small group curriculum resources by david nixon

Community Groups are informal, family-like gatherings that provide support at a variety of levels: emotional, physical, financial and spiritual. They provide consolation in times of trouble; they rally, for instance, to help out a group member moving from one home to another; they might help a group member who's in a financial pinch; they pray for one another; they learn together. Essentially, they do the things that are essential parts of healthy family life - in a day and age when good family is hard to come by.

building a multicultural church by john moriarty

Since the beginning of my Christian experience, I’ve always dreamed of being a member of a multi-racial congregation.  So, if I thought it would be good to be a member of a multi-racial Vineyard, just think what pleasure it has been for me to pastor an emerging multi-ethnic congregation.  I am thrilled. Vineyard has not historically been known to be significantly multi-racial although there are some signs of the big ship turning.  One example is the multi-ethnic success of the Evanston, Illinois Vineyard pastored by Steve Nicholson.  Steve said that his congregation is 35% minority.  That rather large minority is from over 30 different nationalities.  I asked Steve if there were any other significant examples of this in the Vineyard. He said, “No, but more people are talking about it.”

developing a church-wide approach to counseling
by danny meyer

church planing & alpha course by penny meyer

Danny and I planted a new Vineyard a little over three years ago with about 200 committed followers of Jesus.  After a short time, I had a very powerful dream about reaching out to the lost in our area.  My first thought was, “Alpha!” and my second thought was, “I can’t start Alpha because we don’t have a building.”   We were just renting space at the local school for Sunday mornings and our office set up was not ideal for starting an Alpha group.  As I prayed about it, I felt the Lord encouraging me to move ahead with the tried and true Alpha program.  For the past couple of years, I’ve been leading an Alpha Group that is working.  What I mean by that is:  people are coming to know Jesus, they are inviting their friends, and the new converts are getting assimilated into the church.  Against all odds of not having an ideal meeting place, Alpha has proved to be a wonderful source of church growth, a way to reach the unchurched, and a overall blessing to our new church plant.