Regions

2022 began with new changes across our Vineyard family of churches. After hours of prayer, hours of staring at the map, and hours of communication with so many Vineyard pastors, we are excited to share the finalized new map of our nine new regions.

Transition Schedule

Here is the tentative schedule for transitioning into these new regions and eventually new regional leadership:

  • February 2022: Vineyard USA publishes and distributes a new map. At this time, pastors should keep relating to their current Areas and Regions, as we are in transition.
  • March 2022: New RLs will be selected by mid-March and announced publicly. Pastors should begin to think forward about new relationships and new regions, but stay in communication with your current Areas and Regions.
  • April 2022: On April 1st, the new regions will be live/aligned and national database changes will reflect the new regions with new RLs. Pastors should begin relating more with their new regions, while continuing to communicate with their current Area/Region
  • Summer/Fall 2022: At Regional Meetings, new RLs will be officially installed and leadership may overlap at the discretion of current and new RLs desires for healthy functionality. Pastors will be communicated as to how to relate in this process.

Frequently Asked Questions

Southeast
Sharon McCarter of Vineyard Church Maryville, TN

Mountain
Paul Watson of Downtown Vineyard Church, Grand Junction, CO

Eastern
Phil Chorlian of North Jersey Vineyard Church, South Hackensack, NJ

Midwest North
Dany and Letty Mercado of La Viña Gurnee, Gurnee, IL

Northwest
Marshal Prewitt of Vancouver Vineyard Church, Vancouver, WA

Great Lakes
Van and Laurie Cochrane of Vineyard Church Northwest, Cincinnati, OH

Gulf Coast
Joel Seymour, Super Regional Leader, serves as Interim Regional Leader into 2024 with the following team representing different demographic and geographic groups: 

Carmen Suarez of Iglesia La Viña Mayagüez, Mayagüez, PR
Kevin Fischer of Miami Vineyard, Miami, FL
Jamie & Kim Stilson of Cape Vineyard, Cape Coral, FL
Rachel Burnham of Vineyard Church of Jackson, Jackson, MS
Josh Harder of Houston Vineyard, Houston, TX

SoCal
Mike Safford of Tehachapi Vineyard, Lancaster, CA

Midwest Central
Mike and Julie Yoder of The Vineyard Church of Central Illinois, Urbana, IL

If you aren’t sure who your Area Leader (AL) currently is, please contact your Regional Leader (RL) or the Super Regional Leader (SRL) for your region, and they will put you in touch with your current AL.

Our primary considerations were around these four criteria:

  1. We would roughly have an equal number of churches in every region
  2. We would have resource churches* in every region
  3. We would preserve and respect healthy relationship so leaders stay connected
  4. We would honor geographical and cultural differences in every region.

*Resource churches are established churches that are exemplifying Vineyard theology, practices, and values, and who give away everything they have to serve the larger Vineyard movement. They are generally doing this organically as part of their calling without title or recognition. 

We wanted regions to be big enough to have momentum and a number of resource churches, and small enough to keep travel as reasonable as possible. 

The SRLs talked to existing Regional Leaders, many Area Leaders, former Executive Team members, the new National Team Members, and many local Pastors who would be most affected by the changes. Throughout this process, the map went through many changes.

2022 Regional Conferences

2022 Regional Conferences will line up with this new Regional Map. Starting in June, these new regions will host a Regional Conference, and current Regional Leaders are working together with each other to represent our nine new regions for these events. Save the date information for each region will be sent out soon, so stay tuned.

We are so grateful for all the ways our current RLs and ALs have served and poured out their hearts for years. If you have additional questions, we invite you to talk to your SRL if you have any questions. 

Super Regional Leaders

The new Super Regional Leaders (SRLs) support Regional and Area Leaders as well as train local Vineyard pastors through healthy communication, vision casting, leadership development, and pastoral care.

John Elmer

John Elmer

Super Regional Leader
Email

Get to know John
Joel Seymour

Joel Seymour

Super Regional Leader
Email

Get to know Joel