Transition Team Update

Update to the Vine Street Congregation regarding the Ministerial Transition process

April 2, 2025

There is very good news to report to the Vine Street congregation regarding the Ministerial Transition process. Since Thomas Kleinert announced his plan to retire at the end of May, the Ministerial Transition Team, appointed by the Administrative Council, has been preparing recommendations for ministerial staffing to be in place upon Thomas’ departure.

These recommendations were presented to the Administrative Council at its March 26 meeting. Following excellent discussion, the Administrative Council unanimously approved the following actions. Both actions will be formally presented to the congregation at a congregational meeting scheduled for early May.

First, the Administrative Council unanimously recommended that Margie Quinn be elevated to the role of “acting minister in-charge” effective May 26 and continue until a new and long-term ministerial staffing arrangement is in place. The process for establishing this long-term ministerial team for Vine Street will begin during the summer of 2025, with the hope of having it in place early in 2026. In taking this action, the Transition Team and the Administrative Council are very clear that the need to go “outside” and hire an “interim minister” was not necessary given the strength and depth of Margie’s ministry already experienced by Vine Street over the past two years. Margie was actively involved in the discussions and is eager to assume this new role if approved by the congregation.

Second, the Administrative Council unanimously recommended establishing a part-time ministerial position to assist Margie and the congregation during the ministerial transition. This position would exist for at least six months and possibly longer, depending upon the time needed to establish Vine Street’s long-term ministerial team. The Administrative Council authorized the Ministerial Transition Team, working with Margie, to prepare a job description for this position and to interview candidates. The Administrative Council will be prepared to receive a recommendation for this part-time interim minister at its April 23rd meeting. That recommendation will then be brought to the congregation, together with a recommendation to elevate Margie’s role, at the congregational meeting in May.  

These two actions by the Administrative Council are the first steps in Vine Street’s ministerial transition to fill the incredible shoes that will be left behind by Thomas’s departure. They are just the beginning of our new congregational journey. This summer, we will begin the process of discerning God’s will as we explore our new dimensions of ministry in the coming months and years. We are grateful for Margie and her ministerial gifts and thankful for the opportunity to seek a new minister to assist her during this transition.

The Ministerial Transition Team:

• Abi Flowers, Chair, Administrative Council

• Lydia Grubb, Chair-elect of the Administrative Council

• Ed Cole, Chair, Board of Elders

• Erica Hayden, Member of the Congregation

• Stephen Moseley, Member of the Congregation

• Jack Wallace, Member of the Congregation

Advent with AJ

Join a small group at Vine Street for a four week study starting November 26.

In Light of the World: A Beginner’s Guide to Advent, biblical scholar Amy-Jill Levine explores the biblical texts surrounding the story of the birth of Jesus. 

In four chapters, she traces the Christmas narrative through the stories of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary, the journey to Bethlehem, and the visit from the Magi. 

These stories open conversations around connections of the Gospel stories to the Old Testament, the role of women in first-century Jewish culture, the revolutionary implications of Mary’s Magnificat, and more.

Our study group - Thomas Kleinert will serve as facilitator - will meet on Tuesday evenings at 5pm, beginning November 26. Each session is based on one chapter and related biblical readings, and will be opened with a video presentation by the author.

Participants do not need to purchase the study guide, but we ask that you sign up to receive additional information. As always, please invite a friend or a neighbor!

All Saints Sunday

On November 3, we remember and give thanks for “all the saints who from their labors rest,”  including members of the congregation who have died over the past year.

During communion, as we gather at the table, we will hear their names spoken, along with the names of others who have shaped our life and faith in ways that give them a special place in our heart. Some of them may be famous, others may be known only to us and to God. All of them belong to the great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1). We don’t look at the saints as a separate group of people or anything like the “professional league” of believers. Saints are simply who we are in Christ, and therefore are called to be (much as the Apostle Paul used the term, e.g. when he addressed his letter “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi”).

To submit names, please use this online form. We will also have a clipboard available before the service, if you’d rather submit the names in handwriting.

Celebrate October

Do you like chili? How about cornbread? Dinner with old and new friends?

We celebrate October with a soul-warming meal in Fellowship Hall, and in the course of our evening together we take a few moments to share updates and answer questions about the upcoming season of Room in the Inn at Vine Street (starting on November 7).

No need to sign up - the meal’s on the house.

Please bring one or more items for our RITI store - men’s boxers, socks, warm jackets, deodorant, etc.

Vine Street Grant Helps Power RESET

On Tuesday of this week, September 10th,  Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell joined with AgeWell Middle Tennessee, the United Way of Greater Nashville, and other non-profit partners, in announcing the launch of a new financial empowerment collaborative offering personalized services designed with and for older adults in Davidson County.  The Mayor specifically cited  Vine Street’s  Community Ministry Grant of $44,000 to AgeWell, as the initial seed funding for the program.  Vine Street made this grant as a part of our community ministries grants program using our Hallie Warner “Needy Elderly Fund” as the source of the funds.  A copy of the Mayor’s press release, including the mention of Vine Street’s funding contribution, can be found at: Mayor Freddie O’Connell, AgeWell Middle Tennessee, United Way of Greater Nashville celebrate launch of RESET program - September 10, 2024

Known as the RESET program, “Raising Economic Security to Enjoy Thriving,”  the new program will offer financial empowerment counseling along with benefit enrollment assistance and referrals for supplemental income opportunities to older adults across Nashville.  The program was initiated and designed in response to frequent helpline calls and the Metro Social Services 2022 Community Needs Evaluation which found that due to the rising costs of food, housing, transportation and healthcare, more than half of older residents in Nashville are experiencing livable income poverty.  In early 2023,  AgeWell and the United Way convened a six-month planning process that included a series of focus groups with older adults and a coalition of government, non-profit, and faith community representatives.  It was this initial planning process that was funded by Vine Street’s grant.  Ed Cole and Kathy Zamata have been active Vine Street participants in the AgeWell process from the outset.  Ed has been a long-time AgeWell board member and Kathy is currently on the AgeWell Board.  A special relationship that Kathy has to this process flows from the fact that she was a “Stephen Minister” who called upon Hallie Warner in the final years of her life.  Seeing RESET emerge as a faithful expression of Hallie Warner’s wishes and Vine Street’s stewardship of her gift has been very meaningful!

On this Sunday morning, September 15th, Grace Smith, the Executive Director of AgeWell Middle Tennessee, will join us for worship and share more about RESET during our “Minute  For Mission.”   Join us in welcoming Grace and hearing more about RESET!

Catching Up with the Spirit

six-week Bible study to launch in september

Will you join us for a fall Bible study? Over the course of six weeks, beginning the week of September 16, 2024, we will dive into the book of Acts. Each session will include a video segment with Matt Skinner, Professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the author of our study guide. 

We will have two groups, one meeting on Tuesday evenings at 5pm, and a second one on Wednesday mornings at 10am. Both groups will meet in Thomas Kleinert’s study.

Please get your own copy of the study guide (you can find used copies at half price) and sign up to let Thomas Kleinert know whether you’ll be in the Tuesday or Wednesday group.

Here’s a brief intro to the study:

Deer Hunting with Jesus

BOOK GROUP TO START THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 9

Joe Bageant, Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War

“After three decades of writing in the magazine and newspaper business, I was very frustrated with magazines and newspapers and tired of the glib paint-by-number material that clogged the newsstands in the never-ending search for the broadest demographic upon whom to inflict advertising.” 

What did Joe Bageant do? He embraced the internet, the “opportunity for a writer to say exactly what he wanted the way he wanted to say it, and let the readers decide for themselves without the intervention of the print industry’s editorial drones.” Articles published on a variety of a blogs, in 2007 became this book of observations from Winchester, Virginia; it was the writer’s hometown he had decided to move back to after a thirty-year absence.

Studs Terkel commented, “This recounting of lost lives — of white have-nots in one of our most have-not states — has the power of an old-time Scottish Border ballad.” It’s a book chock-full of anecdotes and insights — just braze yourself for the language.

Some of the chapter subtitles include

• Inside the white ghetto of the working poor

• Black powder and buckskin in heartland America

• They plead upon the blood of Jesus for a theocratic state

• The American health care system on life support

There already is a small group of people who want to talk about this book, and if you’re interested, they’d love to have you join the conversation. The current plan is to meet about four times, starting the week of September 9. Please get your own copy of the book, and sign up here. The sign-up form gives you several options to indicate your preference for a day and time for the group to meet.