(Belated Post) Advent at Vintage 21

I love that our church has a design team, that our God is a creative god, and that I have the opportunity to serve with the gifts He's given me! For the Advent season, the design team worked to incorporate our version of Christmas decorations, to tie in with the sermon series and help visitors feel welcome. A few pictures I snapped in the sanctuary are shown below.


This idea started with Christmas stories that often begin with ornate drop caps. (For inspiring daily drop caps, click here.) As we worked through the concept, we settled on using the text of the scripture to create the words peace, joy, hope, and love.


We wanted the design to be interactive and to encourage others to remember the life of Christ by loving others, just as He did. The "Christmas tree" served as a drop off for cans of food, to be donated to those in need. Words that speak of the spirit of the season emanate from the communion stations.


The lobby functions as an art gallery each month; photographers in the church took pictures to illustrate the words used in the series.


Acrylic letters surround our painting of the Raleigh skyline.


What a beautiful season it was!

We all need a little help from our friends

Since our Community Group started meeting back in February, we've found out that we like each other - a lot! The people you surround yourself with are so important, certainly they influence us, and it's amazing to have others there when you truly need them. Kyle and I have enjoyed getting to know our group - and watching it grow. But last week we had to say goodbye to a few. Hayley left us for Wilmington for her first year of college, and Phil moved up to DC for a new job in animation. (The extra sad thing about Phil leaving is that it means Katy, his fiance, will be leaving soon as well.)



Kyle made banners to show our love, and we enjoyed a night of great food and great conversation.


Phil and Hayley - You are missed!! (FYI, that's not Hayley rolling up the banner, that's her sister Lara. Hayley is in the paint splattered shirt beside Lara in the top photo). Lara was careful to save Hayley's banner for dorm room decoration.

Movie Night

Kyle created this for our first movie night, taking place in a few weeks after our usual Monday Community Group gathering. Any guesses to what we are watching? ;)

Living in Community

Kyle and I have been going to Vintage 21 Church for over two and a half years now. We got involved in a Community Group not too long after that, and then after we got married we were asked to consider leading a group. We certainly didn't feel ready - for one thing, we'd just bought our first place and had hardly any furniture! Where would everyone sit? How were we going to eat together each week?

We were still figuring things out as a couple, and we knew there were many areas in our lives that we wanted to improve. But we felt God calling us to trust him, and since February, we've seen him bring our group together to grow closer to him. We've had an incredible crowd - people of different ages and in different stages of life, with different backgrounds and interests. But we share one thing in common: we enjoy getting together every week! We look at the Bible, ask questions when we have doubts, pray for and encourage each other constantly, and look for ways we can love others just as Christ loves us.


It has been such a blessing in our lives! Our group gets together outside of our Monday night meetings - we go out together, we have a praise and worship night once a month, we have a women's prayer night, and our group volunteers at the church in many different areas - everything from the kid's ministry to the design team to cleaning the building, and we have a lot of fun when we're around each other! I pray that God would continue to spiritually grow our group, and I look forward to seeing what He does.

Want to join us? We meet on Mondays at 7pm.

Unreasonable Joy

Kyle and I have enjoyed being able to serve at Vintage 21 Church by being on the Design Team. As part of that team, we design backgrounds for song slides, the programs handed out on Sundays, inserts for the light boxes, and any other posters, handouts, or signage needed. The sermon series we are doing now is entitled, "Unreasonable Joy: Poured out in Philippians." Kyle and I were excited to design the graphics for this series as the first project that we've worked on together.



Paul is a pretty fascinating character: He was a Jew who persecuted Christians, but he became a Christian after God spoke to him. He became the one being persecuted - he was jailed, beaten, and ultimately beheaded for his faith. You might look at historical evidence that Christ lived, died, and resurrected, but to me, the evidence is in the lives of the early Christians. What would make Paul willing to die for his faith? It just doesn't make sense, it's not rational, but he had joy in the midst of everything that happened to him.



As we've studied Paul's unreasonable joy for the past month, I've thought of Tony and Charity Myers. Tony married Kyle and I, and he met with us for premarital counseling. At one of our last meetings, he shared that Charity was pregnant with their first child. She was due on February 8th, but lost their daughter about a week before her due date. In the midst of their grief, I've been encouraged by their hope and joy. To read more about their story, click here. Tony and Charity - we love you both and we continue to think of you and pray for you!

I ♥ the church

We love our church. Vintage 21 has been our home for two and a half years now, and we love it so much that we live just down the street (no lie).



I love the people, I love the message, I love Jesus and I love loving him there. I don't think I've experienced another church where someone who wasn't a Christian would feel so welcome. Don't get me wrong; they don't sugarcoat the gospel - they make Christianity relevant and real. You see changed lives and Christ becomes undeniable. I think I first heard of Vintage from the Jesus Videos. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll have to click on that link and watch them. These videos were first shown a few years ago during a sermon series.

Recently, Kyle and I have gotten to know Jumbo, an Australian intern at Vintage. We first got together over dinner one night.



I really enjoyed hearing about his ministry, The Nehemiah Project. He and Lachlan are here to learn the ins and outs of church planting before returning to Sydney to start a congregation that will appeal to our generation. Please pray for them, or even consider supporting them - I can't wait to hear what God does when they return to Australia!