Liberty Vineyard,
Good Monday morning, Liberty Vineyard. Yesterday we heard a powerful message on the Holy Spirit, the Revealer by Pastor Nancy followed by some challenging news about LVC’s financial situation. (If you missed it, please request it from Pastor Karen.)
This “Everybody Gets to Play” will be a bit longer than usual so bear with me if you could.
I want to reiterate the strengths and good, good work that God has been doing at Liberty Vineyard for many years. I have planted or been involved in about five different church plants (two overseas and three in the US) and I know the intense, laborious task of what is involved in planting a new congregation. I have met in my home, in church buildings, in store fronts, outside, and probably other places I am not remembering (ha) so I, like many of you, have seen God’s faithfulness in navigating building stuff time and again. I once had a church threaten a YWAM base that if they allowed us to use their space to launch a church plant than their church would cut off their relationship with them. Yeah, some pastors need to get a hobby and maybe try Jesus at times. Did I just type that?? 😊 We at LVC have been here before and we have watched God do big things. He is the Faithful One.
I also want you to know that I do not fret about Sunday morning worship attendance or if we live in a culture who doesn’t greatly value church things. It would be cool if we had more people on Sunday mornings but that is not a great concern from a strategy or ministry philosophy perspective. The outward growth I want to see us live into is the kind of growth that engages the unchurched, dechurched, and those outside the Christian sphere as much as we can. If they come on a Sunday, Lord help us care as much for them as we do for our own preferences. And if they don’t come on Sunday, let’s take the church to them wherever they are. Hiding out in a holy huddle though is not an option for us.
I am the kind of leader who will always see more on the horizon, more God to be learned, more people to engage, more love to be experienced – this is what you get when you find a missionary pastor. I make no apologies for that wiring and I do believe in order to not just survive, but to thrive, we definitely need visionaries and a strong team around them. So you heard yesterday me calling us to something higher and something beyond what we can see. It was the famous hockey player Wayne Gretzky who used to say, “My goal is to go to where the puck is going to be, not where the puck is.” Lord, give us eyes to see where it is you are going.
Growth at LVC
That being said, I want to call out some of the growth I have seen over the
last year at Liberty Vineyard. This is important to notice and I think it will help motivate us towards the future. Some of this has been going on for years and some is new.
- A pastoral leadership team who is hearing one another and growing more and more in our authenticity towards God and one another.
- A picking up of communication between one another in our Whatsapp group and in contact with one another outside Sunday.
- A women’s ministry who meets weekly and studies the Word of God together consistently and a group of ladies deepening in their love for one another.
- The appointment of two associate pastors in Nancy and Karen who have an official title of work that they had already been doing for many years.
- Many reports of conversations and meetups throughout the week where the Kingdom of God is central. Some of those people we’ve met with are far from the Kingdom while others have inched closer.
- Gifted kids and worship ministry teams who allow room for many to participate and lead, giving diversity and variety in ministry and teaching/singing.
- Collaborative preaching between Pastor Karen, Pastor Nancy and I around topics critical to our church.
- The merging of a missions team that has began to set some parameters of how we want to be involved in missions and how we want to commit our time/finances.
- Stories of benevolence and each of us helping one another out in times of need in tangible, practical ways.
- Several visitors have come and some of them have returned. I know that my family amongst several others have continued relationship with some of these visitors though they may have not made LVC their church home.
- Stories of LVC people meeting up with friends or neighbors outside of church with authentic conversation around the Kingdom of God. Some of the people we have been with are far, far from the Kingdom while others are leaning in closely. These people may or may not come to church on a Sunday.
There are more, so many more signs of life at LVC. We want to celebrate these in the midst of our financial challenges. Does anyone remember the scene from Jurassic Park (this is sort of an evolution thing so please don’t hate me) but these scientist were talking and there is a line where one guy says to the other, “Life. . . life always finds a way.”
It is important to remember when we bump up against challenges in the church that we do not make upward, inward, and outward growth exclusive categories. I am writing a dissertation right now where people are constantly debating two approaches to disability ministry that have become competitors (including people into society versus praying for divine healing) and both camps refuse to see the good in both approaches. We as a church want to continually be shooting in all three of these directions (up, in, and out) and I believe that our financial situation is calling us to these realities. We are naming things that need to be named and now we get a choice to join Jesus in what He is already doing. If we only focus on what we do well or only focus on what we lack, we are not accurately seeing the mission of Christ. This is our time to lean on all fronts.
Finance Talk
Guys, I also want us to understand that we are not being negligent with our finances. If you crunch the numbers of income each month per adult in our congregation, the average is higher than many churches I have seen. It is not to say we couldn’t give more – of course we could but know that no one is disappointed in our efforts. We are up against rising rent though, paying a pastor a housing allowance, and just very few people to make all of that happen. What occurs in these situations, and one that I have seen time and time again, is that a church has such a focus on making building payments or paying a pastor that there is just little money left over to do much else beyond that. We can have all the desire in the world to do missions, improve our online presence or make our current ministries better, more benevolence, or do significant outreaches beyond ourselves but due to the income to expense ratio, there just isn’t much ministry that can exist beyond taking care of ourselves. Of course we do not want that so this is why we are talking so honestly and openly about the situation.
You probably have noticed that I value authenticity. I have a flattery detector that is really, really accurate. I see it a mile away. 😊 One thing I have seen us taking steps towards and I want to continue to see us grow in is the ability to have challenging conversations and address those difficulties both individually and corporately. I believe that Sunday was a step in that direction. I commend those of you who have been growing in your transparency and authenticity this last year. May we keep filling the atmosphere with grace and truth – not just grace and not just truth. Grace and truth together equals reliability.
I know this is long but I feel it especially necessary to help us all grab each others hands and pull them toward the pile. These are not easy days to navigate. The King goes before us. He has spoken that He will take care of us. We are not to fear. We are to surrender everything. . . everything.
Thanks for hanging in there with me on a much longer weekly note than usual. Care for you all.
Fear not,
John
John D. Trotter
Senior Pastor, Liberty Vineyard Church
Easter Sunday’s sermon: Celebrate the Resurrection of Christ by Telling the Story (Pastor John Trotter)
Sunday’s sermon: Holy Spirit, Revealer (Pastor Nancy Penton)