September 14, 2009

Church Experiment #37: Lifepoint Vineyard

LifePoint Vineyard is a fairly new church (around two years old at the time of my visit). As someone who helped start a church, I always find it interesting to check in on other church plants. From what I witnessed Sunday, business is booming in Monroe, Ohio.

This was the first weekend LifePoint hosted two services, so that’s a pretty clear sign of growth. At the 11:00 AM gathering, I estimated there were about two hundred people. LifePoint meets in an elementary school gymnasium, so we sat on folding chairs, but overall, it was quite a comfortable atmosphere. [Irony alert! From what I can tell, LifePoint Vineyard has closed its doors. Not sure when this happened, but it’s pretty common for church plants to fail, so it’s not surprising. Just odd in this case considering how well things seemed to be going during my visit. For the record, I do believe LifePoint’s lead pastor, Andy Ransdell, is an associate pastor at Four Corners Community Church and LifePoint’s associate pastor, Andy Rainey, is the lead pastor at Blue Ash Community Church, so perhaps LifePoint’s leadership team just felt like it was time to move on.]

To finish reading about this experience or any of the reflections from my 52 visits, please purchase the full book here.