Vineyard Church Nacogdoches

The Beginnings

The seed of Vineyard Nacogdoches was planted in the spring of 2001 during a causal conversation over Sunday lunch at a Fuddruckers in Stafford, Texas, when Jim and Stephanie Miller asked long-time friend and Vineyard minister, Herschel Rosser, how they might find a place of service in the 1,400 congregations of the Association of Vineyard Churches (AVC). Herschel frankly told them, "The Vineyard is a church planting organization" and suggested that if they were really interested in being in the Vineyard why not plant one where they lived, in Nacogdoches. The Millers said they would have to think that over and during the next few weeks decided nothing ventured, nothing gained." They purposed, under the oversight of the AVC, to open their home for Bible study to test the soil to see if Nacogdoches could grow a Vineyard.

The first Bible study meeting met, by coincidence, the very week of September 11, 2001, with an open Thursday night fellowship study in the Miller’s home, with a small group of about 15 people, shocked by the still-fresh events of 9/11, attending that first gathering. Those initial meetings, featuring "soup ‘n’ stuff", attracted a small group of unchurched Christians who had a deep hunger for fellowship and study and a different approach to Christianity. Some were over-churched and had dropped out of church altogether, others were never-churched, a couple had been de-churched but they were all un-churched and needing connection with the Body of Christ.

Over the next few months, the group grew, then dwindled, often with no one showing up but the hosts and a big pot of just-prepared gourmet soup. But despite those moments of disappointment, Stephanie and Jim stuck hung in there and kept the welcome mat out. By the following spring, Brenda York had joined the group, followed a few weeks later by her husband Stony who began attending with his guitar to lead contemporary worship for the group.

Week-by-week, one-by-one, the little group grew, crowding the Millers’ home until the house could no longer hold the increasing numbers of interested people, despite the Miller’s taking a wall out just to accommodate everybody. At last the decision was made to move the group to the dining area of Travis and Cindy Walls’ bed and breakfast on Upper Melrose Road.

By this time Phil and Joann Novak had joined the group and a leadership team was formed and it also began to look like the Bible study was becoming a church. So, the group decided to appeal to the Vineyard USA for affiliation and in March 2002, Vineyard Nacogdoches became a recognized church plant accountable to the Sugar Land Vineyard in Stafford, Texas, and the Vineyard Church in Tyler and began Sunday worship services at the bed and breakfast.

The church continued to grow in number until one year from their first meeting in the Millers’ home their budding attendance forced them to change locations again, moving to the Mill Room of Banita Creek Hall near downtown Nacogdoches, a former nightclub and restaurant. This move required weekly setting-up and taking-down sound equipment, cleaning and preparing the facility for worship and while it was demanding work, it bonded the fellowship closer together and people kept coming.

In the summer of 2004 the congregation located a beautiful ten-acre tract with a newly constructed 5,000 sq. ft. building at their present location at 4140 FM 1878, just a half-mile east of the Loop, which had just been placed on the market. Taking a giant—and scary!—leap of faith, the church decided to seek a loan to purchase the property even though they were only a two-year-old, unorganized church plant. By the end of September the loan was approved and the property purchased.

Elated, and with reserve funds saved during the growth of the fellowship, the facilities were remodeled to accommodate celebration and children and it was decided that the church would continue to be "church done different—church for the rest of us" by maintaining their identity, built on four foundations:
* Vertical worship to God,
* Cose bonding fellowship,
* Practical biblical instruction, and
* "Naturally supernatural" ministry to one another and the community.

Looking ahead

Today Vineyard Nacogdoches continues to expand its ministry and numbers and is looking forward to launching duplicate Sunday worship services to accommodate their ever-growing number. Plans are also being laid to construct a separate 15,000 sq. ft. facility and to test the soil in Lufkin and surrounding communities to see if it is fertile enough to plant another Vineyard.