Vineyard Notes from Pastor Jimmy--New Gathering Procedures June 2021

June 17, 2021


Dear Vineyard family and friends,

We are all getting ready to start summer, but it seems summer came a week early in Los Angeles.  I hope that you are all staying cool!

As a church body throughout the pandemic, we have been committed to reopening at an appropriate pace and with appropriate procedures to ensure everyone’s safety.  I am truly proud of our church staff and leadership that has stayed united despite the many differences of opinions found everywhere.  

We are glad to see the number of Covid cases and deaths diminishing in our city and state.  This is an answer to prayer. Our city and state have adopted new guidelines this week which change our gathering protocols.  Starting this Sunday, June 20, we will have space for 100 percent occupancy capacity and the use of facemasks will be optional; in other words, facemasks are welcomed but not required.  

Opening our Children’s Ministry fully will take a little longer according to the need as families slowly return to church and volunteers become available.  At this time, the nursery is open for babies through kindergarten and the Dock is open for grades 1-5 during our 11 AM service.  If you have any questions or are interested in volunteering in Children’s Ministry, please contact our Children’s Pastor Donna Tucker at dtucker@valleyvineyard.org.

Both our children’s (10 AM) and main (11 AM) services continue to have an online presence on Sundays on Facebook at https://vvinfo.org/fb and YouTube at www.vvinfo.org/YouTube for those not ready or unable to return.  

I want to take this opportunity to call us into a posture of unity.  We are living in the midst of a depressed, divided, and disconnected world, but Jesus has prepared His Church for such a time as this.  Through our words, thoughts, and actions we have the power to come against the forces that are destroying relationships and lives.  Jesus prayed for you and me before He ascended to heaven.  He prayed that we would love each other well.  That is the solution for all that we are experiencing today.

I want to encourage you today to embrace the significant role you have of being an important part of the Body of Christ.  1 Corinthians 12:12-14 says, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”

One of the things I’ve been learning in this season is that we have to continue growing in emotional maturity.  There is so much foolishness and emotional immaturity around us as well as in us.  We live with the tension of what seems like two competing realities.  On the one hand, we all need to differentiate and grow in our identity as individuals with our own beliefs, values, and principles.  On the other hand, we have to grow in connectedness to others.  We were never meant to live on an island by ourselves.  We need each other.  In fact, any body part that is separated from our body is not able to survive on its own.

We are operating in emotional maturity when we learn to hold in tension both of these two realities.  The 1 Corinthians passage above tells us that both being defined and staying connected are important for us to function as the Body of Christ.  For the body to be a body it must have different, separate, and well-defined parts that work together.  Each part is well-differentiated but at the same time, connected and functioning interdependently.  We see this in the life of Jesus.  He was firmly rooted in his identity as the Son of God and remained true to his mission in the midst of opposition.  We also see that He did not isolate from the world.  He genuinely cared for others and stayed connected with those who didn’t “measure up” and even with those who were considered his enemies.

I want to encourage you today to embrace your God-given personality, and your pursuit of becoming the person God designed you to be.  Nevertheless, recognize that you cannot do this alone.  You need others around you.  Growth happens in community.  You are also needed in our church family.  God shaped you and continues to shape you to fill a need in our church family.

I thank God for the technology that has allowed us to stay connected in a long season when we were separated, but technology cannot replace true community.  

I want to invite you to join me in praying to God and asking, “How am I growing?  How have I grown to become more like Jesus in this hard year? Also, ask Him, to help you see if you’ve allowed this current situation to diminish the importance of community?  Ask Him, “Help me to keep seeking the sacred connection and unity of the Body I belong to.”

Looking forward to seeing you, connecting with you, and experiencing the life of Christ moving in and through the church family God has established in Reseda.

With brotherly care and affection,


Jimmy Reyes
Lead Pastor