Over the past couple of months I have had several people, more than usual, ask me, Why is the ministry named VantagePoint3?
Some who have asked me are new to this spiritual formation and leadership development ministry; others have been friends and partners for years and have never asked directly.
I tell this story to both of these groups.
As Randy Reese, VP3 founder, finished up seminary over thirty years ago, one of his professors asked him, “What do you want to do with your life and ministry?”
“I want to be about three big questions important to me,” Randy responded. “Who is God? Who am I? What am I to do with my life?”
As Randy unpacked this a bit, the professor listened intently to him and then responded, “Randy, it sounds to me like you don’t want to tell people answers to these questions; you want to help them discover for themselves answers to these questions; you want to take them to a vantage point where they can explore these three key questions.”
“Yes, that’s it.” Randy’s heart resonated with this description.
A decade later Randy launched a leadership development and spiritual formation initiative, which he called VantagePoint3 (VP3). The heart of what VP3 has been up to since 2000 has been providing adults a vantage point to discover more deeply who God is, who they are, and what God desires to do through their lives.
This is why the ministry is called VantagePoint3; this is why we exist.
Around living rooms and kitchen tables and board rooms and retreat centers and church classrooms for 24 years, adults have found a better vantage point to explore these big questions and risk sharing their hopes, dreams, wounds, and wonderings in a safe and prayerful community. And Jesus by his Spirit faithfully meets them.
Through this catalytic VantagePoint3 work, community, and story, may the name of Jesus continue to live out…
What goes on deep inside of you—
the continued shaping of who you are becoming, your significant relationships, your dreams about life, what you notice, what you care about
—matters.
Randy Reese (1962-2016)
