Estamos cambiando nuestro nombre!

A la familia y comunidad extendida de La Vina de Saint Paul (la “LVSP”), así como a otras personas interesadas:

Habiendo celebrado nuestro cuarto aniversario, encontramos que nuestra iglesia está entrando en una nueva temporada. Estamos emocionados de ver adónde nos llevará Dios a continuación. Como una comunidad eclesial saludable, compuesta principalmente por inmigrantes latinos, nos mantenemos enfocados en lo que Dios está haciendo y en seguirlo. Nuestra congregación y grupos de discipulado están creciendo, y nuestros alcances impactan de 75-120 familias cada semana. LVSP también está creciendo rápidamente en madurez. Nuestra comunidad acogedora refleja el amor en el Reino de Dios en constante expansión.

Si bien a nuestra iglesia le está yendo muy bien. Sin embargo, están sucediendo algunas cosas poco saludables, injustas y dolorosas en el liderazgo del área de Vineyard que nos han afectado profundamente y, debido a eso, el equipo de liderazgo de LVSP y la junta directiva han decidido retirarse de la asociación de iglesias Vineyard y, en consecuencia, cambiar nuestro nombre. Tomar esta decisión fue difícil, hemos buscado el consejo de otros pastores y líderes cristianos familiarizados con nuestra región y área. Y ahora, queremos compartir con ustedes nuestras razones para tomar esta decisión, siendo lo más respetuoso posible con las partes interesadas.

LVSP se unió a la asociación de iglesias Vineyard como plantación de iglesias hace 4 años. Cuando una iglesia se une a la asociación Vineyard, se le asigna un líder de área. El líder de área asignado es para apoyar a las iglesias locales de la asociación. No obstante, en el corazón del líder de área se ha arraigado una ofensa con la que no se ha podido lograr la reconciliación. Desafortunadamente, la ofensa ha crecido y ha dado lugar a acciones más graves que han causado que el liderazgo de LVSP sienta que ya no es seguro para nuestra congregación continuar como parte de ese liderazgo y sus prácticas. Una iglesia de un viñedo local, su pastor y concejo, así como el líder del área, han causado nuestra preocupación. Este grupo eligió entregar a un pastor inmigrante ordenado por Vineyard y a su familia al USCIS con la intención de expulsarlos. Esta familia era un miembro importante de nuestro equipo de liderazgo de plantación de iglesias. Sentimos el dolor y el sufrimiento causado por las acciones contra esta familia.

Por tal razón, en lugar de continuar operando bajo el liderazgo de esta área, hemos decidido desvincularnos de estos líderes y de la asociación Vineyard y mantenernos enfocados en el Reino de Dios y Su llamado para nuestra comunidad.

Food Shelf Volunteer Team

En el tiempo de Dios, esperamos un tiempo de reconciliación. Sabemos que la unidad es a lo que estamos llamados en el cuerpo de Cristo, porque ellos sabrán que somos cristianos por nuestro amor.

Cambiaremos nuestro nombre y otras referencias a “Viña”. Nuestros valores y creencias fundamentales siguen siendo los mismos, así como nuestra visión y misión. La disociación no tendrá ningún efecto ni impacto en nuestra comunidad.

Estamos muy entusiasmados con lo que el Espíritu Santo está haciendo en nuestra comunidad y ministerios y queremos mantenernos enfocados en este llamado. Es nuestro privilegio servir a nuestra comunidad y crecer en madurez en Su Reino.

We are changing our name! – Estamos cambiando nuestro nombre!

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.

La Vina de Saint Paul celebrates its fourth year anniversary

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]The La Vina de Saint Paul community celebrated it’s fourth birthday party this past September 11th at the First Covenant Church parking lot.

Several people were baptized, several powerful testimonies of God’s goodness, music and excellent dinner made the evening special.

We celebrate with pastors Uli and Reyna, the leadership team and the community of La Vina de Saint Paul.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Wednesday Night Bible Study – Community Room

Come to our Wednesday night Bible Study

La Vina Saint Paul’s Wednesday Night Bible Study is a very popular gathering to learn the Word and fellowship in our Community Room at the church. This will be a fascinating study and discussions as we cover God’s plan to build the church.

Everyone is invited, please come for worship at 6:30 PM, the Bible Study starts at 7 PM. The meeting will be in the Community Room, next to our food shelf store at the First Covenant Church building You will be met by a greeter.

We are practicing social distancing, sanitization and masks are required!

Outdoor Church Service Invitation

Hello Viña, we have very good news!

We want to let you know that we are planning to have our Sunday Service on the 12th of July and August 2nd, 9th, 23rd and 30th outside of the First Covenant Church building. This service will be from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.  On August 16th, we will meet at 2pm outisde. This is part of our plans to restart Sunday Services in person on a slow and secure path.  Starting outside of our church will also make our Services safer and be community together as a family.  We also want to tell you that if you are not comfortable coming, please do not worry, we understand.  We want to follow all personal safety measures regarding the use of mouth covers, social distancing and cleaning.  We do this because of our deep love for each of you and our neighbors.

We also need your help.  We recommend you consider some of these questions before coming to the service.

  • Have I been in contact with anyone who has contracted COVID-19 in the last 14 days?
  • Have I been positive for a COVID-19 test in the last 14 days?
  • Am I a vulnerable or a high-risk person?
  • Do I have a temperature of 100º or more, cough, congestion, sore throat, flu, shortness of breath or other flu symptoms?

If your answer is “yes” to any of these questions, we ask you to please stay home for your own good and the good of others!

We hope not to bother anyone, but we will also take everyone’s temperature before service.  Our leaders will assist with seating and social distancing, as well as provide facial masks for anyway that may have forgotten theirs.

The service will be from 10:00 a.m.  at 11:30 a.m.  (if possible, arrive 15 minutes early). Here is our address at church:

La Viña St Paul, 1280 Arcade Street, Saint Paul MN  55106

Don’t forget to bring your lawn chair and facial masks!

Thank you, we look forward to seeing you at the Service!

Blessings!

Pastors Ulises and Reyna

Article on Vineyard USA

La Vina Saint Paul was established to not only serve the Spiritual needs of our communities in Saint Paul, Minnesota, but also the physical needs of our at-risk neighbors. In fact, we started a food shelf prior to opening our church plant.

In 2017 our location had the highest poverty and lowest income levels in the state, which is when we first started meeting with our launch team. This trend continued into the pandemic and we found ourselves in a more concentrated food desert; continuing to serve the food insecure through different means. A large part of our diverse service population is multi-ethnic, unemployed or under-employed.

What stands out to me, is that many of our hundreds of food shelf participants also consider our food distributions as a form of church service. Eddie (name changed) told me, “This is where I come to receive groceries, talk about some of my issues and I get prayed for!  I appreciate that the people here actually care about me and my family.”  We also heard, “I can’t make Sundays for church because of work, I think the food shelf is my church.”

La Vina Saint Paul has continued serving the public through the pandemic by changing our food distributions from an inside choice method to a drive-up service in our parking lot. Now our parking lot volunteers are also ministry hands and feet of the Holy Spirit. Our volunteer force has become an extension of the communities we serve and includes people of many different spiritual walks and ethnicities. This became a ministry target as our church volunteers live out John 17 showing our love for each other as a powerful statement to the world.

We will continue to expand His Kingdom through compassionate services and building a strong community of faith.

In His name, Pastors Ulises and Reyna

Fruit of the Vine Food Shelf Saint Paul

Our call to be compassionate neighbors necessitates action that prioritizes the safety of each and every person and the mitigation of the spread of this corona virus so we continue to practice a modified food distribution by asking our neighbors to do a drive-up service. We have implemented state of Minnesota and recommended guidelines for the safe distribution of groceries to the public during the pandemic.

If you are visiting the Fruit of the Vine Store indoor, please enter the east entrance to the Community Room and Store area. You will be given a number upon entry, please enter the community room and take a seat at one of the social distancing tables and await your number to be called. After intake, you will be given an order sheet and directed to the food shelf store and shop for your groceries. At checkout you will turn in the order sheet to the weighing station. After checkout, take your cart to your car and return the cart to the entryway.

If you are gathering your groceries by curbside pickup please follow these steps:

Please stay in your car and park in a handicap parking area to practice social distancing.

  • You will receive a “Take Down” form and instructions from the parking lot attendant.
  • PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY USING YOUR DRIVERS LICENSE OR YOUR PASSPORT:
  • If you are NEW please complete the form including your Name, address and names and birthdates of family members in the household section.
  • If you are RETURNING you only need to write your Name as listed on your Driver’s License or Passport. 
  • STAY IN YOUR CAR and the Parking lot attendant will pick up your form to be processed by the Intake/Registration volunteers.
  • When your order is ready your name will be called and the parking lot attendant will direct you to a table for you to load your grocery order.

Thank you for your patience and your cooperation!

Covid-19 Article – March 15th

As believers we are in the world but not of the world. Following Jesus impacts all our lives, including how we respond to pandemics. Here are some thoughts on the “Coronavirus”/COVID-19.

1. Start With Good Information
Our first responsibility is to begin with good and trustworthy information and to stay up to date with the developments as they arise. Panic and misinformation must be combated.

The agencies and websites we are monitoring are The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The World Health Organization (WHO), The MN Department of Health (MDH) and Ramsey County Public Health. We recommend these resources to you as a good source of information.

Yet, as followers of Jesus, we don’t just rely on human wisdom and information. We also look to God. We ask the Holy Spirit what he’s doing in the midst of this pandemic. Stay informed, but use the Holy Spirit to listen as well

We should take a moment to consider our faith…

2. Remember What God Has Shown Us

We know our world is fallen and things are not the way they are supposed to be? 
As the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:22, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”

We know many truths, for example:

3. We know that the coronavirus, along with every other cause of sickness and death, will not be part of the kingdom of God.
We have hope for the future. In other words, our perspective on life and death is different from that of the world. We live our lives on the bedrock truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

4. We know that we are not in control.
We don’t live with the profound illusion of human power and knowledge. The tiniest virus has emptied cities, crashed the stock market, pushed the global economy toward recession and created mass hysteria. But we also know that Almighty God is in control.

5. We know that we’ve been called to be different from those who don’t know God as their Father or Jesus as their Savior. 
Followers of Jesus have a history of acting differently during global pandemics and crises. During other historical pandemics, Christians are the people that stayed and cared for the afflicted setting us apart from the rest of the world. I say this because our citizenship is to the Kingdom of God on an eternal basis. Crises like this pandemic has been causes that rises Christianity in a fallen world.

Today, it’s our turn. How do followers of Jesus respond to our global pandemic?
Because we have Jesus and know things that are unknown to the rest of the world, followers of Jesus are going to respond differently to the “Coronavirus”/COVID-19.

a. Followers of Jesus must not succumb to xenophobia or racism.
We followers of Jesus must resist xenophobia and racism whenever it rears its ugly head. This is a Chinese Virus…

b. Followers of Jesus must not succumb to fear.
The Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us fearful, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” Some of us may need to turn off the news, look away from the internet to spend some time with Jesus and look to the Bible.

c. Followers of Jesus are always called to pray.
As the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 6:18, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

d. Followers of Jesus must be wise about our own health.
As the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

To stop the spread of germs and help prevent the spread of respiratory diseases like COVID-19, we are encouraging everyone in our community to:

  • Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
  • Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
  • Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.
  • Stay home when you are sick, except to get medical care.
  • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
  • Get a Covid-19 vaccination when available

Followers of Jesus are called to minister to the sick and the dying.  As Jesus said in Matthew 25:36, “I was sick and you looked after me…” For the medical and other professionals in our community, we may be called to do that directly. Yet, there are lots of ways to indirectly help the sick and dying. Intercessory prayer is a way to help. Slowing the spread of the virus through social distancing is a sacrifice we can make to help others.

We are a community of believers living life together. When one hurts, we all hurt, when one is in need, we will do all we can to aid each other.

Dreaming Of A Church

To capture our thoughts from the early days of planning the  La Vina church in Saint Paul, the following is a list of dreams captured by Brian Geraty for the future church. First, we believe the Church exists to extend God’s Kingdom and to do the work of the Kingdom.

  • We dream of a diverse multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-generational church to be a home for spiritually homeless people.
  • We envision a place where people can begin and build a deep relationship with Jesus Christ and with fellow believers, where people do life together in genuine community, and where people grow spiritually in an atmosphere where the grace of God is highly celebrated.
  • We dream of a church where real problems are solved and real needs are met as people are drawn closer to God, where people recover from hurts, habits, and hang-ups that prevent them from enjoying meaningful relationships with God and each other.
  • We dream of a church where God’s Word is honored as our highest authority on earth and as the source of real and abundant life.
  • We dream of a church that joins in a conversation with the world and community around us about matters of faith and life, that is always bringing the relevance of God’s perspective to the issues that face us, and that is willing to engage with the honest questions people have about life, death, God, and eternity.
  • We dream of a church where people serve one another according to the way that God has shaped them, where spiritual gifts, passion, talents, and experiences are a part of how we meet the needs of others inside and outside of our church family.
  • We dream of a church that matters to its community, that makes a visible, noticeable, and tangible difference on behalf of Christ in the real problems that exist.
  • We dream of a church that celebrates changed lives, that cultivates an atmosphere of freedom to grow and serve, and that empowers people with the confidence to do so.

Brian Geraty