A NOTE FROM DREW:
During the building phase, a buddy from the EDH Baseball League called me and said, “Dude, our new building looks great! Can’t wait to host baseball registration and meetings there!”
This man does not go to Vintage, in fact, he doesn’t even go to church. Last year we opened our space for the League to use and now it’s “their building.” I LOVE this—this is why we exist! Friends, when we become safe, accessible people, with open doors and open hearts, we build bridges of relationship with our community. These relationships matter and our space is a tool God can use to build relationships that will continue to grow. As an Elder board, we felt led by the Spirit to steward our space by building a sending station that would serve two primary purposes: an open door for the yet-to-believe and a gathering place for us as a family of believers to be equipped and sent to be the living proof of our loving God.
WHAT IS SEND?
SEND is a call to a continued focus on our vision to build joy-filled communities of faith. Our goal is to take the next faithful step in fulfilling God’s vision for our church by continuing to leverage God’s resources for Kingdom movement. SEND will help us release everyday missionaries to serve the city, encourage generosity, nudge steps, and deploy disciple-makers.
Together we’re building a place designed to serve this city for generations to come. It contains meeting spaces to host both church groups and non-church events. We hope to open the lower level throughout the week, fully equipped with Wi-Fi, tables, and freshly brewed fair-trade coffee. We hope to offer ways to support African orphanages and fight against injustices of the world such as abject poverty, child soldiers, and sex trafficking while supporting Kingdom movement through church plants across the world.
Our dream is to have a campus where we don’t just gather on Sunday, rather it becomes a place where our yet-to-believe friends can gather and be served throughout the week. A place for people who have no interest in a Sunday gathering to join us throughout the week and allow people to interact and grow in relationship. We envision a place with wide-open doors for the entire community; a place where we cross paths with the yet-to-believe and invite them to make a difference through fair trade products while we pray and watch God do His thing, through His space, and His people.
Our desire is for SEND to encourage generosity within our entire church body. We’d love to see everyone have a part in this dream by giving of their time, talent, and treasure. The goal is 100% participation from all who call Vintage Grace their home church. 100% participation would indicate that no matter how much of our time, talent, and treasure is given, we are all committed to seeing what God will do with our generosity.
Wherever you are in your generosity journey, we want to walk with you as you take the next step. Maybe you’ve never given of your time, talent, or treasure, we encourage you to step out in one of these ways and experience the joy of generosity. Maybe you’re already giving–what has God given you that he may be calling you to give above and beyond for Kingdom movement? Some of us have never served before, now is the time to join the battleship as we step into the future God has for our church! You are a critical part of the mission, and God will use whatever is given to make an impact.
100% participation in the mission will allow us to continue to make significant steps toward our dream of being a church that gives 50% to outreach. We are currently at 15% (over 200k) and impacting the Kingdom through church plants, Missional Grants, Block Parties, supporting a Pregnancy Center, Growing Hope, CASA, BaseCamp, Uganda, India, the local community, and so much more!
Here are just a few highlights of what God is doing through your generosity:
Our support in Uganda has continued to help 13 church plants.
Last year we purchased a truck that helped them save construction costs.
Our training institute in Uganda continues to equip these rural pastors as they actively multiply disciples and reach out to more villages.
We currently support 3 greenhouse farms and 1 more in development around refugee camps. We hope to expand as this will help provide vulnerable children with healthy vegetables and provide jobs and income for the refugee camp ministry.
We launched our partnership with Proxy Coffee; resourcing child-headed households in Uganda and future ministry needs.
Vintage Grace was planted with a vision of church planting, not just overseas but locally as well. Our first partnership, Hope Church is still going strong in Sacramento!
We were able to coach and partner with two new church plants in the Bay Area! Stay tuned for more information about these partnerships in 2020.
As a church family, we are still actively praying and watching for what God wants for us here in the Sacramento region as well as the specific steps he has for us in Placerville.
BaseCamp provided 100+ full backpacks to support children in foster care here in El Dorado County.
Student ministries led a “Project Serve” trip to invest in GraceCity in Sacramento.
Imagine the impact our generosity will have as we continue to climb toward 50%. By the end of 2020, with the generosity activated by SEND, we hope to be at 20% outreach giving as a church.
If we’re able to meet this goal, we will invest more resources into what God is doing with our church partners in Uganda by supporting them as they build a Medical Clinic and plant a church out of it to meet people’s physical and spiritual needs. We also plan to support two bay area church plants as they work toward kingdom movement in Oakland and San Francisco. Additionally, we will double our investment through missional grants, empowering our everyday missionaries to release God’s resources to reach the yet-to-believe in our communities.
SEND is designed to nudge steps in the stories of people’s lives who we pray will one day receive Jesus as their ultimate joy. Stories of Jesus changing people’s lives have been flowing out of our church community for the last 6 years! We’ve seen God restore marriages, lead people to recover from addiction, call the yet-to-believe to joy in Jesus for the first time, and so much more.
We know God is calling many people on our pray/watch lists to himself. In Matthew 9, Jesus says that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few and in verse 38 Jesus says, “Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” We play our part in the harvest by praying for the yet-to-believe in our lives, watching for opportunities to be living proof, and listening for ways to step out in faith. We invite you to set your alarm for 9:38 AM as a reminder to pray for your pray/watch list.
SEND is a call to a renewed focus on praying, watching, and stepping as God moves. If you have yet to make a pray/watch list, it’s simple! A pray/watch list includes names of individuals you regularly pray for as you watch for opportunities to be the living proof of our loving God to them for the ultimate goal of nudging steps toward Jesus. Your list can be on your phone, on a notecard in your Bible, on your fridge, wherever you will see it frequently enough to be reminded to pray and watch. We encourage you to start praying and watching today.
When God moves through our pray/watch lists, the is a natural need for discipleship. Discipleship doesn’t happen without disciple-makers. That’s why the final component of the SEND initiative is deploying disciple-makers.
We will continue to train everyday missionaries who embrace a lifestyle where everyone has one. Our desire is that every disciple of Jesus at Vintage Grace would actively seek to make disciples. At a minimum, everyONE (disciple-maker) would have ONE (disciple) they’re living life-on-life discipleship with for their joy and for the glory of God. The ultimate end is that their disciples would go on to disciple others.
It doesn’t have to be complicated! Discipleship is as simple as joyfully devoting your life to Jesus and encouraging others to do the same. Here’s how you can start: identify someone from your pray/watch list, invite them into life-on-life relationship, imitate christ together, and send them to innovate this same process in their own God-given mission field. Our hope is that our church would be deployed as disciple-makers as a result of SEND for the glory of God and the joy of those who have yet to know him.
SEND INITIATIVE GOALS
SEND is a vision initiative to steward our God-given space and resources. One of the main goals of SEND is to increase our corporate missional giving from 15% to 20%. The release of these funds will further the Kingdom movement we’re a part of locally and globally. Our most important goal of the SEND initiative is to inspire 100% participation from all our church family in regards to their Time-Talent-Treasure. The total SEND financial goal is to release $2.5 million over the next three years to be used for the glory of God. By releasing $2.5 million, we will be able to pay for half the loan on our new sending station and finish the lower level space. We know working together will make that goal a quick reality!
$2.5M in 3 years above and beyond general giving
Complete the downstairs space to serve the community.
20% outreach giving
100% Participation in the mission (Generosity, Pray/Watch, Disciple-making)
HOW TO GET INVOLVED:
Our greatest desire driving SEND is for every individual at Vintage Grace to live as one who is sent. Here are some simple questions you can ask yourself as you explore what it looks like to be involved with SEND.
Serve the City
Where, in my day-to-day life, can I be more intentional in living on mission?
What has God put on my heart that might lead me to apply for a missional grant to bless someone in my community?
Encourage Generosity
Ask God, “What are you inviting me into?”
In what ways can I increasingly invest my time, talent, and treasure?
Nudge Steps
Is my alarm set for 9:38 as a reminder to pray and watch?
Do I have a pray/watch list? What names are on my list?
How am I stepping out in faith as I pray and watch?
Deploy Disciplemakers
Who is discipling me in the way of Jesus? Who can I ask to disciple me?
Who can I invest my life into for the sake of the Gospel?
Who have I poured into that I can encourage to become a disciple-maker?
We invite you to join the mission of God at Vintage Grace by giving of your time, talent, and treasure. By God’s grace, it’s our joy to journey together as we pursue all that God has for this community and beyond!