Starting next Sunday, September 15, Vine Street will livestream our Sunday worship services on Facebook. Can’t make it to church? Just go to our Facebook page to follow live or watch the video at your convenience. This new tool will also allow folks who are curious about Vine Street to get a quick taste.
You’re invited to breakfast! Join us for the Journey to Wholeness Breakfast on Thursday, September 19, 2019 at West End United Methodist Church (McWhirter Hall), 2200 West End Ave, Nashville, TN. Check-in begins at 7:45 am, breakfast from 8 am - 9 am. Hear the impact Insight Counseling Centers is making in the lives of individuals, families, and couples in Middle Tennessee, and learn how you can get involved. Thanks to Vine Street Christian Church's sponsorship, there is no cost to attend, and the event will include an opportunity for guests to make a financial contribution. Please reserve your seat using the ticket link! http://insightcounselingcenters.org/breakfast
Now that the students and teachers at MBA have returned for another year of learning, the parking lot will be heavily used during school hours, typically 7 a.m to 3 p.m. on weekdays. When you come Vine Street during those hours and need to park your vehicle, please use the spaces closest to the church buildings, from the fellowship hall entrance up the hill (they are all to the left and right of the mailbox) and the spaces at the main entrance to the sanctuary. You will notice that these spaces are not numbered, which means that they will not be used for student or teacher parking.
Our Ministry Council has a single purpose: to help us plan, do, and evaluate our ministry. It meets 6-8 times a year, each time with a focus on just one area of our common ministry like outreach, worship, communication, or education. At the first meeting on Wednesday, August 21, anyone involved in any capacity in any of our ministries is encouraged to come. We will have a meal, and most of the evening will be dedicated to a review and update of the 15 key strategies of our strategic plan. This plan has guided our work for three years, and our goal is to update it for the next three years due to two fortunate challenges: the celebration of our 200th anniversary in 2020 and the disruptions presented by our building renovation plans. In the past, this kind of work would have been done by the Official Board. Under our new governance structure, the Administrative Council takes care of all financial, building, and personnel matters (things to do with the resourcing of our ministry), allowing the Ministry Council to focus exclusively on the doing of ministry! We hope you will make plans to join us on Wednesday, August 21, at 6:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall.
On June 21, Don and Leigh Ann Zirkle were attacked in their home by an armed intruder. Don did not survive his severe injuries. Leigh Ann remains in hospital; after multiple surgeries, she is slowly recovering from the physical trauma.
This horrific attack was a shock to all of us, and we have come together in many ways to offer our help and support — from neighbors who provided life-saving medical care to Leigh Ann until the ambulance arrived, to those who cut the grass or wrote cards of encouragement.
What can we do? Funeral plans for Don are on hold until Leigh Ann is strong enough to participate in the planning. In the meantime, we surround her with our prayers, but we also struggle with having our own sense of safety shaken and feeling helpless in the face of such violence.
The congregations of Westminster Presbyterian Church and Vine Street Christian Church invite our neighbors to a prayer service on Sunday, July 7, at 7 p.m., at Vine Street Christian Church (4101 Harding Pike). We want to come together to show our support, to pray, to share our grief and our hope, to strengthen the bonds of neighborliness and friendship, and to talk about how we can continue to build a community of support for Leigh Ann and her and Don’s families. Please join us.
On Sunday, July 14, we will dedicate this summer's water offering for Open Table Nashville. Please bring your donation of bottled water to church that Sunday - from cases of 0.5l bottles (16.9oz) to jugs up to 2.5 gallons. Open Table will pass out the bottles as they check on homeless folks on the streets and in camps. Thank you for being part of this effort to save lives and make life outside a little more bearable!
Next Saturday, June 22, as part of Nashville’s Pride Month celebrations, more than 5000 people are expected to participate in our city’s first Pride Parade—5000, and that’s not counting the spectators that will line Broadway between 8th and 2nd Avenues! A group of about twenty folks from Vine Street will be in the parade to affirm the radical hospitality of God: all of us are made in the image of God; all of us are called to new life in Christ; and God is pouring out the Spirit on all flesh.
We will celebrate Pentecost on Sunday - God's outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all people. Don't know what to wear? Here are some suggestions! After worship we will meet in Fellowship Hall for brunch and to make "the other pledge" - how will you put the gifts of the Spirit to use in ministry? If you signed up for a brunch item, you may refer to this list to remember what it was. Thank you!
On Wednesday, June 5, at 7p.m., Jim Carls will present Monsoon Wedding at Vine Street at the Movies. It’s monsoon season and when it rains… A very entertaining "slice of life" movie about the preparations, family secrets and cultural issues surrounding an arranged marriage. [R] for some language.
Rachel Held Evans’s death at age 37 was a shock to many, especially to readers of her blog and her books. Amanda Miller had planned to read Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again (2018) this summer, and she would love to read it with a group. If you’re interested, please contact Amanda.
Here’s what the publisher wrote about the book: If the Bible isn’t a science book, instruction manual, or position paper, then what is it? Rachel Held Evans invites readers on a journey of rediscovery as she explores the magic of the Bible, engaging the old, familiar stories in new ways that honor the past and enlighten the present.
Drawing upon recent scholarship and literary analysis, Evans creatively retells our favorite Bible stories, explaining their contexts and possible interpretations, and then connects these ancient stories to our present-day ones. Using her well-honed literary instincts and experience in both evangelical and mainline Protestant traditions, Evans discovers a way of understanding that avoids noncommittal liberalism on one hand and strident literalism on the other.
Readers are invited to fall in love with Scripture all over again without checking their intellect—or their imaginations—at the door.
Graduate Recognition Sunday is May 26th! If you or a family member is graduating from high school, college, grad school, or trade school, please let Allison know the following no later than May 20th: from where they are graduating, what program, and any future plans you’d like to share. We will recognize our graduates, their hard work, and their accomplishments in worship that day!
Vine Street’s Sunday morning adult education group will not meet this Sunday, April 28. On May 5, the group will begin a study of this fine book by biblical scholar and teacher Walter Brueggemann. We hope you will use the extra week to purchase a copy from your favorite book seller and read the first chapter.
In worship on Sunday we will receive pledges of financial support for the year of ministry beginning July 1. If you cannot attend worship, please mail your pledge card to the church office, attention: Katie. You may also submit your pledge online. Giving via automatic bankdraft is very convenient; to set it up, please complete and return this form. For all the ways in which you are part of our common ministry, thank you!
