Grace Vineyard Christian Fellowship

Today I wrote an email about a particular need in one of our ministries.  As I was finishing my email, I was struck not by the hole in this program that needed to be filled, and whether or not someone would step up and help, but by the fact that our people at Grace are so committed to doing the things that God is committed to.

It is true that in just about every church in America, 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people.  We always have our struggles with getting people motivated to do things for the Kingdom.  But what is more striking at Grace Vineyard, is that our people are so willing to jump in and get their hands dirty in ministry, and I'm not just talking about trash duty and washing dishes (although that counts).  I'm talking about people who say, "God is passionate about bringing a dark world into relationship with Him, and healing wounded and broken people--so I am going to be passionate about those things too!"

I believe that makes God really proud. 

I had a poster in my room as a child that said, "God, grant that I may first be a winner in your eyes, and then in my own."  I think that making God proud of us as a church is about the best compliment anyone could ever receive. 

Here's a part of the email that I sent off to some of our leaders today on this subject:

It is so awesome to be a part of a movement that from the beginning took Christ's command for us to "go into all the world and make disciples of all nations," very seriously.  Being a part of the Vineyard makes me proud, knowing that we are focused on doing the main thing that Jesus said the Church was to do.  Christ came to bring the world back into relationship with God, and then committed us to the "ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor 5). 

We are a church that doesn't just believe in talking about doing that.  We work to free slaves (Adopt a Block's human trafficking outreach), love the hurting and marginalized (Adopt a Block, Storehouse, Heartland), and tell everyone from our next door neighbors to people across the world about Jesus' love for them (new Adopt a Block small group, ESL, Vamos Tamalipas, Alpha, supporting missionaries, Super You on the Block).  I rejoice at the work that God is doing through this body!