Odyssey Unification Church

Jario and Leena Vincenz-Gavin
August 2013
Bartlett, IL

Question: Please describe your passion or what you most enjoy doing:

Leena Vincenz-Gavin: I've always had a passion for working with people. Perhaps because I grew up as an only child, I have that desire to be with others. I spent many years dancing, choreographing and teaching dance, which was one of my minors in college. I also spent many hours volunteering with youth ministry, Sunday school and nursery. I love to teach children, help them reach their full potential -- which is why I studied elementary education. If I could spend my whole life mastering a passion I have, it would be continually learning how to work with other people: how to pass on my experiences and what I've learned and helping others reach their innermost dreams. I've always dreamed of having a dance studio or a preschool/kindergarten attached to our new church. That would be awesome! But I truly find joy when I'm able to help someone else through their life struggles.

Jario Vincenz-Gavin: I really enjoy sitting with people and sharing about life: what they think about life, who God is to them, talking about issues in their lives and how they can overcome them. I like to be a positive influence on others. Besides that, I just love to read anything and everything. Learning is awesome, and I'm always excited to pick up a new book.

Leena Vincenz-Gavin: I have always desired for others to be able to experience God through music and worship. This love for worship has definitely influenced my pastoral style, as we have put a strong emphasis on creating an awesome Sunday worship experience. In our new church plant, Sunday Worship Service will definitely be our main way of witnessing.

Jario Vincenz-Gavin: I really enjoy studying and understanding what God is trying to convey through ancient scripture. I like to ponder these ideas and relate them to everyday life. In my sermon preparation I always spend a minimum of eight hours studying different texts and writing my message. I enjoy communicating old concepts to today's reality and hope to inspire others to take a closer look.

I'm a sermon junkie. I love to flip through sermons by different pastors in the Christian circle. There are so many people out there so gifted by God to communicate, and I can't get enough of it. I like to hear different perspectives on things I believe as well as things that I just flat out disagree with.

I also subscribe to Leadership Journal, a Christian pastoring magazine, as well as Relevant, a magazine that reviews cultural trends through a Christian perspective. I believe God really built Christianity as a foundation to share the news about the Second Coming, and I want to use that foundation to its fullest. I'm also always picking up new books relating to ministry.

Question: Please tell us a little about yourselves

Leena Vincenz-Gavin: Although I was born in New York, I spent my childhood in Germany up until age eight. I loved it there. It was beautiful growing up in Linden, Leihgestern. My dad was a missionary. He would be home a month, then travel a few months in China or South America. So it was just my mom and I. She didn't drive; everything was in walking distance. There was a big field behind our home that I always played in. In Germany I had very close school friends and only a couple church friends. I enjoyed ballet, gymnastics and swimming. Then we moved to Illinois when I was 8, entering the 3rd grade. I was an ESL student in my first year. Having moved to the northwest suburbs of Chicago, I had the opportunity to grow up in a larger Unification Church community. I am very grateful for the deep friendships I was able to grow over the years with other young Unificationists.

Jario Vincenz-Gavin: I lived for 10 years in Virginia and my next 10 in Minnesota. In Virginia we attended the D.C.-area church and were always surrounded by many other blessed families. When we moved to Minnesota, that changed drastically. In Minnesota we had a small but close community that supported me as I grew in faith. When I moved to Chicago six years ago, I planned on becoming a history teacher. That is really all I wanted, but I also wanted to help with the witnessing efforts here. I volunteered for about seven months with the local witnessing initiatives and then was asked to help with youth ministry. I was the youth pastor here for four-and-a-half years. I loved it; I just loved being with the kids and helping them find their own pathways to God. After working for a few years in the youth ministry, I knew that I wanted to continue to minister the rest of my life. I could see from working with the kids that the whole family really needed to be ministered to, and I hoped that one day I could do that.

Leena Vincenz-Gavin: Growing up, there were many times I wished I wasn't born into this faith. It seemed so strict and limiting in some ways. But now I am so grateful to have grown up with these values and traditions that have helped to guide me and shape me into who I am today. One deep thing I learned about our faith is: In other faiths they ask what God can do for me, but in the Unification faith it's about what I can do for God. That really struck me and has impacted my life since. Over the years I realized that there is so much depth behind what we believe and it makes so much sense. It's the simple principles that I try to apply in my daily life, and I'm still on a lifelong journey of developing my relationship with God, Jesus and True Parents.

Jario Vincenz-Gavin: I appreciated my family's traditions. My parents always modeled their faith through their involvement in local activities as well as the way they loved our family. They showed what marriage could be through their love for one another. They always encouraged us on our journey and, more importantly, loved us even when we stumbled. For me their marriage and the way they raised our family were the traditions that I wanted to carry on into my own life.

Question: Can you tell us about the Odyssey Church plant journey?

Leena Vincenz-Gavin: I started volunteering with ministry my senior year of high school. My journey began in youth ministry. I felt a desire to give back and help others who grew up in the Unification faith with their faith journey. Over the years, no matter how busy I got with studies, work or married life, I could not help but contribute to the local church ministry. There was a sense of urgency I felt and a sense of fulfillment through helping out. This led to five years in youth ministry and almost two years [with my husband] as co-pastors, which led us to want to plant a church.

Jario and I are embarking on this new journey of church planting right now. It's something Jario had studied and dreamed of four years ago. We've spent many months praying about it and preparing for it, asking God if this is really what we are called to. And we feel it is. The way I truly connect to True Parents is through my own parents' experiences and stories and their faith, courage, love and devotion to God, True Parents and this world. My dad felt called to pioneer France. There it took him three years to gain his first member, and then in the following four years he was able to plant seven churches. That is a huge inspiration to us. I think church planting is really exciting. It's important to have a clear vision, focus and target as well as a core team to consistently bounce ideas off with and work together with.

Jario Vincenz-Gavin: It is hard in the sense that you are building a whole church from scratch. At the same time it's a blank canvas to work with. You have to think of every element before opening the doors. I believe Father Moon wants us to get out into the world and transform communities through the Divine Principle. I am trying to be a part of a discipleship community that strives to apply the Divine Principle to our daily life. We are hoping to inspire others to go outside of their comfort zone and build new faith communities so more people can find out about True Parents. With a church plant I am not limited by how things are supposed to be but can pursue new and creative methods. It's a really exhilarating process because everything is brand-new.

Leena Vincenz-Gavin: Church plants are a great place to try new things. I think it is a very serious matter, though. Jario and I left our past very secure position of co-pastors to go on this new journey. You have to feel called to it. For anyone considering church planting, I think you have to be fully committed -- research, prepare and plan a lot before beginning. Networking and sharing with other Unification Church pastors across the nation is really encouraging and helpful. I don't believe everyone has to be a leader and start a new church. Just like a family, a church has many aspects. Someone serving in their local church as a greeter or barista, creating a warm and welcoming environment at service, is just as important as someone else who feels called to start a new church. I think God needs the whole body to bring about His Kingdom.

Jario Vincenz-Gavin: I hope that we can create self-sustaining communities, not just in a financial way but spiritually as well. I see mature believers all across this country that can reach out in numerous ways. I hope to see communities that can help people connect to the faith, raise healthy families and find their own way to contribute to a better world.

Question: How is it pastoring as a couple?

Jario Vincenz-Gavin: Working as a couple has been really great. It's like in marriage we are not really whole without the feminine aspect. We've been able to work in a much wider way because we are constantly looking at things from two viewpoints. We often reflect why we work so well together, and it comes down to this: I am good at creating a big vision while my wife is able to bring it to reality, organizing the dream into manageable steps. She is really well organized and great at communicating with others and bringing the team together. I would say that while we may operate a little slower, in the end we're more effective because our actions are well thought out and executed.

Leena Vincenz-Gavin: My husband, Jario, is really great at research and constantly studying and reading about church growth and learning from other churches. I definitely like to take what I've learned through my bachelor's in elementary education and apply it in the ministry -- providing a relevant, interactive and hands-on experience. I also have a love for interior design, so I'm constantly dreaming up ideas for the look and feel of our future church building. One of the first things we're doing during our church plant launch is participating in many other church services over the summer. We're going to be visiting mega churches as well as small storefront church plants. I know there we'll gain a variety of experiences and learn many best practices. We are very open to always learning, growing and trying out new things.

Question: What do you hope to achieve through this church plant?

Leena Vincenz-Gavin: I believe that changing the world starts with each one of us finding our calling and using our passions for God and others. We hope to continue Father Moon's legacy by multiplying and expanding our church's reach through new church plants. The focus of our church plant is reaching young professionals and young families. We hope to create an environment where Unificationists, who haven't come to church in years, as well as new members, can feel welcomed and embraced.

Jario Vincenz-Gavin: I never knew how to say what our beliefs were. We were kind of inter-religious but still held to our own disciplines. It seemed to me that we were ambiguous and no one really had a clear stance on absolute truths like who True Parents were or how we viewed the Blessing. I was very appreciative, then, when Reverend Hyung Jin Moon came out and stated that we are Unificationists and that we should be proud of that. He clarified that there were fundamental beliefs that were attributed to being an Unificationist. I appreciated finally having a clear identity. This helped me in really developing my spiritual practices and becoming the man I am today. In the last few years we have been working towards developing a strong sense of community. I am glad to be a part of that kind of church. When we began youth ministry, we focused on shifting towards a positive "become like this" mentality. I've also really become passionate about reaching the really lost and broken people of this world. I like to help people continue on their journey, but there are so many people who haven't even started. I want to be the spark for others to begin their journey.

Question: What do you have to look forward to in this coming year?

Leena Vincenz-Gavin: Locally, I look forward to the year ahead. Right now it's a blank slate to be written on. I'm excited to pioneer and try new things. I've always grown up in a larger church community, which has been awesome, but I'm also looking forward to the experience of a more intimate, smaller community. I'm looking forward to building relationships and getting to know new people in the Palatine community. I'm looking forward to our first Worship Service and all the new friends we will make through our investment.

Globally, I hope that we can each find our identity of who we are as Unificationists. My highest hopes are that our church grows and thrives all over the world; that we share best practices and learn from one another; that we're not all expected to witness in the same ways. I know Chicago is paired with England and India for the 2020 Vision. I hope to learn lots from the English church and to send youth over for a mission trip in the summer to India. We need to be open to what the millennial generation of today is looking for and cater to that.