Greater Cincinnati Church Tour


When Jim retired from his many years at Shiloh United Methodist church, we decided to embark on a tour of various other churches in and around Cincinnati - not to shop for a new place, but to get a sampling of what other Christ-centered faith communities were up to musically, theologically and spiritually. These blog entries summarize our experiences and thoughts at each place. Let us know if there is somewhere we should check out!

Week 1 - Greendale Vineyard, Greendale, Indiana.



Located on Rt. 50 in what I would call Lawrenceberg, Greendale Vineyard could be easily missed. It's a small building next to a parking lot for Hollywood casino. We knew this was a friendly church when a young man waved to us as we pulled in to park. Because of its humble size, I had a feeling that as newcomers we might stand out like paisleys on plaid. 


We did.


We were enthusiastically greeted by:
-The door person who gave out bulletins
-The official greeter (who chased me down as I tried to slip past unnoticed)
-The Coffee People
-The lead pastor (who spotted us sneaking in to a row near the back before the service started)
-The sound guy
-Our neighbors to the right
-The folks who came in and sat in the row in front of us.


One criticism this church will never get is that they are unfriendly. You are not allowed to be a stranger here. That's probably a good thing...I'm just a shy little paisley who likes to be small in new surroundings.

This was a young girl who spent most of worship time dancing in circles. Very cool.

Order of Worship


You are Mighty, You are Holy


Announcements

So Amazing
Sweetly Broken
You will not be moved
Revelation Song


Introduction video - Nice way of introducing who they are and what they stand for, I liked "If you're looking for the perfect church we're not it...we're learning and growing from our mistakes."


Message 

They were doing the Strong Series that we started up with at VCC, so that was cool to be able to catch another week of that. The associate pastor gave the talk about training your faith so that you are able to conquer challenges, not just 'get through' them. I liked his comment "you can be physically fit but spiritually anorexic". It did strike me as amusing that he made the point that the Christian walk isn't about bullet-point sermons then went on to give us '7 ways to train your faith'... :)

Music Notes, etc (by Jim)

In the Vineyards I’ve been to up to now, the bands have been large – this being a
much smaller venue, (50 in worship, maybe) the music was simple; one electric
guitar, one djembe (African drum – this one wasn’t the hand-made wood I’d seen
before, it looked to be synthetic with a built-in pickup) and a female vocalist.
The songs were familiar (except the first one, but the congregation knew it) and
participation was good. Having been in the church music biz all these years, I don’t
expect perfection (a little pitchy, dawg) but they were very spiritually involved and led
the congregation well.

Greendale's comfy, cozy area outside the 'sanctuary'...Coffee Bar is just behind here.



Comments

Unknown said…
Sounds like a home away from home. If your tour is sufficiently comprehensive, I'll see you soon.

You loving brother,

Phil
6:50 PM
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