A Family Of Torchbearers
Responding To God’s Invitation There are a number of things that come to mind when we are asked ‘What is the Vineyard?’ We are going to attempt to express our thoughts in a very simple way, from our point of view. In other words, we are recipients of and participants in God’s great grace and […]
Everyone Gets To Play
Everyone Gets To Play Years ago, not long after the birth of our first child, I (Michelle) was asked to share my testimony at church on a Sunday morning. I was really nervous about speaking in front of people and also really excited to share about how Jesus had transformed my life. I spent a […]
God Is Near
We are a people who have been awakened to the reality that God is not nearly as far away as we once thought. He’s near – he is always near! And it is his nearness that shapes everything we do and everything we are. I didn’t grow up in the Vineyard, but I did come […]
A Big Ol’ Pentecostal Party
About five years ago, I got to Salinas and took over a small, failing Vineyard church. Salinas is a relatively rural farming community south of San Francisco that also has an incredible gang violence problem. There are a lot of youth gangs. in fact, the youth homicide rate in Salinas is as high as it […]
Surviving Tragedy
Can you tell us about what happened to your son? On a Thursday afternoon, my three-year-old son was sick, and we took him to the doctor. The doctor said he had the flu — that it was going around and not to worry about it. Then Saturday night, his breathing got kind of strange. All […]
Beth Stovell On Bible Hermeneutics
VUSA: Can you give us a simple definition of hermeneutics and why they are important? Beth Stovell: Hermeneutics, broadly speaking, is the study of interpretation coming from the Greek word hermeneuein, meaning “to interpret.” Hermeneutics has two key parts. First, hermeneutics involves the process of interpretation. Here we might say that we are describing the […]
Travis Twyman On Teaching & Preaching Scripture
VUSA: Tell me why you’re so passionate about Scripture teaching. What in your story makes you so passionate about the Scriptures? Travis Twyman: When I fell in love with Jesus, I fell in love with his Word. I know different things come more naturally to different followers of Jesus, and there are other character traits […]
Scripture & Spirit: A Conversation With David Parker
Vineyard USA: Can you talk about what the Vineyard can and should and will be when it is both completely committed to the ministry of the Spirit and committed to the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures? David Parker: For me, one led to the other. I was not raised in church; I […]
Longevity In Ministry: A Conversation With Steve Nicholson
The Vineyard always wants to be about helping people have longevity in ministry. Right off the top, what are the pitfalls? What keeps people from “making it” within their calling in the long term, particularly full-time paid pastors? Steve Nicholson: Well, I think the first thing is, people don’t make it because they have some […]
A New Mindset On Friendships: A Conversation With Phil Strout
Phil Strout: Attending 11 conferences over the summer, I think we can safely say I got a pretty good feel for the Vineyard as it is right now. Large churches, small churches, medium churches … urban, rural, suburban. It was interesting, because a couple of years ago when I was out and about doing those […]
