ABOUT US 

The History of Village Vineyard

The Calling
For many years, Joshua Weir, Assistant Pastor of Joshua House (Young Adult Ministry) at the Columbus Vineyard had it on his heart to one day lead a body of believers in powerfully impacting the community and beyond, for Christ. He envisioned a church that would infiltrate a neighborhood in such away that frequent life-on-life interactions would literally transform its' members daily.  The biggest questions were where and when.

In 2000, in meeting with the Rich Nathan, Senior Pastor at the Columbus Vineyard, both agreed that it was time to begin exploring where God may be calling him.  Several neighborhoods were brought up, but no specific neighborhood was highlighted.  Joshua explored the different areas, but wasn’t really feeling that any one of them was right.  He did, however, feel drawn to a neighborhood not mentioned with Rich at their previous meetings; Victorian Village. At their next meeting, before he could share the area that he felt was right, Rich announced, “I’m feeling like it should be Victorian Village.”

The Focus
Joshua gathered a small group of 15 adults and 1 child from the Columbus Vineyard, mostly from his own group, but also from other various groups and thus began The Village Vineyard.  It was agreed upon early that in order to become more like the early church spoken of in Acts Chapter 2, we would need to live in close proximity of each other; ideally within a few blocks.  The seemingly limited supply of homes within our mostly limited price ranges seemed to be our first major obstacle.  Somehow, however, God managed to place each one of us within the neighborhood over a relatively short period of time.

The first couple years of our church could probably be summarized into one word; experimental.  We desired to find our own personal identity and unique way to worship and not just to pick a style because it was the “hip” new way.  For a time, we met in someone’s basement, in someone’s third floor, had family dinners once a week, tried the service with music and without, met in a gymnasium, etc.  We weren’t afraid to try new things and look silly. We wanted to be true to our hearts in finding the format that best helped us connect with Jesus.

Challenges and Transformations
Life-on-life with such a small group was, at times very challenging.  There was no where to hide!  We were together so much; if you were having a bad week the whole gang knew about it. You couldn’t just slip into a pew at a Sunday Service with your, “everything is fine” smile and pretend that you weren’t hurting inside.  You were put into a position where you had to deal with your “junk.”  But, (and this is the key) that is how transformation happens. There is nothing quite like a group of people who deeply love you and are committed to helping you get through ANYTHING!  That is how we began as a church and that is where we desperately desire to remain. Some found that this type of living was too much to deal with, and were lead elsewhere, however,  about the same time, God started adding some fresh faces into our small circle.

Growth
Eventually, an opportunity came up to begin renting a location right in the neighborhood and we jumped at it.  It was previously occupied by a store specializing in witchcraft items, etc., but we knew they wouldn’t survive long.  Very soon after we got down to the village, many of us began praying that it would go out of business or leave the neighborhood. Coincidence? I don’t think so!  We called our new space The Third Place, referring to Ray Oldenburg's (author of The Great Good Place) idea that our home is our first place, our work is our second place, and the place where we go to socialize is our third place.  We began to have our small group meetings there as well as our Sunday Service.  We seemed to start growing at a more consistent rate once we settled in there. It is a very comfortable and quaint space and we continue to have all types of events there, even today. 

Just as the church started with a small group, we wanted to continue birthing into multiple small-groups as we continued to grow.  Each individual group allowed their own uniqueness to come out in whatever format God led them to.  It continues to remain our hope that each and every person who wants to be a part of the VillageVineyard will get connected to one of or small groups that meet throughout the week.

The Next Chapter
As the number of members of the Village Vineyard continues to grow, so does our impact on our neighborhood and even globally.  We try very hard to reach out to every single person that God puts in our path:  the elderly, the homeless, the lonely, the outcasts, the orphans, the “average Joe” who’s doing just fine without God, and on and on.  We know that EVERYONE needs Jesus and Jesus wants EVERYONE!  You are never too messed up for Jesus or for us. 

Over time, we outgrew the Third Place and we began to look for our next location.  We trusted that when it was time, God would lead us to our next chapter, and He led us to the Anglican Church on 4th Avenue.  Though we are gradually filling out the seats here, we desire to continue to have the feel of a small intimate group, meeting together to experience God.