Our Story
While pastoring local churches for many years Bobby Hill realized how lonely it can be to lead a church with no spiritual covering, limited strategic resources, and no one to stand with you during times of adversity or crisis. “I always knew I wanted find something bigger than myself of my church to be a part of, but it was difficult finding the right match with my own values and ministry philosophy,” expressed Dr. Hill. After years of searching and struggling to learn how to be fruitful in planting and building local churches and ministries, God called him to build a network to address this need that is shared by many ministry leaders around the world. Vanguard Ministries was birthed in 1998 out of the successful multi-campus church, New Life Christian Fellowship in Chesapeake/Virginia Beach area of Virginia. Today, the network includes churches in the United States and members in America and other countries around the world.
What is an Apostolic Network?
Today, Dr. Bobby Hill leads the network he founded as it seeks to connect, resource, and equip leaders and churches to fulfill their God-given destiny. What is an “apostolic network”? Dr. Peter Wagner explains, “the new wineskin that God has designed for the church in the 21st century is what I call an Apostolic Reformation (other people have other terms for it). One of the most dramatic changes in the church world today is the recognition by the body of Christ of the gift and office of the apostle. We now realize that an apostle is a contemporary gift and always has been, or should have been. Apostles are being set in place in the body of Christ so they may function correctly bringing the church to full maturity.”
The most authentic form of New Testament apostleship is the formation of apostolic networks, which are God’s new wineskins for what used to be denominations. So, it is a way for churches, ministries, pastors and church leaders to coordinate the ministry God has given to them under a structure. This is not a bureaucratic or hierarchal structure, and it is not based on legal rules, but it is based on personal relationships. We are a small part of this new thing in the earth.