EXCITING CHURCH PLANTING NEWS IN CEDAR RAPIDS!

We are in the early stages of planning: HOPE VINEYARD of CEDAR RAPIDS! Led by our Associate Pastor Dave Doyle and his wife, Colleen, we are now assembling a team of "risk-takers" to begin praying and working together to plant HOPE VINEYARD as our new sister Vineyard church in Cedar Rapids in 2010! Watch this page for more details. WEEKLY HOPE VINEYARD planning meetings are beginning in September, 2009 at Building 408. 

Over the last year, we have been privileged as a church body to assist with the massive flood recovery efforts here in Cedar Rapids and Linn County. Beginning with MERCY RESPONSE and CAMP VINEYARD on June 20th, 2008 (one week after the June 13th flood) to the present (Summer 2009) with the last two flood recovery teams coming in from Colorado and Pennsylvania, we have hosted several hundred volunteers from over 15 states, bringing countless volunteer hours to the massive flood recovery efforts of Cedar Rapids. We are so proud of so many of you here in our church community who have given of your countless hours of time, energy, and resources to make this massive effort a success. We celebrate all God has done in and through our hands over the last 13 months!

While the work of flood recovery will continue on in Linn County for many years, we feel it is time for us as a church community to close our chapter on flood recovery efforts, and turn our attention to yet another great cause of Christ. As many of you know, during the last year, Galen Kyes generously donated his duplex at 408 B Ave NW to our church for the specific purpose of placing a ministry of hope in the middle of one of the flood-ravaged neighborhoods. Over the last 10 months, Building 408 (as it is now affectionately called) has been gutted and mucked, restored and rebuilt, and now stands ready to serve our efforts to reach a neighborhood for Christ.

As we look toward the fall of 2009, we are excited to see that God has been weaving together a number of His people from our church to come together to begin an intentional missions outreach to the center of our city. As we have been praying about the specific strategy, we now see that Building 408 can serve us well as the launch site for both a concentrated neighborhood outreach and the establishment of an inner city mission church.

HOPE VINEYARD

Under the leadership of Pastor Dave Doyle, we will begin in September, an intentional effort to reach into the inner city, using Building 408 as our home base for mission work to our city center. As this neighborhood outreach mission develops, Dave will also be gathering people toward the beginnings of our first sister-Vineyard church plant here in Cedar Rapids! Hope Vineyard is the name of the new church and bringing the Hope of Christ to people in the center of our city is the goal.

This move toward church planting will mean that we will no longer be using Building 408 for flood recovery efforts, but for intentional inner-city mission work and building relationship with people in the neighborhoods of the inner city of Cedar Rapids.

We look with excitement on how God will develop this mission of outreach to our community in the months ahead. Join us as we take this exciting journey toward making Building 408 an integral part of the Vineyard church family here in Cedar Rapids and beyond.