The Vision of the Wagon Wheel

by Pastor Tri Robinson

When I became serious about living as an authentic Christian my pastor, Brent  Rue,  challenged me to start reading the New Testament in a specific way. He wanted me to see God’s intention for His Church through the scripture.

Brent asked me to read all four Gospels and the Book of Acts completely through without stopping. The first two times I did this I read the books through like a novel so that I could see the story line and the chronological flow of events.

The third time through Brent asked me to read these books a section at a time, interrupting them with any corresponding books in the New Testament written by the people in the story. For example, if the story was focused on Peter I would read Peter’s letters; if it was focused on James I would read through the book of James. If Paul was in Philippi we would read his letter to the Philippians. And when we came to the part where he is in Ephesus, we would read Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Church.

By following this regiment I gained a better understanding of the entire New Testament. Not only did I understand the message better, but I also began to see how it all fit together as one wonderful story. I saw the big picture of God’s intentions for His Church that I couldn’t have gained by simply reading pieces and parts of the Bible.

One of the things I learned was that the Church was commissioned and trained to be a supernatural agency. At the time of Christ’s departure from earth, He told the Church that since He was leaving physically, He would give them His Holy Spirit. One of the reasons was that they could carry on Jesus’ ministry without breaking stride. After this event the Apostles were not the only people operating in the supernatural, but they taught the church to do the same.

Nowhere in all my reading and study did I find that this kind of ministry was to end when the Apostles died. In fact, many of their letters were written so the churches would be properly instructed to carry on when the Apostles were gone.

For example, Paul told Timothy to complete the ministry God had given him now that Paul’s own life and ministry was ending (2 Tim. 4). This referred to the entire ministry that Timothy had partnered in with Paul; it was led by the Holy Spirit and resulted in many supernatural acts – thus appropriately named ‘The Book of Acts’.

I believe that in those early days of Bible study I came to a conclusion and conviction that would affect all my future ministry for the Lord. This conclusion was that I would have the faith to believe God for – and even expect – His divine leading and revelation for the ministry.

Through the years I discovered that if ministries were not led by God’s revelation, they most often ended in just good programs. These programs were seldom bad, but they were also never great. I realized that if I truly heard God for ministry, that ministry would generally carry on for years and produce fruit beyond my wildest expectations.

As I began to expect and seek revelation for ministry I learned that sometimes God would give it to me far in advance of its realization.  I’m not sure why He does this, but I think it’s because when it actually happens, we know it was His idea all along and it builds our faith.  Let me give you one example that is very relevant to Vineyard Boise.

In 1991 Vineyard Boise was a small but booming church plant. We were meeting in a small church building on Northview Avenue. We were very limited in space due to the inadequacy of the facility. We didn’t have any designated place for offices so we divided up one of the Sunday school rooms with partitions. This way I could have a little privacy to study and work. The space was very confining, but at the time we called it “cozy”.

On the wall above my desk I placed a map of the Northwestern United States. On this particular map Idaho was right in the center. One morning I was sitting in my cubby hole doing my morning devotions and praying about the future of the church.

All at once I saw an image of a large wagon wheel superimposed over the map. I knew the image wasn’t real, but in my mind it was crystal clear. I was amazed at what I was seeing and realized right away that it was something that God was showing me. The wheel had seven spokes and its rim encircled the entire Northwest. The hub was centered over Boise.

I asked the Lord what this picture meant and He began to speak to me about the Vineyard becoming a resource center for other churches in this region. The thought overwhelmed me at the time. It seemed completely unrealistic and unobtainable. Our church was very small and barely getting it together; we were struggling to just stay alive.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized Idaho has seven borders and physically touches every state in the Northwest except Alaska. I remember telling a few trusted people about the vision, but I hesitated telling too many for fear they would call me ambitious and unrealistic. I did draw a picture of the vision which I still have in my files today.

In 1996 Vineyard Boise became the regional church responsible for overseeing and providing resources to all the Vineyard Churches in the Northwest region. In the years to come we hosted numerous regional conferences to equip and train pastors and leaders from all of the states that those seven visionary spokes touched.

Today, nearly every ministry within our church provides resources to other churches. The Web site for the entire Association of Vineyard Churches in the USA was developed and is currently managed out of our church. River’s Edge, our recording studio, serves the greater Body of Christ in producing music and resources. And our church often hosts pastors from all over the United States for the purpose of aiding them in their work and providing them with resources for their churches.

I don’t know why God has chosen us for this particular function, but I do know that He prepared us for it several years before it actually became reality. We did nothing to try to make it happen, but when other pastors and leaders began to call us for material, we knew what God had revealed in that vision of the wagon wheel was supernaturally beginning to happen.

With all of my heart I believe the church is called to be a prophetic agency, hearing God and believing Him in faith for what is yet to be seen. I believe that what was available for the church in the Book of Acts and the entire New Testament is still available to the church today.