Our Story
The Story of Our Pastor
John was raised in a large Irish Roman Catholic family in Columbus, Ohio. He was baptized, received his first communion and confession, and was confirmed in the 8th grade. He attended Catholic schools from 1st -- 3rd grade (his mother was a teacher at St. Michaels in Worthington). His family moved to Clintonville where he found himself serving in the church as an altar boy and reciting a portion of the gospel "readings" at Mass. During that time he had a significant inner voice encounter with God on the playground of Immaculate Conception when he was eleven years old. He remembers clearly, that God said he would one day need to follow Him…really follow Him! For over a decade there was apathy and disinterest in following Jesus. While the Jesus movement was happening in the 70's, the hippie movement and drug culture also pressed in upon the youth. John was among those who searched for meaning in life, but not through Jesus. Eventually there was some movement toward spirituality by John in 1981 when John voluntarily placed himself in a rehabilitation program at Riverside Methodist Hospital for alcohol and drug dependency. This was a stepping stone towards eventually being opened to receive the gospel message. At 23 years of age, John realized God's love and forgiveness for him and made the decision to follow Christ.
John was working as a bartender at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus when a fellow who worked with him began to tell him about Jesus. Before he got too close to this "Jesus thing", John played the betrayer and helped have his "religious" acquaintance fired because of his faith. But God is relentless in wanting to find lost people. John's life began to fall apart. He was desperate for a solution. He remembered the love this person showed him that he was responsible for getting fired. John called him, and, the man graciously returned his call. They got together again and John went to a Bible Study meeting. At the second meeting that John attended, he knelt down and asked Jesus to forgive him and to be his Lord.
In 1984, John met his wife, Margi. They knew of each other from the same Christian fellowship they both attended. John had decided to attend another church, when months later they decided to rekindle their acquaintance with a dance at a mutual friend's wedding reception. It wasn't long before they were engaged. They were married in March of 1985. They have two children, Megan and Jamie, whom God has blessed them with.
John has two undergraduate degrees. One degree is from a community college in Applied Sciences to practice Respiratory Therapy (RRT). He also received a B.S. degree in Pastoral and General Ministries, Cum Laude, from Southwestern Assemblies of God University. Margi, his wife, received her bachelor's degree in Music Education from the Ohio State University. Margi is passionate about the pro-life cause and spiritually mentoring other women. Margi also teaches piano and voice in the home and is a substitute teacher in Fairfield County.
The Story of VCF/VCC Columbus and Eastside Vineyard Church
In September of 2000, with the blessing of the church leadership, John and Margi Moriarty were sent out from the Vineyard Church of Columbus after eighteen years of participation and John's eleven years of service as the Evangelism Pastor, to plant a church on the eastside of Columbus. John began Eastside Vineyard with approximately 75 adults and 30 children consisting mostly of people who had been a part of Vineyard Columbus but shared the vision for a Vineyard on the eastside of the Greater Columbus area. We began meeting at Harmon Rd. Middle School in Pickerington on Sunday mornings in December of 2000.
God's blessing rested on this new church plant. It grew to nearly 400 by May, 2005. At the same time, under John's pastoral blessing, the Pataskala Vineyard church was launched with a team of 85 people from EVC. The EVC congregation reached out into the Pickerington and eastside Columbus inner city through many outreaches: servant evangelism, food ministry outreach, and ministry to the elderly. Missions remained a strong arm of EVC, focusing on India. Taking many teams and trips to India, John began an indigenous church plant in Bangalore, India, providing oversight for it. By 2006, the church had sent its first full-time missionary family out to the mission field in India.
The Eastside Vineyard church was gradually recovering financially from the 2005 church plant when, the economic downturn of 2008 contributed to a more serious financial situation.
God Orchestrates Direction in a Tough Economic Time for His Purpose
With God's leading, my wife, Margi, and I made a life-changing decision this past October (2008). To financially assist the church that we started and love (Eastside Vineyard or "EVC"), we voluntarily stepped down from our positions as senior pastor and women's pastor. You could say we laid ourselves off. We surrendered our salaries so that the church could financially survive in a tough economic time. We gave the leadership to the assistant pastor, Adam Babcock who we are confident will do a great job as he is guided by the EVC Church Board. We are so blessed to have been used by God to found the Eastside Vineyard Church! We cherish the relationships we formed there and are thankful for all of the prayers, concern and care. We look to the apostle Paul as our model for church planting, who hoped the best for the churches he started. We too hope the best for EVC and I count it a privilege to have fathered such a work in Pickerington. We also are blessed to have played a part in another church plant by sending out a very gifted colleague, Brian Burd, who served EVC as an assistant pastor. He has pastored the Vineyard Christian Church in Pataskala since its beginning in 2005. Further, as a result of a vision God gave me years ago, we have been used by Him to plant the Bangalore Vineyard Church in South India. We continue to keep these churches in our prayers and solicit your prayers as well.
We (Margi and I) have prayed and have tried to sort out what God wants us to do in this next season of our lives. We have been open to different career changes and have looked into several, but the one thing that we are passionate about is planting and leading a local church. John loves to preach the Word of God, lead people to Christ, challenge folks to hit the Biblical targets, provide a refreshing atmosphere for worship and assist the flock to use the gifts God has given them. Margi's passions are to be a support to John and use her spiritual gifts to help build up the church. In the past two months, through a series of events, prophetic words and John and Margi's strong sense of personal mission, we confidently believe God is leading us to start a new church. How exciting it is to be expecting a new baby (so to speak)... another church!
John believes God gave him the name for this church back in the spring of 2008. Only, at the time, he didn't know it was going to be for this church. But it turns out that the name was for this current work. The name he gave John was "Chapel on the Vine". The best way to explain it is that it recognizes and honors the strengths of two significant movements in the evangelical world in the last 30 + years. It will be a blend of Calvary Chapel with its emphasis of the Word of God and preaching the gospel of Jesus to save souls and the Vineyard with its emphasis on the Kingdom of God breaking through with healing and deliverance and contemporary worship.
Why we moved on to start Chapel on the Vine
A "Different Bus"
Sitting under John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard movement, enriched our lives tremendously. We were not the same after being introduced to the Kingdom of God, signs and wonders, and church growth. I was able to sit under John Wimber's leadership in those early days. One thing that struck me was a simple phrase that John used to teach in order to help pastors not become upset when people come and go from their churches: Bless them, and, let them know that your church is like a bus, with a certain destination on its bus line sign. If they like where the church is heading, then welcome them on board the bus. If not, then it's OK, because they just need to get on the bus that God has for them.
Remember, the Vineyard movement was formed when Calvary Chapel could not fully embrace the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Out of two different buses, two great movements of God emerged, influencing for the better the landscape of Christianity in America and the world.
For us, the bus that the Vineyard movement began on has been changing directions and focus over the past few years. We simply are being led to be on another bus, heading in another direction. This decision to get on another bus was not an easy choice, but was orchestrated by God himself. God used the financial tough times along with our various concerns as a vehicle to steer us into beginning a new work through Chapel on the Vine, something that was not on our immediate itinerary. If you are interested in further reading, check out the forthcoming addendum containing certain trends for further reasons why. We simply and humbly have come to a conclusion that we are more conservative theologically than where the National Vineyard movement is heading.
To learn more about Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard check out the History page.
The Process
We want to be clear and honest concerning why we have moved on not only from the Eastside Vineyard but from the Vineyard movement. At the same time in our honest and full disclosure, we want to remain charitable and kind toward the movement that we called family for almost 2 and a half decades. We desire to be as transparent as possible, use discretion and wisdom, but not sidestep the issue.
Over the past number of years, John began to witness first-hand changes in the Vineyard movement at large. Change in and of itself is neither bad nor evil. It depends upon what that change is. In this case, the Vineyard movement (through its leaders, writings, and alignments) was morphing into something Margi and I recognized as substantially different from the movement we had originally signed up for. It was not the focus on the poor -- this was always a strength and something we have been involved with. It was not a focus on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit -- this has always remained a value, yet began to wax and wane in many Vineyard congregations. It was not a departure from orthodox Christianity -- the statement of faith is solid. Instead, the movement was deviating from its traditional "a-political" position. Through publications, conferences, speakers, and alignments, it was becoming intentionally and purposely more theologically and politically liberal in its views. Once intentionally politically neutral, the Vineyard movement's actions continually lean more and more towards religious left tendencies. Slowly, the social gospel message dominated the focus and began to undergird the advancement of a liberal--political social action agenda. Please note that not all Vineyards and not all Vineyard pastors are buying into this change being propagated by the Vineyard National board and other key Vineyard leaders.
So, after a wonderful 23 years in the movement, we were faced with a dilemma: to remain within the movement and not say anything, or, seek God for what He would want us to do. Over the past year, we followed biblical principals when approaching national, regional, and local leaders about these observations. John did all he could do, as a long time Vineyard pastor who was also an overseer of 10 churches in the area as an Area Pastoral Care Leader, to address the concerns with greatest discretion, integrity, and honesty.
Our conclusion: The Vineyard simply has decided to go in another direction (different bus) and we have been divinely led to go another.
Of course, we still consider them our brothers and sisters; we are not hostile nor at enmity; in fact many of the local Vineyards have blessed what we have embarked upon doing. We want to be at peace with all men as it is possible. We hope the Vineyard the best. It was a fabulous ride. We despise not our past from whence we came. We are who we are because of the great teachings and experiences the Vineyard has given us. We are grateful.
Yet, now is the time that God has raised up another branch coming from our roots of Calvary and Vineyard called Chapel on the Vine.