Blue Ash Community Church

Andy Rainey

Thanks for taking a moment to learn more about our church. My name is Andy Rainey and I am the planting pastor. I'm married to a great woman with four great kids and we currently live in Deer Park, OH, 45236. My wife and I lived in Blue Ash for 2 years prior to moving to Deer Park, but have always loved Blue Ash.  Before I talk about the "army of many" let me give you a quick background about me and how we came to decide to plan a church in Blue Ash.  I didn't grow up in church, as a matter of fact if you would have asked me 13 or 14 years ago who Jesus Christ was I wouldn't have been able to give you an answer... I literally didn't have a clue who He was. I didn't even know there was an Old and New Testament. So the idea that I would be a person God would use to reach others with the Good News of Christ is a story itself.  So how did I get to church? Well I was married for about two years and I can remember looking into the mirror and hating the reflection I saw. Then one night driving home while talking to my wife on the phone I asked if we should start going to church and to my surprise she said she had been thinking the same thing.  We decided to try out the Vineyard in Tri-County and never left. About two months into attending we quickly got involved in our first small group that I lead just a few months after starting. That is when my life started to change and that person I saw in the mirror was one I was excited to see. I was drinking from a fire hose and I couldn't put the bible or anything that had to do with faith down. I felt so behind.  Well fast forward about 4 years and I decided I would attend VLI (Vineyard Leader Institute) and pursue this call I felt into ministry. Shortly after starting I was asked to help with a Church plant in the Monroe/Liberty Township area with a church called LifePoint Vineyard. I volunteered on the leadership team for about 3 years before coming on full-time as their Community Pastor. I'm grateful for the time there and the leadership provided by Andy Ransdell the lead Pastor.  It was the last 8 - 12 months on staff at LifePoint that I wrestled with God about the next phase of where He was calling me. After several conversations with my Pastor I could no longer deny that God was calling me to plant a church.  Why Blue Ash? We decided on Blue Ash for several reasons, but the main reason is because there isn't a church in the area that is purposeful in serving the city. I have a huge heart to love people where they are, if people hadn't done that for me I wouldn't be where I am today. I believe the best way to understand where someone is, is to understand where they have been. We are excited about loving the people of Blue Ash and the surrounding communities so that they too can experience the love of God that radically changed my life.