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Fixed On Jesus Part 3: In Non-essentials, Liberty. What are the Hot Buttons?

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This winter marks the return to our “Fixed on Jesus” series. We’re going to be exploring three Hot Button topics that you think the church should be talking about (thanks for participating in the survey).

The point is to hear each other –  to listen deeply – to love well, especially those we may disagree with

As mentioned previously, the point of this series is not to nail down where we stand (as a church or as individuals) on these nor any other hot button issues we may encounter. For this series, the point is to hear each other –  to listen deeply – to love well, especially those we may disagree with. Our model for this is Jesus, and our tool is GYVE. We explored this in November and have provided a resource booklet for your use.

The Hot Button topics we’ll be addressing (and we may address more as time goes on… there are many) are:

  1. Creationism & Evolution (our origins and how we came to be)
  2. Affirming & Traditional (human sexuality / LGBT2SQ+)
  3. Poverty & Prosperity (our relationship with money)

There are a few other topics that were also high on the list, and some of your suggestions didn’t really fit into a neat and tidy category. We tried our best to accurately categorize the various topics. We are going to tackle them in a very systematic manner.

Each of the topics will have a Sunday morning devoted to sharing the various perspectives of the issue, zoning in on how each perspective is represented or interpreted in scripture. We will then have two Sunday evenings devoted to hearing two people do GYVE together for the first two Hot Button Topics. We encourage you to come to both evenings (Jan 21 & Feb 11) – they will be special and it will be helpful to have a witnessed the model in action before we get to the hottest button (Affirming & Traditional / LGBT2SQ+)!

In between these Sundays, we will be exploring how the church has either nailed or failed dealing with diversity in the past. There are many examples, some quite humorous to our sensibilities. Of course we will also be digging into scripture, as is our habit. All along we will be engaging in ways to “double down on our centre” – we also have a Celebration Service scheduled which will help keep us focussed on Jesus as we tackle some of these “non-essentials.”

Here’s the schedule:

  • January 14: Introduction & Call to Prayer
  • January 21: Creationism & Evolution
  • January 21 Evening: Doing GYVE with Creationism & Evolution.
  • January 28: Nailed it, Failed it
  • February 4: Affirming & Traditional
  • February 11: Nailed it, Failed it
  • February 11 Evening: Doing GYVE with Affirming & Traditional
  • February 18: Celebration Service
  • February 25: Poverty & Prosperity

 

>>Listen to the sermons here.

>>Read the articles here.

>>Download the GYVE booklet here.

 

 

 

Getting Ready for Part 3 – Hot Buttons

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Now that we’re in the New Year we’re going to be entering the third part of our series “Fixed on Jesus: how to hold the centre in an age of diversity”. Having rooted ourselves firmly in the centre (part 1), and having explored a model for how to love well, GYVE (part 2), we are now going to practice what we’ve been talking about. In order to do that, we invited your input. As you might imagine, we gathered a whole list of “Hot Button” issues of diversity that you felt the church needs to address. For those of you who participated in this survey, thanks! We had a lot of thoughtful responses! We have done some categorizing and have come up with what we feel will be good issues for us to explore in the next two months. We did exercise some editorial control (for example, “unkempt hipster beards” will not be discussed! – thanks for that – you know who you are even if nobody else does!).

For each of the Hot Button topics we will have one Sunday morning in which we will explore the various perspectives on the subject. These will not be times to take a position as a church – that’s not the point. Rather, the point is to learn.

Then we have scheduled a few Sunday evenings to demonstrate what doing GYVE looks like with each of these Hot Button topics. We will have a few brave people model the process for us. Again, the point isn’t to argue positions. Rather, we are attempting to create a safe place to hear each other, and hear the stories, values and experiences underneath the various perspectives. This is a sacred and holy event.

 

If you haven’t already gotten a handle on GYVE, we highly encourage you to do so. Also, please continue to pray for the church in this season. It will bring up many emotions. God will meet us – the Holy Spirit has been guiding us and will continue to do so. Still we say, “Lord have mercy!”

 

>>Listen to the sermons here.

>>Read the articles here.

>>Download the GYVE booklet here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Year Celebration!

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Let’s welcome the New Year with a celebration!

On Sunday, Dec 31 at 10am we will have a Celebration Service. We will look back at 2017 and take it all in. The good, the bad, the ugly – and give it all to God with gratitude. We will look forward to 2018 with anticipation. We will come together to encounter the living God! Emmanuel – Jesus – the very representation of the Father made present to us by the Holy Spirit. Living in us – active amongst us. Healing, restoring, reconciling, renewing.

Join us!

 

Christmas Greetings

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Dear WCV,

We’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas and a joyful New Year. In this season of busy-ness, may you encounter the Prince of Peace. In this season of gift-giving, may you experience the Giver of Life. In this darkest time of the year, may you be guided by the Light of the World. In a time that for some is painful, may you know the care of the Comforter. In these days of celebration, may the Lord of the Dance rejoice over you and fill you with joy and strength.

We love you and are grateful that God has brought us together.

With affection,

~The Pastoral Staff

 

A Few Notes:

  • Christmas Eve Service will be 10am – 11:15am (no evening service). You’ll want to arrive on time… I hear there’s a special surprise…
  • New Year’s Eve Service will be an all-out celebration! Starts at 10am.
  • The Office will be closed between Christmas and New Years. It reopens Jan 2.
  • Drop-ins will resume Jan 9.
  • Year-end gifts need to be received by December 31. If they’re mailed they need to be postmarked (stamped by Canada Post) in 2017. If you can’t make sure your gift will arrive in Dec 31, please email Lillian regarding your intention.

 

Image Credit: Jesus image by Stephan Recksiedler!

 

 

Outer Circle Survey

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We are in the process of evaluating the Outer Circle process. We do this each year, often adapting based on suggestions we’ve received or in response to other concerns we foresee. This year we’ve developed a short survey (less than 3 minutes to complete) that we hope will help us plan for the future.

We want to keep the main goal of the Outer Circle clearly in focus:

To foster a culture of intentional balanced growth and encouragement that spills out beyond the Outer Circle to influence everyone in WCV and our lives.

In other words – we want everyone who is part of WCV to become more like Jesus in the ways God is inviting them to! The Outer Circle is like a trellis which provides support for plants to grow. It’s a structure that is designed to support growth in us. Sometimes structures need to be renewed, re-worked or dismantled altogether if they are to achieve the goal of growth.

Your voice and input is important in this evaluation effort and we deeply appreciate you taking the time to complete the survey (3 minutes).

>>If you don’t know what the Outer Circle is, or need a refresher, go here.

Being involved in the Outer Circle and, more specifically, being in a Triad is one of the primary ways membership in WCV is determined.

>>For more on Membership in the Vineyard, go here.

 

>>Complete Short Survey Here.

 

 

Reflections on Hospitality, Connecting and Gathering Together

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A guest post by Janet Blatz.

What does my table look like?

As a single lady in her late thirties my table looks different than those of my friends, who are married and who may or may not have kids. But that doesn’t say that having meal at a table isn’t as important but, in fact, it may be more important than those who have a built-in community. For the most part my table would look like an oversized comfy chair accompaniment by the sounds of Netflix.

For me, having people sit at my table over a wonderful meal is something new and exciting. You see, for the past two years I had lived in an apartment that was so small there wasn’t room for a table. There wasn’t room for people to gather; to share their stories; to create a space where people come because their stomachs need to be filled but left with their hearts full. Now that I have a place where people can gather to connect and feel at home, it makes my table feel sacred.

Sacred, because the moments of being and listening as people share who they are, are moments we see a glimpse of Jesus. Glimpses of heaven and earth touching. Moments that are stored away making us long for the close fellowship that took place so long ago in the garden of Eden.

Sometimes these sacred moments and meals have started because of desperate need and longing for community but have ended wondering where the time has gone. It hasn’t always been easy but I know that the more I practice creating space for people the easier it becomes, especially with those I don’t know well.

As I am creating and dreaming of this culture of community and sacredness in my new home a quote that my Grandpa often said and demonstrated to me comes to mind – “Come join the table there is always room for more.”

Come join in. Come join in the conversation – the community that has already begun. Come and take a seat with us – share your story, your wisdom and your humour. Share who you are and in turn you will receive our story, our wisdom and our humour. We will take the time and effort to weave and graft who you are into the already grafted community that is sitting around the table.

There is always room for more. There is always room for more people, more stories, more food and more diversity. Not one of us is the same but we are all created by our loving Abba. His DNA is flowing through our veins; His DNA of welcoming in the stranger, the widow, the poor, and the fatherless – the ones that don’t have a community around them and those who are outcasts for one reason or another – the ones that are broken and ashamed because of circumstances that were beyond their control. You are welcomed.

Physically, my table right now looks like a plastic fold-up table because the real table is out in the garage being sanded with the dreams of it getting painted. The process of constructing a sturdy table out of an old door and some old lumber takes time, patience, tools and vision for what the outcome could look like.  I spent many hours stripping the 4 layers of paint of the door and sanding. Through this process, I have noticed and felt all the imperfections of the door and lumber. Some of the imperfections will disappear in the sanding process but some of them will always be there, but the rough edges of the imperfections won’t be. Through all of this I am dreaming and praying for the imperfections of the stories that one day will be shared around that table. I am praying that those stories will share the same grace and humility that Jesus shared with the lady who poured perfume over Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair – the same grace and humility as Jesus displayed while asking for water from the Women at the Well. I am praying that just as these women were forever changed because of their encounter with Jesus, that the holders of those stories will be impacted by Jesus and forever changed, and maybe, just maybe, they will leave the table feeling as if their imperfections of their stories are sanded away.

Janet Blatz is the Network Administrator at Forever Families Canada.

Hot Button Topics Survey (we need your input)

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We are going to explore our top three “Hot Button Topics” during Part 3 of our Fixed on Jesus series. Together we’ll explore the “in non-essentials, liberty” part of our series. Having determined that Jesus (his Kingdom and activity as described in the Creed) is our centre – “in essentials, unity” – and having explored how to do “in all things charity”, we’re going to step forward bravely and with great amounts of humility and tenderness, into whatever topics YOU choose! We will model GYVE (how to love each other in diversity) with each of those topics in a combination of Sunday mornings and a few special Sunday evening gatherings.

We invite you to pray. The Pastoral and Lay Elders have been praying for some time about this. We’ve sensed God’s guidance, received some significant prophetic nudges and encouragement from other churches. However, we must love well in the process. Hot Buttons are by nature feisty. Emotions can run high and disagreements can run deep. We’ve been holding the centre for 20+ years. We’ve done this already – we’ve just not been so explicit about it. Even so, let’s move forward with prayer and love.

  • And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
  • …love your neighbors as you love yourself. I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:18)
  • Above everything, love one another earnestly, because love covers over many sins. (1 Peter 4:8)
  • …the only obligation you have is to love one another. (Romans 13:8)
  • My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action. (1 John 3:18)
  • No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us. (1 John 4:12)
  • Do all your work in love. (1 Corinthians 16:14)
  • Be always humble, gentle, and patient. Show your love by being tolerant with one another. Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together. (Ephesians 4:2-3)

>>Thank you to everyone who submitted to our survey! We will compile the results and explore the top three in January and February.

If you have any more Hot Button Topic suggestions, our survey is now closed, but you can still email the pastors with your suggestion!

Thank you dear church!

 

Christmas at the Vineyard, 2017

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Hey folks! So the Christmas season is upon us once again! (Hold on as I pour myself another mug of eggnog).

Below are a few events I’d like to highlight that will be happening at the Vineyard for this 2017 Christmas season:

  • Our kids and youth will be leading us in worship and throughout the morning on December 10th for our annual Kids Service Sunday.
  • On December 17th right after the service we want to celebrate and feast together as a family and community for the annual Christmas Feast!
  • On December 24th, as it is both a Sunday and Christmas Eve, we will gather in the morning for a shortened Christmas Eve Service from 10-11:15 a.m. Please note there will be no evening service on this day.
  • We will also have a shortened service on December 31st from 10-11:15 a.m. for a New Year’s Eve Service.

Through all the hustle and bustle that the Christmas season brings, let’s remember our Centre, whom we are celebrating.

Blessings!

Metanoia Reflections

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I had the privilege to be involved in Vineyard Canada’s Metanoia West gathering in Langley about a month ago. It was a great time of coming together with other Vineyard friends from across the Prairies, the North and BC. We gathered in the historic Friends Langley Vineyard. It seemed significant that we were there in the first Vineyard in Canada, which birthed so much. Yet, we weren’t nostalgic, nor caught in sentiment. There was a palpable sense not only of God’s presence with us, but his passion, excitement and vision for us as a Vineyard family in Canada for the future. Building on a wonderful foundation – and continuing. How do we continue well? What is he inviting us into? Who has he specifically called us to become? How might God be inviting us to reimagine our future? Who are we becoming as we practice following the way of Jesus? – all questions that were asked and that I’m left asking. Answers will come as we continue to follow Jesus and pursue his Kingdom.

Below are videos of the first two sessions. The first is David and Anita Ruis orienting us around the theme “Health Begets Health”. The second is Jared Boyd unpacking the Sermon on the Mount. He does a great job taking a second look at these verses that are quoted so often, yet mostly misunderstood and misapplied. There are two other sessions available here.

I was there representing WCV, part of the Regional Leadership team, and as a national catalyst for Vineyard Engage.

Jesus: The Song of St. Perpetua

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For my birthday last year, Jennifer (my wife) bought me a lovely edition of the 1954 volume called “Lives of Saints.” One of my favourite accounts is of St.Perpetua, a twenty-two-year-old who was martyred for her faith in the year 203. Perpetua was married and had an infant; she was one of five catechumens (those at the time who were being prepared to be received into the Church but had not yet been baptized) who were arrested for their faith and imprisoned.

During the subsequent trial, Perpetua’s father appeared with her child in his arms. He pleaded for Perpetua to deny the faith, imploring her to “have pity on the child.” Nonetheless, when the judge asked her “Are you a Christian?” Perpetua said “Yes, I am.” When the group was sentenced and led into the amphitheatre where they would eventually suffer death by wild animals and gladiators, Perpetua was singing.

In the last two weeks, the lectionary has featured several passages which resonate with our current sermon series (Fixed On Jesus: how to hold the centre in an age of diversity). In one particular passage, Jesus clarifies the practical (and radical) implications of having him as the centre of our lives:

Luke 14:26-27: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Later, in verse 33: “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

These days – without the threat of wild animals and gladiators, and given the prevalence of much cushy Christian pseudo-psychology that masquerades as authentic spirituality – many of us come to (or stay with) Jesus believing that our most cherished relationships, life, and possessions can remain happily uninterrogated. It’s especially tempting to minimize or altogether ignore the part about carrying the cross; to forget that the way of Christ is the via Dolorosa.

In the passage above, Jesus is straightforward and unapologetic: it’s impossible to follow him without cost, and the cost is everything. I love the great Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor’s take on this reality:

“What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not to believe.”

The “hate” of family and life itself that Jesus speaks of is comparative. The idea is that we’d love him so passionately that our attachment to everyone and everything (including all we own and all our cash) would, by comparison, seem like hate. Paul’s words in Philippians 3:8-9 convey the beauty and power of this movement: “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him […].”

The real heart of Jesus’ words in Luke is an invitation for us to experience, over and above anything and everything, his “surpassing worth.” Experiencing him this way is the only thing that evokes the kind of love for and devotion that obscures everything else. If we shudder at the cost of being without the dearest people, things, or whatever-it-may-be in our lives, it’s likely because we have not yet fully experienced the immense, satisfying, and incomparable joy of Jesus. Gaining and being found in him is having everything, and more.

It’s entirely possible to accept Jesus’ invitation and centre our lives on him in this way. Perpetua’s family, possessions, and very life – significant though they were I’m sure – were negligible compared to the pricelessness of having Christ. I imagine that’s why, even as she “carried the cross” and was processed to her death, she was singing.

May it be that we too so thoroughly experience the unrivalled love, life, grace, and abundance found in the person of Jesus alone that following him – regardless of any and all cost – remains a perpetual song of joy. After all, if we have everything, there’s nothing else we need.

Fall Series – Fixed On Jesus

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Diversity is Great but has Some Challenges

We live in a time of immense diversity. Every subject imaginable has a myriad of opposing viewpoints – from politics, economics and science, to arts, religion, sports and more. As if that weren’t enough, adherents to virtually any opinion can find facts and figures to back up their position, adding emotional horsepower to whatever position they hold. Of course, the church isn’t immune from this. Theology can be politicized to the point where it manifests itself in people doing ugly things in the name of truth. How should the church hold to what is true in times like this? What are we to believe? How are we to behave toward each other and toward those who are not yet following Jesus? What are we to do with diversity within the church?

Thankfully, the church has always lived in diverse times.  It is true that today we may face some new challenges, but ever since the birth of the church there have been controversies they’ve had to work through. In fact, much of the New Testament contains stories, advice and even warnings to the early church regarding how to conduct themselves in the mist of differing ideas. Furthermore,  the New Testament church didn’t figure it all out and usher in a period of unity and uniformity (those aren’t the same, by the way!). The past 2,000 years of the church is full of all kinds of controversy. At times, this diversity has led to divisiveness – in the extreme it’s even become violent. In other instances, the church has managed to stay true to what its called to do: to love God and love each other like we love ourselves (Mark 12:30-31) and to make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son

the church has always lived in diverse times
and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all Jesus commanded (Matt 28:19). But how does one actually do this in such turbulence? What are the keys that the early church held that can help us through our times? What mistakes have been made that we can avoid? And, what authority does the Bible have in all of this?

This Fall we’ll be exploring how to hold the centre in the midst of tremendous diversity – we’ll be attempting to speak to these and other important questions for our time.

A Model:

In the 17th century a German Lutheran pastor named Peter Meiderlin lived during incredibly difficult times.  The infamous 30-Year War was raging and all of Europe (almost literally) was fighting (literally) over theology. Doctrine had become politicized to the point that Christians were killing each other over points that might seem ridiculous to us today. In the midst of this, and with the help of a God-dream, Meiderlin coined a catchy little phrase (well, it’s catchy in Latin) which reads: “In essentials, unity.  In non-essentials, liberty.  In all things, charity.” In other words, keep the main thing the main thing – everything else that is not essential to salvation, even though it’s important, should not be given central priority – and love each other through it all. While this rubric didn’t put an end to the fighting of his time, it has become helpful to many Christians since.

We’re going to use Medeirlin’s phrase (although mix up the original order) as an outline for this series.  

What are the essentials that we must hold on to?

What are the “essentials” that we must hold on to? Far from nailing down a set of theological ideas, our centre is a Person – Jesus – who is both fully God and fully human. We must always keep him at the centre, and anything or anyone who begins to displace him must be named and put back in its proper place. This means that good ideas, moral ideas, holy ideas, even good theology is not our centre. They are all good, but we are not to anchor ourselves in them. Like the writer of Hebrews says, we are to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 11:1-2). Next we’ll explore how to have charity in “all things”.  In other words, how do we listen well to those we may disagree with over non-essentials? How do we love each other as brothers and sisters in Christ amidst diverse opinions, theologies, experiences and values?  Lastly, in the new year, we will begin to explore some of the many ways our community is diverse – the “non-essentials” – which may still be important, but just not our centre – not what defines us. At our annual retreat in the Spring, the elders identified 12 issues (and there are likely more) in our church that people will deeply disagree with others about. However, before we get there, we must keep the centre in view and always posture ourselves in love.

Resources:

We will be compiling some additional resources for those who want to go deeper.  For now, here is an article by Gary Best (former director of Vineyard Canada) called “Unity and Truth – A Historical Reflection”. We’ve found Gary to be very helpful in setting the tone for this conversation. In this article, he articulates how one should be concerned with taking a good posture before taking a position on any given topic. Check it out and let us know what you think either in the comments below, or by contacting any of the pastors or elders.

Notes:

>> This series may bring up some anxiety in some of you. If this is the case, please, please, please find a healthy place to process. The Pastoral and Lay Elders have been praying for this process for some time now and are all prepared to provide support and care where needed.

>> Both the Upstairs Gatherings and Downstairs Gatherings will be exploring the same topics throughout this series.

“…And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…” 

Hebrews 12:1-2

 

Two Psalms by Brent Woelke

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The first Writer’s Circle happened last Friday. A lot of great material was shared. Here are two modern day psalms that Brent shared.

If you were to write and pray your own psalm to the Lord, what would you say?

The next Writer’s Circle is November 24th.

A Lament

The hand of the Lord is on me,

for I am still being broken.

Who can I call to for rescue?

Who can pull me from your grasp?

 

The Lord has humbled me,

The Lord has brought me low.

What more can be taken from me?

What more can be stripped away?

 

Everything I had hoped for in the Lord

is in cardboard boxes.

Everything I loved

is sold or is sitting in the back lane.

Everything I cherished

has walked away;

it mocks me, speaking lies and accusations.

 

But the Lord will be my judge.

He has weighed my actions

He has determined my punishment.

Who will come to defend me?

 

My friends gather around me,

they look upon me in silence.

They whisper about me,

for you have exposed my sins.

 

They say,

“Here is one who trusts in God,

here is one who calls on Jesus’ name.”

 

A Song of Ascent

My son, consider the path of God.

His laws are stones that ascend His mountain.

Study and search so that you may find your way.

 

For His path is not obvious or straight

and all who approach Him must toil and labor.

The path of His Son is a path of suffering.

See now that His blood lines the trail,

His precious blood shows the way.

Has He not placed every stone before you?

Every rock as a firm foundation under your feet

every boulder as an obstacle and trial to overcome.

 

Take heart in your time of need.

Call out so your strength is failing.

For all who seek Him, shall be found by Him.

All who look to Him, will be lifted up.

 

For the Lord is high above all the earth.

He sees all who travel upon His hill.

None escape his sight,

and all things are subject to Him.

The very roots of the mountain are in His hands.

The mountains rise and fall by his decree.

 

But those who trust in the Lord will not fall.

Those who fear Him shall behold His majesty.