United Stage Design

My good friend, Donald Sims, is the pastor of City of Hope Church in Manchester, KY.  He is doing an unbelievable job and their town is truly seeing "city transformation" in the area. 
I had the honor to join in their celebration service as another church in the area merged with them.  Below is the video I did to show the "how to" for the stage design as well as just a glimps of the energy as these two churches partner together as one.
Enjoy.

United Stage Design from Vince Farrell on Vimeo.

Wisdom from a Child

"Daddy, what did you want to be when you grew up?" My six year old daughter asked me.

"Well, for a while, I wanted to me an architect and build things. But then I thought about pursuing acting to become an actor." (mainly due to my drama friends in high school)

"What's an actor?" She responded.
"You know a person who you see on videos and movies. But I really found out what God wanted me to be when I started pastoring." I replied.

"It sounds to me you do all those things; you built a house, churches and us beds and you're in lots of videos and you pastor lots of people." She responded.

Hmm... A people builder, media engaging Pastor. Yes, that does sound about right.

I'm currently putting together information that I will release in January concerning the next steps in our journey as we follow God.
If you'd like to receive an information packet about our next steps and pray with us about it, email me at ministry@vincefarrell.com

Yours for His Kingdom,
Vince Farrell
www.vincefarrell.com

Membership VS. Partnership

I was at Starbucks with my wife and while we sat and sipped away; I picked up a "Starbucks Gold" card application form. Starbucks has a "membership" program. Pay them a yearly fee and get certain perks. It's nothing new, tons of stores offer this type of program to already paying customers.

Some business, in fact however, won't even let you be a customer without a membership.
Blockbuster video,
Sam's Club,
Anytime Fitness gym are a few I've had in my life

Membership seems to be defined as, "pay a fee and receive benefits from our services."

I dare to say this mentality has spilled over into most churches; after all, every church has a membership.
Membership is referred to when answering the famous "how many" question.
It usually goes something like this: So, how many do you have in the church?" "Well we have about 600 members."
But the actual attendance is around 250.
Membership invites a mental understanding that because "I pay, I should get."

I say all this not to poke fun or degrade churches.
I say all this to encourage a change in our view of church attendees.

I'm not interested in doing things because that's how we always did them. So I throw out this simple thought.
Instead of offering "Church Membership" how about "Church Partnership"

Partnership says, "no matter the cost, I'm committed to the vision of this organization."
Partnership goes way beyond dropping your dues into a plate or clocking in your time at the front door.
Partnership is an understanding that it's not about me and it's not about you; it's about them. Those who don't know Christ.

Now if you're reading this and say, "hey, Vince! What you said about partnership is the exact same thing we have as our membership at church."

Great! I say. But remember that's not what our culture and people in our church understand for the most part.
Think about creating a "Church Partnership" mentality in your ministry and watch what happens.