May
22
Part of our focus at The Vine will be a constant emphasis on God’s mission for us, the church. In order for us to know what we are to do as a church we have to know what it is that we are called to based on God’s story. His story is what gives [...]
May
20
These two mindsets involve fundamentally different values. The highest value of a community with a tribal mindset is self-preservation. A tribal community exists solely for itself, and those within it keep asking, “How can we protect ourselves from those who are different from us?” A tribal mindset is marked by an unbalanced patriotism. It typically [...]
May
11
I (Zach) was recently interviewed by two different bloggers in reference to The Vine. I’ll reprint it here but be sure to follow the great blogs of James Grant and Greg Breazeale. Tell us a little about yourself. I’m 34 years old, been married to Kim for 12 years and we have four children, [...]
May
11
Dave Dorr: Another way that we keep God at a distance is to hold people at arms length. And this keeping people at arms length is a behavior that is constantly reinforced culturally. We feel that it is not spiritual to experience God in a community. For us the essence of spirituality is private religious [...]
May
10
Here’s a quick update for those of you in the Madison area following us via this page. As expected, our communication has been a bit thin lately as Zach, Nate, and I are working with our wives and families to wrap up details before relocation. This is a VERY busy time and we would appreciate [...]
Apr
18
This morning I (Zach) had the opportunity to preach in church. My text was John 3:19-21. It assumes that The Church should be a community that confesses sin to one another. Sin lives in the dark but we are people of the light. We have to bring our sin into the light to be what [...]
Apr
17
Today the elder team for The Vine developed this diagram that illustrates how we hope to maintain a strategic use of time, resources, and programming in order to accomplish our mission to advance the gospel in Madison. Too frequently as churches mature they begin to invest an inordinate amount of time and resources into programming [...]
Mar
25
I (Zach) got the chance to preach on Psalm 1 recently to a group of college students at the church where I currently work. You might want to check it out.
Mar
22
For those of you in the Madison area interested in learning more about this new church plant, we will be launching our initial gathering on Sunday morning, July 25th with weekly gatherings to follow. The location is yet to be determined, but it is likely we’ll be hosting these initial gatherings in one of the [...]
Mar
17
Our own Zach Nielsen is #81 in the top 100 Christian blogs. If you aren’t following him yet, you better get him in your reader. Scott