Hey everyone. I wanted to give you all an update on our Vida Nueva community. Due to trademark reasons, we are being forced to change the name of our organization. Our ministry, mission, and weekends will remain unchanged, aside from a change in our name. The change will happen over the next year. We are not sure on the time line yet, as we are coordinating our name change with the other Texas VN communities as well as a few from other states that are like-minded to us.
Why are we renaming? That is a long story. I will give a basic explanation below. If you would like additional information or have questions, please feel free to contact me directly. Nothing leading up to this is a secret. It’s just a lot to write out. So… In short, there exists a Vida Nueva International (VNI) organization that sponsors similar weekends to the ones that we have been holding here in Texas for over 20 years. We have never been a part of Vida Nueva International. Over the past year, VNI has reached out to us and the other Texas communities telling us that we mustjoin the VNI organization and change our weekends to match their format, or discontinue using the Vida Nueva name. They own the trademark for “Vida Nueva” and “VN” as it pertains to Christian youth retreats. We, as well as the other communities, have reviewed the requested changes and requested some compromise with VNI. After multiple attempts to come to an agreement, it became evident that we were not getting any closer to common ground. The DFWVN board has been kept informed of this though out the process. In September, the board voted unanimously not to join Vida Nueva International. We also polled all non-board member community members present at the meeting, and they also agreed unanimously that we not join VNI. We will continue our ministry as we have in DFW for 16 sets of weekends. We will continue to hold weekends following the format of our sponsoring community East Texas Vida Nueva, who has been having weekends for 22 years. There were many things that we could not agree on, but one that was very big in the eyes of our community was forcing us to consolidate our 3 day weekend format down to a 2 day format. That means all 15 talks, all the meditations and chapel services would be squeezed down into 2 days. We firmly believe that doing this would just be too much squeezed into 48 hrs.
Also, I would like to expand on the VNI organization. It is not like the International Board of Tres Dias with which many of us are familiar. Vida Nueva International is not a sister community to, or a ministry recognized as an equivalent weekend by Tres Dias International. The VNI board consists of a very small group of people with no term limits. VNI was created by Mid-Hudson Vida Nueva and continues to operate as their “agent” to ensure that any community using the name “Vida Nueva” follows either the “New York” model or the “Georgia” model as approved by MHVN, who owns the name. Texas VN communities have never followed either one of those approved models. The president and several of the members have been in their roles since VNI’s inception over 20 years ago. The VNI board, due to their dormancy for many years, does not have active participation from all of the VN communities the way that the Tres Dias International board operates. The Vida Nueva International organization was not involved with DFW Vida Nueva at all during our forming years. DFWVN has never used VNI’s guidelines or format. It is required that Tres Dias communities go through a process and have a sponsoring Tres Dias community in order to start a new TD community. That was not the practice for VNI when DFWVN began. Our sponsor for starting this ministry in DFW was East Texas Vida Nueva. We adopted East Texas VN essentials, weekend format, talk and meditation outlines. In addition, the ETVN community traveled to DFW to aid us in our first few weekends. VNI was never involved. East Texas has also since sponsored Southeast Texas and Central Texas VN communities. All of these communities and several more have also voted to not join VNI.
With all of this said, we ask for your prayerful support as we undergo the process of coming up with a new name for our ministry.
As I stated earlier, if you have any questions, or would like to discuss further, feel free to reach out to me at 682-465-4467.
Thank you, and De Colores!
Jonathan McCann
President – DFW Vida Nueva
UPDATE: We have a selection of new names to vote on. Please vote on your top 2 selections by clicking this link. Voting will continue until midnight CST on January 31st. The winning vote will become the suggested name submitted by the DFW community. We will then be voting on the larger community suggestions at a date still to be determined.