Last week Sharon and I attended the Vineyard USA National Conference. I was honored that our church staff invited us to attend. At the same time, I was experiencing a bit of trepidation. You see, I previously had a lot of concerns about the whole Vineyard movement. In fact, when my wife and I moved to Boise eight years ago a Vineyard church was about the last place in the world I wanted to visit in search of a new church family. But my wife’s sister and her family were attending Vineyard Boise and they insisted that we at least give it a try. So we did and we fell in love with Vineyard Boise and Pastor Tri Robinson in short order. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was that enamored me so quickly but I figured out later that it was the authenticity and commitment to be true disciples of Jesus.
The reason for our reservations was that we had personally experienced three churches in the Seattle area that had been affected by the “Toronto Blessing” which was conceived in the Vineyard (and subsequently shut down by its leadership). I won’t go into great detail here regarding our experiences but suffice it to say that we were two of many people who were wounded and disillusioned as a result of the unhealthy, imbalanced perspectives and behaviors resulting from it. Several of our friends and acquaintances walked away from the church as a result of these influences and have yet to return to church life to this day.
So, I went to the conference with high expectations of connecting more deeply with our church staff but I suspended judgment and set my expectations low for other aspects of the conference. I didn’t want to be disappointed. I am glad to report, however, that it was a great event. I saw and experienced a few weird things from some of the attendees that made me uncomfortable but the AVC leadership carried themselves in what I considered to be a very healthy and balanced manner. More importantly, I saw in the Vineyard movement the same deep commitment to the core values of the Christian faith and the same authenticity that I had experienced at Vineyard Boise.
I couldn’t be more proud to be a member of the AVC. The conference ended with a message from Bert Waggoner, AVC President, entitled “New Kingdom Horizon” that was the highlight of the conference for me. In this message he specifically addressed and laid to rest all of the concerns that I had. He also demonstrated the heart of God for this world and established a vision for how the Vineyard movement should walk in alignment with God’s purposes in the next 25 years. Rock on!
We all make mistakes, sometimes individually and sometimes corporately. I am proud to be a part of a church movement that can acknowledge its mistakes, learn from them, and move forward in greater maturity and unity.
[The train has left the station and I am on board!]
The reason for our reservations was that we had personally experienced three churches in the Seattle area that had been affected by the “Toronto Blessing” which was conceived in the Vineyard (and subsequently shut down by its leadership). I won’t go into great detail here regarding our experiences but suffice it to say that we were two of many people who were wounded and disillusioned as a result of the unhealthy, imbalanced perspectives and behaviors resulting from it. Several of our friends and acquaintances walked away from the church as a result of these influences and have yet to return to church life to this day.
So, I went to the conference with high expectations of connecting more deeply with our church staff but I suspended judgment and set my expectations low for other aspects of the conference. I didn’t want to be disappointed. I am glad to report, however, that it was a great event. I saw and experienced a few weird things from some of the attendees that made me uncomfortable but the AVC leadership carried themselves in what I considered to be a very healthy and balanced manner. More importantly, I saw in the Vineyard movement the same deep commitment to the core values of the Christian faith and the same authenticity that I had experienced at Vineyard Boise.
I couldn’t be more proud to be a member of the AVC. The conference ended with a message from Bert Waggoner, AVC President, entitled “New Kingdom Horizon” that was the highlight of the conference for me. In this message he specifically addressed and laid to rest all of the concerns that I had. He also demonstrated the heart of God for this world and established a vision for how the Vineyard movement should walk in alignment with God’s purposes in the next 25 years. Rock on!
We all make mistakes, sometimes individually and sometimes corporately. I am proud to be a part of a church movement that can acknowledge its mistakes, learn from them, and move forward in greater maturity and unity.
[The train has left the station and I am on board!]
4 comments:
Hey Greg!
This is really cool. I'm excited that you were able to attend the conference and got so much out of it. I really missed being there.
Hope all is well with you guys. Please tell Sharon 'hi' for Kristy and me.
Also, when are you guys coming down to see us? It's time to do tacos again.
Hey Brian, good to hear from you! Sharon says "Hi" back. It would be cool if we could visit you down in New Orleans sometime. We'll keep that in mind if we do a cruise out of Florida. Seems we could maybe stop in New Orleans on the way. It would have to be Cajun tacos though if there is such a thing.
Cool. If you guys come through here we'll make it a double date. We'll scratch the tacos and have ourselves a little jambalaya, red beans and rice, chicken and andouille gumbo and some shrimp creole.
Mmmmm... Now that kind of manipulation is downright cruel...
Post a Comment