Rich Nathan
Encyclopedia
Rich Nathan has been the senior Pastor of the Vineyard Church of Columbus since 1987. Nathan came to believe in Jesus at the age of 18. Prior to pastoring, he was an assistant professor of business law at The Ohio State University
for five years. He has a Bachelor's degrees in history and religious studies at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio
. and a J.D.
at Ohio State University
's Moritz College of Law
in Columbus, Ohio
.. Nathan has served on the National Board of Vineyard: A Community of Churches for more than a decade and is the Large Church Task Force Coordinator for the Vineyard. He is a popular national and international conference speaker and author of two books. Nathan has been noted as one of the strongest voices in favor of the Third Wave Movement
.
Nathan has also been outspoken on the subject of faith and politics, in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch, he was quoted as saying:
. It is part of the Association of Vineyard Churches
with headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas
.
Vineyard Columbus dates back as a church to the late-1970s. Three different churches joined together to form the first church. The church remained independent of any larger group for a number of years, and after investigating a number of groups to join with, the leadership of the church decided on the Association of Vineyard Churches, led by John Wimber
. They became the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Columbus in 1987. Vineyard Columbus has experienced significant growth over the years, drawing over 9,000 people at its weekend worship services and becoming the largest church in the Vineyard movement today. It is a church that is self described as an "empowered evangelical" church, according to the definition in Rich Nathan and Ken Wilson's book Empowered Evangelicals that was published in the mid-1990s.
stream of Christian belief and the best of charismatic/pentecostal 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.
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.
s 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.
The church offers classes, prayer
, sermon
s, and Bible study groups for growth in spiritual life. It also offers counseling, marriage
training, small group communities for growth in relationships. The church is host to a ministry training center known as Vineyard Leadership Institute, as well as a young adult community called Joshua House. Additionally, 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, ESL courses, as well as legal, medical, dental, and optometry clinics. Most of these programs are administered through a community center that Vineyard Columbus opened in 2006.
The original church in Westerville has planted 24 churches in since 1987, including over a dozen in the Columbus area - all included in the Vineyard Movement. Vineyard also supports many Christian missionaries throughout the world.
Satellite Campuses
In 2009, Vineyard Columbus opened their first satellite campus, Vineyard Columbus Sawmill Campus, in Dublin, OH. In 2011, VC opened their second campus, Lane Avenue Campus of Vineyard Columbus (VCLA). Both hold services on Sunday's at 10 am, with live worship and ministries.
Vineyard Leadership Institute (VLI) is a two-year, seven quarter course. It was created to integrate hands-on training, ministry experience, spiritual formation, and academic understanding.
Vineyard Leadership Institute was established in 1995 by Rich Nathan the senior pastor of the Vineyard Church of Columbus in Columbus Ohio. In 1996, Steve Robbins, Ph.D. was hired as Director of Vineyard Leadership Institute. Nathan reported personally firing Robbins when he learned of an affair Robbins had begun with a woman he was counseling.. Don Williams is now serving as interim director.
The host site is in Columbus Ohio where faculty and classes are recorded. VLI operates on "Distance Sites", small groups of people that go through the courses and material together and are overseen by a site coordinator. VLI has many sites located throughout the United States
as well as in the United Kingdom
, Brazil
, Spain
, and Chile
.
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
for five years. He has a Bachelor's degrees in history and religious studies at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
. and a J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
at Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
's Moritz College of Law
Moritz College of Law
The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law is a public law school and charter member of the Association of American Law Schools. According to the 2010 U.S. News & World Report rankings, the Moritz College of Law is 35th in the nation overall and is in the top ten among public law schools. The...
in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
.. Nathan has served on the National Board of Vineyard: A Community of Churches for more than a decade and is the Large Church Task Force Coordinator for the Vineyard. He is a popular national and international conference speaker and author of two books. Nathan has been noted as one of the strongest voices in favor of the Third Wave Movement
Third Wave of the Holy Spirit
The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit is a Christian theological theory first introduced by C. Peter Wagner to describe what he believed to be three historical periods of the activity of the Holy Spirit in the 20th century and beyond...
.
Nathan has also been outspoken on the subject of faith and politics, in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch, he was quoted as saying:
Vineyard Columbus
Vineyard Columbus (formerly Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Columbus and Vineyard Church of Columbus) is a church in Westerville, OhioWesterville, Ohio
Westerville, once known as "The Dry Capital of the World", is a city in Franklin and Delaware counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 35,318 at the 2000 census.-Early history:...
. It is part of the Association of Vineyard Churches
Association of Vineyard Churches
The Association of Vineyard Churches, also known as the Vineyard Movement, is a neocharismatic evangelical Christian denomination with over 1,500 affiliated churches worldwide....
with headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
Vineyard Columbus dates back as a church to the late-1970s. Three different churches joined together to form the first church. The church remained independent of any larger group for a number of years, and after investigating a number of groups to join with, the leadership of the church decided on the Association of Vineyard Churches, led by John Wimber
John Wimber
John Richard Wimber was a musician, charismatic pastor and one of the founding leaders of the Vineyard Movement, a neocharismatic Evangelical Christian denomination which began in the USA and has now spread to many countries world-wide.-Life and ministry:John Richard Wimber was the son of Basil...
. They became the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Columbus in 1987. Vineyard Columbus has experienced significant growth over the years, drawing over 9,000 people at its weekend worship services and becoming the largest church in the Vineyard movement today. It is a church that is self described as an "empowered evangelical" church, according to the definition in Rich Nathan and Ken Wilson's book Empowered Evangelicals that was published in the mid-1990s.
Theological foundation of Columbus Vineyard
An "empowered evangelical" is defined by Nathan and Wilson as someone who embraces the best of the Protestant evangelicalEvangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
stream of Christian belief and the best of charismatic/pentecostal stream of Christian belief. Vineyard as a church believes that the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
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
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
and what it is written in the Bible that he accomplished in his death on the cross and through being raised from the dead.
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
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
, the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
, 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.
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 sinSin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
s and in doing so making available eternal life
Eternal life (Christianity)
In Christianity the term eternal life traditionally refers to continued life after death, rather than immortality. While scholars such as John H. Leith assert that...
, but that he is also actively desiring to fix what is broken in the world. The Vineyard teaches that the Kingdom of God
Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is a foundational concept in the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.The term "Kingdom of God" is found in all four canonical gospels and in the Pauline epistles...
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.
The church offers classes, prayer
Prayer
Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
, sermon
Sermon
A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...
s, and Bible study groups for growth in spiritual life. It also offers counseling, marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
training, small group communities for growth in relationships. The church is host to a ministry training center known as Vineyard Leadership Institute, as well as a young adult community called Joshua House. Additionally, 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, ESL courses, as well as legal, medical, dental, and optometry clinics. Most of these programs are administered through a community center that Vineyard Columbus opened in 2006.
The original church in Westerville has planted 24 churches in since 1987, including over a dozen in the Columbus area - all included in the Vineyard Movement. Vineyard also supports many Christian missionaries throughout the world.
Satellite Campuses
In 2009, Vineyard Columbus opened their first satellite campus, Vineyard Columbus Sawmill Campus, in Dublin, OH. In 2011, VC opened their second campus, Lane Avenue Campus of Vineyard Columbus (VCLA). Both hold services on Sunday's at 10 am, with live worship and ministries.
Vineyard Leadership Institute
Vineyard Leadership Institute was established in 1995 by Rich Nathan the senior pastor of the Vineyard Church of Columbus in Columbus Ohio. In 1996, Steve Robbins, Ph.D. was hired as Director of Vineyard Leadership Institute. Nathan reported personally firing Robbins when he learned of an affair Robbins had begun with a woman he was counseling.. Don Williams is now serving as interim director.
The host site is in Columbus Ohio where faculty and classes are recorded. VLI operates on "Distance Sites", small groups of people that go through the courses and material together and are overseen by a site coordinator. VLI has many sites located throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as well as in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
.
Books
- Who Is My Enemy ISBN 031023882X
- (Co-authored) Empowered Evangelicals with Ken Wilson ISBN 0892839295
External links
- Columbus Dispatch article of May 11, 2007 regarding Vineyard Church of Columbus
- Columbus, Ohio Community Relations article
- Christianity Today article interviewing Nathan
- Vineyard Church of Columbus
- Sojourners: Christians for Justice and Peace hosted a Presidential Forum, and here is Nathan on CNN video in July 2007
- Vineyard Leadership Institute — Official website