I'm coming home. Gadsden Vineyard Church will be the location of our new meeting on Saturday Nights at 7 p.m.
I don't have a name at this moment for the meeting, not that having one is important. So I guess for now we will simply refer to the meeting as
The Vineyard Recovery Church. We could get cool and call it Verk (VRC), but then someone would get mad at us and say, "That bunch of "Verks" down there at the Vineyard....."
We will be posting the date of our first meeting in the near future. I promise I won't leave you hanging.
Right now I will still be connected to Rapha Ministries as staff pastor, but we will no longer hold our meeting there on the compound. God was gracious to give us 7 years of Sunday/Saturday meetings there at Rapha. We have seen some pretty incredible things happen in the lives of the men who have come through the program. Now, I firmly believe that He wants to create not just a meeting, but a church whose main focus is the healing (spiritually, physically and emotionally) of those who are struggling in addiction. I told someone the other day that what we do I guess could be referred to as "Sin-specific" ministry. I know that sin is sin and that all sin is the root problem for the ills of humanity. I know that. But addiction seems to be one of those sins where the outward destruction as well as the inward darkness seems to be magnified and out there for all the world to see. I mean you can be trapped in pornography and still be able to go to church every Sunday. Sit in the pew...shake peoples hands...put some money in the plate...hear a good sermon and maybe even be touched by it...then go back home right back into that darkness and no one even be aware of your dark secret. No so with addiction....it has to come out. It is defined by the destruction and damage done as it progresses in the life of the user.
Our main focus will be Jesus.
Just Jesus.
I have always fell heavy on I Corinthians 2:2 --"For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
He is the Higher Power.
He is the missing piece of the Twelve Steps...
He puts direction and purpose in those steps...
Without Him, the steps are just a person wandering, hoping they can stay clean and sober.
Jesus is the door to a life above and beyond addiction. A life that, up to this point, has been beyond the reach or comprehension of addicts.
I don't really know what the meeting will look like or how it will change over the course of time. The only thing I know with certainty is that God told me it was His meeting. That He would grow it. He would direct it. I was merely to come along for the ride and try not to get in the way. Each week will probably be different as we gather.
I'm not asking you or anyone else to come and join anything. We don't have membership in the Vineyard...if you come more than 5 times, then God must be stirring you for some reason. So I didn't want anyone to think that I am out to recruit new church members. I'm not. I am out to open the door to anyone who is tired of living life the old way. To those who have fallen time and time again. Let's take a fresh look at Jesus. See Him possibly for the first time like we've never seen Him before. What do we have to loose? Maybe our addiction.
God on you.....
If you have any questions, call me at 256-490-1868.
If I don't answer, leave your name and number and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
mb
1 comment:
Awesome!!!!!! I loved when we had services back in the old days at the vineyard. Something special about that building, well maybe not the building, but you know what i mean. Just seemed like music sounded so good, gods presence was always thick in the room. Cant wait to come! If you need any free labor or help in anyway, you know how to reach me.
Jk
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