Message Series: "So Therefore"

Our message series for November and December is "So therefore", looking at the cause and effect of pursuing Jesus and playing our part.

All throughout the New Testament there are moments of the writers giving us the statements of who Jesus is, what He did and what He is doing, and then segueing into the practical outworking of this new reality with two words: "So therefore." In other words, because of that, go and be like this. 

It will be a great journey as we launch Central Vineyard to explore what it means to pursue Jesus and play our part today.

Pre-Launch update

Today is quite a special day, because as I write this, it's been exactly one year since I finished working at Shore Vineyards. It's been 365 days since I sat down at my dinner table on the morning of September 1st 2014 and realised I didn't have my old job to go to, because my future was now as a church planter. It was a future of the unknown if I'm being completely honest.

“Fast forward to the Sunday night just been: I’m nervously watching people go forward to the communion table because judging by my maths, the 50 or so cups that we had setup wouldn’t be enough. What a good problem to have...”

A lot has happened since then. Back then it was just Gab, a couple of friends and myself who were beginning to pray and dream about (what would become) Central Vineyard. We would get together around our dinner table or meet on the couches in our lounge. It was quite manageable.

Fast forward to the Sunday night just been: I'm nervously watching people go forward to the communion table because judging by my maths, the 50 or so cups that we had setup wouldn't be enough. What a good problem to have... (Thanks to those in our team who caught me eye and held back.)

This pre-launch period that we are in at the moment is some of the most exciting days I have had leading church. My continual prayer for God to "send workers for the harvest" are being answered. Terrific people who want to give this a go are showing up and putting their hands to work. Our team is working well together, growing in love for each other and sharing our lives more and more with each month that goes by. Our venue in Mt Eden is getting some great comments from those coming along. There's something about being in an old church, but doing it in a new way that has always been appealing to me. I love the sense of standing on the shoulders of great work already done by generations of saints in our city. Although we don't know if we'll be staying there when we launch this church into weekly gatherings, it sure is a great place to be at the present moment.

“We’re tasting God’s presence as we worship and minister, we’re seeing community slowly form as strangers become friends and family, and my favourite thing is watching people excited about playing their part and using their gifts.”

We're tasting God's presence as we worship and minister, we're seeing community slowly form as strangers become friends and family, and my favourite thing is watching people excited about playing their part and using their gifts.

We have one more pre-launch gathering scheduled in for this month on Sunday, September 27th. Depending on what we sense the Lord is leading us in, and how things go this month, we might hit the "launch" button in October, or we might loop in this pre-launch phase for a little longer. Whatever we do, we'll be letting people know during September, so stay tuned.

Please keep praying for us – hold us in your hearts and ask God to give us eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart to believe for what He is leading us in.

Benchmarks | Discipleship

This Benchmark blog was guest written by Dave Hoskins, a member of the Central Vineyard team. He's pretty hard to miss as he's the one with a pretty impressive beard, coloured the finest of ginger. Enjoy!

““And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’””

— Matthew 28:18-20

For the past three years, I have trained to become a nurse. This involved a repeated process of teaching, observing and practicing. During the teaching stage, I learned the theories and rational of the many different actions nurses must carry out, and during the observation and practicing stages, I was assigned an experienced nurse to watch how they carried out their nursing cares, and then to guide me through completing those cares myself. Now, at the end of this degree, I have the basic experience and knowledge from which I can continue to grow and develop my understanding and ability in order to become an increasingly more proficient and caring nurse.

During his earthly ministry, Jesus’ life with his followers reflected a similar pattern. He would cycle through times of teaching, demonstrating and releasing his followers to continue the work of the Kingdom of God here on earth. Then they would gather together and talk about all that they had done. Sometimes they got it wrong and required correcting, and other times they would return with joy, marvelling at the power carried in Jesus’ name.

Jesus discipled Peter. Peter taught and discipled the followers in Jerusalem. Paul discipled followers all through the Middle East and Asia Minor, commanding the followers in Corinth ‘Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.’ Paul’s disciples Timothy and Titus would make disciples in Ephesus and Crete. And so it has been for two millennia: a disciple has made disciples who have gone on to make more disciples. At a recent Vineyard Conference, Costa Mitchell asked,

““What is the fruit of an evangelist? What is the fruit of a teacher? Can I answer my own question? The fruit of an evangelist is another evangelists. The fruit of a teacher is another teacher. The fruit of an apostle is other apostles. The fruit of a pastor is that other people will be caring. The gifts are given, not so that someone gets famous, but so that the saints are equipped to do the work of ministry. Jesus is supposed to be the only guy who gets famous out of this deal.””

In the Vineyard, we believe that the best way to make disciples is by planting churches. So we plant churches to make disciples, and we make disciples who plant churches. This sentiment has been reflected by others from a diversity of movements and denominations. Mike Breen, an Anglican minister who now leads 3D Movements, a movement promoting discipleship and mission writes,

““If you make disciples, you always get the church. But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples.””

Discipleship is at the core of what Central Vineyard is doing, and we are doing so through four ongoing and intersecting branches:

Finding God: being a disciple involves an ever increasing intimacy with the God of the bible.
Finding a friend: being a disciple involves an ever increasing depth of community within the context we are placed.
Finding a job: being a disciple involves an ever increasing sense of the role we play in the gathered and scattered people of God.
Finding ourselves: being a disciple involves an ever increasing understanding of the people God has made us to be.

Following this command is an intimidating task. For this reason we keep in mind the statements Jesus bookended the great commission with. Firstly, this command is given with ‘All authority in heaven and on earth.’ When discipling and being discipled, we are doing so with all the authority of God at our backs. This authority can not fail. Finally, Jesus says ‘behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ He will be walking beside us, guiding us, comforting us, and empowering us to carry out his work in the world.

SHORE VINEYARD SENDING SERVICES THIS SUNDAY

In September 2014, I stood in front of Shore Vineyard churches for the last time and was decommissioned as the assistant pastor. Gabrielle and I were being released to begin our explorative journey of what it was to plant the church God was putting on our hearts. We didn't know what it was going to be like, but we were willing to give it a shot. 

Over the coming months our Central Vineyard church plant has slowly emerged. People have signed up and plans have formed. God began showing us what direction to head in and we have started to head there and see what happened. We are now well on our way in this journey – it's not just a hunch anymore, but a reality.

Which brings us to this Sunday: we will stand in front of our Shore Vineyard family again, this time not to be decommissioned to investigate, but commissioned to go and do what we are now doing: planting Central Vineyard.

In the book of Acts is the story of the birth of the Church. Jesus issues the visionary orders that they will be filled with God's Spirit and they are to "go to the ends of the earth." This all becomes a reality by the explosive act of God's Spirit creating a strong gathering of believers in Jerusalem and then, through the persecution of the believers, the church scatters out into the surrounding regions where these scattered-ones don't stop sharing this new Good News and making more believers...

...who form more gatherings. The way the church spread was by the gathered ones becoming the scattered ones, who then made more gathered ones who joined in God's work in that other place. It took being grounded somewhere, but also the uprooting of being sent out.

Our church roots are with the gathered ones of Shore Vineyards, our fantastic church family who have grown us up to be the people we are today, and bitter-sweetly, this weekend we will be with this family for the last time. This Sunday, our SVC family will do like the prophets and teachers of Antioch did in Acts 13:3, who "laid their hands on them and sent them on their way", releasing Paul and Barnabas to go and do what the Holy Spirit was leading them to do.

“We know that the Body of Christ is one of gathering together, but also being scattered elsewhere to be salt and light. As John Wimber used to say, “we want to be change in God’s pocket, and He can spend us however He likes” and this is how we are choosing to be spent.”

We are proud of our roots. We love Vic and Fran, our pastors who have equipped us and raised us up. We love the countless amount of people we have served alongside in all kinds of ways over the years – many of them are close friends still today, and we will miss doing the work of the Kingdom with them all. There is the sad and painful cost for us in being uprooted and sent, and it's that we don't get to do this with this family anymore. But this is what it looks like to be in a movement of churches that values multiplication – we know that the Body of Christ is one of gathering together, but also being scattered elsewhere to be salt and light. As John Wimber used to say, "we want to be change in God's pocket, and He can spend us however He likes" and this is how we are choosing to be spent.

So we look forward to being with our Shore Vineyard family this Sunday, as they bless us to be sent on our way to go make our new family, Central Vineyard. If you're a friend who is going to be there, we look being with you then and receiving your blessing to go.

NEXT STEP: SUNDAY EVENINGS IN MT EDEN

5PM, SUNDAYS

JULY 5th | AUG 2ND | AUG 30th | SEP 27th

We're incredibly excited to announce that we are on the move and taking our next step in our church plant journey: we're now going to be doing our monthly gatherings on Sunday evenings in the heart of Mt Eden Village, at the historical Mt Eden Village Centre Hall. 

This is all part of our journey towards launching our plant, moving from the Wednesday evening gatherings we have been doing at Crave Cafe to these new Sunday evening pre-launch services.

We're going to be gathering on four Sundays, four weeks apart, at 5pm on Sundays July 5th, August 2nd, August 30th and September 27th. So, come along, keeping an eye out for the blue Central Vineyard signs on the street to help you find your way in to right spot of the facility. We'd love to see you there as we walk another step closer towards launching our church plant.

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Winter Update

Last week we were in the middle of our fourth monthly gathering at Crave cafe, when one of our team led us all through a prayer time after the worship. James invited us all to get into small groups around our tables and to either pray for a) each other, or b) our church plant.

For the next five minutes I was blown away. I listened gratefully as the room buzzed with the prayers and petitions of people praying for us and/or each other. It's sometimes hard to know how "planting a church" is going, it can be quite immeasurable. But in this moment of planting Central Vineyard, this moment of a room buzzing with prayers, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. We are witnesses to a great thing; Christ is building this church and there is no turning back now.

At times we're feeling like grown-ups already. We've had great things to celebrate such as a couple in our leadership team having their first baby and friends who have been in a season of being prodigals who have given their lives back to Christ. We've also had some hard and painful things to go through already as well. What was it that Paul said in Romans 12? "Be happy with those who are happy, weep with those who are weeping." Yeah, we are getting that one.

Now, a word on what's next. On July 5th we are being released and sent from our sending church, Shore Vineyard. On that Sunday we will be prayed out and commissioned as a team, and from that Sunday onwards we'll be looking to turn up the heat on Central Vineyard church plant and get it ready for the spring months of 2015 to launch it publicly and properly. We'll be planning to start gathering regularly together (rather than just our once-a-month) and making our preparations to become a fully-operating commissioned Vineyard church. It's all very, very exciting.

And now, a word of thanks to some people. For those who are praying with and for us, thank you. We are feeling very loved and led by the Father, Son and Spirit in all of this, and we know it's because of people like yourselves who are praying. For those who are financially giving to us, thank you. You gift is helping us to do church and bless people around us as we need to. For those who are inviting people and sending people our way, thank you for believing in us and what we are doing to trust your friends and family with us.

We look forward to what is going to happen over the winter as we take the steps of planning for the spring – the season of new life, quite literally. Our new life being the intended launch of our church community and playing our part in the loving and serving of Auckland city.

Benchmarks | Prayer

“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”

— Ephesians 6:18

I have never been content with my prayer life. 

Please note, I say content. I do pray, and often too – as I hope you might as well. It's a sense of not being satisfied with this simple-yet-complex devotional discipline that I am writing about here though. There's something about it that just always leaves me feeling like I haven't got there yet.

When I read what Paul writes here to the Ephesian church in this Benchmark, it can seem like a big ask, but for Paul it's meant to be the most normal thing in the whole world. Let me explain:

Paul has grown up in a culture where the presence of God was found in a special room within a temple. This temple was the temple found in Jerusalem, and in the temple was a room called the Holy of Holies – a room behind a curtain, where access was strictly forbidden to only the cleanest-of-clean, the highest priest on the Day of Atonement.

Now, if you've read the story of Jesus before, you might remember that the moment he died on his cross, a curtain in the temple was torn – that curtain was this curtain. It's tearing symbolised that the presence of God was now no longer stuck in just this place, but was now bursting forth to be found with the new priests, in the new temples: God's Church, His people. (Read: Us.)

And so Paul, because this is what he thinks of when he thinks of this new place of God's Spirit, says that we are what that room in the temple used to be used for all the time: a place of God's presence.

“The story of the scriptures tell us that we are the new royal priesthood, the people who are on the cutting edge of the Kingdom of God breaking into the world. ... Looking at that job-profile, I realise that we always have something to do and unfortunately we will never be fully satisfied this side of heaven. Prayer becomes one of the roads we live all of this out on.”

Which brings me back to that feeling of being discontent. Being discontent about prayer is actually all about being discontent about something far bigger - our entire relationship with God and our place in His story. The story of the scriptures tell us that we are the new royal priesthood, the people who are on the cutting edge of the Kingdom of God breaking into the world. In this new thing God is doing, we are to be the people who are to intercede for others, to worship and glorify God, to do acts of justice in the world and to live holy and blameless lives. Looking at that job-profile, I realise that we always have something to do and unfortunately we will never be fully satisfied this side of heaven. Prayer becomes one of the roads we live all of this out on.

So how could you walk this road another step?

Well, there's something very simple you could do next time you notice something spring up around you. Maybe a friend reports to you a sickness, or another looks really tired. Maybe someone has a big decision to make, or someone else might be struggling with something. Another friend may have great news to celebrate. No matter what the scenario, here's seven words you could say that would sum up Paul's challenge in Ephesians 6:18:

"Can I pray for you, right now?"

New home group starting

““Few people arise in the morning as hungry for God as they are for cornflakes or toast and eggs.””

— Dallas Willard

How do we get better at hearing God? 

We're starting a home group at the Sheed's to look closer at the topic of hearing from God. To do this, we're going to journey together through Dallas Willard's "Hearing God".

All are welcome, but you'll need to get a copy of the book. You can check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/Hearing-God-Developing-C…/…/0830835695

Easter Sunday

Good Friday