Hey folks. Here is a great subscription service in which brings a verse of the day straight to your inbox. You can subscribe here. They are artful and insightful. Sometimes all it takes is a little verse to help you on your way.
The images and service is from Biblia.com
We’re postured for another great year with the Outer Circle process. 63 people were involved in 2014. If you were one of these, please let the office know if you will be in again for 2015. If you are just joining the Outer Circle for the first time, please let us know. We’ll need to know if you’re going to be at the first gathering on Jan 17 and who is in your Triad for the year as well. We need to keep accurate records for a two reasons:
We want to know who is participating in the OC so we can plan the gatherings. But even if you don’t come to the OC gatherings and you are still meeting regularly in a Triad and doing the process, it is still helpful for us to know what’s going on with everyone who calls the Vineyard home. We are about discipleship and the OC is one of the primary tools we’re using.
By the way, it’s fine if you are part of the OC and don’t come to the OC gatherings for whatever reason (it’s about the relational process and not primarily about the gatherings!). Just make sure your Triad is meeting together regularly.
The second reason is that the OC (or an equivalent) is WCV’s legal membership. Every charity in Canada is required to have a membership roster and we’ve chosen to make the Outer Circle ours. This means that every year, all the “members” need to let us know if they are in for another year or not. This allows us to keep fresh and updated records of who is tracking with the vision of WCV. This applies to everyone in the OC.
We have also specified “an equivalent” to WCV’s membership to give room for flexibility to those who are intentionally gathering, getting into each other’s lives and engaging actively in spiritual growth but who aren’t committed to the OC process. Let us know if this is your case. You can still be a formal member.
A quick note about membership – formal membership is a governmental distinction and if you’re not a formal member (participation for this year in the Outer Circle process or an equivalent), then you are still part of WCV. We hope that’s clear, but we just want to make it very obvious! Everyone can belong! (only formal members can vote).
You can contact us with the form below, or just email the office. If you want a refresher on the Outer Circle Process, go here.
Thanks!
[gravityform id=”7″ name=”Outer Circle Sign-up” description=”false”]
As the pastoral staff and elders have been praying and seeking direction for the coming year, we’ve been drawn to the idea of knowing who we are and who we’ve been called to be as a Vineyard family. It’s important to tend the roots of a plant if you want to produce good fruit. So, we’re going to be taking the beginning part of this year to explore not only our history but the soil in which we’ve been planted. We’ll ask:
We’ll explore all these questions and hopefully posture us to continue to grow into the kind of people God would like to visit! In the end, we want to be a Vineyard that is fruitful – one that both encounters God in real and tangible ways, and extends this awareness and reality to those around us.
Isaiah 27:2, 3 & 6
“In that day,
sing about the fruitful vineyard.
I, the Lord, will watch over it,
watering it carefully.
Day and night I will watch so no one can harm it….
The time is coming when Jacob’s descendants will take root.
Israel will bud and blossom
and fill the whole earth with fruit!
Let this be said of us!
What makes a leader lead?
Hey there Vineyard family. Many of you will know Mike, Jodi, Mikayla, Joseph, Sarah and Samuel Labun are away for a few months. Until now, they’ve been on a holiday in Thailand (as you can see from the picture!). But this coming week they’ll be heading to join with our Vineyard family in the Himalayan Region. They will be serving and working in various capacities there until March. You can follow their adventures on their blog where they post all kinds of thoughts, pictures, prayer requests, etc. Jodi is the pastor responsible for children and family activities here at the Vineyard.
Also, Rod, Elisa, Emielia, Ava and Anya Jersak are currently in Nepal.
Ben & Adam Kelly are travelling in the Himalayan region of India as well as Nepal. Ben is our BOD chair.
Let’s pray for all these WCVers who are serving in the Himalayas!
There is an exiting event being planned for this summer. For the first time in perhaps forever, there will be a gathering of the global Vineyard family in Columbus Ohio. More details will be forthcoming, but for now you may want to check out the event’s website here, and you may want to mark your calendars – July 6 – 9, 2015.
It’s with sad hearts that we announce the passing of our dear friend, Raymond Funk. Ray has been a fixture in the Vineyard community for a number of years – always ready with a tender hand on your shoulder, a heartfelt prayer / preach, or a rebuke for some offence taken. Ray showed us Jesus in ways nobody else could, and now he sees Jesus in ways we can’t comprehend. “Then we shall see fully…”
Dear Raymond, you will be missed.
Ray’s funeral will be Tuesday, January 13 at 10:30am. It will be followed with a light reception and burial. He passed on Sunday, December 14th.
Right now in kid’s church, they are learning about God’s Big Story. They are learning how sin entered the world, and completely distorted a perfect, and in fact “very good” creation. More than distorting it, sin has really messed things up and if left unchallenged leads to death and total destruction. Adam and Eve, who once walked openly with God, now hid from him, their Father. They once walked in complete openness and vulnerability – after sin, they hid themselves from each other. Even the earth itself seemed to reel with the effects of this rebellion.
However, God immediately hatched a plan of redemption and restoration (you can read Gen 3:15 for the first glimpse of a plan). He wouldn’t allow sin to have the final say in his creation. Jesus, as our children are learning, is God’s response to sin. Our journey as followers and imitators of Jesus, is towards Christ-likeness. It’s really a journey back to the beginning. We were created in God’s very image, sin distorted that image, and Christ came to make a way for us to live into that again. To walk and talk once again with God our loving creator.
In a big sense, this is what the Outer Circle is all about. It’s our attempt to create just enough structure while leaving room for plenty of flexibility to help us on our journey towards being like Jesus. It’s the task of discipleship. It’s the joy and the work of submitting our wills, habits, desires, our very lives to God, who takes them and forms us into the likeness of his son.
If you are interested in joining the Outer Circle process, now is the time, but you have to commit to the process. Read more about it here or pick up a copy of the Outer Circle manual at the info table.
If you are currently in a Triad, now is the time to make your plan for the coming year.
The first Outer Circle gathering of the new year is Saturday, January 17 at 5:30pm. At this time all Triads need to be formed and everyone needs to have gone through their own discernment process.
It’s with heavy hearts and great sadness that we announce the death of Just Sabater – husband of Sheri Sabater (Lewis). Our deepest condolences to Sheri, her family, Ken & Bonnie (parents) Karina, Alana and Vanessa (Sheri’s sisters) as well as Just’s family from Barcelona and his sister Helen.
The funeral will be held at St Ignatius Church (255 Stafford St.) on Monday, December 8, 1pm.
There will be a reception at the Vineyard Church (782 Main St.) on Monday, December 8, 5pm.
Now that it’s finished, we want to know what happened. We’ve already heard a number of great stories. Everything from a simple increasing awareness of God’s presence, to significant revelation. From changed hearts to healed bodies. Some have simply prayed more and have experienced a settling awareness of his presence and filling.
Because God hears every prayer many of this month’s prayers are tucked away in his heart – there are many answers still to come. In fact, we think that many of the prayers uttered this past month will be answered in years to come. This is the long-range nature of prayer. God sees the big picture – we don’t – let his will be done and his kingdom come.
In the meantime, please take a moment to fill out this survey so we can get a sense what happened in your heart during this time and as we determine how we should move forward.
Thanks!
[gravityform id=”1″ name=”30 Day Prayer Challenge”]
The following is an update from our family in the Himalayan Region Vineyard Churches:
We just concluded another of our three month Unseen Love Tailoring Schools – this time in Kathmandu! The schools are intended to train struggling mothers and women with marketable skills and to therefore enable them to generate income and become financially self-sufficient. To date, the Unseen Love projects have trained over 200 people in the Himalayan Region Vineyard.
Below, you can find some photos of the sending off where we commission the women to start their own tailoring shop. It’s a great moment for the church to celebrate and everyone says thank you to our Winnipeg Women’s Co-Op and to those who gave generously to make the school happen.
Here’s a great song and video by our very own country music star, Margaret McIntyre!
Great job Kookum!
One of the most remote and poorest Vineyard churches in the world just hosted a conference. The village is called Gadlang and is in Nepal near the border of Tibet. Amazing things happened as the believers pooled together resources and sought God together. It’s a story of risk and reward. Read about it here on the Himalayan Region Church’s website!
