David Ruis and Melt van der Spuy will be with us for a night of worship and stories of the Vineyard.
Friday, May 12 at 7pm. Come join us!
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Vineyard 101: Our history, values and distinctives
One of Wimber’s most famous sayings was “everyone gets to play.” John had a firm belief that ‘everybody gets to play’ by which he was keen to deflect attention away from the person with the microphone, and taught that everyone gets to ‘do the stuff’ not just the person on the stage. He was strongly suspicious of the professionalization of ministry, and wanted ordinary people to feel equipped to participate in God’s kingdom. (Vineyard USA)
Kenn Gulliksen was one of many thousands of young people who came to faith in Jesus Christ in California during what Time magazine called “The Jesus Revolution”, or “Jesus People Revival”, in the late 1960’s. In 1974, after working as an assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California and planting a church called Jesus Chapel in El Paso, Texas, Kenn and his wife Joannie moved to Los Angeles to begin a ministry that had been on their hearts for several years. Starting as a small Bible study, the fellowship quickly grew into a church. God prophetically gave the name “Vineyard” to those who initially gathered together. In the next few years literally thousands received Jesus Christ through the ministries of the church. Several couples went out and began other Vineyards in California: quickly growing churches with priorities of worship, relationship, healing, training and giving.
John Wimber became a part of the fledgling group of new churches, and by 1981 it soon became obvious that God had called John to pastor the pastors, and to train and encourage men and women to pursue what God had given them. As a result, the people called the Vineyard have reached out to bless and encourage churches all over the world, as well as planting churches. (VSA: https://www.vineyardsa.org.za/about)
In May and June we will shift our focus to a sermon series entitled: Vineyard 101. We will take time to reflect on our history as a movement. Each week, we will be looking at a specific Vineyard distinctive and discover how these impact our church, community and sphere of influence in our daily lives.
We will be focusing on these values and distinctives for the next eight weeks:
May 7: Welcome to the Vineyard
May 14: What is the Kingdom?
May 21: What is worship?
May 28: Come Holy Spirit (Pentecost)
June 4: Winnipeg Centre Vineyard History and Distinctives
June 11: Remember the Poor
June 18: Justice (Reconciliation)
June 25: Authentic Community
For more information on these and other values and distinctives please visit Vineyard USA.
Youth Schedule: April 14-May 12
WCV invites youth from grades 6-12 to join us for fun and games and the Word (and snacks…there are always snacks):
FRIDAY – April 14 – Nerf & Nacho Night – bring your gear and your guns for an awesome night of fun!
FRIDAY – April 21 – We’re going to start a series on Jonah, bring your Bible and a friend. (the guy smells fishy to me)
FRIDAY – April 28 – Jonah needs to know that God is the boss! (he had a whale of a time getting there)
May 5-7 – Our Quiz Team is in Eston SK for FINALS. Please cheer them on and pray for safe travels and a great meet!
FRIDAY – May 5 – Jonah finally gets it together and says yes to God! (that time where you finally do what you’re asked)
SUNDAY – May 7 – Sunday morning hang out with Brett and Jeff (living out our faith looks like…)
FRIDAY – May 12 – Marshmallow Mania – what’s sweet, white and squishy and extra-ordinarily versatile in the fun department?
Wanna join our quiz team next year (grades 7-12)? We’re going to be studying Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians!
What is quizzing? A way for youth to study God’s word through a competitive, social, prairie-wide community!
Email: lani@wcvchurch.ca if you want to know more!http://www.reverendfun.com/toon/20061020/
Simply Good News: Holy Week Gatherings
For the month of April we will be spending time reflecting on the Good News of Jesus!
We will kick off our new series called “Simply Good News” beginning with the Holy Week (Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday), and will carry on our series reflecting on how we are invited to hear, respond, and share that good news in our world.
We invite you to join with us for the following Holy Week services:
April 2 – Palm Sunday -10am
April 7 – Good Friday – 10am
April 9 – Resurrection Sunday – 10 am
Our Simply Good News sermon series will continue for the month of April:
April 16 – 10am
April 23 – 10am
April 30 – 10am
We hope you can join us!
If you want to dig deeper on your own, check out this book written by N.T. Wright: Simply Good News
5 Ways You Can Serve
Our District Quiz Meet is right around the corner – February 10-12. There are at least 5 ways that you can serve our hard-working quiz team!
- Host some quizzers, officials or coaches in your homes. Thank you to those of you who have indicated that you will do this! Make sure you fill out THIS APPLICATION to let us know all the pertinent information.
- Baking!!! Some of you are pretty great at this. The District needs between 80-100 DOZEN items to help feed all those Bible-loving youth during the weekend!! We would be especially grateful for some gluten-free and/or dairy-free items for those with sensitivities. Let Lani know how many items you can send with us! (lani@wcvchurch.ca)
- Transportation. We’re going to be hosting about 20 youth in our building with Millar’s help, however, we need a way to get them back and forth to the quiz meet. If you can be a driver, that would be excellent!
- Cheer us on!! The competition is open to the public, you’re welcome to come and watch and cheer on our team!! The meet is being held at Cornerstone Alliance Church.
- Pray for us. We REALLY need this, it can feel like a lot of pressure to compete with everybody looking. Please pray for calm nerves, recall of the things they’ve already learned, and capacity to learn what they need to in the weeks before competition.
Opportunity to Practice Hospitality
Hey WCV Family,
We started a Bible quizzing club this year! They’ve been doing an amazing job of learning and memorizing in the book of ACTS. One of the things they get to do is compete in quiz meets throughout the year to see what they’ve learned, and they have some fun doing it. We are part of the Canadian MidWest Bible Quizzing District (CMD).
You can view more photos of the quiz meets by clicking HERE. 
There are a whole lot of other quizzing clubs that are part of CMD. On the weekend of February 10-12 about 200 youth quizzers, coaches and officials will be coming to Winnipeg for the first District quiz meet. Cornerstone Alliance Church is hosting the meet but we need to find places for all of those people to sleep.
Quizzing churches (that would be us) have been asked to help find hosts who would be willing to use some floor space and/or beds/couches for these lovely folks to lay their heads while they’re here.
There is an application process. Canadian Midwest Quizzing District (the organization that oversees the quizzing community) has a SafePlace Policy that requires vetting of all host families.
You can access the application form at the link below, it has all the information regarding the particulars of hosting quizzers!
February 2022 Billet Application (002)
We’ll also have paper copies available at the church office. Thanks in advance for supporting the quizzing community.
If you have any questions you can chat with Lani! (lani@wcvchurch.ca)
Getting to Know our New Leaders
As we mentioned in our last post, we have invited two new pastors and two new prospective elder couples to join us in leading WCV for this upcoming season! To help us get to know one another, we invited each of them to share a bit about themselves.
Let’s continue to pray for these new leaders, as well as the existing Leadership team of Winnipeg Centre Vineyard.
Mauritz & Estelle van den Heever
Mauritz will join our community as lead pastor, as soon as immigration gives them the green light to come to Winnipeg!
Mauritz has been involved with the Vineyard in South Africa since 1996.
Throughout the years, he has served as a youth pastor, administrator, lead pastor and itinerant preacher within the Vineyard South Africa movement .
Estelle is a teacher, who served with Mercy Ships in West Africa, shortly before meeting Mauritz and serving alongside him. They share a passion for missions, both having been part of mission work within Africa and abroad.
Throughout the years they have found themselves involved with ministry to the poor and vulnerable.
As a family they value hospitality, friendship and lots of laughter. With their son, Benjamin, they look forward to being part of the Winnipeg Centre Vineyard church family.
Krista & Cliff Heide
Krista and Cliff have been part of the Winnipeg Centre Vineyard since 2003, and have raised their three kids in this community.
Over the past many years Krista has served in various ministry roles inside and outside of WCV, including worship leading, creative arts, preaching, eldering, house group and mission work. She carries a deep love for involving creativity and trauma informed care into pastoral care and spiritual formation.
Krista is a spiritual director and is completing her last course of her Masters of Ministry Program.
Krista is currently serving as our Interim Pastor, and will step into a more focused pastoral role once Mauritz arrives.
Barb & Dave Johns
Dave and Barb are new prospective elders and have enjoyed being with the Vineyard tribe since 1999. They’ve loved the heart and cry to call the kingdom to come right in our midst both through worship and engaging each other and those in our neighbourhood.
Dave was drawn to the Vineyard initially through the music and finds a place some Sundays playing the harmonica. But it was also a place that had a refreshing view of Jesus that kept him coming back. He has a deep heart to see the first Nations served in a culturally relevant way and has been a part of the community outreach.
Barb’s heart rests solidly in the desire to see people engage more deeply with God. She has served broadly through the prayer ministry and prophetic avenues. She is a spiritual director and is currently apprenticing to guide others in the Ignatian exercises.
Deanna & Deyan Momtchilov
Deyan and Deanna have been part of the Winnipeg Centre Vineyard for over 20 years and continue to consider it home. They first met through one of the church’s house groups and got to know each other while serving the community together.
Over the years, they have completed the church’s internship program, helped out in kids’ ministry and led a house group. Deyan has enjoyed contributing to the creative community and Deanna has loved being involved for many years in Breathe, our mom’s group.
On top of being prospective elders, Deyan is currently serving on the BOD and Deanna is looking forward to continuing to find ways to lend her support to the women and families in our community.
Deyan and Deanna have four children, Simeon, Esther, Kaloyana and Gavrail, and live in the Scotia Heights neighbourhood of the city.
Leadership Developments
As you may know we’ve had a few things on the go for the past several months. Specifically, we’ve been praying and working towards a new leadership situation at WCV. As was announced in our Sunday Gathering a few weeks back and was communicated by email, here is the exciting news:
New Pastors:
We have made offers to both Krista Heide and Mauritz van den Heever and both have accepted!
Mauritz will be WCV’s new Lead Pastor as soon as he, Estelle and Benjamin can get here. The van den Heevers will be joining us from South Africa so it may take some time for them to get to Winnipeg. Because of this Krista will be serving as Interim Pastor (part-time position) to help bridge the gap between Andy stepping away October 2 and whenever Mauritz and Estelle are able to be in Winnipeg.
After the interim period Krista will be working in a part-time pastoral position which will focus on teaching, creative and spiritual formation.
New (Prospective) Elders:
While we’re excited about the pastoral developments we also have some exciting news to share about our Elder team.
Dave and Barb Johns and Deyan and Deanna Momtchilov have agreed to let their names stand as Prospective Elders! This means that they will be functioning as elders for the next season to see if it’s a good fit. The Prospective period lasts until the AGM in 2023 (likely in April) at which time the community is given an opportunity to ratify them. You can read more about our Elder process here.
We’re grateful for God’s continued provision and faithfulness to us as a community. Seek first the Kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added. This certainly has been our experience as we have endeavoured to seek Jesus above all else. Let’s keep doing that!
Fall Sermon Series: Life In The Kingdom Part III – Kingdom Devotion
This Fall we’ll continue our exploration of the Sermon on the Mount – the foundational bedrock of Jesus’ teaching. We will be picking up in chapter 6, Part 3 of our outline which we’ve called “Kingdom Devotion”.
Jesus shifts gears in this portion of the Sermon. He begins to focus more on application – putting into practice what he’s just taught in previous sections. In this section he covers three key areas in the lives of his followers: giving, prayer and fasting. He expects his followers to be tending to their relationships with others (giving), their relationship with God (prayer), and the state of their inner lives (fasting). Jesus assumes his followers are active in these three areas. He says, “when you give” (6:1), “when you prayer” (6:5) and “when you fast” (6:16). He cautions his followers against publicity and doing these things to be seen. He cautions us to not babble on and on searching for the right prayer formula or combination of words that will produce the desired results. Jesus says to his disciples, “pray like this”, and then proceeds to teach them the prayer that has come be known as “The Lord’s Prayer” or the “Our Father”. As we will see, this is a prayer we must learn to live. It is a prayer that has power to form us.
Administration Transition Situation – Update 16 June (Job Posting Re-opened)
Update:
We have been very blessed to have Katrin temporarily helping us out in the office for the last 3 1/2 months. Her diverse skillset was instrumental in technical projects such as implementing the building access systems, check-in systems, and building the church database.
In two weeks’ time she will be moving on to another exciting job. Thank you Katrin for tackling those intensive tasks in such a wonderfully diligent manner!
We are re-opening the application for the Administrator Position. Applications will be open until June 30.
Andrew Chan will be working down to a 0.25 part-time position to continue in the bookkeeping role and provide oversight in administrative matters.
We’ve been blessed (lucky) to have Andrew Chan working as our Interim director of Administration and Bookkeeping since August 2020. It is hard to describe how helpful it has been to have his expertise focussed on this part of the church – particularly during a pandemic. His attention to the detail while maintaining a firm grasp on the big picture has been invaluable. Thanks Andrew! As his title suggests, this was always meant to be an interim arrangement. We’ve approached this interim period with the goal of upgrading or implementing various systems and structures that would help the next person or people flourish in these roles which, in turn, would enable us to better accomplish our mission of partnering with God in the redemptive mission we are called to. Let’s hear it for good administration in the Kingdom of God! Yay!
In the next month or so we will be posting a job position for a part-time administrator to begin the process of transitioning to a new administration situation. You can watch for that and be praying about it.
In the meantime Katrin Loewen has offered to help out for the next three months. This will free up some of Andrew’s time to tackle the larger projects on the docket that keep getting deferred (that pesky virus got in the way of some of our plans!). Thanks Katrin!
Katrin Loewen & Andrew Chan
Feature Photo by Damian Zaleski on Unsplash
Recordings from our Evenings with David and Anita Ruis
Two weeks ago David and Anita Ruis, our Founding Pastors and the National Directors of Vineyard Canada, were visiting WCV and they hosted an evening of teaching on Discernment and a Worship, Waiting & Weighing night for us and the Vineyards in Manitoba.
You can find the Recordings of here on YouTube:
We’re Searching & Praying: Lead Pastor (updated)
Update Sept 18, 2022 : We sought and the Lord provided! Please refer to the separate posting for details. The search is now closed, but keep praying for the transition process.
We are in the process of searching and praying for a new Lead Pastor. Check the Job Description below for full details.
We’ve also created a few other supplementary documents regarding our transition process. The Pastoral Transition Map is designed to give some form to our process and let the community know about opportunities for involvement along the way. The Pastoral Transition FAQ provides some answers to some common questions about our process in general and Andy’s stepping away from his role in particular.
Lead Pastor Job Description
- Full description of the role.
- Application details.
- Posted May 27, 2022.
- Will remain open until filled.
Pastoral Transition Map
- Outline of our transition process highlighting various markers along the journey.
- Includes opportunities for community to engagement.
Pastoral Transition FAQ
- Compilation of information shared at our AGM back in April.
- Questions and answers about why Andy is stepping away from his role as well as the general process moving forward.
- Note that some of these details will shift as things develop.
- Originally shared with the community via email in the beginning of May.
Photo by Chase Clark on Unsplash
Just Jesus: National Vineyard Celebration
Every four years the Canadian Vineyard family gathers together to celebrate the life we share as followers of Jesus and his way. This July we will be gathering in Calgary!
These times are always significant and encouraging. This is an opportunity to be refreshed by the Holy Spirit, learn together and connect with others from across the Vineyard Canada family.
This year, there are a few unique opportunities including one-on-one Spiritual Direction, Coaching and Prayer Ministry sessions. Make sure you take advantage of this – these are available on a first come, first served basis. There will also be amazing tracks for kids and youth.
Kathy Maskell will be one of the guest speakers. Kathy leads the Vineyard Justice Network and is the lead pastor of East Denver Vineyard. She is an amazing communicator with a deep love of the poor and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Check out the Vineyard Canada website for more details including registration info, schedule, etc.
July 20-23
Calgary, Alberta
Sign up here