Will Vaus

This past weekend at  Stowe Community Church  we hosted my friend  Steve Russo  for a youth outreach. On Friday, he spoke in our local public high school on the topic of choices. Then we had a youth event at the church that evening. On Saturday, Steve spoke to parents. And on Sunday he spoke in our two worship services at 9:30 am and 4:30 pm. Here is a link to the audio of Steve's message from our morning worship service:  Psalm 139 . Enjoy!

Today is the Feast of Saints Peter & Paul. Thus, the lectionary reading for today is Acts 3:1-10. I am currently preaching through the book of Acts at Stowe Community Church. You can listen to my recent sermon on Acts 3 here:  Keys to Growth: Healing .

I know I haven't written a blog post in a while, and I haven't written anything about our church's study of The Purpose Driven Church  in even longer. We have continued our study of Rick Warren's book over the past many weeks. We have had two groups studying the book together. One meets on Sunday morning in our church building. The other meets on Monday night in our home. In both groups we have found much that we appreciated from this book, and sometimes we have found points we disagreed with. But the most important thing this book has done for us is to help us re-define our purpose as a church. After meeting for many weeks, our Strategic Planning Committee developed this new purpose statement based upon Acts 2:42-47.... Stowe Community Church develops followers of Christ who celebrate through worship grow through teaching connect through fellowship care through service and share through outreach to our community and world. ...

In chapter four of "The Purpose Driven Church", Rick Warren says, "Your church's foundation will determine both its size and strength. You can never build larger than your foundation can handle." I remember when my wife, Becky, and I had a house built many years ago. We used to go and visit the construction site every day. For a long time, it seemed like very little was happening. However, in fact, the most important thing was happening. The foundation was being laid. That part of the building process took longer than anything else. Once the foundation was laid, it seemed like the construction process went forward very quickly. There were far more obvious and exciting changes happening every day. But the foundation laying process was seemingly tedious and boring. Perhaps the same is true in the life of the church. The process of laying a proper foundation for the life of the church can be a long and tedious process. But I agree with Rick Warren, it is the ...

Here is a link to my message, on Luke 2:1-7, delivered on Christmas Eve at the 11 pm service at Stowe Community Church....  Big and Small .

If you click on the image above, you will be better able to read the C. S. Lewis quote I shared last night in our 11 o'clock Christmas Eve service at Stowe Community Church. We had over 600 people in total attendance at three services. The 5 o'clock service with children's Christmas pageant and many young families in attendance had standing room only, with many filling the balcony and standing along the walls at the back of the church. Our children and youth did a wonderful job, as did our choir in the 7:30 and 11 o'clock services. I am feeling very blessed to be the new pastor of such a wonderful church, in beautiful Vermont, with a community of creative and welcoming people. Thank you to all who by your prayers for me throughout 2015 helped to make this possible.  Here is a photo of just part of our Christmas Eve crowd last night.... May the Lord bless you and keep you during this Christmas season, throughout 2016, and beyond!

Our new congregation, Stowe Community Church in Stowe, Vermont, hosted their annual community singalong of Handel's "Messiah". It was wonderful to hear the voices of over one hundred people filling this historic space along with a small chamber orchestra and gifted soloists. Many have long been fascinated by the story behind Handel's "Messiah". As many concert goers know, when this oratorio was first performed before the King of England, the monarch stood when the "Hallelujah" chorus was sung, apparently in recognition of a greater king: Jesus. Audiences have been standing ever since, just as ours did in Stowe, Vermont last night. Here is a good summary of the story behind this beloved oratorio that is now so popular around the world at Christmas time....

There was a nice article in the Stowe Reporter today about the call of Stowe Community Church in Vermont for me to serve as their next pastor. You can read all about it here:  Stowe Today .

Stowe Community Church in Stowe, Vermont, voted unanimously on Sunday, December 6, to call me as their next pastor, and I have accepted that call. Thus, our family will be moving to Vermont and beginning a new chapter in our lives before Christmas. Here is a link to their web site where you can learn more about the church and the community:  Stowe Community Church . With all that we have to do to move, I may not be posting much on my blog for the next few weeks.  In the mean time, you may listen to the first sermon I preached in Stowe just this past Sunday. All you have to do is click on the link:  Come Before Winter .