A "Church" Story

   The following is a post made on our church FB page from someone who moved to another state last year. 

   "It's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day 'stuff' that life throws at you. It's easy to become discontent, or at least feel like you are discontent, with your current situation. I'm gonna be real with y'all for a second; I hated Little Rock towards the end of my stay. It was boring, I wasn't making it financially, and I hated my job. All great reasons to leave...or so I thought.

   If we met pre-VintageNxt, you can attest to the power of Christ to change someone's heart. I was a mess when God led me to Vintage. I was wandering thru life, making my OWN decisions, and living for ALL the wrong reasons. I was a user, both of drugs and of people. Only thru the grace of God was my life changed, and I feel compelled to tell you, I only met God because of the people of VintageNxt.

   The Kinley's are my heroes. They are ALL of our heroes. Never in my life have I met such an honest, loving, amazing, and Christ-centered family. They took me in as the mess I was, and never once pressured me to do anything but accept the love of Jesus, and open my heart to what he wanted me to do.

   Our family at Vintage is equally amazing. There is SO MUCH LOVE in that little church it spills over from Sunday to Monday and all the way back to Sunday. The people in that family WANT you. They want to live life with you; they want to love you. They want to help you and welcome help from you. You honestly care, and you truly love.

   Here's where I'm headed with this; don't be so blinded by life and circumstance that you ever discount what we have thru Vintage and our friends the Kinley's. God is a HUGE fan of what's happening at Vintage and it's clear by how passionately we feel about what we have there.

   There isn't a day that goes by I don't miss you all terribly. I don't tell you this nearly as much as I should, but I hate not having you all at my fingertips to love on, live with, and worship with! God brought me to you guys for a reason, and I miss y'all.

   Things here aren't the same without you. I love you, and you are all on my heart every waking minute of every day. There is only one VintageNxt, and we should all remember that without each other, we are just another Christian wandering through life without doing what Jesus passionately called us to do; LOVE THE HECK OUT OF EACH OTHER!! I love you guys!!! Have a blessed 2012 and I can't wait to see you!!"

   Notice he never mentioned "great church services", fantastic sermons, programs or a list of activities to choose from. Never once did he refer to a building or a committee. Not one reference to the style of music. It's not that those things aren't useful, it's just that that they aren't the "point". When someone grows to a place in life where they crave the spirituality and depth of relationship in your church . . . well, that's a good thing. 

   But here's what you need to know. You cannot "program" that kind of love and longing into people through slick presentations or on-stage personas. Ambient lighting and throwing money at ministries can never produce organic growth or manufacture disciples. It's the Word and Divine Love. 

   Only God can make a tree.

   The Vintagenxt experience isn't glamorous or noteworthy by most standards. It won't be featured in any national magazines as the next hip trend in "doing church". That would surely betray our very DNA. It's just something extremely wonderful that cannot be explained through great pastoral leadership, creative innovation or a big budget. It's just a God-thing, and I hope it always will be. That way He gets ALL the credit. It is both humbling and challenging. It's what I've always dreamed church to be.

   The test of any relationship is how much a person misses it when it's not there. And in this case, absence really does make the heart grow fonder.