Human Trafficking Awareness Day!

Just a Reminder: Today – January 11th – is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day (and if you didn’t know, President Obama made January Human Trafficking Awareness month)!

Our friends at Polaris Project have an idea for us – “Join us…in solidarity against human trafficking. Talk about it online and get the buzz going that slavery still exists and that with everyone’s help we can help bring it to an end!”

We will have some opportunities for advocacy regarding fighting against human trafficking…more info soon!!

SummerMission: Ukraine

Eddie Fuller is in the process of getting this years plans together for the Mission to Ukraine to be with the orphaned children.  If you would like to be considered for this or just want to know more about it email him at efuller3@gmail.com.

inside the vineyard (January 10th)

This Sunday we’ll begin a teaching series that looks at kingdom principles of our missional God found in parables that Jesus taught. We expect these to be practical and life changing as we join with God on His mission to redeem all mankind and creation.

Following the service, we’ll hold a Town Hall Meeting and discuss where we currently are as a church body, since our series of family meetings last November. We hope to see you there!

inside the vineyard this week (January 3rd)

The first Sunday of the month is when we enjoy our meal together during the morning, so come prepared with your dish to share. When we met together for our first common meal at the beginning of December it was such a wonderful time, where we shared not only our meal but time with each other and time with our Lord. What better way of entering into the New Year (and decade) than by having our second “Common Meal” church service?

If you could either email into office@vcccm.org or call Pam at the office, 410-987-3440, with the details of what dish your family will bring, it would be a great help in making sure we have a good variety of food. Thank you!

Here’s all you need to know:

• To the degree that it’s possible….please try and be ‘in place’ by 10:00 with your prepared dish on the Food Table.
• Consider bringing a friend, neighbor, co-worker. This will be a very ‘full of love’ and ‘easy entry’ time for someone who doesn’t know Jesus, or has been away from Him.
• Finally… simply pray for our time together throughout this week. We long for His presence as we observe this “Common Meal” Service.

a new years’ hope

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

2 Corinthians 5:17

CMV’s Christmas Compassion projects

Just a quick reminder of the various Christmas Compassion projects that we are joining together to do: 

• Books for Baltimore: Can you donate new or gently used books that we can take and distribute in Baltimore on Christmas eve? If so please contact Audra at audrawhayland@msn.com or bring them in to church or the office during this week before 20th December. 
• Orphaned Children in Ukraine: As many of you know, each year we are involved in a Christmas project to help make the holiday special for some of the orphans in Ukraine. This year we will be providing boots to some children in an orphanage in Tuzly, which is close to the camp that our team ministered at this past summer. We are trying to provide boots for seventy orphans. The boots cost $25 American dollars per pair. We will be collecting the money and sending it over so that the boots can be sized correctly, and purchased in country. If you are interested in participating, please make your check out to VCCCM, and give it to Sharon Fuller or drop it in a box on the wall in the back of the Auditorium. The deadline for having the money in is December 27th, so that we can get the money to Ukraine before their Christmas, which is January 7th. Thanks for your help. For further information call Sharon Fuller.
• Ukrainian Sponsorship Program: We will have Christmas cards for sale this Sunday and next which have been designed and drawn by some of the Ukraine Orphans that we sponsor.  Please do try to support them by seeing me to purchase your cards. We do appreciate it is a little late for this Christmas but get yourself prepared for next year.  All proceeds go directly to them. Thank you. Chris Ronk // cronk@vcccm.org

missional maryland

Well…we have been talking more and more about “being missional”…and we know we have been given the greatest mission in the world. God has called us to reach the people of this world with His message of God’s love and redemption and reconciliation that was shown through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Further to call all of us to be radically devoted followers of Jesus who are willing to expend their lives for Jesus and His Kingdom. So we want to journey together toward the unfolding vision of the Central Maryland Vineyard, and we know it has to do with being a missional people and a missional church in this world. But what does that mean?  And so between now and spring we are going to flesh it out: 

• Who He’s made us to be as a people/church/faith community?
• where are we going?
• How do we begin?

  
We will begin simply this wonderful Christmas season. Over the month of December, we are going to use the Christmas season and scriptures in our services to teach on “The Missional God” and “The Missional Church”. 

We’re glad to be on this journey in His Kingdom with you! We’re glad to celebrate His coming into the world with you this Christmas time!

inside the vineyard this week (December 6th)

As we enter the season in which we celebrate the birth of our Savior, what better way than to gather with our first “Common Meal” church service? Our newly formed “1st Sunday” team has been busy developing a service for this next weekend that we hope will be rich with worship, teaching, and true ‘koinonia’ fellowship. Coming out of our series of family meetings, it is now time to refocus on scriptural teaching/feeding.

This week will center on Acts 2:42- 47 and what church looked like when the believers gathered to have their love feasts. Our focus is on trying to recapture some of the elements Jesus intended true body gatherings to be. We also will teach out of Luke 22 where Jesus tells us how he has desired to ‘eat this meal’ with us. Our desire for Sunday (and the ensuing 1st Sundays) is to monthly regain the deeper experience that Jesus would have us learn about ‘Do this in Remembrance of Me’. We think there is some lost treasure to be mined in what Jesus intended the practice to be, and we are thrilled to grow in our approach monthly with you! As Jesus said: ‘I earnestly desire to eat this meal with you’…so we look forward with expectation to share this whole experience with you as we gather in His name. Presence, Worship, Teaching, Food, and deep Fellowship!

Here’s all you need to know:

1. To the degree that it’s possible….please try and be ‘in place’ by 10:00 with your prepared dish on the Food Table.
2. Consider bringing a friend, neighbor, co-worker. This will be a very ‘full of love’ and ‘easy entry’ time for someone who doesn’t know Jesus, or has been away from Him.
3. Finally… simply pray for our time together throughout this week. We long for His presence as we observe this “Common Meal” Service.

We love you greatly…and are blessed by all that the Lord is doing in our midst!

inside the vineyard this week (November 29th)

We had a wonderful time together last Sunday as we celebrated our over 26 years as the Vineyard Community Church Central Maryland. Wow, the heartfelt stories of God’s absolute faithfulness from everyone that shared made our time together especially rich, memorable, and encouraging! If you missed last Sunday’s gathering, you can listen to it here: http://www.vcccm.org/sermonsOnline.html.

Psalm 118 begins with these words: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.” The Message says it like this: “Thank God because He’s good, because his love never quits.” These are great words of truth to savor and experience as we move through this Thanksgiving week.

God is good, and his love never quits! Next Sunday, we’ll have a very special service led by our VIA students. There’ll be extended worship…and more stories of Jesus’ faithfulness in what He has done, and what He is now doing in our lives. Together, we’ll celebrate that Jesus is good, and His love never quits! So, be encouraged and reflect on His unfailing love for you: not only what Jesus has done, but what He is doing now. Come ready to share with us too. We so look forward to gathering with you this Sunday.. …seeking Him together in worship…and praising and thanking Him for what He has done and is now doing.

Don’t forget the first Sunday of the month is a joint brunch, so let Kevin Odean or Jan Hanson know what you will be bringing on December 6th.

 

 

 

staking your life on it

The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically anaylze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief.

                                                                                       – t.s. eliot