The Vine Church Podcast

This week, Rachel sits down for a conversation with longtime Vine member, Vine youth member, and recent addition to the Vine worship team, Zeke Payne. They discuss Zeke’s passion for music and theater as well as the connections between developing compassion and empathy for the characters on stage and learning to do so for others in life. He also talks about favorite memories from the Vine and how...

On Sunday, June 27, while Warren was out, The Vine Church was blessed to have Rachel Tate Yattor, Family Life Resident at The Vine, bring a sermon about the false starts we often have in life. Whether due to our own unpreparedness, our hubris, or the random challenges we face in life, we frequently are frustrated with failures and difficulty making progress. But God provides us with the grace to s...

Rod Backus has not been attending at The Vine Church for very long, but he has become an encouraging joyful presence in the short time he has been at the church. But as Rod tells in this episode, he has not always had that joy or encouragement. Warren interviews Rod about his journey through alcoholism, being a "dry drunk," and looking for God in all the wrong places, before coming to know the one...

**SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT THE PODCAST** Beginning today and continuing through the end of July 2021, the podcast will include two episodes a week. The first each week, usually on Sunday afternoon, will be a recording of the sermon from that day's worship service. This is in lieu of the live streaming and other online content we have had since March 2020. We want to resume the livestream later,...

Studying the Bible can be a challenging endeavor, especially when we attempt to look for historical facts to justify the scripture, but is that really as helpful as we think? In this week’s podcast, Warren and Jason welcome a guest to discuss the Bible and how we study the Bible, for better or worse. Dr. Dale Martin has been a New Testament scholar for many years, most recently he retired as the W...

If you've ever deeply studied and meditated a passage of scripture, you know that it is very easy to get lost in the language, nouns, verbs, and adjectives of scripture. Today, Warren, Rachel, and Jason do just that, focusing specifically on the verbs. Inspired by the book, Rehearsing Scripture: Discovering God’s Word in Community by Anna Carter Florence, they take a deep look at the verbs of Colo...

What has been revealed to us about the Kingdom of God is amazing, but there are plenty of mysteries and unanswered questions. While the scriptures seem to contain many mysteries, the more important mysteries might be the roles that Christians are called to play on earth. Drawing upon Colossians 1:24 - 2:3, Warren, Rachel, and Jason discuss what God's mysteries mean to us, how we may explore these...

Most people might not look at the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, and see it as a book of comedy, but Warren and Rachel aren't "most people." In this week's episode they talk about various humorous stories mostly from the Old Testament, but they also look at the humor that Jesus often brought to his teachings. God calls his people to be people of joy, which sometimes means looking for humor...

Paul's letters to various churches have a wide range of purposes, exhortations, challenges, and encouragements. But they all have a spirit of love and concern. As The Vine Church embarks on a new sermon series about Colossians, Warren, Rachel, and Jason kick things off with a discussion about the opening verses of the letter. Paul's greetings and encouragements gives some clues about who may be wr...

We have been discussing lately about Jacob and the contentious relationships with some of his closest family members. Deception, manipulation, and selfishness are major components of his history. Yet, God was faithful to Jacob and his family. In a mysterious event, Jacob wrestles with the angel and receives a new name: Israel, a name by which a nation of people would be known, God’s people. In thi...

The story of Jacob is a difficult one to digest. In almost all of the stories of Jacob's life, there is an element of deception, either Jacob deceiving others, usually his own family members, or those same family members manipulating or deceiving him. Even Jacob's birth seems to hint at this deception, with Jacob grabbing onto the heal of his brother Esau. In this podcast, Warren goes it alone to...

You think you know the love story of Jacob and Rachel? Think again. In this follow-up to Sunday’s sermon, Warren and Rachel talk about Genesis 29 and some aspects of the story of Jacob and Rachel that can be easy to miss. From feats of strength to the presumed smell of a shepherdess, they dissect at the significance of meeting at a well and the possibilities of Laban’s ulterior motives. Hosted on...

Warren is joined first by Rachel to discuss the story of Jacob and some of the challenging aspects of what we know about him, both challenging for him and for us. Later he is joined by Terry Rascoe to discuss Jacob's father Isaac. As one of the Ancient Fathers who tends to get less attention, they unearth some interesting conclusions about Isaac and what those conclusions may mean for those who fo...

In another installment of “Getting to know,” Rachel interviews a member of The Vine Youth, Regan Martin. In addition to being a member of The Vine youth group, Regan is also a sophomore and a member of the Belton Magic Belles dance and drill team at Belton High School. Rachel and Regan talk about what it takes to be a dancer, a mentor, and a person of faith. They talk about the challenges of pursu...

During her time at Baylor, Rachel was blessed to be mentored by a woman who had been in the mission field and was studying for church ministry. This week Rachel interviews her friend and mentor, Jamie McCallum. Jamie is the pastor at Belfair Community Church in Belfair, WA, and she has served as a missionary in Egypt. Rachel interviews her about ministering in a rural area of the United States tha...

Warren is joined this week by Michael and Dorris Fortson. The Fortsons are members at The Vine, but they spend most of their time in Arusha, Tanzania as the co-founders and co-directors of Neema Village, a home for infants in need. They provide an update not only on how they got started with Neema but also the amazingly diverse ways they continue to grow their ministry to the babies, their mothers...

This week Rachel and Warren continue the discussion about Lent, focusing on one of the pillars of Lent, prayer. In Matthew 6:5-8, Jesus calls out the purpose of prayer and problems with using prayer for the wrong purposes. As we strive in Lent to fast for the purpose of growing closer to God, our focus of prayer should reflect that sacrifice: sacrifice our ego, our ambitions, our wealth. These mat...

In what could be another installment of the “Getting to Know” series, Warren sits down with long-time member of The Vine, Maxine Huddleston. While they don’t talk as much about Maxine’s life and faith, the discussion focuses more on art and how Maxine uses art to serve God and others. In terms of how she draws and paints, Maxine describes herself as more of a technician than a creative. She “copie...

Christians understand that Jesus is the role model for our mission and purpose in life. He presented a perfect model for how we are to submit to God, serve others, and humble ourselves. Both in big ways and small, we should strive to live out the Spirit of Jesus. But even his closest companions struggled to understand the nature of Jesus and how to model his example. In this week’s podcast, Warren...

In our Getting to Know You series where we reach for closeness with Vine members, Rachel Tate Yattor interviews Yvonne Eele who has been worshipping with The Vine for nearly a decade. Yvonne shares insight about the power of connecting with God through his creation, trusting God's justice and mercy even in the bad times, and learning to forgive. We believe this conversation will be a blessing for...

The Lenten season may be foreign to many Vine members, but it has much to offer Christians who choose to connect with God in a deeper way, setting aside the weights of the present to embrace the love, forgiveness, and undeserved grace that the Cross provides. As we encounter Lent this week, Warren, Rachel, and Jason discuss the ways that Christians can take advantage of this season to refocus them...

This week the podcast continues a series of episodes that help listeners get to know various members of The Vine Church who haven't been on the podcast but have interesting stories to tell. Rachel interviews Carol Johnson about her life. Carol has lived in numerous states and raised a family while owning a business. She also helped care for her husband in the final years of his life, until his dea...

In today’s episode, Warren talks with The Vine’s own Sherry Caffey. Sherry’s daughter Kelly and son-in-law Matt are co-directors of Walk In Love Uganda, and Sherry recently took a trip to Uganda to visit family and get a first-hand look at their work there. After beginning this work in Uganda with one plan in mind, Matt and Kelly had to quickly shift gears in light of COVID restrictions in Uganda....

Perhaps Jesus's favorite and most confounding teaching tool is the parable. He uses parables to help demonstrate the tangibility and reality of God's Kingdom on Earth. But despite their presumed accessibility, parables continue to be some of the most confusing and controversial aspects of his teachings. Why did Jesus choose such methods? What should we be looking for in his parables so many centur...

One of the lessons learned over the last year is that gathering virtually online, which not the same as in person, can have its benefits and create some real spiritual connection, even when we are not physically together. Online worship and offerings have also create a unique experience that has its own benefits and opportunities. Taken to an extreme, some might begin to wonder, "Why do we need to...