News, thoughts and important bits-and-pieces
“...and I will give you rest.”
You've worked hard this year and to work hard is good. You've created new things and contributed to what is going on in the world and the Kingdom of God. You've poured your time, energy and resource into the things you love most.
Now, as we head towards Christmas and a summer break, what does it mean to take a break and rest?
Join us in our new series "And I will give you rest" as we explore what the rest God offers looks like, and why it's important.
For the next two Sunday gatherings at Central Vineyard we have guests coming to speak and share. Don't miss out on hearing from these two Vineyard NZ leaders and great friends of Central Vineyard.
Lloyd Rankin, national director of Vineyard Churches Aotearoa NZ, is coming to speak on Sunday, November 13. Lloyd and his wife Victoria pioneered the Vineyard movement here in NZ and have planted several churches over the last two decades.
Jacinda Lilly, who pastors Coast Vineyard with her husband Matt, is coming to speak on Sunday, November 20. The Lilly's were sent from Shore Vineyards (just like us!) and planted Coast Vineyard three years ago, and continue to see it grow and bless the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.
A big thanks to all who helped pull this special celebration together and to Cameron Thorp for taking these photos.
At Central Vineyard we want to take our spiritual health seriously, so we take self-awareness seriously. To go along with this recent sermon on our ministry gifts, here are three tests we recommend you doing to help you have language about what you are gifted for.
1. Strengths Finder - a great tool for finding out what strengths you have
2. Sacred Pathway - a quick test to find out the ways you best connect with God
3. Ministry Gift Finder - a test to find out your Ephesians 4 ministry gifts
As pursuers of Christ who are following what the Father is doing by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become people who are a bridge between the broken and the holy. In this place, we have various gifts we can use and when we use the gift of faith we are choosing to stand in the gap between people who may not have faith themselves for what God can do for them.
As a church we want to stand in the gap for the broken and lost, and one of the ways we can do that is through joining in this prayer challenge we have found from a church called Church of the Highlands.
Join us in engaging the gift of faith by committing to pray for 1 person, for 1 minute a day, for 1 month. So, set a reminder, take a screenshot or save this is as a bookmark, and here's what to pray each day::
1. That the Father would draw _______ to Jesus (John 6:44)
2. We bind the spirit that blinds _______ mind (2 Cor 4:4)
3. That _______ would desire to know God as their Father (Rom 8:15)
4. That believers would cross their path (Matt 9:38)
5. That _______ would have a divine encounter (Eph 1:17)
So, let's stand in the gap and trust that God will do His part in seeing these things happen.
1. Set a side a section of your journal/get a new one.
2. Ask God daily for words for Christians you know and write down everything you see with as much detail as you can.
3. See. Pray. Wait.
4. At the end of the week allow whatever is still brewing and has life to be shared with the person it's for.
5. Practice giving the word in a strengthening, encouraging and comforting way with a few of these helpful phrases…
One of the core values for a Vineyard church is that "everyone gets to play" - meaning that everyone can use the gifts of the Holy Spirit to play their part in what God is doing in this world. We are natural, ordinary people of a supernatural, extraordinary God.
At Central Vineyard we feel called to go on a journey, for the next couple of months, to explore together what it is to be these kind of people. We're going to teach about it on Sunday at our gatherings, we're going to practice it and we're going to have our Engage blogs adding a little extra to your week.
It's going to be a lot of fun!
It's been 6 months since we became a church, and to celebrate we took this Sunday to reflect on where we've been and where we're heading. You can listen to the talk here, but I wanted to jot down a bit of a list too for those who like to read and consider. #introvertsunite
In Matthew 7, to land the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to "build your house on the rock." As a church that is unashamedly pursuing Jesus, this is exactly what we have been trying to do. We don't want Central Vineyard to be a flash-in-the-pan – we want it to have longevity and health, and so we have spent the first part of this year digging particular foundations that this "Rock" would have us build on:
How is it all going? Well, pretty good actually. Our church has grown substantially over these first 6 months while still holding tightly to these foundational values we have wanted to live out. It's grown so much that we have moments of feeling like the structure we have in place around it all is a bit strained, so we have some exciting developments:
Where to next? Well we want another foundation at Central Vineyard to be that everyone knows they are gifted by the Holy Spirit to contribute, bless and play their part in what God is doing. So we have a new journey ahead which is called "Gifted", a series that will explore what it is to be natural, ordinary people of a supernatural, extraordinary God.
Just a note on this; on Sunday we opened up some space for people to listen to God at the end of our gathering and several words were given and emailed in afterwards – it seems our series has already begun!
Watching the church that was in our hearts for the last couple of years form into the Central Vineyard we have today is one of the most exciting things I have ever had the privilege of seeing in my life. Gab and I love where this is all going and we will continue to prayerfully go wherever God's presence is leading us as a family, and keep our hand to digging good foundations for the future.
Aroha nui,
Dan
This week you're going to look at Matthew 6:1 - 7:12 where Jesus redefines what it is to be practicing our spirituality.
Jesus is redefining our piety (AKA our spiritual lives put into practice or "our outside life match our inside life") and urges us to do this with simplicity, in secrecy for the audience of just God, and to be secure and grounded in God.
Engage in the discipline of fasting. Jesus teaches on the discipline of fasting as one of the outworkings of our spiritual life. "Fasting" is not black-mailing God on a hunger-strike - it's intentionally choosing to strip away our allegiances to other gods in our life by saying "No!" to them for a period of time so we learn not to let them rule us.
Here's some ways you could fast this week:
This week you're going to look at the last two-thirds of Matthew chapter 5 where Jesus is radically redefining what it is to be human.
"Sin" is often viewed as lines to cross or not-cross. Jesus takes these lines and points out that ultimately our intentions, motivations and character matters just as much as whether we cross/don't cross them. In doing this, Jesus redefines sin as anything that de-humanises ourselves or others. It's quite confronting, but it is all part of this radical picture He is painting: one of what being a fully-alive human, as God has made us to be, is all about.
Engage in the discipline of confession. This week as you make space to engage with the Scripture reading, be prepared to notice the areas of your own life where you are coming up short in meeting the standard Jesus is laying out here. When you notice these shortcomings, confess them in any of these three ways:
Dear Heavenly Father, I lower my head before you and confess that I have too often forgotten that I am yours. Sometimes I carry on my life as if there was no God and I fall short of being a credible witness to You. For these things I ask your forgiveness and I also ask for your strength. Give me a clear mind and open heart so I may witness to You in our world. Remind me to be who You would have me to be regardless of what I am doing or who I am with. Hold me to You and build my relationship with You and with those You have given me on this earth.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
