Message series: "A radical manifesto"

Today we find ourselves in a culture that screams various messages at us all day, everyday. 

"Be this _____!"
"Ah, it's sweet - do that ______!" 
"You're not this _______!"
"________ is the most important thing you can seek."
"Who do you think you are to believe that ________?"

What would it look like to let the radical core-teachings of Jesus, told as a sermon on the side of a mountain, inform the way we would look at this world? What kind of people would we be in the midst of this world as a result?

Welcome to our message series for July; a journey of looking at the sermon that redefined everything – and continues to do so today.

Beyond Lights and Lampstands

We've been saying this a fair bit lately, but because we are a church plant we can't say it enough: nearly everything we're doing is being created as we go.

It's with a huge sense of pride that I get to write this blog today to fill you all in on some of the latest things we have created together, as a result of our journey through Lights and Lampstands.

Firstly, together we have found what we are compassionate about
As a collective we got together, prayed and asked the question: "What are we compassionate about in our city?" As a result of the conversation and brainstorming that evening, we ended up with three areas:

1. Local Poverty - this includes the homeless, the hungry, the rough sleepers and the isolated individuals of all ages in our city.
2. Mental Health - the rising health issue in our culture and generation.
3. Political Disengagement - this isn't about supporting a particular party, but the fact that people are apathetic in engaging with their local government, politicians and voting.

Secondly, we found some missional expressions
"Faith without deeds is dead" taunts James in his New Testament letter, and so it is with being a lampstand in this city. Just being compassionate is not enough, it must move us to action. And so here are the things we are going to start doing as a result of those three areas of compassion:

1. A collective "pass it on" rhythm - we want to support the various agencies and groups that are already doing a great job working with local poverty in our city, so at Central Vineyard we are going to start a monthly collection where we collect the suitable items for a certain group and then "pass it on" to them.
2. A conversation at ANI - we want to discuss with the school about how they are seeing to the mental wellbeing of the students and ask what we could do to serve them to improve mental health in the school.
3. Begin meeting local government - we want to start to introduce ourselves and meet with the local government around us and ask how we can serve the areas of brokenness they see in the city that they are trying to address.

There are more ideas than that too, but this is where we are starting for now...

Thirdly, now it needs you
Being a part of Central Vineyard means you play your part in serving our city.  These expressions will just be invisible ideas unless people embody them and get them activated. So here's what we would love you to do:

1. Pray and read through that list again.
2. Ask Jesus to show you which you have compassion towards.
3. Get amongst it as these expressions start to get started.

We're so excited to be able to articulate the expressions we are starting to live towards, and we want to express a big "thank you" to those who came to the Light and Lampstands evenings to help us discover all of this – we could't have done it without you!

Message series: "Worth-ship"

We are starting a new series this month called "Worth-ship", exploring what worship is and how we do it together.

There's a lot of excitement amongst our church for this one and we're looking forward to where this journey will take us. So don't miss out on participating in this with us, come along on Sundays to our gathering and come ready!

Oh! Also, to help us get more comfortable with the songs we sing together at church we've made a Spotify playlist for you to use during your week to encounter God. 

Important news: New giving details for Central Vineyard as of March 31st

If you're part of our family, here's some important family news.

Since we began our journey of planting this church we have been looked after with all the big legal things by our movement, the Vineyard Churches of Aotearoa NZ. We were given a bank account to use, people have helped us set up all the administrative things we have needed and we have had support with anything big that came along. 

At the end of this month we will be transferring from this umbrella support and begin using our own administrative and financial systems that we have now got ready for ourselves. 

This means as of March 31st we will be changing bank accounts from the Vineyard NZ bank account to our own one that we have had setup. So, if you have been giving with an automatic payment to Central Vineyard, here are the new account details for you to change in your internet banking as of April 1st:

Name: Central Vineyard Church Charitable Trust
Bank Account: 03-1322-0203315-000

If you don't give financially to Central Vineyard yet and would like to, please head to this page on our website to see the details on giving and if you're curious you could listen to this talk by Dan earlier this year on what we believe about our resources and generosity.

If you have any administrative questions, you can ask Amber Osborn by emailing her amber@centralvineyard.org

Thank you for your support of this church, the money you generously give enables Central Vineyard to thrive and play our part in all that God is doing in our community and the world, today.

No Sunday Gathering this Sunday, so instead...

Due to our regular hall being unavailable this Sunday, we aren't able to have our Sunday Gathering so we're gathering in our Circles to enjoy eating together instead.

If you aren't in a Circle yet, this is a great chance to meet some new friends, eat some good food and enjoy all that comes with doing that! Feel free to bring along a +1 too, just be sure to let the leader of the Circle know...

Here's what our Circles are doing, contact the leader for more details:

Central Circle - Waterfall Trip + Picnic
Contact Rebecca McGrath / 022 152 9084

City Circle - Brunch at Nixon St flat, Ponsonby
Contact Cameron Thorp / 021 245 8876

West Circle - Brunch at The Tannery, New Lynn
Contact Emma + Troy Moselen / 021 130 4822

North Circle - Brunch at Bungalo Cafe, Birkenhead
Contact Dan and Gab Sheed / 021 946 111
 

Message series: "The art of living outward"

One of the core directions of Central Vineyard is that we want to be people of mission; people who are living our faith outward into the world, not just storing it up for ourselves.

But, if you've been following Jesus for a while, you'll probably know that to do this isn't as easy as just following a scientific-formula or giving out a pamphlet. What if living outward is an art?

It's sometimes thought that the people who do mission are just the ones who are crazy enough to get a one-way ticket to a foreign country, leaving us just a fridge magnet of themselves to remind us to pray for them. What if it isn't just as radical as that, and everyone is able to be a missionary wherever they are?

Loaded up with plenty of simple things that will make help us make a big difference, this is a series that will take us towards some exciting things in the formative life of Central Vineyard.

I had vowed that this Sunday wouldn't happen

When I was a teenager, I watched as my parents went through an incredibly painful and hard period of ministry as the pastors of our church. I haven't made many vows in my life, but I remember making a very clear one at the time: "There is no way I would ever be a pastor."

Oh, how I laugh at that now.

This Sunday we have a very special celebration happening; we are being commissioned into the Vineyard Churches of Aotearoa NZ family, and with that, Gab and I are being commissioned as 'real' pastors. I had vowed this Sunday wouldn't happen.

I am so glad that my teenage vow hasn't eventuated. Just last Sunday at our weekly gathering we heard several stories of what people had experienced during our Prayer Week. If I had seen through my vow, I would never of had the pleasure of hearing these stories of God-at-work right now amongst us. It's an incredible privilege to watch firsthand the new and fresh activity of what God is up to.

We'd love to have you come and celebrate this special moment with us. We have Lloyd and Victoria Rankin, the national directors of the Vineyard, coming to share and lead our commissioning, and then straight afterwards we are want to invite you to stay for a big picnic lunch outside, our shout.

We're set to celebrate, and we'd love to have you there. 

Summer break

You don't have to get far into reading the Scriptures to see that God was serious about a balance of working hard and resting, so therefore, we're taking a good rest over the early-January summer weekends before cracking into a big year at Central Vineyard.

Enjoy the beach, the bach, or a BBQ at your place, and we'll see you on Sunday January 17th!

2015 Wrap-up

Well, what a year. When we began 2015 we were meeting monthly in our lounge for a BBQ, some worship and prayer.

Then we started doing a gathering in a cafe.

Then we decided to do it in a church hall in Mt Eden, and took a punt on moving to a Sunday evening.

Then, as of seven weeks ago, we began doing that at Auckland Normal Intermediate hall on a Sunday morning – oh, and just to add to the workload, doing it every week…

When we began 2015, I never thought this is how we would finish, but as I look back (which is a great thing to do at this time of year) I am thankful to God for such a good year of growing this plant into what it is. What a ride to have been on!

There are some great stories from 2015: we have had people share with us that they have found “home” at our church; we’ve heard stories from people of God-encounters during our gatherings; we got our hands dirty when we collectively gave three big trolley-loads of food to the Auckland City Mission for our Christmas Mission and I just heard a story this Sunday from a guy who has been sharing about Jesus to a young man at his work. That young man has made a decision to begin trusting in Jesus and our guy and his wife bought him a Bible this week. Exciting things have been happening, and I’m sure they will continue to do so.

In 2016 we will be launching our kids programme and we are excited to have people keen to play their part in what God is doing through us. There’s already people putting their hand up to lead new community groups, grow our experiences in worship, serve the needs in our city, and be generous in hospitality and connecting with people…

But hold the horses, that’s for next year, and we aren’t quite there yet. Now is a good time to be present to what we are in: a precious moment for a good rest.

“Now is a good time to be present to what we are in: a precious moment for a good rest. We hope you enjoy a good breather over the Christmas and summer break. May you be present to what the Lord is doing as you reflect and we hope to see you back for a great year at Central Vineyard on Sunday January 17th, 2016.”

We hope you enjoy a good breather over the Christmas and summer break. May you be present to what the Lord is doing as you reflect and we hope to see you back for a great year at Central Vineyard on Sunday January 17th, 2016.

Christmas Mission 2016

To play our part in serving the city of Auckland this Christmas, we are gathering non-perishable food items for the Auckland City Mission as they head into their very busy lead up to Christmas. These food parcels go "to the homeless, families who are desperately struggling on very low incomes, and isolated elderly with little or no family support."

We're doing one collection date: Sunday, December 13th. We'll keep reminding you, but mark it in your dairies and put a reminder on your phone.

You can bring the good ol' baked beans, tinned tomatoes etc, but what the Mission have told us they run low on is canned meat/fish, toiletries like soap/shampoo/toilet rolls etc and just some niceties.

So add an item or two to your groceries and come ready with your contribution to serve those in need this Christmas on Sunday, December 13th.