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| - Church . How does one rate that?. It's like talking about your family. For me, church is the extended community of Jesus. We come together for encouragement, prayer, worship, ministry and teaching . In that light, Vineyard Gilbert is a good community. I've been a part of this church family for many years. Raised my children in this community. Like anything with people, there are good things you love. People are real, and if you take the time to get to know them, you'll find Christ's life being expressed in their lives. There are things that aren't perfect, as I'd contend there can be nothing perfect when people are involved.
But at the core of this church is a Spirit filled community who strives to follow Christ in missions, worship and caring. The teaching on Sunday mornings is usually well done and encouraging. The worship is always heartfelt and often engaging. They have small groups throughout the week to allow you to become connected in deeper ways.
For people with small children , they have a well organized and caring children's ministry with staff that actually love and care for kids. They have a wonderful youth ministry with genuinely gifted leaders who care and pastor the youth.
There a number of programs in place for various things you might expect, but the heart of this church is not primarily a programmatic approach. It is ministry, prayer, worship and community. They believe in praying for people to come to relationship with Jesus, and also pray for healing when their is brokenness in physical, emotional and spiritual areas.
While I can highly recommend Vineyard to you, the key will be whether the community feels like home to you. Come. Find out. If it's not for you, you won't be badgered or feel snubbed for going elsewhere.
If you're looking online for a new church home, I pray the Lord guides you and brings you to a place where you can worship Jesus and become part of a community that reaches out to the broken world around us. Peace to you.
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