To the La Vina de Saint Paul (the “LVSP”) family and extended community as well as other interested people:
Having just celebrated our fourth anniversary, we find our church is entering a new season. We are excited to see where God will lead us next. As a healthy church community, comprised primarily of Latino immigrants, we remain focused on what God’s doing and following Him. Our congregation and discipleship groups are growing, and our outreaches impact 75-120 families each week. LVSP is also rapidly growing in maturity. Our welcoming community reflects love in the ever-expanding Kingdom of God.
While our church is doing great, there is some unhealthy, unjust and grievous things going on in the greater Vineyard area leadership that have affected us deeply and due to that, the LVSP’s leadership team, and board of directors has decided to withdraw from the Vineyard association of churches and consequently change our name. Making this decision was hard, we have sought counsel from other pastors and Christian leaders familiar with our region and area and determined this is the right decision for our community. We want to share our reasons for making this decision, while being as respectful as we can to the parties concerned.
LVSP joined the Vineyard association of churches as a church plant 4 years ago. When a church joins the Vineyard association, they are assigned an area leader. The assigned area leader is to support the local churches of the association. An offense has taken root in the heart of the area leader to which reconciliation has not been able to be achieved. Unfortunately, the offense has grown and led to more grievous actions that have caused the leadership of LVSP to no longer feel it is safe for our congregation to continue as part of that leadership and its practices. A local vineyard church, its pastor and council, as well as the area leader has caused our concern. This group chose to turn in a Vineyard ordained immigrant pastor and his family to the USCIS with the intent of removal. This family was an important member of our church planting leadership team. We feel the hurt and suffering caused by the actions against this family. Copy of the two letters are available by emailing admin@lavinasp.org.
Instead of continuing to operate under this area leadership we have decided to disassociate from these leaders and the Vineyard association and stay focused on the Kingdom of God and His calling for our community.
In God’s timing we look forward to a time of reconciliation. We know that unity is what we are called to in the body of Christ, for they will know we are Christians by our love.
Dreaming of a Church
We will change our name and other references to the “vineyard”. Our core value and beliefs remain the same, as well as our vision and mission. The disassociation from Vineyard will have no affect or impact on our community. We are seeking the Lord to establish a new name for us at this time.
We are very excited about what the Holy Spirit is doing in our community and ministries and want to stay focused on this calling. It is our privilege to serve our community and grow in maturity in His Kingdom.
