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If you do feel so inclined as to give to our Foundation Fund, you can do so at www.northbrooklynvineyard.org/giving.

Muldoons on 3rd Ave & E 43 St.

Our story begins in Manhattan. At the time we had an alternative church gathering in a midtown office building for twenty-somethings who liked Jesus but didn’t particularly like church. A trend began to develop. Afterwards a bunch of us would go to an Irish pub across the street to hangout and socialize.

It was during this time that we began to build stronger connections not only among ourselves but also with bar staff and patrons. Some of the most impactful movements to God’s kingdom would happen as we hung out and socialized. We began to see God at work right there among people who were not “part of our church” but who nonetheless felt like they belonged to our community because they were becoming our friends. They felt included without question and loved. That’s because they actually were! That’s because everyone – churchgoing or not- was actually on the same page and were simply enjoying the sweet community of God’s Spirit.

A God-given knack

That’s when we caught our sense of mission. We began to realize that God had been using us as a bridge between himself and people who would otherwise view God (if they believed in God), as irrelevant and impractical, unfair and unkind, part of an offensive and judgmental culture, or uninterested or incapable of helping them. However, to their surprise they began to experience quite the opposite: That God was accessible and active and that he was loving and actually made their lives better. What we found was that everyone, regardless of how close they were, or felt they were to God (church people or secular people), were finding greater connection with Jesus who actually did have “good news” for their lives.

The Trash Bar

We started to wonder, could this knack be a gift? Could it be our mission? Thus the Trash Bar service was born. We put an ad out on Craig’s list. The owner of Trash responded and met with us. He invited us to meet on Sunday evenings. We accepted the invitation following Christ’s example of accepting invitations to anyone’s house. Thus Trash Bar became an advancement of what God had begun in Manhattan, bringing together what God was doing at Submerge and what he was doing at Muldoon’s under one roof.

The bar was a natural gathering place for all sorts of people. We simply did what Jesus did and met the people where they were at. The church service would serve as a call to worship and provide an opportunity for exploring Jesus in a non-threatening way, with many of the confusing and often off-putting religious trappings of Christianity stripped away. What’s more, the after-service socializing again became more of an opportunity for community to develop for anyone and everyone – church affiliated or not. Over the years faith conversations, sharing of life stories and friendships have become the hallmark of the Trash Bar experience.

Connecting

We’ve experienced: Bar staff becoming like family. People from all walks of life, from all over the world becoming part of our community. We’ve connected with the most unlikely people often alienated from traditional Christian religion – Atheist scientists, cynical journalists, New Age spiritualists, members of the LGBT community, agnostic intellectuals, skeptical hipsters, Buddhist mystics, even Hasidic Jews

Morning Service @ the School

Not long after we started meeting we realized there was a larger community of people in the neighborhood that were spiritually curious but lacking a life-giving connection that Jesus provides who would not fit at Trash. So we began a morning service to provide the exact same opportunity for families and children. Both services are now integral to our mission; neither is more or less important than the other.

This knack or gifting is who we are at the NBV. You can say it’s our church family identity or mission. This why we exist in the first place and why we do what we do. This is what makes us unique and why so often people who have moved on say they’ve never quite been able to find anything exactly like the NBV.

We hear over and over that what people find attractive and helpful about us is that… We’re inclusive… We allow them to belong before they believe… We don’t use confusing God-talk and we keep things practical…They like our honest, no-hype style… They like it that we let them go at their own speed… They say God’s made accessible and they were able to experience him without being forced to… We’re prescriptive rather than directive and not preachy or talk down to people… They like that we’re relational rather than programmatic.

Measuring success

You might say we’re a church for the “rest of us” not just for the religiously informed and that makes us a safe place for anyone of any faith or non-faith background to explore what it means to follow Jesus. There aren’t many communities around like us that I know of. So we shouldn’t compare ourselves with other churches. So how do we know when we’re succeeding then?

Numbers shouldn’t be ignored but they can be confusing and not tell the true story of our success or lack of it. Our most important indicator is the level and frequency to which lives are being impacted by Jesus. It’s the number of tiny steps people, who previously considered themselves non-faith-types make towards a meaningful relationship with Christ. And because of this progress is slow.

How might success look around here? A person who’s been hurt by the church finds God, peace and healing in our community. A person who’s never put the pursuit of God high on their ‘to do’ list begins to take steps toward a relationship with Jesus. A long-time churchgoer who can quote 100’s of Bible verses experiences the power of forgiveness for the first time. A drug addict finds support and freedom in Jesus and through our community. Someone who’s been a church attendee for years begins leading a small group for the first time. Someone who has financial difficulties begins trusting God’s provision enough to be generous with the little money they have. Someone who has experienced a major moral failure doesn’t have to leave the church or God but walks humbly back towards both. People of diverse racial, gender, age, socio-economic and religious backgrounds worship Jesus together and become friends. A person senses God speaking to them for the first time. Someone learns to pray for the sick. The Bible becomes more important and a regular resource in a person’s life. Someone who is typically self-focused starts taking an hour to visit day laborers or help someone in need.

If these things are happening then we are succeeding in our mission and calling from God… and they are! We need to be thankful for the many, many blessings that God has given us and the way he’s used our community. Caring for what he’s entrusted us with is our only responsibility so let’s do that with enthusiasm and grateful hearts.

If you currently attend our church or are an alumni we’d love to hear how your story connects with or has been impacted by the bigger NBV story, so drop us a line at info@northbrooklynvineyard.org

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a little video Mike T made from Freakstock, near Kassel Germany the first week in August. Mike spoke on the main stage the first night.

The Jesus Freaks are a counter-cultural, out-of-the-box movement that started in Hamburg, Germany in the early 90′s. Mike and Char Turrigiano (pastors of the North Brooklyn Vineyard) had become “adopted spiritual parents”, if you will, & have been involved since the beginning. Freakstock is their annual homecoming; a 4-day festival involving now about 8,000 people from Germany & across Europe.

Music is from Waiting for Steve.