Vinings Lake is a new life and a new church to this growing community where in a 5 mile radius, there are 158,955 people, in a 10 mile radius, there are about 600,000 people – and it keeps increasing!

There was an existing church called New Hope that realized the growth in the area and had a desire to touch the community with the life, hope, and love of Jesus.  New Hope was in a transition and struggling to grow with about 25-35 people remaining a part of the church, so they decided to approach Pastor Johnny Hunt and First Baptist Woodstock for help because of their proven record of starting churches.

On May 9, 2005 the leadership of New Hope sat down with Pastor Johnny and a few others to discuss the possibilities of helping them.  To make an incredible story short, First Baptist Woodstock “launched” Pete Hixson from their staff, who is Pastor Johnny’s son-in-law and started a brand new church called Vinings Lake.

The “launch” team to start this church consisted of the people of New Hope, some people from First Baptist Woodstock, and others around the community that heard what was going on and wanted to be a part of it.  This group of people met every Sunday night from January-March 2006 in order to cast the vision and prepare for the “launch” of this new life and new church to their community.  The preparation also included an “Extreme Church Makeover” to the facility – modernizing the inside and outside of the campus.

The “launch day” took place on April 16, Easter Sunday 2006.  There was an estimated 450 people in attendance for their first day!  Since then, Vinings Lake averaged out to about 200 people in attendance and then grew to about 220 people over the next several months.  In February of 2007, VL started a 2nd worship service and is now averaging over 250 people.