The depth of the resurrection message deserves more consideration than Easter Sunday. With this in mind, we hope to spend the season approaching Easter Sunday preparing our hearts and minds around the theme of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

The attached PDF, written by our newest staff member Elliot Grudem, will prove to be a valuable resource for you as an individual or in your Community Group.

Click here to download.

We hope you can make it! If you’d like to learn more about either of the campuses, visit either the Raleigh West St Campus, Raleigh East St Campus, or Durham Campus pages, or to learn more about the service in general, visit the Sundays page.

If we are growing in knowledge and living in community, but failing to be on mission, then we are failing to grow in maturity as disciples.

As your pastor, I long to see your hearts so transformed by the gospel and grace, that your life would be completely re-oriented around seeking the lost — constantly. Recently, I shared some numbers in a sermon about our city. There are 1 million lost people in the Triangle interspersed with approximately 800,000 followers of Jesus. This reality raises a simple question: What would happen if every follower of Jesus found one person, just one, to tell about Jesus?

In 2012, I want us to be on mission like never before. Advancing the gospel is worth our lives. Let’s intentionally pursue opportunities to be on mission together as a church body.

Now is the time.

You are the person.

This is the place.

Let’s make 2012 a year marked with gospel advancement in Raleigh, Durham, and beyond. Know. Live. Advance.

Tyler Jones, Lead Pastor, Vintage21 Church

Scripture: Luke 12:13-34
Downloads: mp3

DURHAM CAMPUS UPDATE – 2011

The Vintage21 Durham campus is more healthy than it has ever been. God is generously bringing more and more people on board with us. We’re watching the gospel change lives, marriages, and families. We want to share some of the highlights with you and ask that you continue to pray for God to raise up laborers as we work to bring the gospel into every aspect of our city.


CHURCH HEALTH

• Since 2009, Durham has grown from 50 to 200+ participants.
• Over the last 2 years, we’ve grown from 25 members to 80+ members.
• Since we began, we’ve baptized 20 people.
• We recently installed 21 qualified deacons for service ministry in the local church.
• God is working to confirm and we are working to equip 3 additional elders this year.
• We are working with 4 unique men who are considering and pursuing the call to plant a church or pursue full time Christian ministry.
• We’re growing via community groups – 10 currently with 5 more on track to plant by this fall.
• We recently had a Sunday gathering with 180+ participating (great numbers for this time of year)
• We anticipate to equip & partner with 125+ members this year.
• We anticipate an average attendance of 300 by this fall.

Why Has This Happened?

• God’s grace & favor.
• The generous support of Vintage21 as a whole
• A mutual spirit of unity, flexibility, & partnership in the gospel from our leadership.
• Solid men and women who love Jesus in Durham.

NEEDS…please pray for us in regards to the following:

Evangelism
Pastor Derrick and I are leading the charge for our campus to pursue 100 baptisms by the end of 2013. Members are being challenged to identify, pray for, and invest in those who do not yet know the gospel.

Financial
I believe we will have a very healthy year financially. We need to make sure we are giving generously. However, January giving was half of what we need per month. Additionally, we are about to out grow singular staffing needs. Bringing pastor Derrick on board is a tangible goal for this quarter.

Overcoming the “200 Barrier”
Many churches get stuck at about 200 participants. We’re working to push through this barrier together. Members are being challenged to invest in leadership, relationships, and missional living to help us continue to grow.

Todd Perkins, Durham Campus Pastor
Photography by Holly Dwan Photography

EVIDENCE OF GOD’S GRACE | EAST CAMPUS REPORT

Buzz and Legacy
When the Raleigh East Campus began in late 2010, Sunday mornings buzzed with excitement as we wondered what it would be like to have two campuses in downtown Raleigh just 10 blocks apart. There was a notable energy in the room and in people’s hearts as we considered what the Lord might want to accomplish through Raleigh East, and what its markers and legacy would be.

Evidence of God’s Grace
Reflecting on 2011 while looking toward the future, it’s clear we still need a lot to change in our hearts if we want to become a church that accurately reflects the nature of God to ALL around us. We are young, imperfect, and needy, but by God’s grace and His grace alone, despite our neediness (or maybe because of it) He has allowed Raleigh East to experience some beautiful evidences of His grace:

• 25% growth since early 2011, and around 275 people attending on Sundays.
• Continued growth despite becoming a video campus, which indicates people have a larger vision than their own preferences.
• Increasing number of men and women 50+ are bringing depth of life and biblical perspective to Raleigh East.
• 85 people faithfully, tirelessly, and selflessly serving on Sundays.
• 11 Community Groups and 4 Community Group Coaches call Raleigh East home, with 3 new groups planting soon.
• 1 person is currently in the Elder process with 4 more potential candidates.
• Raleigh East regularly gathers as family to enjoy life, study Scripture, pray, and consider how to love our neighborhoods well.
• 1 couple hopes to plant a church after humbly loving, serving, and being equipped at Raleigh East.
• A young woman desires to start a signing ministry on Sundays so that the deaf in our community can know the gospel.
• Women and men are living out Titus 2, encouraging one another to reflect God’s holiness in their lives, with the older generations teaching the younger ones.

We Need Help
With all the beautiful things happening at Raleigh East, and with the excitement on Sunday mornings, it can be easy to miss our own shortcomings as a campus. We don’t want to be so shortsighted. In John 15, Jesus tells us: “While apart from Him we can do nothing, when we abide in Him, we will bear much fruit.” Here are some key areas we pray the Lord will bear fruit through us, as we learn to abide in Him more and more:

• Corporate Missional Outreach: We hope to make disciples of Christ by increasing our awareness of needs in our community and our love for the people who are experiencing them.
• Pursue + Invite: Raleigh East is like a big family. Occasionally, new people can feel like they’ve walked into a family reunion. Since the Lord PURSUES and INVITES us into His family, we want to PURSUE and INVITE others into our family in the same way.
• Hospitality: We want to take better care of the neighborhood where our Sunday gatherings take place. We need wisdom, conviction, and opportunity to do so.
• Engage Culture: Because we desire deep Biblical community, we can easily become isolated and ingrown as believers. Jesus lived and socialized with people who both loved and hated God. We need to do the same by proactively engaging the culture and people around us.
• Make Disciples: We long to see every believer at Raleigh East actively engaged in making disciples of Jesus Christ.
• Conversions: We want to see more people come to faith in Christ. Only the Lord can change people’s hearts, but He often uses us in the process. We want our lives to reflect the Good News so others may see it and be drawn to God.

Pray
God commands us to pray. It is a privilege to speak with our Heavenly Father, free of condemnation, shame, and guilt. Would you please join us in praying for the following?

• The Lord will mercifully reveal our shortcomings as a campus
• We will seek forgiveness where we have fallen short
• More people will see the beauty of membership in the local church
• More conversions to faith in Jesus
• Financial faithfulness of our people
• We will make disciples of Christ
• Corporate missional outreach opportunities
• Deacon identification, training, and development
• Musicians, particularly worship leaders
• Volunteers for all Sunday service ministries
• We will PURSUE others and INVITE them into the family of God
• We will be IN the world, but not of it.

Grateful
It is one of life’s greatest privileges to watch the Lord change the hearts of men and women and make them more like Himself. By His grace, we are seeing this at Raleigh East, and we thank Him for it.

Taylor Roberts, Raleigh East Campus Pastor

Raleigh West Campus Update

There are pivotal moments in the life of each individual that define our true character. Consider Abraham Lincoln continuing in politics in the face of multiple defeats, Rosa Parks holding her ground in the face of persecution, or Nemo making the dangerous swim through the tank in order to jam the filter (if you haven’t guessed, I have young children). Looking back, 2011 was a pivotal year for the West Campus of Vintage21 Church.

For the first eight years of Vintage21 Church, the campus model only really applied to our brothers and sisters in Durham. The services on West Street didn’t need a campus pastor, because it was tied so closely to the overarching “central operations” of Vintage21 Church. After East Campus began meeting it became apparent that to care for multiple congregations, each Vintage21 location needed to function as an autonomous campus apart from the overarching operation of Vintage21 Church, so West Campus was launched. Practically, this meant that most staff served the overarching Vintage21 Church, with fewer staff working specifically at West Campus. With one Campus Pastor and a few staff serving a 1,000+ people, it became clear that unless leaders stepped up, West would be reduced to a mere gathering on Sunday. West requires over 100 people serving throughout thirteen ministries each Sunday and close to fifty community groups, well beyond the ability of one campus pastor to lead.

This problem is not unique to West Campus, or even to the modern church. We see in Acts 6:1-7 that the needs of the church were too large for the few leaders they had, which prompted the elders to appoint the first round of deacons. These men and women were responsible for carrying out ministry and leading others to serve, and were the backbone of the early church. It is the same today: without the sacrifice of deacons at West, we would be a mere shell of a church. These men and women have stepped up in 2011 unlike any other year, taking leadership over ministries responsible for numerous volunteers, detailed protocols, and over 1,000 congregants.

Two things to consider as we begin 2012:

Thank, encourage and pray for your leaders. Your Community Group leaders have served faithfully each week on top of working, school, parenthood and more. Take time this week to pray for and encourage them! There are numerous leaders at West, but please be sure to thank those who have carried great weight in 2011:

Stevie Whisenant, Sarah Cloud, Annika Johannson, Moriah Evans, Ed Davis, Shelley Davis, Reece Chapman, Joseph Indovina, Josh Bain, Adam Kingsmore, Micah Berman, Dan Thennes, Kayla Edwards, Paul and Clare Sifford, and the many others that you’ve seen leading and serving faithfully each week.

These men and women have carried weight faithfully, but the mission and call of God is great. Will you step up to serve and lead in 2012? We have new people attending West Campus every week, and if our Community Groups are not planting, they will not find a home at West Campus. Consider Sundays, and the amazing opportunities we have to love individuals and families with the love of Jesus Christ! We have a beautiful church where God is bringing seekers, doubters, and followers every week. How will you sacrifice and serve to share Christ’s love with them in 2012?

Matt Stevens, Raleigh West Campus Pastor
Photography by Joshua R. Craig Photography

Scripture: Philippians 1
Downloads: mp3

If you have a story about God’s work in your life and want to share it, please post it on The City by clicking GROWTH and then STORIES. Though not every story can or will be shared with the larger church, your pastors and staff want to celebrate what God is doing in your heart with you, so please don’t hesitate to share your story.

Sarah Nash | Raleigh East Campus

Scripture: Mark 2:13-17
Synopsis: Part 4 of Enter the True Myth, an eight-week series on Systematic Theology, tells of God’s overwhelming love for His people. Only by recognizing that God owes you nothing can you receive the deep grace that God offers.
Downloads: mp3 | study guide | family study guide