’s very helpful when talking with our neighbors to listen deeply to them. What do we hear? What needs do we sense?”
Sandie: “In the fundraiser Sarah Allen had at her home, we had a great conversation with the Mayor of Norwood and his wife. The conversation was of great benefit to both sides (old school Norwood meeting new school Norwood).
Greg York: Shared a reflection of his of late, that we carry lots of dreams, but we don’t have to start them all, or carry them all. He recalled a transformative conversation he had with a Norwood city official recently. He’s had some frustration in relationship with the city, but the official shared why he pursued working in his position; because he grew up in Norwood and really wants to see the community thrive again. Greg felt reminded of the need to bless the city officials in their work more and seek to understand their story too.

Nathan: Shared of a spectrum he’s had in his mind where one extreme is a community that consistently, habitually does good things, but without joy, without deep love, and the other extreme is a community that has lots of good ideas and has a desire to love, but whose practice is very inconsistent or non-existent. The middle would be the ‘sweet spot,’ where deep love and consistent practice ‘hold hands’ together. He observed his perspective that if we’re honest as a community, we’re very far over in the spectrum towards the community with a desire to love with very inconsistent practice. “So in order to have more balance, we need to choose to emphasize practices we can consistently carry out, even if it feels too tough, to grow our capacity over time. We’ve mentioned in the Discernment Time that we would like to have a community meal where our neighbors are invited. In order to grow in consistency, maybe we need to start at a place that we know we can handle. We’ve seen how our consistency in eating together weekly has petered out over the course of the Discernment Process. Can we begin with a once-a-month meal, and maybe after a year, or several years, or a decade, move to maybe twice a month as we build the capacity for consistency, and our neighbors can grow to know we are trustworthy with that time and space?”
Tom Wuest: Shared, “During the listening prayer time, I had an experience where I was sitting on an airplane beside Jesus, and he was in the window seat. As I sat beside him, I just felt like it was strange, so I asked ‘Jesus, why are you here?’ Jesus looked out the window, and said, ‘These clouds are awesome. I remember when we had the idea for water evaporating up and being caught in this way. They’re so beautiful!’ I responded, ‘Yes, but Jesus, we’re separated from the clouds in this metal container. Don’t you feel exiled here?’ Jesus said, “Yes, but I am also deeply present here. I am an exile wherever I go, but I am also deeply present.’ And I said to him, “I need to learn how to do that. I feel the sense of exile so deeply, and I need to learn how to be deeply present like you.’”
Tom then left the story to give his response to Nathan, saying, “When it comes to being deeply present to our neighbors, the idea of a common table, of a regular open community meal, is something I find deeply welcoming. I desire that.”

Todd Long: Shared about the importance of having a point person to communicate in simple consistent ways about the things we have said we will do. He wondered if this may have contributed to the inconsistency of meals during the Discernment Process.
Kenny Havens: Commented that he was sensitive to the need for that communication to not just be electronic to be as accessible as possible to as much of our community.

There is more that was shared, but hopefully this captures a good slice of it. Feel free to add comments below about what you heard (or didn’t hear) and were encouraged (or discouraged) by. We will be transitioning to talking about the building this Sunday, while continuing to hold our larger place in the neighborhood in view.

Also, as a reminder, if you have yet to do so, please fill out our short survey about the discernment process. You can find it here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D3GZWPQ. We definitely value your input!

This Friday, women will be gathering for “bring your own craft and hang out” time!  Meet us from 8pm-10pm at the back entrance to St. E’s. Enter in the orange doors and go up to studio 6 (Juli’s Studio).  I will have stamps and paper available to make cards for those who don’t have a craft project, but you can just come and hang out, too.  Apple cider and snacks will join us as well. Please let anyone who you run into without email access or internet capabilities know about this, too! It is open to all.

Hope to see you there!

If you have a penchant for gardening, a high tolerance for cats (there are 10 total in the building), and a desire for a living situation that is more interdependent than submitting rent once a month, this
may be the place for you.  Please contact Meridith Owensby at 513-223-3509 or  meridithowensby@gmail.com for more information.

We are moving forward with the idea of a parish model of church, a church that is committed to proclaiming and embodying the Gospel in Norwood, especially in the area immediately surrounding St. Elizabeth. Among other things, it means having regular worship services open to the entire community and seeking to reclaim St. E’s as a sacred, missional space during the week.

We are moving forward with the idea of covenant membership and are crafting a provisional, one year covenant for people to commit to. It will be a year of learning how we can be more intentional with God, each other and our community.

We are also moving forward with the idea of an eldership model of leadership where elders would be primarily responsible for the spiritual care of the covenant members and for leading the ministries of the church.

In the coming weeks we will discuss in detail how we will be more engaged with our neighborhood, how we will use St. E’s, how we will minister to our children, and how we will relate to our larger Vineyard family. In November, we will finalize these plans and begin the next stage of our journey on the first Sunday of Advent.

In order to get a feel for where people are at, we are asking that you fill out a brief survey about the discernment process. Your feedback will be very helpful! Follow this link to complete the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D3GZWPQ. Thanks for your help. Please continue to pray that God would guide our steps!

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.)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l0htBR028IXVSm2tCdVCAw3SlPEZJ9Ekq-XpkuJlcyY/edit?hl=en_US

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B7W0RcqLUUjwZGQzN2U1NzQtOWMwYy00MDA1LTgzNjItYmEzZjBjOTE0YWE1&hl=en_US

The 8 principles are relocation, reconciliation, redistribution, church based, listening to the community, wholistic approach, empowerment, and leadership development. Our hope as a HC is to let these principles inform the work we are doing with Upper Millcrest Park, but ideally many different people might find ways to let them inform or initiate meaningful work in our neighborhood.

Childcare will be provided. We will finish no later than 8:30pm.

Let me know if you have any interest– email maryellenmitchell@gmail.com

So what’s the deal with the carrot?

In conjunction with the written proposal (see the prior post on the web site), we wanted to present a picture or symbol through which we all can better understand and discover what it might look like to be a people of God committed to be a parish church with elements of an intentional community in West Norwood.

After giving it some long, hard consideration, the carrot came to us.

Maybe it had something to do with our neighborhood’s overwhelming interest in gardening. Or maybe we were influenced by the popular trend of modeling faith communities after produce (the onion and the apple are already taken). Perhaps it was divinely inspired. Whatever the source, we think it makes sense and helps to describe how the different pieces of our identity not only fit together but are completely reliant on one another for growth and stability.

Consider, for example, the way a carrot grows in the ground. The edible part of the carrot lies underground, hidden from view, but all the time absorbing nutrients and water as it pushes through the soil. The only visible portion is the green leafy stems, which reach up towards the sun, absorb light energy and convert it into essential food for the plant. Though very different in appearance and function, the root and the stems are connected at the core and cannot exist without the health and provision of one another.

Similarly, we are discerning that neither a traditional church model nor an intentional community model can in isolation fully accomplish the work God is calling us into in West Norwood. Instead, we envision a model centrally carried by a core fellowship of covenanted members who commit to the work of the church (through visible practices in the neighborhood). The leadership of VC comes from within this covenanted group with the task of exhorting, encouraging, and holding the membership accountable to practice the things we have said “Yes” to. Outer layers of the “carrot” represent persons in different relationships to our church.  As the layers move outwards, the amount of commitment, time, and energy devoted to our church lessens.  This is not to suggest “levels” of achievement, but rather clearly defined layers of involvement.  Clarity in this area will contribute to the church knowing where persons stand in relation to the church, and give persons a clear pathway to understanding what our community values and how to get involved.  We believe that by establishing a clear, healthy organizational structure (good boundaries, with plenty of space to breathe) and by assessing and affirming our individual and corporate giftings, these identities will begin to flourish, and our relationships with God, one another, and the people in our neighborhood will grow both deep and high, just like the carrot.

In the weeks ahead we hope to delve into more of the particulars of this model, including a closer look at the various “layers” of involvement with covenanted membership at the core (see cross section view of carrot in upper left) as well as possible “branches” of service -as inspired by the visions and missions of our core membership. Throughout these conversations we fully invite you all to share your thoughts and meditations on how the carrot fits. Of course there may be times when the analogy falls flat or we may need to rely on other pictures and metaphors to convey a certain idea. But for now, we like the carrot and hope you do too!

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

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.

This upcoming Sunday, we will share a skeleton outline of how Vineyard Central will structure ourselves going forward.  This is a clear work in progress; the next stages of our Conversation together will focus on Membership, Leadership, and Neighborhood, which will put “flesh on the bones” of the outline.

The outline will be presented as a way of simplifying the process for all of us.  We are moving from all things being up in the air towards more clarity, more detail, and a working model.  We hope this will be a breath of fresh air for those who have faithfully been present at each stage in the process.  This will also be an invitation for those who have stood on the sidelines to come and observe what we have decided thus far; listening deeply and quietly for a sustained period of time before volunteering a perspective.

The process thus far has been one of mutual respect, a growth in trust and love from participants, an affirmation of the important and beautiful ways we have functioned as community so far, and an opportunity to set a stake in the ground describing specific, concrete desires for Vineyard Central that we can be accountable to as a local church body.

Thanks much!
Becca Swartzendruber

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

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.

Much of their time was spent preparing gardens (especially the new one at Upper Milcrest Park) and cleaning out the basement of the church building.

It would be great if we as a family wrote their youth pastor, Thom Stout, and thanked him / them for the great gift they gave us. You can reach him at violentruth@gmail.com

Peace to you,
Dave

The Pastoral Council received a few questions over the past week regarding the status of our Discernment Process and whether or not a new Pastor had been selected to lead VC.

VC has not offered a new paid Pastor role to anyone. Under our current Charter, the VC Board of Trustees is the only group that has the authority to hire paid staff. Related to the discernment process, informal conversations have occurred regarding the effectiveness of past leadership models, and the potential of possible leadership models going forward. No invitations however have been discerned or extended, and will not occur outside of the discernment process. The VC BOT has not met to formally consider this question of paid Pastoral leadership, but will do so as our discernment process progresses.

Our path forward regarding how we choose to be led as a Church includes continuing our Discernment Process about what kind of Church God has called us to be. Assuming we are called to be a Church, it seems likely we will call a Pastor. What the Pastor will be called to will come out of the congregation’s Discernment Process.

Dave, Greg, Jeremy, Owen

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

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

We bought our house from a VC friend 9 years ago and would love for it to “stay in the family”, so to speak.

For sale by owner to friends and friends of friends. Brick duplex that can convert to a single family house, located at 1908 Mills Ave, Norwood, OH 45212. Call 368-7752 for appointment.

Downstairs apt has spacious living and dining rooms, hardwood floors and french doors; fully renovated kitchen; full bath; 2 bedrooms. Upstairs apt has 2 bedrooms, living, dining room, office/playroom, compact kitchen, full bath. New windows throughout. Basement with laundry and storage rooms. 2 car garage with carport. Spacious backyard and patio.

Friends, family, acquaintances….
Some have you may have known us for 20 years or more and never knew that we spent over 15 years of our lives touring in a Christian rock band. Oh my! It seems your past does catch up with you as we are now having a reunion date at a large festival in IL in a mere few weeks!
Attached you will find information on a preview performance being held in Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 28th. We didn’t want anyone to wonder why we never mentioned this show so here it is. If you are scratching your head and saying, “no way, I have to see this” go on and read below. The rest of you can pretend we never mentioned it.
Ideally we would love to gather you all in with us for free and enjoy this experience. Our reality is the costs for this reunion adventure are stacking up fast and we’re hoping to break even. This is a fund-raising event to underwrite some of the costs involved. It is a small venue so we need every seat sold. Thank you for understanding and thank you for your support!
looking forward to the fun,
Owen & Sandie

TICKETS: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/181161
PDF flyer: http://www.servantband.com/SERVANT_CTB_Flyer.pdf
http://servantband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/servantband

The discernment team put a lot of thought into the order, seeking to integrate elements of what we have been doing together weekly for months, along with pieces we’ve added in response to strong words we’ve heard (like Dave Barr’s word to practice listening prayer together).  So we hope the order of worship gives space for us to cling to and listen for God speaking to us now and also for us to remember that God has already spoken.

You’ll notice the conversation is included in the order of worship.  The meaning is clear.  Conversation, the  act of listening and speaking thoughtfully, is worship too.

Opening
Call to Worship
Songs
Passing of the Peace
Framing the Conversation
Listening Prayer
Conversation
Eucharist
Closing Song (“Unless the Lord Builds” or “Memory and Hope”)

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.”