Three into 1,000 goes when it's True Vine Fellowship...
An Elim church has gone from having three members to moving into a luxurious thousand-seater building. Senior pastor Vicky Gee explains how God has transformed the congregation.
In 1996 I started a house cell group in Luton as part of Kensington Temple City Church, London with only three new converts in attendance. In a few months the number of attendees increased to 12. Eventually it became apparent that a church had been birthed unofficially.
Thirteen of us, including rny husband David and a couple with two children, continued to travel to Kensington Temple to attend Sunday services until a school hall was hired in Luton to facilitate our Sunday church services. In March 1997, True Vine Fellowship (TVF) was officially birthed in Luton.
Six years later membership increased to about 40 adults and 30 children. Sensing the need to purchase our own church building in order to work more effectively for God, TVF continued to save financially and sought God's favour through fervent prayer and fasting.
In June 2003,1 was ordained as an Elim minister. Later in that same year God showed his favour to TVF and provided another venue.
We moved into a building, which Urban Saints had just purchased, and felt privileged to share the premises with them. Membership continued to increase steadily and the vision to own a church building became more and more apparent.
I want to encourage you today that God answers prayers, it might not come the way you anticipated or expected it but the answer will surely come. He still answers prayer today, yesterday and forever, because He is the same and will never change.
The church continued to save, persisting in prayer and fasting for more of God's favour. In a vision the Lord had showed me my leadership role in a church environment, but he never showed me what would transpire before it comes to pass.
Everything just continued to happen, and it's only afterwards that I would remember one or two of the visions - I not only walk with the vision but also walk by faith.
In June 2009 God showed his great faithfulness to TVF once again. We completed the purchase of 85 Park Street in Luton - formally the Mint Casino.
The Lord supernaturally helped us to purchase this build¬ing at a time of severe, global, financial crisis, The church had then steadily increased numerically to 70 adults and 60 children.
We realised by the following four reasons that the Almighty God has opened the door to our need and that this is his will and timing for True Vine Fellowship to purchase this building.
Let me share a few points about this facility that God has given us:
- The building had been empty for some time and there were no offers to purchase it. People just did not either have the money or were too afraid to venture into any financial commitments. Therefore, the price was reduced and we had no competition from other interested buyers.
- During this time of great,global and financial downturn which caused people to lose their jobs, the Lord supernaturally enabled members of TVF to maintain their secular jobs and that helped them to donate sacrificially towards the building project. No-one in TVF lost their job and, amazingly, those who did not have jobs were suddenly offered permanent employment.
- The fact that the church is located in the middle of the town centre adjacent to a public car park and surrounded by clubs and pubs, proves to us that the Lord's hand is in this project and that he has a great future for TVF. I feel that our work for the Lord in Luton has only just begun.
TVF is grateful to God for all that he has done for the church. Today TVF is a church that continues to grow steadily, embracing people from multicultural and multiracial backgrounds who are willing to commit to living out their faith in accordance with God's Word.
TVF seeks new and creative ways to demonstrate God's love and mercy and believes that the wider Christian Church has been given the task of spread¬ing the good news of God's kingdom while bringing the reign and reality of Jesus into people's lives.
We fasted and prayed, donated and saved, searched for a suitable church building, and waited on the Lord for 12 years.
There were countless times of disappointment following the viewing of several buildings, especially when we felt that we had found the one 'suitable' for our needs, only to discover later that for some reason, ne¬gotiations would break down preventing us from going ahead with that purchase. We now know that those buildings were not for TVF, and that God had a building elsewhere waiting for us.
I do encourage any faithful church desiring to own a church building to continue in faith - praying and fasting for direction from the Lord.
Building a church for the Lord is not only a spiritual or numerical matter but also involves physical and practical effort. It is not an easy venture, but abiding in him with patience and endurance will enable all your dreams and visions to come to pass. God's timing is the best.
