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A Word from Pastor Gary Stokes
My name is Gary Stokes and I am the Senior Pastor at Vineyard City Church. I grew up in Indiana in a church going family. Despite that, as I grew up I was determined not to let anyone (even God!) tell me how to live my life. When I reached high school, I came to realize that I was a self-centered person. I tried to improve my behavior, but my efforts made very little difference. It became clear to me that what I needed was for God to change my heart.

After my junior year, I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior and began to experience His presence in my daily life. I was surprised by how personal and real Jesus was! I attended Indiana University and, after grad school, went on staff with a campus ministry, the Christian Student Fellowship. Two years later I returned to school and did an MBA in International Finance.  By the time I finished, God had blessed me with a wonderful wife and a career as a corporate banker in Chicago!

Susan and I attended a small independent congregation, which soon voted to become the first Vineyard church in the Chicago area. (Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Evanston). Over time, we sensed God calling me back into ministry and after nine years I left banking to go on staff at our church. That was a great experience, but gradually we sensed that I needed to be in a position where I could preach.

To our surprise, our search led us to Palo Alto, CA, in the heart of the Silicon Valley. I was the Executive Pastor there for five years with the Vineyard of the Peninsula. We have really been blessed to serve at these two fine churches and we miss our friends from both dearly!

However, it gradually became clear that the time had come for me to pastor my own church and that led us to Vineyard City Church in Tucson, where we re-started a shrinking urban church along with a core of eighteen adults. Initially, we met in a cavernous arts center. The first few years were challenging, as about a quarter of the church was homeless and people were weary. However, during those first few years, we became quite multi-cultural. Three years ago, we moved our Sunday service to Blenman Elementary School and there have kept our multi-cultural flavor, while growing to about 120 people on Sundays.

God has brought us wonderful people from all walks of life! Our heart’s desire is to be a community where people can come as they are and be loved and accepted and challenged to grow in their relationship with (or exploration of) Jesus. We believe only Jesus can grow such a community in this fragmented world, so we rely on His mercy and grace (love that is freely given, not earned) from start to finish.

Our vision is twofold. We are called to be a wildly diverse church, united only by Jesus. Therefore, we include people of all ages, ethnicities, colors, educational and economic backgrounds and political preferences. We are part of Christ’s body on earth, so we need all our parts, regardless of whether we all look the same, think the same or vote the same!  We are also called to join Jesus daily in His work around us. We believe God sovereignly opens up opportunities for us daily to share His love with others through actions, words, and prayer. We are not actually good at any of this, but we are practicing!

Currently, we are beginning to outgrow the school we meet in and have begun to look for a larger building to rent. We are excited to see God grow us together as a community of people from all sorts of backgrounds and circumstances. And we are excited to join Jesus in what He gives us to do. Over a three month time period, we will have sent our third re-construction team to New Orleans, a house building team to Tijuana, our third ministry team to visit our sister churches in Sri Lanka, and a re-construction team to Iowa to clean up after the Mississippi River floods. We feel we have a solid foundation now, but are still in our formative years and are eager to see what God has ahead. I hope you will consider stopping by some Sunday!

 

If you are interested in knowing more about Jesus or about our church, please email me or call me at the church office (740-0635).