The mission of Vineyard Columbus is to develop a community of passionate, mature, reproducing disciples; to plant passionate, mature, reproducing churches; and to transform the world by love and good deeds for the glory of God. To that end, the Church Planting Residency Program at Vineyard Columbus exists to identify, train, equip, and release church planters by bringing together the best church planting practices that we've learned from having planted 24 churches.

The Church Planting Residency Program is a year-long, intensive leadership development, spiritual growth, theological training, and ministry skill development experience at Vineyard Columbus. As a Resident, you will be given the opportunity to learn from some of the most experienced and creative pastors who have a successful track record in church multiplication at Vineyard Columbus. You will have the opportunity to participate in the day to day activities of church staff culture, develop yourself as a leader, expand your theological education, deepen your Vineyard values, and sharpen your church planting skills and plan for the launch of your new church.

Everything about the Program is designed to give the church planter the very best chance for success in planting a passionate, mature, and reproducing church. Here are just a few highlights of the Program:

This is an excerpt from William Willimon's book, Proclamation and Theology.

The cross is a story about the obedience of Christ, obedience even unto death. A faithful preacher’s life will be characterized by obedience to the task of proclaiming a foolish (by the world’s standards of wisdom) gospel. Preachers must discipline their lives so that there is no time in the pastoral week when a sermon is not in process, when the pastor is not wrestling with the biblical text and the demands of the congregational context. Preaching is hard work, requiring the cultivation of a host of skills that are difficult to develop. If we are called to preach (and who would take up this task without being called to do it?) then we must be obedient enough to the vocation to work at it. I believe the roots of clerical sloth are theological rather than primarily psychological. We become lazy and slovenly in our work because we have lost the theological rationale for the work.

[Painting of Paul preaching in Athens by Raffaello Raphael Sanzio]

This fall, I am leading the preaching mentoring class for 9 first-year students at Vineyard Leadership Institute (VLI). Since this is my first time leading a preaching mentoring class, I wanted to take this opportunity to share some thoughts on what I am learning in the process of teaching others how to preach.

First, a quick overview of the class: We are meeting once a week for 7 weeks. Each class begins with a short teaching followed by 3 students who will preach a 15-minute sermon, which is then followed by a 15-minute evaluation. With this schedule, each student will preach 2 sermons. For the first sermon everyone will preach from the same passage (Luke 5:1-11). And for the second sermon, the student can choose whatever passage they want. Here is what the schedule looks like:

1. Introduction
2. Objective of Preaching
3. Text and Thesis
4. Structure and Flow
5. Introductions and Conclusions
6. Illustrations and Applications
7. Open Q&A

For the class text, I am using the VLI Preaching Manual written by Steve Robbins (director of VLI) as well as the Preaching Manual that Rich Nathan wrote which I referenced HERE.

Last week, Vineyard Columbus launched its first ever satellite campus. We are thrilled to report that the campus drew over 470 people! Beyond just the numbers, we are hearing some amazing stories of people who stepped into a church for the very first time, people experiencing the love of Jesus for the very first time.

Today, I am reminded again of these words of Jesus: "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

On September 13th, Vineyard Columbus will be launching its first ever satellite campus in Sawmill, about 15 minutes from the main campus in Westerville.

In its 20 years as a church, Vineyard Columbus has planted over 25 churches, but this is the very first satellite campus. Unlike a church plant, the satellite campus will still be a part of Vineyard Columbus, sharing its mission and vision, as well as the leadership and resources. The campus will have its own campus pastor with local small groups. We will video tape the sermon from the Saturday night service to show at the satellite campus on Sunday morning.

So, why a satellite campus instead of a church plant? One of the biggest reasons is that the satellite campus model will create more service opportunities for people who may have a desire to step out but may feel uncomfortable joining a new church plant. It has most of the benefits of planting a church, but with lower risks. Here are some stats about the multi-site churches according to the Christian Standard:

VineyardUSA is launching a new initiative, the Society of Vineyard Scholars (SVS).

Here is the description from the website: We are gathering the thinkers and scholars of our movement to "think theologically" in community — both in order to address the critical questions of the moment and to put down theological and intellectual roots for the long haul. Our expectation is that doing this well involves building a diverse, interconnected community of scholars, pastors, and scholar-pastors within our movement. Ultimately, our desire is both to deepen our theological reflection and to broaden our engagement with our culture. Towards these ends, we anticipate holding conferences and other events to provide forums for collaborating and sharing intellectual work as well as pursuing other ways of facilitating connections among current Vineyard seminarians, graduate students, and scholars.

The Theology and Practice of the Kingdom of God: Justice, Power, and the Cross

Location: Houston, Texas (changed from Columbus, Ohio)
Dates: February 11-13, 2010 (changed from October of 2009)

This last May, VineyardUSA hosted its biennial national conference for its pastors and leaders in Galveston, Texas. VineyardUSA is offering the audio for all the main sessions for free on their website.

09 National Conference Resources
Click HERE for free resources from the 09 National Conference. Speakers include Bert Waggoner, Cherith Fee-Nordling, Don Williams, Jay Pathak, Wess Stafford, and Rich Nathan.

07 National Conference Resources
Click HERE for free resources from the 07 National Conference held at Anaheim, California. Speakers include Bert Waggoner, Charles Park, Jeff Heidkamp, Lance Pittluck, and a discussion forum with Bert Waggoner, Rich Nathan, Rick Olmstead, Eric Sandras, Thora Anderson, Dianne Leman, Phil Strout and Lance Pittluck.

05 National Conference Resources
Click HERE for free resources from the 05 National Conference held at Columbus, Ohio. Speakers include Bert Waggoner, Dr. Gordon Fee, Rick Olmstead, Dr. Floyd Flake, Julia Pickerill, Dr. Philip Jenkins, Julia Pickerill, and Rich Nathan.

The Necessity of Mentors

One of the most important decisions that a new pastor can make is to obtain a good pastoral mentor. Ministry is a craft. I am unperturbed when new pastors sometimes say, “Seminary never really taught me actually how to do ministry.” I think seminary is best when it instills the classical theological disciplines and exposes to the classical theological resources of the church, not so good at teaching the everyday, practical, administrative and mundane tasks of the parish ministry. One learns a craft, not by reading books, but by looking over the shoulder of a master, watching the moves, learning by example, developing a critical approach that constantly evaluates and gains new skills.

Selecting a mentor can be your greatest challenge as a new pastor. Few experienced pastors have the training or the gifts for mentoring a new colleague. The “Lone Ranger” mentality afflicts many lonely pastors and their work shows the results of their failure to obey Jesus’ sending of the Seventy “two by two” (Luke 10:1).

Here is the rest of my list of unsolicited advice for those moving from seminary to parish:

1. Be open to the possibility that the matters that were focused upon in the course of the seminary curriculum, the questions raised and the arguments engaged, might be a distraction from the true, historic mission and purpose of the church and its ministry.

2. On the other hand, be open to the possibility that the church has a tendency to bed down with mediocrity, to accept the mere status quo as the norm, and to let itself off the theological hook too easily.

One reason why the church needs theology explored and taught in its seminaries is that theology (at its best) keeps making Christian discipleship as hard as it ought to be. Theology keeps guard over the church’s peculiar speech and the church’s distinctive mission. Something there is within any accommodated, compromised church (and aren’t they all, in one way or another?) that needs to reassure itself, “All that academic, intellectual, theological stuff is bunk and is irrelevant to the way the church really is.” The way the church “really is” is faithless, mistaken, cowardly, and compromised.

Recently, I asked a group of our best and brightest new pastors what they would like most from the church and from me as their bishop. I was surprised to hear them all respond: “Supervision!” They yearn for help with the move between these two worlds because they realize the inadequacy of their preparation. Churches and judicatories must take this move more seriously and must develop better means of mentoring and supervising new pastors through this process.

As someone who now works with new pastors on that move from the world of the theological school to the world of the parish, I have some specific suggestions:

1. Devise ways to learn to speak their language. Laity sometimes complain that their young pastor, in sermons, uses “religious” words like “spiritual practice,” “liberation,” “empowerment,” “intentional community” (this is an actual list a layperson collected and sent to me) that no one understands and no one recalls having heard in Scripture. Such “preacher talk” makes the pastor seem detached, alien, and aloof from the people and hinders leadership.

The Reverend Dr. William H. Willimon is the Bishop of The United Methodist Church, a post he has held since 2004. He leads the 157,000 Methodists and 792 pastors in North Alabama. For twenty years he was Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Christian Ministry at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Willimon is a graduate of Wofford College (B.A., 1968), Yale Divinity School (M.Div., 1971) and Emory University (S.T.D., 1973). Here is an excellent entry from his blog that I wanted to pass along to you.

Advice for New Pastors (Part 1)

This past year Allan Hugh Cole, professor at Austin Presbyterian Seminary, has edited a book for new pastors, From Midterms to Ministry (Eerdmans). I was asked to write a chapter in the volume, recounting my own journey from seminary to the parish, drawing out any implications that my experience had for new pastors.

This month, thousands of new pastors will emerge from seminary, a few of them coming to join the ranks of the North Alabama Conference. I therefore offer these thoughts in the next few weeks, hoping that they will be helpful to those of us who are new in the pastoral ministry and those who are not.

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

Parkside Church (near Cleveland, Ohio) hosted their 10th conference for pastors on preaching from May 11-13 with featured speakers John Lennox, John Piper, and Alistair Begg. I wasn't able to attend but I noticed that they are making all of the resources available from the conference for free on the web. Click HERE to access the resources.

John Lennox is Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science, and Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College, Oxford. He is also an adjunct Lecturer at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University and a Senior Fellow of the Trinity Forum. He lectures on Science and Religion in the University of Oxford and teaches at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics.

Martin Smith, the lead singer of Delirious?, will be leading worship at Vineyard Columbus this weekend. So if you are in town, come and worship with us.

A song called "Obsession" from their Cutting Edge (1 and 2) album which came out in the late 90's is one of my favorite songs. Here are the lyrics:

Obsession
What can I do with my obsession?
With the things I cannot see
Is there madness in my being?
Is it wind that blows the trees?
Sometimes you're further than the moon
Sometimes you're closer than my skin
And you surround me like a winter fog
You've come and burned me with a kiss

And my heart burns for you
And my heart burns

And I'm so filthy with my sin
I carry pride like a disease
You know I'm stubborn God and I'm longing
to be close
You burn me deeper than I know
I feel lonely without hope
I feel desperate without vision
You wrap around me like a winter coat
You come and free me like a bird

And my heart burns for you
And my heart burns for you

Vineyard Columbus collected a special offering on Palm Sunday asking people who had jobs to give (above and beyond tithe and offering) to help those without jobs. And the church responded in an incredible way by giving over $625,000. Praise God! And it doesn't stop there. The following week, on Easter weekend, the church had its highest attendance ever with 12,090!

The news of the collection is making headlines around Ohio. (The Columbus Dispatch did a front-page article on the collection.) And it is beginning to get national attention as the AP just picked up the story. (Read on to see the Dispatch article)

For me, the best part of this story is not the amount that was collected (which is absolutely amazing!). The best part of the story for me is that so many people gave out from a place of need! It was a wonderful gesture of faith, hope, and love - each gave out of love for God and their neighbor; each gave in the earnest hope that what they gave (big or little) will make a difference in someone's life; and each gave, believing by faith, facing an uncertain future, that should they ever be in need, that God will always provide!

This story reminded me of the story of the widow's offering found in Mark 12:41-44 (and also in Luke 21:1-4):

I recently read an article about various learning styles where it pointed out that the three major learning styles are auditory, visual, and kinesthetic (tactile). Out of these three major learning styles, about 30% of the population are auditory learners, 65% are visual learners, and only about 5% are kinesthetic learners. (And of course, these are not mutually exclusive) This is just a hunch, but I imagine that as our society becomes more and more ADD, that these numbers will shift significantly in the direction of visual learners.

Here is why I bring this up: If these numbers are really correct, then most of our churches need a major overhaul in how we disciple people. The church is almost exclusively geared towards auditory learners with preaching as the primary medium. Some churches may incorporate slides, videos, dramas, and special music and such, but is that really the best that we can do? And while we spend so much time focusing on what happens during the corporate gathering on Sunday mornings (and mostly on the sermon), are we digging ourselves into a hole if the rest of the world is slowly moving away from simply auditory learning? It seems that our Universities are slowly beginning to grasp this concept because they are moving away from traditional lecture style to more of an interactive learning environment.

By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Sunday, April 12, 2009; Page A17

Are we witnessing this Easter season the decline of Christianity in America, or is this a moment of reform and renewal, a time when the deterioration that has been underway is arrested?

The death and resurrection of religion, if not of Jesus Christ, has been a favorite subject of newsmagazines since April 8, 1966, when Time momentously asked: "Is God Dead?"

This trend, announced on a somber black and red cover, lasted a little over three years. Or perhaps the original question was premature. In any event, on Dec. 26, 1969, Time offered a bright white, yellow, blue and purple cover carrying the hopeful query: "Is God Coming Back to Life?"

This Easter week, Newsweek doesn't pretend to know God's state, but its cover offers a stark declarative statement positing "The Decline and Fall of Christian America."

The article by Jon Meacham, a thoroughly knowledgeable student of these issues, offers some powerful data, notably a near-doubling since 1990 of the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation, from 8 percent to 15 percent. Meacham also points to a 10-point drop in the share of Americans who self-identify as Christian, from 86 percent to 76 percent.

Blogs I've Been Reading Lately

• William Willimon (Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church)
• Lifehacker (Don't Live to Geek; Geek to Live!)
• The Simple Dollar (Money Management and Financial Advice)
• Digital Photography School (Photo Tips)
• Guy Kawasaki (How to Change the World)

People I Would Like to Meet at Starbucks

• Joaquin Phoenix (He's getting weirder every day!)
• Francis Chan (Pastor of Cornerstone Church)
• Richard Curtis (Writer, Producer, and Director)
• Bernard Madoff (What were you thinking?)
• Peggy Noonan (Speechwriter for Regan, now a Columnist for WSJ)

Books I've Enjoyed Reading Recently

Once upon a time a very young angel was being shown round the splendors and glories of the universes by a senior and experienced angel. To tell the truth, the little angel was beginning to be tired and a little bored. He had been shown whirling galaxies and blazing suns, infinite distances in the deathly cold of inter-stellar space, and to his mind there seemed to be an awful lot of it all. Finally he was shown the galaxy of which our planetary system is but a small part. As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.

“I want you to watch that one particularly,” said the senior angel, pointing with his finger.

“Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me,” said the little angel. “What's special about that one?”

“That,” replied his senior solemnly, “is the Visited Planet.”

“Visited?” said the little one. “you don't mean visited by --------?

“Indeed I do. That ball, which I have no doubt looks to you small and insignificant and not perhaps overclean, has been visited by our young Prince of Glory.” And at these words he bowed his head reverently.

Speaking at the most recent EG (Entertainment Gathering) conference, author, philosopher, prankster and journalist A.J. Jacobs (agnostic) talks about the year he spent living biblically -- following the rules in the Bible as literally as possible. Here are his thoughts from the experiment.

Angela and I stayed up to listen to Obama's victory speech and boy were we glad we did! It is one of the best modern political speeches that I can remember.

As I was listening to the speech, I was reminded again of the profound impact that a few thoughtful words can have to stir hopes and dreams in the hearts of men and women. No music. No special effects. Just words - just the simple sounds created by the manipulation of air in our mouths. And as we give meaning and definition to these sounds in the context of a culture, it can bring a person to his feet (or knees), cause tears to flow freely, and somehow, as if by design, we begin to connect with a story that is larger than any of us. Words!

For those of us in the "word" business, we should not take lightly the awesome responsibility that comes with our words. We should take seriously the burden that we carry to help people connect with the story that is larger than any of us.

Below is the video of Obama's victory speech. And below that is the full transcript.