Rich Nathan

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Rich Nathan

Rich Nathan (born December 1955) has been the senior Pastor of the Vineyard Church of Columbus since 1987. Rich was raised in conservative Judaism and converted to Christianity at the age of 18. ^[1]

1 Qualifications
2 Writings
3 Positions
4 Vineyard Church of Columbus
5 Theological foundation of Columbus Vineyard
6 History of Columbus Vineyard
7 Impact on Columbus and beyond
8 Notes
9 External links
10 See also
11 External links

[edit] Qualifications

Bachelor's degrees in history and religious studies at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio
J.D. at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law in Columbus, Ohio

[edit] Writings

Author of the book Who Is My Enemy
Co-author of the book Empowered Evangelicals with Ken Wilson

[edit] Positions

Member of the Board of Directors of the Vineyard Movement, USA.

[edit] Vineyard Church of Columbus

Vineyard Church of Columbus (formerly Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Columbus) is a church in Westerville, Ohio. It is part of the Association of Vineyard Churches that is based in Sugar Land, Texas. It is led by Senior Pastor Rich Nathan. It is a church that is self described as an "empowered evangelical" church, according to the definition in Rich Nathan and Ken Wilson (pastor)'s book Empowered Evangelicals (book) that was published in the mid-1990s.

[edit] Theological foundation of Columbus Vineyard

An "empowered evangelical" is defined by Nathan and Wilson as someone who embraces the best of the Protestant evangelical stream of Christian belief and the best of charismatic/pentacostal stream of Christian belief. Vineyard as a church believes that the Bible is true and infallible, and that truth is the world's only hope. Vineyard affirms that Christians are called to tell others about what the Bible says God is doing in the world, namely transforming it. That work finds its central focus for Vineyard in the person of Jesus and what it is written in the Bible that he accomplished in his death on the cross and through being raised from the dead (known as the resurrection).

Vineyard affirms the Christian belief that repentance and faith in Jesus are the doorway into the transformation that God is bringing to the world. Without implying that evangelicals are "powerless", Nathan wrote that the "empowered" aspect that Vineyard emphasizes is that God has made his power available through the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, as it was for the apostles of the First Century. This includes a belief in supernatural healing of physical and mental illnesses and miraculous signs. While there are definite disagreements between the mainstream evangelical churches and the Vineyard, the Vineyard believes that there is great unity at the core of two.

[edit] History of Columbus Vineyard

The Vineyard Church of Columbus dates back as a church to the late-1970s. Three different house churches joined together to form the first church, It was not called a Vineyard at the time however. The church remained independent of any larger group for a number of years, considering itself a part of a "Third Wave of the Holy Spirit" in America. After investigating a number of groups to join with, the leadership of the church decided on the Association of Vineyard Churches, which was led at that point by John Wimber. They became the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Columbus in 1987, changing their name to what it is known as now in the late 1990s. From a few house churches to several hundred people in the early 1990s, it has experience explosive growth in the thousands today. It is one of the largest in the movement today.

[edit] Impact on Columbus and beyond

The actions of Vineyard in the life of the surrounding community are forged by a belief that God is not just forgiving sins and in doing so making available eternal life, but that he is also actively desiring to fix what is broken in the world. The Vineyard teaches that the Kingdom of God is advancing and transforming the world. According to the theological position that the Vineyard takes, the kingdom of God is God's reign as action and the conformity of a situation to what he desires. Because of this view, the Vineyard Church of Columbus offers a full range of services to the community. It offers classes, prayer, sermons, and Bible study groups for growth in spiritual life. It offers counseling, marriage training, small group communities for growth in relationships. It serves the poor and overlooked both in Columbus and worldwide to bring social wholeness. It prays for the sick people asking that God would supernaturally heal them, teaches classes on good health, and offers groups to help people grow in physical wholeness. While the church actively seeks to see moral wholeness in the surrounding culture, it believes that the church is not here to be combative against its neighbors but to be gracious and meek like Christ. This view has been important in the development of many social programs, such as food pantries, day care and after school programs, legal clinics, medical, dental, and optometry clinics.

The original church in Westerville has planted several "daughter churches" in the surrounding area - all included in the Vineyard Movement. Vineyard also supports many Christian missionaries throughout the world.