Three Years On...

Hey Church,

This month marks the fifth anniversary of my leadership as Senior Pastor, and as I reflect on all that God has done during this time, one word keeps coming to mind: faithfulness.

I will be the first to tell you that leadership is not easy, and I know that without God’s faithful presence in my life and our church’s life, we wouldn’t be where we are today. For me, the reason we can look back on and celebrate 2018 is that we have a God who never gives up, always provides, and is constantly inviting us into a deeper expression of faith with Him.

Over the past 12 months, we have seen many expressions of God’s faithfulness to us: His freedom in people’s lives; His ongoing faithfulness in our finances; His invitation to deepen our community with Him and one another; His presence with us during our gatherings; and His word that has brought life to us.

Through this, there is much to give thanks for: our record-breaking Vision Sunday, Call To Community culture shift, growing missional expressions, rebranding and launch of Branches of Hope, and our sixth annual Justice Conference Asia.

And then, there are thousands of personal stories of what God has done in each of us. We could easily add our own victories to the ones found in these pages—this is the beauty of the Body of Christ. We are a testimony of God’s goodness and love, and we are grateful for each of you who have found a home here.

So as you read these pages, my prayer is that you wouldn’t see simple programme reports or audits for the year, but a living testimony to our faithful God. Each page is a catalyst to worship, each section an invitation to praise. I invite you to read and pause throughout to pray and marvel at the work God is doing among us. He is faithful, and we have much to be thankful for. As we head into 2019, may we continue to press into community, maturity, and love.

The best is yet to come,

Andrew Gardener

Senior Pastor

Three years on...

Three years ago, we set out as a church with our vision to Grow Big People. Since then, we have covered a lot of ground. We have produced three feature series: Story of God, Story of Culture, and Story of Jesus. We have also hosted Justice Conferences, introduced Pathways of Maturity, and invested in our Community Groups.

This is the question we are asking: Have we grown?

God is continuing to bless us.

Some things have definitely grown.

Financially we have grown out of debt (HK$10mn) into surplus (HK$7.3mn) as we plan for the coming financial year and discern our strategy for the coming 3–5 years. Among the elder board, our gratitude has also grown exponentially for those of you who continue to faithfully support this church through giving.

Numerically God has added daily to our wider church community. Three years ago, an average of 1,500 people gathered each Sunday. Now, we are stretching our facility with a peak Sunday attendance of 2,700 in the third quarter of 2018. As our building has a maximum capacity of 750 people per service, we will be discerning together how to accommodate the future growth of our church.

Some things need to keep growing.

Community As elders, we are acutely aware of the need to provide community for all. God has clearly shared a vision with us of The Three, The Twelve, and The Crowd. While we will continue nourishing our Crowd expression, we will seek to build additional Community Groups and build a culture of spiritual friendships so that everyone has access to authentic and intimate support networks for personal growth.

As we continue forward into the calling and purpose God has for us, I thank you for your ongoing support and passion for our church family. I invite your feedback as Vine Church members, so feel free to contact me at chairman@thevine.org.hk.

Finally, thanks to you too for your service, your support and your passion for growth!

Nigel Raymont

Chairman of Elders