Opening Weekend at the Shack

Today we began the next chapter of the VWS story.  We moved into an abandoned church building in hopes that we could begin to make it our own.  In a lot of ways, this building is representative of the things that God is calling us to on the Westside.  

You see, there is a Spirit that lives on the Westside of Cincinnati that holds the people here in apathy, complacency, and mediocrity.  It uses tools like fear, failure, and condemnation to hold people in the status quo and remind them that they will never fully be who God made them to be.  This Spirit is called "Religion" and it is a very old and very strong spirit over here.

Enter Vineyard Westside...  A tribe of messy Jesus lovers who have moved into the territory of Religion to break this spiritual bondage and bring real freedom. 

 

This is not just a church, not just a tribe, not just a movement... but the beginning of a REVOLUTION.  Don't get used to seeing us sitting in these seats because God is turning our hearts outward to invade the city.  

"Greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city."

As excited as I am to see this old run down building filled with God's people.  I am even more stoked by the idea that God is calling an army of servants together to REACH the Westside with the message of hope, purpose, and making famous the name of the only one who can break the bonds that hold this city captive... Jesus.

LOVE WINS!!!

Saying Goodbye to the Danbarry

Today was a bittersweet day for me.  Three years ago several of us went on an adventure to start a movement on the Westside of Cincinnati Called "Vineyard Westside.  We went public on September 18th, 2005 in the Main Theater of the Danbarry Cinemas on Glencrossing Avenue.  

While our Theater was dirty most of the time, the bathrooms smelled and we never really got the temperature right; God used this little Theater to change lives during our time there.  We may never know the accurate number of people who stumbled and staggered into the Danbarry, but God does.  He allowed us to watch as the wounded and beaten up by life were transformed by God after spending time in our Theater.  

While I am very excited about our move to a new location, I will miss this Theater that we called home over the last 3 years. Thank you God for a great run in the Dirty Danbarry.  May the prayers prayed in those seats be heard even today and may your name be famous on the Westside of Cincinnati and all over the world because of what you have done through us in the most unlikely of places.