about our missions ministry

The mission of CCV’s Missions Ministry is connecting people outward with the world by partnering with other Vineyard churches to facilitate Vineyard church planting and church growth around the globe.

What is a missions partnership?  It’s a group of local churches dedicated to working together in a given area of the world to accomplish something greater than any one church by itself could ever do.  So our Russia Missions Partnership aims to include any Vineyard USA Churches with a heart for the work of the Holy Spirit in developing the Vineyard Movement of churches throughout Russia.  Within this larger group of partnership churches there are eight local churches from the East Michigan area that we’re working most closely with to accomplish our purpose and goals.   

The philosophy behind this type of  missions involvement in the Vineyard is defined by five specific principles, known as the five “pillars” of Vineyard missions.  They are:

1  Local church based missions (LCBM) involvement.

2  The use of partnerships as a key strategy.

3  The establishment of church planting movements.

4  The development and release of indigenous national leaders.

5  The contextualization of Vineyard values in each culture.

Through the Russia Missions Partnership, our efforts are particularly focused on supporting a sister church in the Russian city of Nizhny-Novgorod.  The Nizhny Vineyard is led by an American missionary couple named David and Kathy Wolf.  They began their ministry in Russia and planted the Nizhny Vineyard in 1997.  Since that time they have labored faithfully to grow the church and develop indigenous Russian leaders.

Our support for the Wolf’s ministry is both financial and relational.  In addition to helping with their living expenses on the mission field, we aim to encourage them and resource them so they can lead the Nizhny Vineyard more effectively. 

If you want to know more about their ministry, be sure to pick up their newsletter, available at our Welcome Station/Information display in the CCV Café.

Beyond our work in Nizhny, we’re also involved in the planting and development of other Vineyard churches throughout Russia.  There are presently only eight Vineyard Churches in this vast nation of 150 million people, so a primary need is the recruitment and training of more church planters.  Please pray that God would raise them up! 

Short Term Mission Trips

What makes a missions partnership unique is the “hands on” approach to local church involvement. This means we don’t just send money, we send people to see what’s happening and to have a hand in it.  To that end, our commitment is to send at least one short- term team to Russia every year, and we hope to see that number increase as people’s hearts are moved by the needs there. 

Presently, we send a team in the fall of each year to lead a training conference and to help develop the ministry of the church in Nizhny. These teams have also been involved in a variety of other mission activities, including prayer walking through the city, visiting a local orphanage or children’s hospital, and hosting special outreach events.  These are “eye opening” experiences that expose the cultural differences between America and Russia, and put people in the position to see God work through them in powerful and memorable ways.

If you think you might like to go to Russia with our next team, please contact us.  We also need help with logistical and prayer support, so if you can’t go but want to get involved anyway, please talk to Pastor Kevin about how you can do that.