Congregational E-Mail for December 7, 2006
Greetings!
I hope this e-mail finds you enjoying the holiday season and not feeling too stressed out over it!
We had a wonderful Leadership Team meeting/dessert Tuesday night with all of our leaders here at Vineyard North Phoenix. Many people gave personal testimonies about how their life has been changed since coming to the Vineyard. I always love hearing those kinds of things. That is really what our church is all about - - changed lives!
As we get ready to embark on a new year, there are a few changes we are going to implement in 2007 that I wanted to make you aware of.
First of all, we will be hiring a new associate pastor on our staff beginning in January. Dave McPherson II will begin work here at the Vineyard the first week of January. Dave will be overseeing our Discipleship Ministry, Vineyard Leadership Institute, and also helping with our Worship/Arts Ministry.
Dave has been a part of our church family since he was a very small boy, as his parents, Dave and Marguerite, have been part of our church for over 15 years.
Dave was an employee here at the Vineyard for a number of years while he was attending Grand Canyon University. After graduating from Grand Canyon University, Dave received a scholarship at Baylor University in Waco, Texas to study for his Masters of Divinity. Dave has been in Texas for the past 3 years and received his Masters of Divinity from Baylor this past summer. He got married this past September, to Ginger, and they will be moving here at the end of the month to join our pastoral staff. I hope you will all welcome Dave and Ginger to our church family and our staff. We are very excited about having them be a part of us.
The second thing I wanted you to know about is, besides our twice per month Illuminate (Young Adult) services, we will be canceling our other Sunday night services in 2007.
People's time is becoming more and more of a premium these days, and we want to free up more time for people to spend with their families. It takes a lot of volunteers to run an entire Sunday night service, and we feel, at least for this season in our church family's life, that it is better to release some more time back to people to spend with their family, than to serve for a Sunday night service.
Again, to reiterate, we will continue having our Illuminate services on the 1st and 3rd Sunday night of each month in 2007, but our other Sunday night services will be cancelled. We will have a few "special" Sunday night services throughout the year, especially for things like Water Baptisms, etc., but we will let you know about those well in advance.
Another change, beginning in March of 2007, is we will now have two options regarding small groups for people joining our church. We will continue having our current small groups, which offer pastoral care for the people in the group. But, we will also offer "connecting" groups for people to be a part of. These "connecting" groups will not offer pastoral care for the people in the group, as they will be much more activity-oriented, or service oriented.
For example, a connecting group could be playing softball or soccer here at the Vineyard. Or, a connecting group could be a scrapbooking group, or a coffee bar ministry group, etc.
To become a member here at the Vineyard next year, someone will need to join either a small group, like in the past, or a connecting group. Either one will fulfill the "requirement" for membership. We feel giving people two different options like this will help develop more "community" in our church family.
I also want you to know we will be planting our 7th Vineyard church - - out of our church - - this coming February. Delvagus and Selina Ivy, leaders here at the Vineyard, will be the church planting pastors of that new church plant. They will begin meeting sometime in February at Heritage Elementary School, 6805 N. 125th Avenue, in Glendale - - west of El Mirage Road off of Glendale Avenue. If you feel like God may want you to join this new church plant, please feel free to contact Delvagus or Selina Ivy at (623) 847-5664. They can answer any questions you may have about this new church plant.
Lastly, I want to remind you about our upcoming Christmas Eve services. Since Christmas Eve is on a Sunday this year, we are planning on having the same 5 weekend services we normally have. We will have our two Saturday night services (at 4:30PM and 6PM) on Dec. 23rd, and our same three Sunday morning services (at 8:30AM, 10AM, and 11:30AM) on the morning of the 24th. We will not have a service that Sunday night.
All 5 of these services will be exactly the same and they will all be "Christmas Eve" services in their theme. Our theme this year for Christmas Eve is "A Gift Worth Giving."
I think these are going to be great services! Please be praying about who you can invite to one of these special services. You never know what God might do in a person's life just because of your simple invitation to them!
I have taken up enough of your time with this e-mail. I hope and pray this Christmas season is an extra special one for you and your family and friends. I hope to see you in church this weekend!
Blessings,
Brian
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