Transition

After four exciting and kingdom-filled years at Stour Valley Vineyard Church, Joel and Kady Taylor have heard the Lord call them on to their next adventure. Joel and Kady aren’t sure what the Lord has next for them but they are stepping out in faith in obedient response to the call to “go”. They announced this to the church on September 21st and you can read the full announcement here. Their last Sunday will be November 23rd, a time of celebration and blessing recognizing the good plans the Lord has for both the Taylors and SVV.

 

The church is now in the process of finding the next pastor(s). This process will be undertaken by an Appointment Panel in conjunction with the Trustees. The Appointment Panel is made up of John Forth, Malcolm Buckland, Mark Harbour (pastor of Cambridge Vineyard and part of the Vineyard Successions team) and Steve Gee (pastor of Garden City Vineyard in Milton Keynes and Regional Leader). The Trustees will be keeping the church updated via email as the situation develops. If you are part of the church family and don’t currently receive church emails, please contact office@stourvalleyvineyard.org to sign up.

 

During this transition period, the Trustees have appointed a Leadership Team to hold and care for the church through this season. The Leadership Team is Ian Copeman, Sue Brown and Anne Buckland. They bring experience and wisdom to the situation and will be ensuring Sunday mornings, Home Groups and other ministries continue to thrive and that pastoral care is provided. In other words, facilitating ‘church as normal’ in this transition season.

 

The vision of SVV remains Encounter & Transformation – seeking to Encounter the presence of the living God and to be Transformed by that Encounter. The values continue to be those of Vineyard, including Come Holy Spirit, Everyone Gets To Play, Doin’ The Stuff, Come As You Are (but don’t stay as you are) and The Main & The Plain. If these values are new to you or you’d like to know more, please visit our ‘Vision and Values’ page on the website.

 

At SVV, we believe in a God who is always good, always kind and who loves us more than we know. These words will be familiar to you if you’ve joined us on a Sunday morning. And these words are just as true in seasons of change and uncertainty. God has proven Himself faithful to SVV over and over again since the church was planted by Andrew and Emma Stewart-Darling 18 years ago. Not once has He let the church down. That track record of faithfulness and God’s unchanging character forms the basis of complete confidence that the Lord will provide yet again.

 

We invite you to participate in this process through prayer. Please be praying for SVV, our next pastor(s) and, of course, the Taylors. As well as praying individually, we would love you to join the prayer group who will be meeting to pray into the next season for SVV. For more information, contact our Prayer Coordinator, Karen Naylor (karen@stourvalleyvineyard.org) or Anne Buckland (annebuckland1@btinternet.com).

 

We remain full of hope and expectation as we step into all the good plans the Lord has for SVV.