Missions
We believe in international missions-that is, exporting overseas the proven ministries we're developing here in our home church in Grand Rapids.
When the apostles and early Christians started taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth as they knew it, they became missionaries by taking their home grown ministries on the road to places like Judea, Samaria, Asia Minor (modern Turkey), Greece, and finally to Rome. They traveled to new places to do the very things they had already been doing in their home towns of Jerusalem and Antioch.
So, if we make our starting point the pattern expressed in the Bible, international missions begins right here in our home town and in our local church. We start living and serving like missionaries here at home: feeding and clothing the poor, healing the sick, preaching the gospel, setting captives free, equipping ministry teams raising up leaders, and planting new churches. When the time is right, we trust God to open a door for us to export our ministries to different cultures and countries.
Get Started Today
Is God stirring your interest in serving in another country or culture? Let's think like New Testament missionaries! What are you doing (or could you be doing) right now to develop ministry skill and fruitfulness here in Grand Rapids that would enable you to serve with skill and fruitfulness in an international context? There's no day like today, and no place like home, to start living and serving like a missionary, developing the maturity and skills that others will someday ask you to export overseas.
International Church Planting Partnerships
This local Vineyard church is part of an international movement called The Vineyard: A Community of Churches. While, legally, Vineyard churches are independent, relationally we're tied very closely to the international movement of pastors and churches. We're committed to cooperating to make the biggest possible differences in the world within our generation.
In missions, this means that Vineyard churches work together in partnerships to plant churches all over the world. Individual Vineyard churches like this one don't develop their mission strategies independently by supporting a variety of missionaries who perform a diverse number of tasks all over the world. Rather, local Vineyard churches partner together to plant churches in just a few countries or cultures where, together, they can pool people and resources to start an indigenous, self-sustaining church planting movement in just five to ten years.
Currently, Vineyard North, is participating in three international church planting partnerships: Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Malawi-Mozambique. In other words, together with other Vineyard churches who are members of these partnerships we're focusing all of our missions interest, money, and influence in these three destinations. That's it! This means that, as difficult as it is, we have to say "No" to men and women asking us to support missions to other countries or to support other tasks besides church planting. God is certainly at work in other places, in other ways. But we believe that he has asked us, for the next five to ten years, to focus our time and money on international church planting in just these three destinations.
Our Partnership Destinations
Costa Rica now is home to established Vineyard churches that specialize in hosting small teams from the United States and including them in dramatic ministry experiences among the poor. We regularly send teams to work with the Costa Rican Vineyards because it is a lower cost investment for teens, young adults, and folks who are not prepared to travel around the globe to threatening environments and nations that may be politically unstable. Costa Rica is a great starting place for taking your home grown ministry skills overseas. We plan to send one team each year to Costa Rica.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim Country. By the grace of God, the most prominent expressions of Islam in that island nation are still moderate in their political and cultural expressions. There are some islands and rural areas where Christians are persecuted and, preaching the gospel is dangerous. However, there are many urban areas where indigenous Vineyard church planters are already preaching Jesus' words and performing his works.
To date, we have been sending at least one team annually to participate in training indigenous church planters who travel to Jakarta for a month at a time. However, we are also sending small teams to support other ministries, from worship concerts to developing small businesses as doorways to kingdom mission. Over the past several years, we also have contributed generously to tsunami aid and, we have helped construct a new orphanage for the children of tsunami victims on the island of Sumatra.
Malawi-Mozambique is widely considered a center of authentic revival in Africa. We are partnering with an established Vineyard in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to plant churches in these two nations. The Port Elizabeth Vineyard has already planted over sixty churches in Malawi-Mozambique, all with indigenous pastors. Other Vineyards in the United States are joining in to make this a very fast-growing partnership in a region of the world characterized by great need, great beauty, and great potential. We send a team once a year that preaches the gospel, cares for those suffering with AIDS, and provides training for indigenous pastors.
Vineyard Missions Task Force
The Vineyard's international missions partnerships are coordinated by an international missions task force. You can learn more about this task force and the resources it provides at www.vineyardmissions.org.
Mercy Response and Other Ministry Trips
Though not in the same category as international church planting, we do send teams of men and women to participate in disaster relief here in the U.S. Again, we partner with other Vineyard churches through a national Vineyard task force called Mercy Response. You can check out Mercy Response at www.mercyresponse.com.
International Students
During the school year, we host an on-campus student ministry for international students studying here in Grand Rapids. Pioneered by our Director of International Student Ministries, Lilian Samuel, the club is open to all, but meets near the Calvin College campus and is registered on-campus as the Bible Bonanza club. Contact for more information.
Money for Missions
Each Spring Vineyard North collects an annual offering for international missions. Throughout the year, this money is used for ongoing partnership expenses, supporting indigenous church planters, scholarships for men and women who need assistance to travel overseas, and specific compassion projects.
From time to time, we also take special offerings to tackle significant projects. For instance, recently we helped finish an orphanage in Indonesia and we purchased a new four wheel drive vehicle for Vineyard missionaries from Chili who are serving in Malawi.
We ask team members who are traveling with us to one of our partnership destinations to raise their financial support outside the Vineyard North congregation-from family, friends, employers, and so on. We're finding that even non-Christians are willing to support the international ministries of men and women who are truly fighting terrorism in the Muslim world through acts of compassion (like caring for orphans) and who are addressing the AIDS pandemic in Africa by resourcing the pastors and churches that are on the ground in those places.
Travel scholarships are available primarily to men and women who have demonstrated maturity and fruitfulness in kingdom ministry here in their home town and in their home church. Yes, the money flows to the people who are already living and serving like missionaries right now, right here!
