This morning I visited Vine Community Church in Carbondale, IL. It was an amazing time worshipping with that group of believers. It’s funny because in light of my last blog about worship gatherings I know sometimes I give the impression I think they’re wrong or evil or of the devil. So not true. I just like to explore, ponder, and question things. If truth were told I LOVE gathering with other believers and worshipping corporately. I even love music styles that resonate with my heart where I’m swept away.
I had never heard of Vine Church before I got to Carbondale on Friday. I was supposed to hit up one of our tribal (SBC) churches but once I heard of Vine, checked them out on the ‘net, I knew I had to go. As I scoured their website I was super impressed … their passion for college campuses, their church planting efforts, and their church planting network they’ve created. I was eager to visit them today and so I came in with high expectations. I wasn’t disappointed.
The music was phenom, the message was grace-based and right on, and I totally dug the overall vibe of their gathering hang-out (still trying to get away from saying things like “church” unless it is about the people). What was most impressive was the sheer number of college students and young adults there. I was blown away. Afterwards as I chatted with Sandor (the pastor) he said that their college student numbers weren’t as high as they were even a year ago and that they were at about 40% right now. 40% of 1,500 adults? That’s 600 college students! If you were to add up every campus ministry at Southern Illinois University I don’t think it’d add up to 600 students.
So what then does this say then to the potential of planting churches around campuses? Would it make better sense to invest in collegiate church planting or campus ministries? Obviously both are vital but what I’ve seen at Vine and countless other churches is a longer and more sustained impact and influence. Even today in his message Sandor talked about what a blessing it was to start a church with mostly college students and how they sacrificially gave of their tithes and lives to get the church off the ground. Usually when we talk about planting churches with college students I often hear how they’re a drain, they don’t give, and aren’t that productive. I’m here to say that is NOT true AT ALL!!!
This is why I’m excited that in our NEXT/GEN world we’re retooling to do more collegiate church planting. We’re not abandoning campus ministries but I think for long term influence and a larger impact a new church geared towards college students is the way to go. Your thoughts?
February 15, 2009 at 8:13 pm |
Sean: Pardon me if I sound a little irritated here, but you hit a nerve. In Fairbanks we got pretty close to a couple very on-fire, radically transformed followers who were college-career age. I have struggled with the view that I have read in various planting books including Stetzer’s “Planting Missional Churches” which bothered me like this excerpt from page 100
“New churches attract all kinds of troubled people who want the care of an idealistic, energetic, people-loving, people-seeking church planter. As a result, the planter can become overwhelmed ministering to these troubled people…. I don’t think you can build a church on people who need counseling. When your church has grown and you have more resources, then those people can come back and be helped by the ministry you’ve built.”
I know of two types of people, those who are troubled, broken, aware of their depravity and some counseling sure wouldn’t hurt them, and those who are big fat phonies. Why even plant a church if you are only going to welcome those who pretend like they have all their stuff together. The any suburb of any American city is already filled with such churches.
Our God is in the business of reversing demographic trends through radical transformation of lives. This coming from a recovering alcoholic/ cocaine addict. Absolutely you should plant on campuses, and I am sure this will be an uphill battle, but when you reach them, they will jump of the cliff for the gospel. Of the two that I know in Fairbanks one of them is helping the churches kids ministry probably 3-5 hours a week and the other is on her way to Indonesia to be a missionary. What a couple of drains!
February 16, 2009 at 1:28 pm |
Sean,
It was great meeting you this weekend! Thanks for your encouragement. God has been so good to us over the years–it’s very true that without students, we wouldn’t be here. Let’s keep in touch.
February 17, 2009 at 9:51 am |
Sean,
I’m glad you came to visit us for the weekend. I’ve been a member of Vine Community Church since I was a sophmore at college. It’s been 4 years since my initial visit, and even though I’ve graduated and moved on, I still have the pleasure of calling the Vine my home church. Great blog, and I hope you come visit us again.
February 17, 2009 at 2:25 pm |
Sandor, I look forward to keeping connected with you.
Iesha, great words! Thanks for the insider-scoop. I’m eager to continue to track with Vine and see what unfolds.