The Vineyard Church

The Vineyard Church began in the basement of a home in November of 1995. God called Mark Pope (our Lead Pastor) to plant a church that would reach out to the lost of our community on behalf of Jesus Christ. Our first meetings were simple. A few families met for worship, prayer, and teaching on Saturday evenings. Soon we rented an auditorium from a local church. We still met on Saturdays, but this new place gave us room to grow. It was the beginning of establishing a new church in our community. During this time, we were known as Community Fellowship.

Our church made its jump to Sunday morning Celebrations on Easter Sunday 1998. We rented a small reception hall in downtown Mishawaka and packed in almost 100 people that first Sunday. We worshiped with a band and established our Children's Ministry. That summer we experienced one of our most joyous moments in those early years, our first baptism service, this was a taste of what was to come and the first of what has become a great tradition at our church.

It was during this time that we were blessed by establishing relationships with several Vineyard churches. Those relationships grew and ultimately we felt God's call to link up with the Association of Vineyard Churches. On Christmas Eve 2000, we officially became Vineyard Community Church and moved into our first full-time facility on South Merrifield Avenue. We quickly kicked off our Small Group Ministry, Media and Technical Teams, Hospitality Teams, and in 2002 we launched our Student Ministry. We saw God develop skilled teams of individuals joining together to better promote the Gospel in our community.

In 2004 we began the process of looking for a long term place to call home. We established our first building fund. During this time we also experienced a surge of numerical growth. We responded to this move of God by offering two Sunday Celebration times. December 5th, 2004, (our first Sunday to offer two services) we served almost 300 individuals. God was expanding the family that called Vineyard Community Church their home.

In November of 2005 we closed on 11.4 acres of land on the south side of Mishawka/South Bend. Within a year, God provided, through his people, the finances needed to pay off the land. In March of 2008 we broke ground on our new church facility on Jackson Road, at the corner of the US 20 Bypass and Bremen Highway. Our builder estimated that it would take a year to compete the building so during that time God continued to keep our attention focused on ministry to people rather than building buildings. We launched several new small groups, reached out to the community through SOS service projects, and partnered in the development of churches and orphanages in The Sudan.

On March 1, 2009 we had our first Sunday Celebration in our new building and simplified our name to The Vineyard Church. In just the first few months we saw a couple dozen people come to Christ, our attendance exceeded 700 people, and we saw small groups and ministry teams come alive with excitement! That summer we baptized 25 people who had made commitments or recommitments to Jesus. And later that fall we held our first Art for the Heart of Africa benefit raising a total of $15,000 to support the New Generation Dreamland Children’s Home in Yei, Sudan

Not even a year later, we were experiencing another surge of numerical growth. We would find ourselves scrambling to set up folding chairs in the auditorium along with having children meet for small groups in hallways. As a result of this growth, we added a Saturday Celebration on January 23, 2010 and attendance for that weekend soared just over 1000 people. God was doing a mighty work among us so we worked hard to be faithful in shepherding His people. We added several new staff members, launched a number of new small groups, and sent mission teams to Haiti and Sudan. At our annual Lake Blast & Baptism we baptized 40 people and partied the afternoon away with 520 people. The big fall event was our first ever VineyardFest—held on the grounds of the church—complete with hayrides, music, and even a chili cookoff!

In November 2010 we ended what had been called our “City on a Hill” campaign—a three year building and capital campaign. 117 individuals and families significantly sacrificed their hard earned dollars to make our building a reality. Praise God for their gifts, their prayers, and their commitment to The Vineyard Church. Countless lives have been changed, prayers have been answered, marriages have been restored, supernatural healings have taken place. God is at work among us. At The Vineyard, our history is rich, but our future seems even brighter!