Community Ministry Grants, 2024-2025

This fall, Vine Street Christian Church received 28 applications for Community Ministry Grants for the 2024-2025 funding year.

The Community Ministry Grants team, chaired by Pat Cole, reviewed all applications for impact, mission, sustainability, and other criteria, and recommended that the Administrative Council fund all grants at the amount requested.

This year we were able to fund 22 of the requests!

This past week, we mailed checks totaling $20,200, funded by annual contributions by our members and friends and we continue to make use of the Hallie Warner Needy Elderly Fund for applications doing work with the elderly community in Nashville.

Thank you to all who contributed, and to the Community Ministry Grants team: Cate Mart, Dair Grubb, Stephen Moseley, Jeff Miller, Martha Bishop, Kathy Zamata, Ed Cole and Pat Cole, chair. 

Below are this year’s grant recipients and their funded projects:

• Alameda CC Backpack Ministry - To fund backpacks and school supplies  for K-12 students.

• Cosecha - To support part-time program manager (Laura Dorris) for two garden sites

• Ella’s House - Improve nursery crib, baby supplies, changing table,trained childcare workers

• Harvest Hands CDC - Three locations of after school care  in South Nashville for snacks and meals.

• Heartbound Ministries - Support Little Readers program where parents reading books to their children are recorded

• Justice Industries - To expand glass recycling, bins to allow more jobs

• Mary Parrish Center - Emergency financial assistance for Transitional Housing and Rapid Re-housing program participants

• Matthew 25 - Fund for personal, medicine storage boxes for residents.

• Nashville Adult Literacy Council - Funding to support personnel for 4 priorities

• Oak Cottage  2019 - Residence for incarcerated women 6 mo-1 year, addiction recovery, counseling. Grant for Household Closet

• Open Table - Purchase winter outreach supplies, sleeping bags, propane,blankets

• United4Hope - Operation Andrew - Grant to help expand United4Hope to other middle schools

• Pawsters - Provide foster care for animals of homeless, victims of domestic violence, natural disasters.Grant will provide vet care,vaccinations, microchip, spay/neuter.

• Penuel Ridge - Two day retreat for 24 homeless women in Life Recovery Program at Nashville Rescue Mission

• PLAN Preserve Lindsley Ave - Additional storage racks and bins for clothing ministry off-season donations. Serves about 40 people.

• Preston Taylor Ministries  - To fund KiwiCo education kits for Wilson county new discovery zone partial reading support for 25 kids

• Tennessee Innocence Project - To free innocent Tennesseans who are locked up for crimes they did not commit, education and policy reform

• TN Prison Outreach Ministry - To help provide a free one week camp for children of incarcerated. Spiritual and recreational development

• Senior Renaissance Center - To enhance quality of life for older adults, providing yoga and exercise classes, art supplies, Cohn HS

• Senior Ride Nashville - To provide rides through a combination of paid drivers and volunteers

• Urban Housing Solutions - To support healthcare needs of seniors, purchase glasses, pay medical and dental co-pays for clients at Age to Perfection

• Westminster Home Connection - To renovate five  houses for older adults, allowing older persons to remain in their homes

Advent with AJ

Join a small group at Vine Street for a four week study starting November 26.

In Light of the World: A Beginner’s Guide to Advent, biblical scholar Amy-Jill Levine explores the biblical texts surrounding the story of the birth of Jesus. 

In four chapters, she traces the Christmas narrative through the stories of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary, the journey to Bethlehem, and the visit from the Magi. 

These stories open conversations around connections of the Gospel stories to the Old Testament, the role of women in first-century Jewish culture, the revolutionary implications of Mary’s Magnificat, and more.

Our study group - Thomas Kleinert will serve as facilitator - will meet on Tuesday evenings at 5pm, beginning November 26. Each session is based on one chapter and related biblical readings, and will be opened with a video presentation by the author.

Participants do not need to purchase the study guide, but we ask that you sign up to receive additional information. As always, please invite a friend or a neighbor!

All Saints Sunday

On November 3, we remember and give thanks for “all the saints who from their labors rest,”  including members of the congregation who have died over the past year.

During communion, as we gather at the table, we will hear their names spoken, along with the names of others who have shaped our life and faith in ways that give them a special place in our heart. Some of them may be famous, others may be known only to us and to God. All of them belong to the great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1). We don’t look at the saints as a separate group of people or anything like the “professional league” of believers. Saints are simply who we are in Christ, and therefore are called to be (much as the Apostle Paul used the term, e.g. when he addressed his letter “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi”).

To submit names, please use this online form. We will also have a clipboard available before the service, if you’d rather submit the names in handwriting.

Celebrate October

Do you like chili? How about cornbread? Dinner with old and new friends?

We celebrate October with a soul-warming meal in Fellowship Hall, and in the course of our evening together we take a few moments to share updates and answer questions about the upcoming season of Room in the Inn at Vine Street (starting on November 7).

No need to sign up - the meal’s on the house.

Please bring one or more items for our RITI store - men’s boxers, socks, warm jackets, deodorant, etc.

Vine Street Grant Helps Power RESET

On Tuesday of this week, September 10th,  Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell joined with AgeWell Middle Tennessee, the United Way of Greater Nashville, and other non-profit partners, in announcing the launch of a new financial empowerment collaborative offering personalized services designed with and for older adults in Davidson County.  The Mayor specifically cited  Vine Street’s  Community Ministry Grant of $44,000 to AgeWell, as the initial seed funding for the program.  Vine Street made this grant as a part of our community ministries grants program using our Hallie Warner “Needy Elderly Fund” as the source of the funds.  A copy of the Mayor’s press release, including the mention of Vine Street’s funding contribution, can be found at: Mayor Freddie O’Connell, AgeWell Middle Tennessee, United Way of Greater Nashville celebrate launch of RESET program - September 10, 2024

Known as the RESET program, “Raising Economic Security to Enjoy Thriving,”  the new program will offer financial empowerment counseling along with benefit enrollment assistance and referrals for supplemental income opportunities to older adults across Nashville.  The program was initiated and designed in response to frequent helpline calls and the Metro Social Services 2022 Community Needs Evaluation which found that due to the rising costs of food, housing, transportation and healthcare, more than half of older residents in Nashville are experiencing livable income poverty.  In early 2023,  AgeWell and the United Way convened a six-month planning process that included a series of focus groups with older adults and a coalition of government, non-profit, and faith community representatives.  It was this initial planning process that was funded by Vine Street’s grant.  Ed Cole and Kathy Zamata have been active Vine Street participants in the AgeWell process from the outset.  Ed has been a long-time AgeWell board member and Kathy is currently on the AgeWell Board.  A special relationship that Kathy has to this process flows from the fact that she was a “Stephen Minister” who called upon Hallie Warner in the final years of her life.  Seeing RESET emerge as a faithful expression of Hallie Warner’s wishes and Vine Street’s stewardship of her gift has been very meaningful!

On this Sunday morning, September 15th, Grace Smith, the Executive Director of AgeWell Middle Tennessee, will join us for worship and share more about RESET during our “Minute  For Mission.”   Join us in welcoming Grace and hearing more about RESET!

Catching Up with the Spirit

six-week Bible study to launch in september

Will you join us for a fall Bible study? Over the course of six weeks, beginning the week of September 16, 2024, we will dive into the book of Acts. Each session will include a video segment with Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the author of our study guide. 

We will have two groups, one meeting on Tuesday evenings at 5pm, and a second one on Wednesday mornings at 10am. Both groups will meet in Thomas Kleinert’s study.

Please get your own copy of the study guide (you can find used copies at half price) and sign up to let Thomas Kleinert know whether you’ll be in the Tuesday or Wednesday group.

Here’s a brief intro to the study:

Deer Hunting with Jesus

BOOK GROUP TO START THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 9

Joe Bageant, Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War

“After three decades of writing in the magazine and newspaper business, I was very frustrated with magazines and newspapers and tired of the glib paint-by-number material that clogged the newsstands in the never-ending search for the broadest demographic upon whom to inflict advertising.” 

What did Joe Bageant do? He embraced the internet, the “opportunity for a writer to say exactly what he wanted the way he wanted to say it, and let the readers decide for themselves without the intervention of the print industry’s editorial drones.” Articles published on a variety of a blogs, in 2007 became this book of observations from Winchester, Virginia; it was the writer’s hometown he had decided to move back to after a thirty-year absence.

Studs Terkel commented, “This recounting of lost lives — of white have-nots in one of our most have-not states — has the power of an old-time Scottish Border ballad.” It’s a book chock-full of anecdotes and insights — just braze yourself for the language.

Some of the chapter subtitles include

• Inside the white ghetto of the working poor

• Black powder and buckskin in heartland America

• They plead upon the blood of Jesus for a theocratic state

• The American health care system on life support

There already is a small group of people who want to talk about this book, and if you’re interested, they’d love to have you join the conversation. The current plan is to meet about four times, starting the week of September 9. Please get your own copy of the book, and sign up here. The sign-up form gives you several options to indicate your preference for a day and time for the group to meet.

Hard and Holy Work

Am I paying attention to the holy ground beneath my feet?

Where do I see burning bushes? 

Many of us want to understand how to integrate our spiritual lives with our engagement in working for justice and liberation. Hard and Holy Work provides a space for just that, helping readers participate in Lent in a new way by becoming attuned to God’s boundless presence in our world and waking up to, and taking action for, God’s justice through exploring stories from the book of Exodus that have inspired the work of liberation for centuries.

The authors, one a pastor, the other a Hebrew Bible scholar, reflect on the brave action of the midwives Shiphrah and Puah and other faithful women in Exodus, Moses’ awakening to the plight of the Hebrew people, Moses’ life-changing encounter with the burning bush, the Israelites taking the risk of crossing the Red Sea, and more to help readers to see anew and contemplate how God is calling them to respond to what is not right in the world: racial injustice, especially borne by women of color, houselessness, and discrimination against LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities.

Hard and Holy Work takes readers through a unique Lenten journey, encouraging us to see those who are marginalized or suffering as God sees them; contemplate how privilege, fear, risk, and feelings of uncertainty can cloud our attention; and practice endurance for the messy middle of justice work, leaning on God’s provision and rest when the way forward is unclear.

Questions at the end of each chapter offer opportunities to discuss, reflect, and respond to God’s call through daily reflections for individuals, prompts for small group discussion, and ideas for taking action in the outward work of justice and liberation.

At Vine Street, a group will meet weekly on Wednesday mornings at 9 am in Thomas Kleinert’s study, beginning on February 14, Ash Wednesday, to reflect on our readings and share our responses.

Thomas has purchased ten copies of the book, so participants can simply pick up one before the first session.

This lovely study and devotional is written with a wise and compassionate voice, bringing timely reflections on timeless Scriptures and nudging us to consider the significance of movements, moments, and our own spiritual yearnings. It is an invitation to pay attention, as the authors say, to ‘the divine possibility of the present moment.’ In a season in which our hearts are broken anew each day, may this book give us what we need as people of faith to mend and heal and move.”

—Laura M. Cheifetz

At the Movies

On the tenth day of Christmas, Vine Street at the Movies will present their first movie of 2024! Happy, Texas, with Jeremy Northam, Steve Zahn and William H. Macy, is the story of a small Texas town that has hired two professionals to help put on a beauty pageant for local girls. The pair that shows up are pros of a different sort. Rated PG-13.

Showtime at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, January 3, in the chapel.

"Happy, Texas is a hoot, a hilarious comedy that's smart and caring, yet sexy and ingenious enough that it just might stir up some of that elusive Full Monty-style box-office appeal."

–Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

Questions? Contact Jim Carls, the curator of the film list and convener of this monthly event.