From life’s milestones to times of crisis and everything in between, their pastoral hearts deeply minister to those the Lord’s entrusted to them. They are both dreamers and doers, wise and daring, and always seeking the Holy Spirit.
This year the Pickerills will begin serving as co-associate pastors of our church. In January 2021, when Rich completes his transition out of the Senior Pastor role, they will take leadership of Vineyard Columbus.
Read on to get more of a glimpse of who they are and how God has prepared them for this role.
Tell us a story about one of your earliest experiences with the Vineyard.
Julia: Eric and I were just married when a dear friend invited us to visit Vineyard Columbus. Neither of us had heard of ‘the vineyard’ and wondered if she was bringing us to a wine tasting! Our first visit ended up (accidentally) being to an annual congregational business meeting, but it was very impactful for Eric and me! Even then - almost 25 years ago - the leaders talked about VC’s emphasis on mission, preaching the gospel and stewarding the church’s resources so that Vineyard could be an outward-focused church.
Eric: Our second visit was to a Power Healing conference with John Wimber (the founding father of the Vineyard Movement). Being a term we’d never heard before, we expected some sort of inner-healing teaching. But instead, John invited the Holy Spirit to come and Julia and I experienced the power and presence of God in a way that was totally new; it turned our lives upside-down!
Of all Vineyard values, which speak most deeply to your heart? And how will you see to their flourishing in this next chapter for Vineyard Columbus?
Julia: There are two that stand out because they are values that I rarely see elsewhere. First, VC’s commitment to the work of transforming the most segregated hour of the week (Sunday morning church) into the reconciled community of worshippers that we read about in the Apostle John’s vision in Revelation 7. The Holy Spirit is doing a unique work in our midst; what many would call impossible work! And I love impossible things, because it’s in the impossible that we find our own weaknesses overwhelmed by the power of God. To see our community flourish, we must continue walking out this virtue of ‘togetherness.’ I’d like to initially focus on mirroring the diversity of our congregation in our leadership and staff communities. The second value that stands out to me as a unique gift from God is Vineyard’s kingdom theology: our ability to hold tensions! We believe in the now and the not yet, we’re “both-and” Christians, we are missionary people and disciple-making people. We can’t ever let go of these tensions. If we did, we’d lose the story of God, and we’d lose the ability to speak fully into people’s lives in ways that are saving, healing and transformational.
How has your 20+ year friendship with Rich informed who you are and how you pastor and lead?
Eric: I’ve worked closely with Rich for 22 years. Even while we were abroad in Amsterdam, we spoke often. He has been a mentor, friend and much-needed voice of challenge. It’s impossible to overstate his influence in our lives. Because of him we are better preachers, leaders and theologians. Our values and our views of the mission of the local church have been deeply informed by him. But like the saying goes, most things are more ‘caught than taught.’ We’ve caught so much: an insatiable commitment to listening for God’s voice, and to following the call of God no matter what. Rich has always been bold and willing to enter into what many would call ‘impossible places’: whether that had to do with pursuing justice, being the best friend our city ever had, racial reconciliation and a commitment to diversity or preaching the gospel unabashedly. He’s modeled integrity and a bold faith in what God can do when we say ‘yes’ and follow the Spirit. We’ve caught these things and more from him.
Julia: Rich opened a lot of doors for me as a woman with regard to my calling to preach and to pastor. A highlight was 13 years ago: when he invited me to teach at a main session at our Vineyard National Pastors’ Conference. I’ve been platformed, taught, mentored, challenged and developed in really intentional ways. This catalyzed my own passion for raising up and releasing younger leaders. Rich being both my pastor and my friend has influenced my entire development, really.
What dreams, scriptures, prophetic words, etc. has God used to guide you toward this new role as co-Senior Pastors?
Eric: When we returned from Amsterdam in 2015, we weren’t sure where God was leading us next. We had been changed by living on the front lines of one of the most secular cities in the world and reaching people who were totally disinterested in God or church. Initially, I struggled with the idea of settling back into life as we once knew it and we even started planning to move to Boulder, Colorado (thinking that was one of the most secular places we could find in America) to church plant. We flew our whole family there to figure out housing, schools, etc... And it was precisely then that the Lord very clearly interrupted me and gave me a specific burden-not for Boulder-but for Columbus. He showed me what Vineyard Columbus could continue to be in the future. I saw a picture of one church in ten diverse congregations around the city that were living out the kingdom in different ways. My heart caught fire and I thought, ‘This is just like God, allowing us to go to the place where we wanted to be so he could show us the place he wants us to be.’
Julia: Around the same time that the Lord spoke to Eric, God gave me a very clear and intersecting word - that he was constraining me to love and serve Vineyard Columbus. In that moment - I can recall where I was sitting when I heard God speak - our family’s entire expectation of our future changed! And it didn’t just shift logistically - something shifted in our souls. The peace and clarity we’d been looking for in our transition finally fell on us. We experienced much external confirmation of our internal leading as well.
Vineyard Columbus’ mission is to develop a community of disciples who experience God, love one another, and partner with Christ to heal the world. How do you see us pursuing this mission in the future?
Eric: So much of our future is connected with what God has done in the past. He has not only developed one community of disciples, but five of them all around the city. We want to see that multiply: not just five campuses reaching our city, but ten. We want to see God do what he has already done over and over again in our lives. There are so many more people in our city that need to be reached with the life-changing power of Christ: those who are stuck, those who are lonely, the many who are unseen or marginalized, the forgotten and the lost. Through grace and by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we believe that Vineyard Columbus will broaden our call to love our city one person at a time, one family at a time, one neighborhood at a time.
Our church has gone from overwhelmingly white and native-born to incredibly diverse, both racially and ethnically. What’s that been like for you?
Eric: When we moved to Amsterdam in 2008, Vineyard Columbus was just beginning to grow in diversity. We chose Amsterdam in part because it was the most diverse city in the world, and we wanted to learn how to plant and grow a diverse church, and also to learn how to lead with people who were very different from us. Our pastoral team and board were incredibly diverse-not just Dutch and American, but included leaders from Zimbabwe, Taiwan, Finland, Spain and Lebanon. Those experiences were foundational for us and showed us the beautiful intent that God has in building his church out of the nations. Julia: I came home from Amsterdam to a gift: a church that looks like the nations! Eric and I are deeply committed to stewarding that gift and seeing it thrive. It’s all too easy for diversity to be a value instead of a virtue. A value is something we believe and are motivated by, but a virtue is something we practice. Our congregation, campuses, volunteers, leaders and staff, have much more practicing ahead of us. We must continue building cross-cultural bridges in our community, being intentional about the ways we worship and communicate, and being diligent in platforming and releasing a diverse cohort of people at all levels in our community.
As you transition into this new role, what are you most excited about?
Julia: Right now, I’m very excited and grateful for this process of transition itself! It feels exceptional and healthy to have our founding leadership be so intentional and open-handed to the Lord’s voice about their own season of transition. In 1 Corinthians 9 the Apostle Paul exhorts us to run life’s races with perseverance, and with our eyes set on Jesus. The founding generation of Vineyard Columbus has, by God’s grace, been a shining example of that! I’m really excited that we get to shape this transition period together, that Rich and Marlene aren’t going anywhere after the transition, and that at the same time there’s freedom and encouragement to follow God’s leading into our future.
Eric: I feel tremendously full of faith when I look at the younger leaders on staff, around the church, and in VC Twenty. And not only that: so many wise elders in our midst are ready to bless and pour into the lives of the younger generation! This church has been given so much and is full of people who are ready to invest their lives into the kingdom. What the return of that might look like ten years down the line? I think it’ll be beyond what we could ask for or imagine!
Picture Jesus gazing at you twenty years from now. When he looks at you, what do you want him to see? When he looks at our church, what do you want him to see?
Julia: Wow. What a thing to imagine! First, I want Vineyard Columbus to gaze back at Christ with love, to lean toward him with steadfastness, to look like he looks and to shepherd his lost sheep like he shepherds them. But when I think of Jesus looking toward me, that reminds me of something I wrote when I was in my late 20s - my own core mission statement. Initially several pages long, it was very perfectionistic and idealistic, and all about how I wanted to be an amazing mom and wife and pastor and leader and friend. I showed it to a few older women who wisely helped me to discern the Lord's voice in the midst of my own striving. At the end of my editing, only one sentence was left in my ‘mission statement:’ “to live the kind of life now, so that when I’m 65 years old, I have a sublime relationship with Jesus Christ.” As a poet, I love how the word ‘sublime’ represents something that is so beautiful or pure or lovely that it’s almost untouchable, almost unreachable. But, by grace and in faith, that is what I want: in twenty years, I want Jesus looking back at me - having loved and served and led his church with all my strength, all my heart, all my soul and all my mind - and I’d want him to see between us a sublime friendship.
Eric: I am a dreamer, and as much as I love dreaming about what Vineyard Columbus will continue to do, the thing that I want more than anything is to rest in Jesus’ love and goodness. That is ultimately what we all want and need. In twenty years, when Jesus looks upon us, I hope that he finds pastors and a church not only working with all our heart, soul, and mind to partner with him in bringing his kingdom, but pastors and churches who know the deep peace of his presence, and who are witnesses to that peace all over our city. There would be no greater gift.
How can the congregation pray for you during this time?
Julia: We’d appreciate your prayers for our kids (Connor is 20, a sophomore at OSU and a leader in VC Twenty; Lucas is just about 16 and is an avid techie; Gloria is 13, is in the 7th grade and a cheerleader) - they’ve walked through a lot of kingdom adventure with us. And as is true for every adventure - there have been both highs and lows. Please pray that Jesus continues to cover them with his protection and grace, and that they remain aware of His love for them. You could also pray for clarity, wisdom, and God’s protection over the Nathans, us and the entire church as we enter into this process together.
Eric: Please also pray for the gift of wisdom for the next two years of transition, for unity of spirit for the leadership at Vineyard Columbus, for the Lord’s grace to cover over all the areas that will feel the weight of change, and for God’s vision and provision and protection in the lives of all who call this church home. And for Julia and me, that the Lord would give us everything we need to faithfully follow him as we begin to lead our church. It is a high calling and an honor!
Maggie Baxter is a long time member of Vineyard Columbus. She is a contributor to the MIX and primary weekend bible study writer and editor.