Many months ago, the Lord highlighted Jeremiah 6:16 to Phil Strout (Vineyard USA National Director) in a Sunday morning service.
“This is what the Lord says: âStand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16a (NIV)
âI didnât hear anything else the pastor was preaching that day as I just heard the Lord call this verse to attention,â Phil said as he recalled how the Lord spoke to him that day.
Phil felt the Lord was inviting the Vineyard to pause and ask Him where He was leading, to reimagine how the Vineyard could participate with Him for the next season of ministry.
We want to be faithful to our gifts and values, and find a fresh way to express them in a changing, challenging world.
For decades we have been humbled and grateful for all that God has grown and developed in the Vineyard. In this season, there is a strong sense that we have come to an intersection âa crossroads âwith the realization that what got us to this point will not carry us to the places that the Lord is leading us next.
In light of our changing world, we must re-express our vocation and our values for new generations. While this need for re-expression comes with challenges, it comes even more as an enormous opportunity.
We need to respond to the Lordâs leadership as He equips the Vineyard for the next several decades of ministry, readying us for the expansion of the Church and the advance of the Kingdom.
Phil and the Vineyard USA Executive Team commissioned an ongoing team to pray, consult, and dream about the Lords invitation (read more on that here).
From the very beginning, the purpose of this process has been to equip, encourage, and empower our local church pastors for the work of ministry.
To do this, it is necessary to refocus, resource, and reorganize Vineyard USA at every level, so we are intentionally ready to pursue the vocation God has given us for the next forty years.
One important step in this re-expression is the election of a New National Director.
Phil Strout, after much consultation and prayer, chose to end his National Director term early to serve the Movement by allowing the new leader to have the opportunity to participate in the formation of where the Vineyard is headed.
In November, our pastors had the opportunity to nominate those they felt might be called to be our next leader. The candidates that chose to continue are in the midst of a thorough vetting process after which Phil and the Executive Team will discern who our next leader might be.
After our pastors approve the nomination, we will have a National Director-elect who, together with Phil Strout, will lead us into 2022 with great expectation and hope of the Lordâs leading.
We will never go off course if we continue to let Jesus lead the way. The Vineyardâs future is bright, even as we navigate through 2021.
We had John Wimber for twenty years, and we have continued on through the last twenty-three without John, with diligence and challenge. What does the next twenty years look like?
We believe that is what Jeremiah 6:16 has invited us into.
As part of our Vineyard Family, we welcome you to join us in prayer and fasting as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in the selection of our National Director, and into our future as a Movement.
