Vineyard Church of Knox County
God’s Handiwork at VCKC
The leadership team of the church recently went on a retreat to think about and prayer for God's vision for VCKC in year #2. Can you believe we're approaching our first anniversary as an established church? Yep, we'll be celebrating on Sunday morning, September 19th, with some special presentations that will remind us how awesome God has been to us this last year.
After spending an evening out to dinner and just playing together, the leadership team began Saturday morning with worship and then spent some time answering this question: Who has God created us (the Vineyard Church) to be? In other words, What is the Vineyard Church as we enter year #2? After we spent some time answering, we looked at the posterboard full of values and each of us felt a sense of awe at what God has done, a sense of humility for being invited into such an attractive community of believers, and a sense of excitement at what God has in store for us.
I’ll share some of our answers that describe who we are: words like flexible, open, and freedom mean that we are a church that is willing to change as God shapes us; we are always in process. We all agreed that the spirit, the feel of the church, is one of caring, welcome, and grace that is inclusive to all people who choose to visit the Vineyard. Real, authentic, and genuine describe our attitude toward relationships and life in general. We are not interested in religious masks, creating false images of spirituality. And we are driven not by the desire for bigger programs but the desire for bigger Christians, that is, we are motivated by relationship rather than program.
Practically speaking, we’ve been told many times that the church is clearly interested in meeting people and blessing people in very practical ways. We are interested in helping real people in real life situations. Beyond helping, though, we are committed to equipping every person to do real ministry; everyone gets to play!
Soung like a community you can serve with? Me too!
As I finish, know that I am very proud to be a part of this body of Christ--living, playing, and laboring with you--as God shapes us into a community of Christ-followers, a community that reflects His kingdom. All of us are part of what God has done this past year. What a privilege!
Blessings,
Chris
