Yesterday I posted about a change we are making in our kinships for this semester. As I mentioned we want to take the next few months focus on who we are as a church, and where we are going.  This Thursday night meeting is a crucial part of this.

Today I wanted to share a bit about what the night will look like.

A big question for people is child care.  Yes we will have childcare available!  At the same time, we are asking everyone to consider working with the kids 2 times over the semester.  We want to do this in a way that demonstrates love to one another.  And having 3-4 people back there the whole time, doesn’t seem like something we’d want to do.

[we do have requirements in place for people who work with our kids.  please contact Erin Smith in the church office for details]

So what will a typical night look like?

We will open the doors @ 6 (actually, they’ll be open before that, but, you know what we mean)…and have the cafe available for anyone who would like to eat dinner here.  [One item that we are trying to address by doing this is helping people get to know each other better…so this would be a great chance to meet some new people…or just relax & hang out!]

We will provide paper plates, napkins, cups, & plastic utensils…you will need to bring your own food & drinks…unless you want water or coffee.  And we won’t have maid service so we will be asking everyone who comes to clean up after themselves & their kids.

At 7 we’ll officially start the night…first with some worship, followed my me, or one of the other leaders in our church talking about some of the core values, beliefs & practices of our church.

After that we’ll break up into small groups…where there will be an opportunity to discuss what was talked about & to pray for each other.

At around 8:10, we’ll come back together as a large group for 15-20 minutes and have some open ended Q & A with James & me as well as other leaders from time to time.

And we’ll wrap things up @ 8:30

I’m really excited about this…so I really hope you’ll join us.  Whether the Vineyard is currently your church family, or you’re thinking about it…this will be a great event to be at!