Grove City Vineyard — Local services in Columbus

My mom dearly loved this church and regularly attended here for years until she had to move away. Even after she moved, she continued to faithfully tithe a significant amount here every month. When she died, not one of the seven pastors here, or even the retired pastor she adored, could be bothered to officiate her service. They were not even willing to provide a light meal and/or a place for a very small group of family and friends to gather together in fellowship, many of whom had traveled quite far. A stranger beautifully officiated her service. The Grove City Nazarene church lovingly opened their doors and provided a meal for our family at no charge. They never met my mom, but clearly understand what it means to show the love of Christ, even to a stranger. That’s pretty rare these days. The Vineyard demonstrates the true state of organized “religion” today… happy to cash your check, but can’t be bothered when they’re needed. As a recent widow, I’ve seen first-hand how uncaring “the church” has become. To sum up what my sweet little mom would have said… disgusting!

My reply to the Vineyard’s response:

Wow, just wow. What a shameful response; no accountability and no contrition. You were 100% available to accept over $10k in tithes, just in the short time alone that my mom was no longer able to physically attend there, but too busy with all the rooms and pastors you have and fund by such donations to even discuss scheduling with us. Here’s a peek at your calendar that day. Interesting… “Brother to Brother” and “Mom” group, both in the morning. No funerals there that day. You will surely reap what you sow… starting with the extremely generous bequest, which I’ve now redirected elsewhere. Just wanted to see what you had to say for yourselves before making...

In response to the negative comment made by Jennifer Martin. So you attended for 5 months and it was great. Service was good, the children's ministry experience was good- up until you brought your nephew who was shy and asked the church to make an exception for your family? Did you ever think that maybe there are safety concerns? The children are separated into age groups, if the church had allowed you to have your younger daughter go into a class with older children and had gotten hurt, how do you think you'd feel about that? Or if an older child was allowed to come into class with your daughter? Maybe you could have offered to go into the class with your nephew until he felt comfortable. As far as your comment about the church being a "wanna be" mega church, you couldn't be further from the truth. The church has slowly built their way up over the last 22 yrs.meeting in homes, then in a store front and other various locations to where they are now. I'm curious as to what would make you even think that. Is that opinion based on this one experience where you didn't get your way? I don't feel as though you can write a negative review based on an experience in which you asked to have the rules changed for you and they didn't oblige. I have attended this church for the last 10 yrs. and have deepened my personal relationship with the Lord due to the truthful, authentic and prayerful teachings from the pastors. I've met and developed relationships other Christians and most importantly, never once felt as though my daughter's safety was ever in question while in the Children's Ministry due to the fact that there are rules in place and they...

I have had two experiences that cannot be humanly explained. The first was like nothing like electricity running through my body and a feeling of well-being I've never felt before. I walked out of that church a different man. The second time they asked for addicts and alcoholics to come up front and have people pray for us. Well I was standing there and other people had members laying hands on them and praying for them. I was standing over to the side and I felt someone put their arms around me and it startled me. I immediately opened my eyes and looked around and there was no one within 20 ft of me. It had to be Jesus putting his arms around me letting me know I was going to be okay. For whatever reason other than me being lazy I quit going there for a while probably around 6 months. I had my favorite seat 5th row center aisle so when I sat down after about 6 months of not being there Tom came up and said Rob that seat's been empty for a while I'm glad you filled it. The thing is I have never told Tom or anyone else my name. So how...