Author Archives: Don Follis

The Vineyard church movement plants new churches.  That's part of our ongoing strategy.Who knew that the Vineyard now markets the ingredients essential for all church-planting kits?  … [Just kidding, folks]This Vineyard Grill Tool Set is prominently located … pretty as you please … right at the top of the escalators in Macy's… 🙂

Extraordinarily thoughtful Vineyard pastor  and blogger Ken Wilson from Ann Arbor, Michigan, tells young pastors that certainty can make good, kind, warm-hearted people, blind.Certainty can make you pooh-pooh Jesus words, "Treat other people the way you want to be treated."  Wilson says love of certainty is not the same as love of truth.  It's justContinueContinue reading “Total certainty can lead to total blindness”

In this fourth week of Lent (March 25th) the Church celebrates the Annunciation of the Lord. … Luke 1:26-38.I find it helpful to contemplate pictures of the scene like da Vinci's famous depiction of the announcement.And when I hear Mary say "Yes, I am the Lord's servent," I wonder what I can learn from herContinueContinue reading “Annunciation announcement during Lent”

  So I was having lunch with a friend the other day.  The conversation was rich, and we talked long.  At the end my friend said, "You're a good man, Don Follis."I said, "Well thank you very much."A day later I was talking on the phone, and I ended by saying, "Thank you, you're a goodContinueContinue reading “You’re a good man … Don Follis”

  Earlier this week my New Testament reading was from John 7:1-24.  We learn that it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters.  We also learn that Jesus wanted to stay out of Judea because the Jewish leaders were plotting to kill him. We read that even his own brothers didn't believe him at this point. ContinueContinue reading “Judge correctly”

Christian liberal arts universities dot the land.  I've always liked them. … poking around the libraries, looking in on the chapel and hanging out at the student center.  Here are a couple pics taken on the Anderson University campus in Anderson, Indiana.  It's a pretty little campus with 2,200 students … about 35 miles northeast of Indianapolis.  There'sContinueContinue reading “Places I like…”

I spent an interesting day yesterday hanging out with Vineyard pastor Rand Tucker.  A San Diego boy, Tucker, 40, started the Hyde Park Vineyard Church in Chicago 10 years ago.  The photo here on the left is of a century-old Hyde Park mansion … now owned by and home to the Hyde Park Alliance Church.  It's two blocks fromContinueContinue reading “The Vineyard church in Chicago’s Hyde Park”

Missionary housing, baby.  Here is Ellen Benefield (Vineyard missionary) doing work on her laptop in her 9×9 foot bedroom, while baby Ethan sleeps on the bed beside her. The entire floor plan for the house is 400 square feet.  Baby Ethan has been my roommate this week.  Our bedroom also is 9×9.  It is, shallContinueContinue reading “400 square foot house … Good to go!”