Dear friends and
family,
We
are excited to share with you the new adventure the Lord has us on. For several years now God has been stirring a
desire in our hearts for church planting, but up until last summer He hasn’t
given us the “green light.” However, in
the summer of 2012 the Lord began to show us that it was time to start moving
in the direction of planting a church. And
in the meantime He was stirring the hearts of the Buchers, the Hanfords, and
Rachel Hunger to help plant a church too!
It has been an exciting and scary process as we prepare to walk away
from our comfortable lives and jobs in Springfield to start a church from
scratch.
Regardless
of the difficulty, we are convinced that planting new, healthy churches is one
of the most effective ways of reaching people with the gospel in our
nation. Interesting fact- if you added
up all the non-Christians in the United States it would be the 5th
largest country in the world. This fact
and many other developing trends make it obvious that our nation is definitely
a huge mission field that needs to be reached with the gospel through healthy,
local churches.
As we have moved forward in the
process, the vision of our new church and our calling has become more and more
clear. After lots of meetings,
assessments, books, conversations, prayer, conferences, and trips, we are
confident that the Lord is leading us to the southeast to plant multiple
churches that are intensely outward focused, passionate about community and
discipleship, and radically generous. We
are going to start our first church in Rock Hill, South Carolina (close to
Charlotte, North Carolina). We could go
on and on about what we are going to do, how we are going to do it, and
why. See the enclosed document with more
about our vision, our plan, and our team.
You can also check out our blog at http://gansonfive.blogspot.com and
our Vineyard Church of Rock Hill Facebook page.
Our website should be up and running very soon as well. We would also love to meet with you if you
have more questions or want to hear more about our church planting plans.
In order to get our initial church
in Rock Hill established we are looking for 40 “church planting partners.” Church planting partners are people who will
commit to pray for our team and give $50 per month for 3 years to the new
church (of course, we would appreciate any amount; not just $50 pledges). J
After 3 years, the Rock Hill Vineyard should be self-sustaining and on
its way to setting aside a significant amount of money for the next church
plant. We have enclosed our 5 year
budget, so you know exactly how your support is going to be used. We will also send out quarterly updates to
our church planting partners with up-to-date financial reports and highlights
of what the Lord is doing.
We
know that Rock Hill is probably not necessarily an area that is “close to your
heart,” but we hope you can see how your 3 years of support will benefit MANY
people who need a relevant church that is living out the gospel. The 40 church planting partners we are
praying for are absolutely critical in this process. We hope you will consider being one of them!
All
of our financial support will be processed by our sending church, Vineyard
Church of Northridge and will be tax deductable. It is as simple as filling out the enclosed
form, sending it to VCN (4650 Ridgewood Rd. East Springfield, OH 45503) or
email (ben@rockhillvineyard.org), and starting to give. The 3 year support will go from January 2014
through December 2016. But feel free to
throw in a couple extra months if you would like to so we have something in the
budget to start with. J It would help us immensely to have the
enclosed support forms returned by the end of September, so we know before we
go that we have reached our goal of 40 partners. Also, if you have any contacts in Rock Hill,
or the surrounding area, we would love to have those connections as well.
Thank
you so much for your prayers and support!
This vision could not be accomplished without faithful supporters like
you.
Sincerely,
Vineyard Church of
Rock Hill Planting Team
Ben, Janelle,
Micah, Caleb, and Abby Ganson
Seth, Amanda, and
Maddie Hanford
Karl, Lindsey,
Maddox, and Zuri Bucher
Rachel Hunger
CHURCH PLANTING PARTNERS SUPPORT FORM
__ I would
like to be one of your church planting partners for the next 3 years by
supporting you at $50 per month and praying for you and your team.
OR
__ I would
like to partner with you by committing to $_______ per _________ (month,
quarter, year) for ___ years.
*Please make checks
payable to Vineyard Church of Northridge (VCN) with “Church Planting” or “Rock
Hill Vineyard” in the memo.
__ I prefer
you send me quarterly reports through ________________ (mail or email).
I will
start sending support __________________________ (month) of __________________
(year)
I will stop
sending support ___________________________ (month) of _________________ (year)
Name:
____________________________________ Phone
number: _______________
Address:
__________________________________ Email: _________________________
_________________________________
Please mail
this form to:
Vineyard
Church of Northridge
4650
Ridgewood Rd. East
Springfield,
OH 45503
OR
Email to:
