2. Why not simply host a Community Center
in our existing building?
Hard as it may be to comprehend (because
of our large facility), we simply do
not have the room to schedule many more
activities within our existing facility.
Did you know that:
- We schedule over 10,000 rooms per
year.
- We average over 900 events per
month in our church building apart
from our weekend services.
- The existing gymnasium
is booked year round for VLI (Vineyard
Leadership Institute) on Tuesday nights
except for the month of December.
- The gymnasium and
chapel are not available on Wednesday
nights except for a few dates each summer
when The Rock (our middle school group)
does not meet.
- English
as a Second Language (ESL) meets on
Tuesday nights September through May and
uses five rooms, plus two childcare rooms.
- Our swing and social dance class ministry,
an outreach to the community, meets
two times a month on Friday nights in the
gymnasium and has 200+ people attend,
mostly single adults.
- Soaking Prayer
for Healing groups use 2-4 rooms every
Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.
- Along with many other life-support
groups, we also have grief support,
which meets on Saturday mornings, Integrity.Men,
which meets on Tuesday evenings
and uses a double room and six breakout
rooms, and Recovering in Grace (a co-ed
ministry), which meets every Tuesday evening.
Beauty to Ashes (a recovery group for
women who are victims of sexual abuse)
meets every Wednesday evening. The Eating
Disorders recovery group meets every
Thursday evening.
- On Thursday nights, we host the New
Community Series, Alpha, Welcome
Dinners, wedding rehearsals and wedding
reception preps, along with recovery groups
and Bible studies.
Suffice to say, there is virtually no
evening in any month where rooms are
available to do the range of activities
we plan for our Community Center.
^
back to top 3.
Why is it important to connect the Community
Center with our church building?
- A Biblical Reason – The
church in America has tended to separate
three dimensions of the whole gospel. These
three dimensions are: words that proclaim
the truth of God (the traditional focus
of evangelicals); signs that proclaim the
power of God (most loved by Pentecostals
and charismatics); and deeds that proclaim
the love of God (a strength of liberals
and social activists). Each is a part of
the Good News of the gospel. But the gospel
is not fully proclaimed until all three
dimensions are experienced and manifested.
The preaching and praying that takes place
in our church building should not be separated
from the deeds of mercy that proclaim God's
love. The whole gospel involves the truth,
the power, and the love of God.
Another
way to express this is to say that the
challenge of the Great Commission to make
disciples of all nations must never be
separated from the challenge of the Great
Commandment to “love your
neighbor as yourself.” A holistic understanding
of the gospel means that we ask ourselves
the question, “What does salvation mean
for a child or adult who finds Christ
at our church, but goes back to a destructive
home life filled with drugs, violence,
or minimal educational opportunities?” The
church building should not be separated
from a significant part of its outreach
any more than the three strands of
the gospel should be separated.
- A Friendship
Reason – Jesus didn't simply
come to enable his followers to
get to heaven. He also came to build new
communities of followers here on earth.
These new communities are to cross racial,
socio-economic, and ethnic lines. A Christian's
friends should include not only people
who are like us, but also people who are
unlike us. A Christian's friends should
include the desirable and the undesirable,
the needy and the wealthy, the lovable
and the unlovable. Jesus wants to bring
all the different types of people who
live in the neighborhoods around our church
building into full church membership
so that we can together enjoy mutually
edifying relationships within our
church community.
- A Prophetic Reason – Our church leadership
has been praying for over a year and
a half about the possibility of constructing
a Community Center that could reach
our surrounding neighborhood with a wholistic
gospel. We looked at various buildings
in our neighborhood as possible sites
for a Community Center. One day when
Rich was on a prayer walk, the Holy
Spirit spoke to him and he had a vision
of an arrow shaft with the head of an arrow.
He felt the Lord saying to him: “I've
been building Vineyard Columbus into
an arrow shaft for years. The Community
Center will be the point of the arrow.” In
other words, God has built the thousands
of people who comprise Vineyard Columbus'
church family and our existing facility
into a giant arrow shaft. But an arrow
shaft will not penetrate our community
in a maximum way unless an arrowhead
is attached to it. The Community Center
will be the arrowhead.
Even architecturally,
the Community Center will face Cooper
Road and will be the first thing people
see as they approach our property.
It will serve as the point of the arrow
for this Central Ohio neighborhood!
- A
Practical Reason – Even before
the vision for the Community Center
was born, we had plans to build additional
children's ministry space for our weekend
services. Why? We need the space! We
currently do not have enough space for
children if the auditorium is approximately
65% capacity. But our desire is to
not only minister to the children and parents
within our congregation. We want
to reach out into our community. Up until
now, Children's Ministry has not been
used as an outreach vehicle due to space
limitations. We know that a vibrant
children's ministry builds the kingdom
within and through the lives of children.
It is vital to our ability to reach our
community. The Community Center vision
includes the needed space to continue our
vibrant children's ministry while reaching
our community by meeting our community's
felt needs at the same time.
- A Stewardship Reason – God has given
gifts and talents to each of our
6600+ church members. These gifts and talents
are not simply given for the purpose
of blessing our own families by
allowing us to earn an income, or merely
blessing our own church. Our gifts and
talents are meant to be given away. For
example, what opportunity does an attorney
have to use his or her legal training to
bless the larger community in a Christian
environment? What opportunities, for
that matter, do moms, athletes, musicians,
librarians, tutors, computer analysts,
or vocational counselors have to bless
our larger community in a Christian environment?
If we are blessed…to be a blessing—where
can we actually carry out this mandate
in a practical way? The Community Center
will provide each individual church member
an opportunity to give away whatever
God has given them: friendship, talents,
spiritual gifts, life experience, prayer,
and, of course, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
^
back to top 4. Are we changing our church's mission?
Our Mission Statement reads: Our purpose
as a church is to develop a community
of passionate, mature, reproducing disciples;
to plant passionate, mature, reproducing
churches; and, to transform the world
by love and good deeds for the glory
of God.
Our Community Center and the extension
of Vineyard Columbus' involvement in
world missions is simply a means for
us to keep doing what we've always been
committed to do: make disciples, plant
churches, and serve the world through
love and good deeds. Our giving campaign
does not signal any change in our mission
or vision.
^
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5. What
was the decision-making process resulting
in the plans for a new Community Center?
Our decision-making process was a
product of regular discussion by our Senior
Pastoral Team (Rich Nathan, Craig Heselton,
Bill Christensen, Steve Robbins, Stephen
Van Dop, and Eric Pickerill ), research on
our neighborhood and of all local alternatives,
extra-local research regarding other
community centers in other communities,
prayer over the last year and a half,
and an openness to the voice of the Lord.
Our executive pastor, Craig Heselton,
our teen pastor, Kerry Davis, and our
after school director, Kevin Brown, along
with our Senior Pastoral Team, participated
in putting the business plan together
for the Community Center.
^
back to top 6.
How will the Vineyard Columbus Community
Center be different than suburban centers
such as the existing community center
in Westerville, or government social
service agencies?
A Hindu priest
once asked the missionary E. Stanley
Jones what Christians could offer beyond
what Hindus already had. E. Stanley Jones
answered simply, “What
we can offer you is Jesus.” Jesus is
the difference our Community Center will
offer. The Community Center will not
be a government agency since our aim
will be to accompany our services with
the person, the love and the message
of Jesus.
Another very significant difference
will be our relational expectations.
We want to make friends with those using
our Community Center and not just acquire “clients.” We
also want to go beyond simply meeting
people's economic needs by contributing
to people's emotional, mental, moral,
and spiritual needs.
And unlike suburban community centers,
Vineyard Columbus' Community Center is
not intended to be “Club Vineyard” where
Christians can go to hang out or play
basketball in an environment that is “safe
and secure” from non-Christians. Quite
the opposite, Jesus came not for the “well,” but
for the sick, the least, the last, and
the lost. We envision our Community Center
to be a light to our community bringing
needed services such as career and financial
counseling, a daycare center, medical
services, marriage and family counseling,
and sports ministries to those who lack
such services. Our Community Center is
not an answer to the question: “What
does Vineyard Columbus get out of this?” but
rather, “What can Vineyard Columbus give
away?” We know we have been blessed,
and now we desire to be a blessing to
others.
^
back to top 7. Where will the Community Center be
located?
The new Community Center
will be where our old offices were located – at
the front end of our building near Cooper
Road . That old office structure will
be torn down and a two-story Community
Center will be built on the site. The
gymnasium and the chapel will remain
untouched.
^
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8. Why are we adding a daycare center
to our Community Center?
We want to provide quality, Christ-centered
daycare at a reasonable price, which
would be a huge help to families in our
immediate area. The northeast side of
Columbus has very few quality daycare
programs. The Clintonville, Worthington
, Dublin and Bexley communities are well-known
for having quality early childhood facilities.
Our neighborhood is comprised of nearly
40% single-parent-headed families. We
need quality daycare.
Quality programs involve low child-adult
ratios, educationally well-qualified
administrators and teachers, and a defined,
developmentally appropriate curriculum
so children aren't just babysat, but
are encouraged to learn through teaching
and experiences. We would have the opportunity to minister
to families that we normally wouldn't
have the opportunity to come in contact
with. Even through many may not be Christians
themselves, they often welcome the influence
of Christianity on their children, providing
a significant opportunity for evangelism
to families. By hosting a daycare, we'd have the
opportunity to minister to low-income
families and single mothers through Title
20 Federal funds, meeting needs in a
practical way.
Having a daycare program would further
indicate that we, as a church body, value
children and have a vested interest in
their spiritual success. Our daycare
would also be available to meet the needs
of families within our own church.
^
back to top
9. Are there any plans to build a school?
At
this time, we have no plans for a school
beyond our daycare and preschool programs.
There are many excellent Christian schools
in our Central Ohio community, but we have
learned to never say “never” at
our church.
^
back to top 10. How will our existing church programming
be affected? Specifically, will we
continue to minister through Fruit of the
Vine – our
food pantry, our medical clinic, our
homeless outreach and our ministry
to children in the downtown area?
We will continue to keep Fruit of
the Vine on Fifth Avenue and minister to
the downtown community through our food
pantry, medical clinic, and children's
program. We will continue to use Fruit
of the Vine as a launching pad to the
homeless, those in prison, in nursing
homes, and in shelters. Far from shrinking
Fruit of the Vine, we believe that as
thousands of gifted people at Vineyard
Columbus become envisioned to serve our
community via our new Community Center,
the Fruit of the Vine ministry will be
greatly expanded.
11. Who will run the Community Center?
The Community Center will operate
the way much of Vineyard Columbus operates.
There will be several paid staff that
will help develop and run the various
programs and outreaches the Community
Center will offer. However, many of the
services offered by the Community Center
will be entirely staffed by volunteers.
Many of our current programs (after-school
program, M.O.P.S., medical clinics, etc.)
are almost completely run by volunteers
from our church. The Community Center
will expand the opportunities for people
in the church to serve in new and exciting
ministries.
^
back to top 12. How do my gifts and talents fit
in?
Our hope is that you will use the
gifts and talents God has given you to serve
the community through this church. Whether
you have legal skills, career counseling
skills, childcare skills, talent in sports,
etc., we want to see you using your gifts
for the advancement of the Kingdom. There
will be numerous opportunities for you
to serve as paid staff or as a volunteer.
Job and volunteer opportunities will
be announced as the building gets close
to completion.
13. When will
we break ground and when will the Community
Center be completed?
The current timeline for construction
would begin demolition of the front end
of our current facility in June of 2005
and be ready to open the Community Center
in October 2006.
^
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14. What will
the Community Center cost?
The projected cost of the Community
Center is $5,000,000 (+furnishings).
Operating costs are projected to run
at about $750,000/year.
15. Are there
ways to cut costs?
We have already cut several options
out of the cost of the Community Center
(such as a climbing wall) to better use
our resources. We may shell (unfinished
floor, ceiling and walls) part of the
second floor of the Community Center.
We cannot add a second floor later if
we only build a finished one-story building
now. We are doing our best to make inexpensive
room for expected growth that can be
used in the future as God directs.
^
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16. How will the Community Center be
paid for?
We hope to completely fund the building
project with the contributions of our
congregation through our three-year giving
campaign. Ongoing expenses of running
the Community Center will be paid for
through our annual tithes and offerings.
17. What is the budget, how do we maintain
costs, operating expenses?
The operating costs have been projected
at $750,000. We can maintain the operating
costs of the new community center through
the current church budget.
^
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