When you ask people for the Sunday service times at Vine Community Church, the most likely answer will be “9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.” While those are the times the actual worship services start, Sunday service at Vine starts much earlier. In fact people start serving hours before the actual service ever starts.

In fact, the serving begins as early as 5:45 a.m. That’s when members of the facility team first arrive at the church. First, the doors of both buildings are unlocked. Then lights throughout the facilities are turned on and the team checks for bulbs that need to be replaced and any other maintenance issues. Rows of chairs in the auditorium are straightened and everything is double-checked to make sure the church building is ready. members of the Sunday morning cleaning team arrive. They begin by washing windows, making sure countertops and tables are clean and taking vacuums to the church carpeting.

At 6:45 volunteers arrive at the Walmart bakery, where they carefully load nearly a dozen large boxes of doughnuts and bagels into their cars. After transporting to the church, the boxes are unloaded and placed on large platters for the first service. Other platters are prepared and covered, tucked away in the Vine’s kitchen to be enjoyed following the 11 a.m. service.

By 7 a.m., members of Sunday’s worship team arrive and begin rehearsal of the day’s worship set. They work on such items as harmonies, the musical bridges between songs and prayerfully set about making sure that the attention of the music is not themselves, but rather God. The team consists not only of the musicians and singers on stage, but also a sound board operator and a video projection technician in the audio/video booth at the back of the sanctuary, both of whom also arrive at 7 a.m. to make sure their portion of the worship service goes smoothly.

As the worship team arrives, the aroma of freshly roasted coffee begins to fill the air in the building, as members of the church’s coffee teams also arrive at 7 a.m. and begin the task of brewing nearly 30 pots of coffee for the morning services—a task that takes just over an hour. While the coffee brews, a second java team—this one the coffee set up team—works to make sure those attending the services will find plenty of cups, creamer and sugar and all of the other items necessary for a perfect cup of coffee.

About 7:35 members of a second worship team arrives at the church and begin taking their places on the stage of the North Building. This team will handle worship for the youth worship services that take place at the same time as the regular services in the auditorium. Like their peers, the youth worship group practices songs and transitions, focusing on giving glory to Jesus.

By 8 a.m., a small group of people meets in the lobby or the auditorium, spending time in prayer for the days’ services, the teaching, the worship and for all who will be in attendance in the coming hours. A few minutes later, the video technician makes certain that all of the video monitors in the lobby and the cry rooms are turned on and that each is showing a loop of announcements and information important to churchgoers.

As the clock approaches 8:30, the building is practically spotless, the bands and technicians are prepared, the coffee and doughnuts are ready for attenders and plenty of prayers have been lifted to God for the day. Members of the parking lot team don their reflective vests to welcome and assist drivers find a place to park safely. Inside, the hospitality team welcomes individuals and families to worship, answering questions and distributing programs. Volunteers in the Kids’ Program area have readied each Adventureland room and await the arrival of eager children. Then once the serving is complete, it’s time for the service to begin.

By any account, John Gund was having a tough summer. The SIU senior in English education was away from home — like he has been most summers recently — working as a counselor at a Christian camp while practically all of his family members were suffering from a variety of health problems. Then, to top it off, the Wisconsin bugs had made a buffet out of John’s arms and legs.

“It was the hardest summer of my life,” Gund says.

He thought things would get better when he returned to Carbondale for his senior year. They didn’t. What looked to Gund to be a mosquito bite on one knee began to trouble him.

“I noticed that one of the mosquito bites on my knee was starting to hurt, and it was swelling up and starting to turn black in the center. I figured it was a spider bite,” he recalls. “Over three to four days it doubled in size every single day. It hurt worse than anything I’ve ever had before.

A trip to the physician’s office gave him an answer: he had been bitten by a brown recluse spider.

“The doctor cut out a piece—I had a hole about the size of a nickel and a half-inch deep or more in my knee—and shoved it full with gauze.”

Gund says not only was the bite infected and inflamed, but the flesh around the bite was dying. His doctor told him that sometimes a similar bite on the knee could lead to loss of function in the leg.

A member of Vine, Gund turned to God and others in the church for prayer.

“I really knew God could heal it. I was praying, my wife was praying, my small group leader was praying. A couple of the pastors prayed for me and nothing major was happening with it. Finally at Team Vine, I was planning on praying for other people, but just as I was hobbling up front, I knew God was saying for me to get more prayer. A couple of people began to pray for me and I immediately felt the Spirit start to come over me. It was really intense. I just overwhelmingly felt God’s presence.”

Gund says that instantly the pain was gone and when he removed the bandage, the hole was dramatically smaller and there was no sign of infection whatsoever.

He adds that his doctor “flipped out,” so he shared with her his belief that God healed his knee.

Today, all that remains is a small scab—and deepened faith.

“What I got out of this whole experience is how truly humbling and awesome it is when Jesus uses our weaknesses to further His glory and His kingdom. There is no greater joy that I can express than to be a part of that.”

More than 600 people attended the annual Vine Community Church Vision Night recently. In addition to participating in moving worship and a time of receiving prayer, those in attendance discovered what the staff does when Lead Pastor Sándor Paull goes on vacation (see the next blog post) and learned of the church’s recent accomplishments and focus for the coming year.

“Last year was a big year for us,” Paull said, specifically naming construction of the North Building, the Brookfield church plant in Athens, Ohio, 95 baptisms during 2011 and the ‘pressing in’ on the church to become more of what the Bible says to be followers of Jesus.

Paull said the church had responded, and that church members and regular attenders have grown spiritually, as well as increased their commitments to the church. He said that the October survey indicates that more than 45 percent of church members give 10 percent or more of their income to God’s work. He added that 56 percent of the church is involved in some form of service and that the make-up of the congregation is becoming more diverse — a long-held goal of Vine: 77.8 percent white or Caucasian, 10.8 percent African-American, 6.4 percent Asian and 2.7 percent Hispanic or Latino. Additionally, he reported that students constitute about 40 percent of the church, with 2011 seeing a “huge jump” in high school student numbers.

“We have a wonderful balance, I believe, of students and non-students,” he said.

The growth in attendance and discipleship is requiring some modifications in the way Vine does some things, he explained.

“Experiencing God’s favor creates some issues,” he explained, outlining plans to start or multiply 16 new small groups this semester, increase the size of some rooms in the Kids’ Program area of the church building and revising the ways that baptisms and the Lord’s Supper are done.

Paull said he believes that the church is growing in its relationship with God, but there is more to come.

“We are learning how to celebrate in worship. I believe God has called us an oak,” he said. “We are to be slow-growing at times, but there is depth and longevity. We are to be an oak that will last and endure. We are going to continue to build His church and thank Him for what He’s doing in this place.”

One of the highlights of Vine Church’s recent Vision Night was the release of a secretly-produced video of the happenings around the church when Lead Pastor Sándor Paull leaves for vacation. It’s fun and completely untrue.