Blogs

The EDTF (Ethnic Diversity Task Force) recently met and are hoping in the months to come to be able to bring you stories and interesting resources that you can use to start conversations within your church, with your friends, with your leaders, whatever your situation may be, that could be helpful in moving us toward greater understanding of one another.

This month’s question is posted by Nicole McAdoo-Popovich, Denver Hub pastor from Arvada Vineyard, CO and answered by Jeff Heidkamp, co-pastor of Mercy Vineyard in Minneapolis, MN with his wife, Le Que Heidkamp, and editor of Cutting Edge, the Vineyard church planting magazine. Nicole is one of a group of current and potential church planters within Arvada Vineyard, and this is one of the most common questions they struggle with.

I was one of those kids who actually read all or most of the books on the summer reading list they sent home with us from school. I'm sure that the first year it was because there was a prize involved, but after that I was hooked. As I turn the corner into autumn, I'm beginning to compile my reading list, and I thought I'd throw out the friendly challenge to you to post a comment, a book review, or a list you yourself might "go for".

Here are my categories:

A provocative question, asking which race a person prefers.

I have just finished a book by Malcolm Gladwell called "Blink" which I found a fascinating read, and I was captured by this question in one section of his book where he talks about a test a person can take to show what they unconsciously feel toward African-Americans and European-Americans.

In 2006, the National Board of the Vineyard USA said this: "In response to the message of the Kingdom, the leadership of the Vineyard USA will encourage, train and empower women in all levels of leadership both local and translocal. The movement as a whole welcomes the participation of women in leadership in all areas of ministry."

We have two new national Vineyard task forces to tell you about, with two separate but congruent missions. Both will serve the whole Vineyard, but in different ways, with different leadership teams and using different vehicles to get their task done.

When my wife was having our first child, the midwife was very concerned because the baby was in the breach position. If the baby was to try to leave her body that way there would be real damage to the baby and my wife. In the birthing process leaving well is critical.

Leaving well in the birth of a church is important too! We want healthy, strong churches right from the start that have what they need to grow to full maturity. There is a lot of unnecessary pain and agony when the leaving is done poorly.

This year, at the Vineyard 2009 National Conference, we on the Ethnic Diversity Task Force used it as a place to introduce ourselves the larger Vineyard movement -- and we had a great time doing it! Every conversation I had felt like I was making friends with a kindred spirit on this journey toward a multi-ethnic community of believers.

I spent last week at the every-other-year pastors' conference for all the Vineyard churches, held this year in Galveston, Texas, which not that long ago got creamed by a hurricane and which is still working hard to turn itself back into a welcoming tourist destination and port. It is a precious thing to be able to have a whole week with other pastors and leaders and spouses that are often only email and Facebook companions. I doubt I was the only one who felt like I talked nonstop for days without pausing to breathe.

A frequent question for church planters is how to balance church and family. I generally give a two part answer: one answer for the first year of planting, another answer for all the years after that. In the first year I recommend working all out, especially at gathering, in hopes of getting the church to an attendance of 100 or so in the first year-two years at most. This would make all the other things more simple. Which means that in the first year a planter has to get by on minimal family time.

...to China or any other place and you are sure in your own heart, let nothing deter you … remember it is God who has called you and it is the same as when he called Moses or Samuel. That was said by Gladys Aylward, who in the years before and after World War II lived and worked to take the Great Story into as many remote corners of China as she could, in the process striking a huge blow to the ancient and crippling practice of foot-binding for girls.