THE HISTORY of the GREELEY VINEYARD
TWO ARTICLES ABOUT OUR HISTORY
HIGHLIGHTS OF MINISTRIES AND EVENTS IN OUR HISTORY
"25 YEARS SERVING THE LORD IN GREELEY"
2010 is the 25th Anniversary of the Greeley Vineyard, and the 21st year we have enjoyed our current facility.
The Greeley Vineyard was planted in December 1985. Pastors Mike and Barb Webb came from the Salida (Colorado) Vineyard, which they started in 1979, and the first official service was held just before Christmas, December 22, 1985, at the Greeley Senior Activity Center.
Early in 1986, regular Sunday evening services were held at the newly-built Union Colony Recreation Center in downtown Greeley. By September of that year, the Greeley Vineyard staff convinced the Rec. Center to open on Sunday mornings, so we could meet at 10:00 am.
The sound equipment was stored in the front hall closet of Mike and Barb's home, and volunteers picked it up every week to set up the Meeting Room at the Rec. Center for church!
By 1987 we had outgrown the meeting room, and we negotiated with Dayspring Christian Schools, then located in the old Arlington School east of the University of Northern Colorado. For the next two years we rented the gym/auditorium, stored our equipment in one of the locker rooms, and used several classrooms for Sunday School. We still had to set up for church every week, which was quite taxing on the volunteers.
In 1989 we purchased the old Joslin's Department Store building in downtown Greeley, at 1015 9th Avenue. After a massive remodeling project, the first church service in our new building was in December of 1989. In 1991 we added the properties attached to the original building, located at 1013 and 1011 9th Avenue.
This facility has been home to the Greeley Vineyard for 21 years now. Many people have come and gone, hundreds of people have met Jesus here, and countless events and activities have happened over the years. Another large remodeling occurred in 1995, creating the space for the current stage and auditorium.
The Vineyard office facilities were moved to the main level, leaving the spaces at 1011 and 1013 open for rent. These leases allow the Vineyard to pay the mortgage payments on the entire property, which has been a wonderful blessing over the years.
For the past 25 years, the Greeley Vineyard Christian Fellowship, "Church in the City" has impacted our community and the world in many ways, by helping people find Jesus, and in service projects, missions, outreaches and ministries locally and around the globe.
We asked, “What is the most exciting thing about moving here?” They all agreed, “They have real sidewalks here! We can ride our bikes on real sidewalks!”
By December of that year, we were moving in to our first rented house in Greeley. There was more than a foot of snow on the ground from a recent storm, so hauling our furniture and possessions from the trucks was difficult, and riding bikes was definitely out of the question.
We had come from Salida, in southern Colorado, where we had been surrounded by majestic peaks, in the middle of the great Arkansas valley — our dream location. The boys learned to ride their bicycles on the dirt roads leading to our house. They played in the open fields out back, where the Little Arkansas River ran through the bottom of the property.
But God had sent us to Greeley, to start a church, Vineyard Christian Fellowship, and to find a new home for ourselves. It was strange that it took more than five minutes to get anywhere in town, and we didn't know anybody to wave to as we passed.
The months passed, and then the years. The boys grew, and the church grew as well. We discovered wonderful things about our new home that were surprises and blessings. We went to concerts and plays, the boys took music lessons from graduate students at UNC, and we found out about the incredible UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival.
We love that we are centrally located to so many exciting places in northern Colorado. We can run up to Estes Park for a day, or hike out at Pawnee Grasslands, where the prairie primroses and prickly pear cactus fill the high desert with a wash of gorgeous colors in the spring. We can run down to Denver to watch our favorite professional teams play, or spend a day boating on Horsetooth Reservoir.
But our best days are spent with dear friends and our daily lives here in Greeley. We can ride our bikes on the Poudre Trail right in town, and we never miss the Independence Stampede activities. How could you ever get tired of seeing that huge herd of longhorns, strolling free down 10th Street during the parade, year after year?
It is the spring of 2010. The boys are all grown and married. They still live close by. They have had experiences and opportunities in Greeley that they never would have enjoyed anywhere else. We all fell in love with this place years ago. What we thought would be 5, maybe 10 years, has now become 25, and we know that Greeley is the permanent headquarters of the Webb family. And the Greeley Vineyard is still here, too, making an impact on the community and the lives of hundreds of individuals.
Even though we have traveled as far as Cambodia, we can't imagine living anywhere but here in northern Colorado. We look just west of town and marvel at the incredible panorama of the Rocky Mountains, but then we turn east, and find that we are drawn just as much to the high prairie, and we love to get lost in its vast expanse.
This is who we are — modern plainsmen, pioneers and we deeply appreciate all that Greeley has given to us."
Barbara Webb is the administrator and worship director of Greeley Vineyard Christian Fellowship and has taught Spanish in Greeley, Fort Lupton and Johnstown. Her husband, Michael, is the senior pastor at the church.