God has given us an amazing opportunity as the Missionary Church Western Region. For more than a century, we’ve been focused on the mission of making disciples and starting churches. And we’ve been blessed with growth and expansion not only in churches and ministries in the western United States, but also across the country and around the world.

During the process of strategic planning for our second century as the MCWR, our team began to consider the importance of a new name and identity that reflects our vision and is more than a geographic description – “We are the Western Region.” This led us to consider what we are known for as a family of churches and for what we would want to be known.

We started by reviewing the past four decades of ministry impact and then looked ahead to the coming decades of ministry. We are committed to the King and to kingdom movement. We are committed to engaging, developing and empowering leaders who bear lasting fruit. We wanted a name and identity that captured these core commitments.

We explored dozens of names and considered multiple themes over the past two years. Personally, I kept returning to John 15 and the image of the vine and the branches and bearing fruit. I am so aware that apart from Christ, I can do nothing. It is only when I am abiding in Him – and we are abiding in Him – that we will see any fruit.

This is how we arrived at the name VINIA! It reminds us that He is the Vine and we are the branches. As we remain in Him, we will see much fruit for kingdom movement. This name captures the essence of what we desire to be known for – abiding, fruitfulness and kingdom movement.

We are VINIA! We are a diverse family of leaders, pastors and churches who are bearing lasting fruit for kingdom movement.

For Kingdom movement,

Dave DeVries
Executive Director
VINIA / MCWR