"Enlarge my territory and may your hand be upon me…"
So prayed the Old Testament saint Jabez. "And God granted his request," (1 Chronicles 4:9-10). This is a cry that God has been responding to at Vineyard Boise. This is not seen just in the plans for expanding the facilities in Garden City or planting a new church in Meridian. The fact is that Vineyard Boise is playing an ever-expanding role in the body of Christ
- both inside and outside the Vineyard movement.
What's happening is bigger than any one of us or all of us put together. It's what senior pastor Tri Robinson calls "synergy," that divine momentum for which we hope and pray like the proverbial snowball rolling down the hillside.
Or, returning to Old Testament analogies, as Jacob was blessing his sons he came to Joseph and pictured him as a
"fruitful vine near a spring whose branches climb over a
wall..." (Genesis 49:22). Joseph faced plenty of obstacles in his life, but the hand of God was upon him and he was used to bring great blessing not only to his own brothers, but to the entire nation of Egypt and the world. A "fruitful vine near a spring" with branches "climbing over a wall" is an especially fitting picture of what God is doing at Vineyard Boise today. Here is just a sampling of His handiwork...
Big Sky Region
In the past several years, Tri was the Regional Overseer for Vineyards in the Northwest. Recently the regional boundaries were redrawn, and now Tri's focus is with a new group of pastors. The Big Sky Region consists of over 50 Vineyards in Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and the Dakotas. As overseer, Tri helps resource these churches and their leaders. This is a fulfillment of the vision we have had for Vineyard Boise from the very beginning. Even as a church plant 12 years ago, the leadership team felt God wanted us to share the resources He would bless us with.
As Vineyard Boise has continued to grow as a church, it has drawn Vineyard leaders to see first-hand what is happening in Boise. Areas that have attracted a lot of attention are discipleship groups, benevolence ministries, children's ministries and worship. Vineyard Boise's staff corresponds with many church leaders, answering questions via phone and e-mail, especially after Tri returns from teaching his Developing Disciple-making Churches conference.
Tri has pioneered several principles of ministry that are being adopted throughout the movement. For instance, more than 50 churches across the country have borrowed the materials for Vineyard 101 "Welcome to the Family" classes and patterned a similar ministry for their church.
National Board meeting
This week, for the first time, Vineyard Boise is hosting the Vineyard USA National Board meeting. The Eight Regional Overseers will be meeting here with Bert Waggoner, Vineyard USA's National Director, to discuss and pray over present plans and future goals for the Vineyard on a national scale. At the same time, a group of Area Pastoral Coordinators for the Vineyard will be at the Barnabas Center for a time of training.
www.vineyardusa.org
As a result of the work done by the Vineyard Boise Web team led by Chad Estes and Steve Comish, Vineyard Boise has been given responsibility for the national Vineyard Web site,
www.vineyardusa.org. Besides updating the national site with new content and resources, the Web team also is consulting with other Vineyards, helping them to get their own Web sites up and running.
Even our local site is being used nationally. As a result of the study guides posted on Vineyard Boise's site, at least eight other Vineyards are teaching from the same books of the Bible on Sunday mornings - for the simple reason that they aren't able to produce the same resources written for our Discipleship Groups and made available on our Web site.
In addition to learning about the ministries of Vineyard Boise, more than 100 people each week listen to Tri's Sunday message online, some because they don't live near a Vineyard. Currently the site is averaging more than 10,000 visitors a month.
Children's ministry
God is increasingly opening doors for the Rockin' V Kids' Ranch to "hit the road" and resource other children's ministries. In March, Vineyard Boise hosted Kid*Net 2001, bringing together children's ministry leaders and workers from across the country. Ranger Bud Reberry, our Children's and Family Life Pastor, was able to give them a demonstration of how these ministries have grown here in Boise. He provided all the churches who attended with the new Rockin' V worship album and a second CD with curriculum and other resources for developing their own children's ministry.
Worship ministries
Another area in which we resource the Body of Christ is worship. During the last few years, we have recorded more than 10 worship albums. Songs written and birthed at Vineyard Boise are being sung in literally thousands of churches around the world. Tri recently returned from a mission to the Philippines, where one of the songs written by Casey Corum, our worship pastor, was used in a church service.
Vineyard Boise is being used to train and mentor worship leaders and teams through conferences, seminars, and one on one interaction. Later this year we again will host a Vineyard Music Group conference. These conferences are always well attended, especially by worship leaders outside of the Vineyard. Another recent development is the new state-of-the-art recording studio, River's Edge. As a result of this new venture, our work in recording worship albums is continuing to grow. Already this year we have produced two different projects for Vineyard Music
- "Prayer," due out in U.S. bookstores this summer, and a live kids' worship project and companion video recorded in our sanctuary just a few weeks ago that's due in bookstores in October 2001.
Missions
This "fruitful vine" is also "climbing the wall" of national boundaries, with increasing impact on the mission field. "Our goal is to help plant one new church overseas each year," Tri said in kicking off the church's new Missions Society. On the immediate horizon are church plants in Tabuk in the Philippines and in Manta, Ecuador.
Plans also are underway for helping a birthing center, feeding ministry and children's home on the Philippine island of Cebu relocate to better facilities. In addition, Saimon Kusin and Amy Dietrich are leading a mission this fall to our church plant in Glasgow, Scotland. They also have been asked to take our models for discipleship groups and benevolence ministries to several churches in the UK.
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Now, don't misunderstand. This article is not meant to toot our own horn, but rather to spotlight the greatness of God in filling the "cracked pot" known as Vineyard Boise with the rich treasures of His grace and allowing it to spill out across the nation and the world.
"We have this treasure in jars of clay so that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of
ourselves," said Paul to the Corinthians. That's what we are seeing here. Great is our God! And great are the opportunities He is giving us here to make a mark for His Kingdom across this land.
"Expand our territory, Lord. Thanks be to God for His indescribable
gift!"
