I’m back and wiping the cobwebs off my keyboard as I have not touched a computer in a week and a half. Scary, I know…but it was also very refreshing as I attended the Vineyard Northwest Regional Conference in Vancouver, Washington, at the end of June before enjoying a week at the Oregon coast with the family (a much needed vacation and soul rest).

Now that I’m back, I would like to take a few days and post some reflections on the conference and the Vineyard Movement as a whole.

The theme of the 2012 Vineyard Northwest Regional Conference was “Convergence: For Such a Time As This” as everything is changing this month. The Northwest Region has effetely been split into two separate regions as of this month with Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South and North Dakota becoming the “Big Sky Region.” The theme of convergence also points to the changes on the national front as Phil Strout takes over as National Director on September 13th.

As one could expect, all of the main sessions (and some of the workshops) were focused on this theme. Below is a quick summary of the five main sessions:

• Main Session 1 “Celebrate the Past” – Bert Waggoner

Current Vineyard USA National Director and Acting NW Region Overseer Bert Waggoner kicked off the conference with a look back at the landmarks in our history. Pulling from Joshua 4:1-9 where the Lord tells the Israelites to take twelve stones from out of the Jordan River and create a memorial for the people, Bert listed eleven ‘stones’ that God has given to us as a Vineyard Movement and as a region. While the full list is a tad long to list here, I want to mention the two stones that really touched me:

• Stone #6: “Do you remember…how freeing it was to grasp the message of the Kingdom?”

Ah…yes…I can remember this day very, very clearly. It was during a small group in 2003 when the hosts invited Kevin Thienes, a Vineyard Boise lay pastor, to come and share with us all about prayer and healing. At some point during that Q&A, my view on the Bible and Jesus began to change and a new way of living came into view. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in miracles or healings as I came from a Charismatic background in which all kinds of stuff used to happen… no, it was the theological underpinnings to the experiences that finally made sense and jived with the Scripture. The rabbit hole was opened at that point and there was no going back.

• Stone #7: “Do you remember…Tri and Nancy Robinson?”

For years Tri and Nancy were the NW regional overseers and helped guide and direct the region during the explosion of church plants in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. As such, their fingerprints are all over the region and will be remembered with fondness as the Lord guides them into a new adventure (Tri is retiring from being the senior pastor  of the Vineyard Boise this Fall).

However for me, remembering Tri and Nancy is more personal as they were the ones who took a chance on a young twenty something couple them join their church planting team to Sweet, Idaho.  Then they went further and hired one of them to help run the national arm of Vineyard Boise environmental stewardship ministry (“Let’s Tend The Garden”) while allowing the other one to lead the local volunteer side of things in the church proper. It was a gamble, but Tri took the risk and, wow, look at what the Lord did!

• Main Session 2 “Grieving Loss” – Rose Swetman

Rose is the new Northwest Regional Overseer as well as a co-pastor of the Vineyard Community Church in Shoreline, Washington. Her talk was emotionally powerful as she gave us all the freedom to grieve the loss of the past rather than trying to cover up our sorrow with a fake happiness for the future. This doesn’t mean that the future is bad – FAR FROM IT! It is just anytime there is transitions and change, there is grief for the old as it was familiar and comfortable. Instead of hiding this, we are to accept it and allow ourselves to process the grief in a healthy manner.

• Main Session 3 “The Pain of Transitions and Change”  – Tad Blackburn

Tad (associated pastor Vineyard Rockville Centre, NY) picked up on Rose’s talk earlier that day and gave us all the tools to deal with thriving in the midst of change. Tad was perfect for this session as he has Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and has regularly works with pastors and lay-leaders in dealing with transitions and emotional upheaval.

• Main Session 4 “The Future of our Local Churches” – Allen Hodges

Allen is the overseer of the newly created “Big Sky Region” (which Idaho falls into) and was asked to talk about the future of the local church. As you can imagine, this is a topic that could go a thousand different ways….yet the Lord led Allen to the perfect message as he reminded us all that the church is the bride of Christ. And as such, we are to love her and take care of her as she is loved by our Lord and King. We cannot afford to love Jesus and hate the church…just like we wouldn’t hate or beat up our best friend’s fiancé.

• Main Session 5 “The Future of the Vineyard” – Phil Strout

The conference was closed by Phil Strout, the newly elected National Director, who called us all to keep on doing what we are doing. Let us continue to chase the presence of God and walk under the rule and reign of King Jesus. We don’t really need new matching orders as the ones we have are good – let us keep on going!

The really cool thing about this session were the personal stories told by Phil. They really helped me, and I’m sure others as well, get to know him and see his heart for both King Jesus and the Vineyard Movement. The more I get to know Phil and hear him speak, the more I’m convinced that his appointment was a God-thing for “such a time as this.”