pat loughery

We have a section of our 101 class that talks about who we are. We’ve used the language that the Vineyard as a movement is trying to take the best of the charismatic/pentecostal and evangelical traditions, avoid the excesses of each, and blend them together.

But really, our church in particular is trying to take the best of the emerging and post-Protestant and post-Evangelical and Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic and mainline liberal traditions, avoid the excesses of each, and blend them together.

Fundamentally, we’re just trying to be who God has asked us to uniquely be, and do the things that he as asked us uniquely to do, but really – what’s the fun in describing ourselves in that way without all the powerful labels? (And labels themselves as words have deep meaning; it’s just that it’s a hassle to carefully define those labels to everyone’s satisfaction).

But I would have to write a whole paper on what each of those terms mean anyway, and it’s probably not worth it. Every time I do a 101 class, I have a goal to go through our 101 handout, strip it down to 1/4 of the content and simplify it. Then I rewrite it, edit it again and find that it’s 20% larger. I’ve just shoved the main content into the appendices 🙂

So, what kind of church are we? I both know exactly how to answer that question, and I also know that how I answer that question doesn’t really mean much.