Early this year we felt that the Lord gave us a word from scripture:
Isaiah 40:3-5, “Prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.”

We took that to be an encouragement to remove obstacles from the way ahead, to allow God to come and bring refreshment, repentance and reformation to us and to our city. To commit ourselves to preparing a way that would allow God to show His glory.

At the same time I have been reminded about the passage from Jeremiah 29:5ff, “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce   … also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you.”

Both of these pronouncements were written some 2500 years ago but we think the Lord has been using them to prepare for us a new direction in the life of the Vineyard here.

We are entering a new season in this community – some highlights have been:
1.       We have changed our name to the Leeds Vineyard;
2.       Ben & Kate are now both on staff as associate pastors;
3.       We have sent out two church plants.

Some changes as a result are:
1.       We are in the process of re-structuring the way the leaders work together and we are launching a Discovering Vineyard course;
2.       And we are going to re-orientate our geography from Sheepscar (the Vineyard Centre) and Holt Park (Ralph’s) to Headingley.

We have a 5 year plan called, Making Headingley our Home and our Hub which goes something like this:

Phase 1 (2012-2013) – Here
 

a. Gather
b. Research, pray and plan
c. Develop the Discovery Vineyard and leadership development tracks
d. Simplify, slim down and focus
e. Raise funds, build resources

Phase 2 (2013-2015) - Home

a. Gather
b. Move weekly worship to Headingley
c. Sell the Vineyard Centre in Sheepscar and find a VC/base in Headingley
d. Encourage activity around Headingley (housegroups, small groups, Reach Out, young people – whilst maintaining healthy activity across Leeds)
e. Ministry to the next generation emerges

Phase 3 (2014-2017) – Hub

a. Gather
b. Further develop pastoral care and social justice
c. Further develop citywide impact
d. Further develop the Vine and Reach Out
e. Release congregations & church plants
 

Why Headingley?

For the 1^st 10 years or so of the life of this Vineyard we have wandered around North Leeds like a displaced people looking for a venue – we have used the David Lloyd Club, the Grammar School, the Mansion House, hotels in Bramhope and Wetherby, various pubs, Carr Manor High School and now Ralph’s. Along the way we purchased the Vineyard Centre – almost deliberately because it isn’t really anywhere.

This was a deliberate policy. We didn’t want to stake a claim to a geographical area, I have always been very keen on housegroups being the front line of community involvement rather than the address we happen to use on a Sunday.

But I think that nomadic existence is meant to come to an end. I think the Lord has given us permission to start to put roots down.

To explain this I need to tell you a little story.
Although until I was 10 I lived in Bangladesh, my formative growing-up years were in Headingley. I cycled up and down Otley Road every day on my way to and from school, I delivered the morning paper to houses and watched cricket at the Headingley cricket ground. I used to stand on the corner of Shaw Lane to watch Alison’s school bus go by in a vain attempt to catch a glimpse of the girl of my dreams! Whilst a student I worked summer jobs at the Original Oak.

Once we married we moved back to Leeds and lived in Headingley and Meanwood. I was involved in local politics in Headingley, played rugby at Headingley and lived much of our social life there.

So, many years ago, when I heard the founder of the Vineyard movement talk about church planting and saying that church planters often go back to their roots I thought that if we were ever to plant a church, Headingley would be where we did it.

However, when we eventually did come back to Leeds to plant a church, there was a Vineyard already established in Headingley so we had to go elsewhere. It felt as though Headingley had a Closed sign over it – as far as I was concerned. This was not something that made me resentful or cross, I just assumed that going back to your roots wasn’t what we were meant to do.




The other Vineyard eventually closed (about 7 years ago) but nothing changed as far as my thinking was concerned. That was until recently.

Over the last year or so I felt as though God was getting me ready for some big Change & Decision. Several people had prophetic words and scriptures for me which were preparing me. Then this year a number of things happened. I believe God was orchestrating things to get me thinking about Headingley until I realised that the Closed sign had turned and now said Open.





A couple of things were that Colin Munday started talking to me about a particular church building in Headingley. Then John & Debby Wright, our overseers who pastor the Trent Vineyard, visited and made several observations, which were not wholly complementary and  which, unbeknown to them, added to our focus shifting toward Headingley.

Things began to add up and it eventually got to a point when Alison and I said to each other, “we have got to go to Headingley!” When we made that decision a weight fell from my shoulders and all of a sudden my vision for the future began to grow.

Making Headingley our home and our hub

What we are not doing!
1.       Some of you are thinking, they just want students. Yes we do want to welcome students but that is not why we are doing this. We have no intention of this becoming a student church.
2.       We are not dropping everything to focus on Headingley – I still believe that the front line of our community is the housegroup. So if you are doing kingdom work in your local neighbourhood, please don’t stop (Belvederes).
3.       We are not buying a building – necessarily. We have no building in mind although we are looking for office premises and, more importantly, a Sunday venue. We may buy somewhere but it is more likely we will rent and keep a certain flexibility. This is not about a building but about a community.

Next week I will expand on what I mean about making Headingley our Home and the following week I will be talking about Leeds and how we want to become a Hub for kingdom activity all over the City.

The scriptures I read at the beginning:
“Prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.”
And “Build houses & settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce   … also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you.”

We have a kingdom mandate to prepare a road into the city for the King of kings. This is not about me and my grand plans or about us having a nice happy huddle together. We are a family with a purpose and that purpose is to be warriors in the Mission of God, to take part in establishing His kingdom, His rule and reign.

The strategy is to remove obstacles, to settle down, to become part of the community, to pray for the people around us and to make a difference for the kingdom. To see the lost saved and the lonely placed in a family.

Headingley is just one suburb of Leeds and means less to most of you than it does to me but like anywhere else in Leeds you can stand in the hustle and bustle and watch the lost, the lonely and the least wander past. You can see people who are pursuing life dreams based on nothing. You just know that behind those masks are suffering souls with pain and shame, looking for an answer, looking for healing, looking for grace. People who have yet to meet Jesus.

We have to base ourselves somewhere and the Lord is putting us in Headingley, from where we will work to carry out His kingdom mandate, to win Headingley for Jesus and to win Leeds for Jesus.