continuing the conversation

Simple Kindness

2011-06-06T08:32:00.001Z

Kindness is a powerful act that reflects our Father in heaven; Kindness is essential to proclaiming the good news of the gospel. If you're are reading this and you're a follower of Jesus, take a moment to think of your journey towards Jesus; there were people who showed you kindness, kindness through loyal love, when you gave up on yourself people showed you kindness and stuck with you, kindness with simple acts, kindness through outrageous generosity.

Let me take you back to the creation story so we get this. In Genesis 1.26, the godhead dialogued about the creation of humankind as a royal reflection of their plurality. God said, “Let us make humankind in our own image according to our own likeness. Humankind, as male and female, was the pinnacle of creation because only humankind was created in God’s image and only after the creation of humankind was the universe declared, “very good.” What does it mean that humankind was created in God’s image?

Being created in the image (and likeness) of God is best understood as humankind in community, representing God by reflecting, or imaging who he is, both in terms of character and function. Everyday you and I have opportunities; every moment we can reflect Jesus. Or we can reflect ourselves. Is it time to awaken the image bearer within us?

To proclaim is to reflect God, that’s our mission to the world and one of the ways we do that is through KINDNESS!

I friend of mine was thinking through our 2nd mile deal (servant evangelism, showing Gods love in practical ways). Here's the email he sent me over the weekend, It's short but sweet:

Everyday Kingdom living;

Smile

Forgive quickly

Say sorry when you're wrong

Don't argue

Lose the fight & make peace

Wash the dishes

Empty the bins

Leave the tip

Say the Jesus word

Listen to the boring guy

Heal the sick

Cast out demons

Control your tounge

Buy the cakes

Encourage everyone you can

Don't nick anything (steal)

Stay till finishing time

Work hard

Smile

Proclaim: No Church & No Christianity

2011-05-20T11:37:00.001Z

Last Sunday I set a challenge for the Vineyard as part of our 'Proclaim' series. It went like this, "For the coming week I don't want you taking about Church, Christianity and lets stop doing evangelism to people". I haven't had a melt down nor have I lost faith in Jesus as the Saviour of the world. We get so confused, perplexed, frustrated and deflated trying all the evangelism methods, we know Jesus is the way, the truth and life that is truly life and in our passion to proclaim the good news we can even become weird. When many of us don't see our efforts work, as in people coming to faith in Jesus, we conclude "it doesn't work", "I don't have the gift of evangelism" or "maybe it's my personality." We end up leaving the proclaim stuff to others with bigger personalities and quote St Francis "Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words." The problem with this is it's getting a little quiet out there with people not proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, and the fact that no Fransican scholar throughout the world can find any of Francis' writings quoting "use words if necessary".

So what do we do to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom? What if we stopped doing evangelism to people and instead introduced Jesus, talked about Jesus. What's the difference? Well, if we go with Jesus the good news moves from method to person and surely Jesus has changed our lives not Christianity. The good news of the Kingdom is embodied in Jesus Christ and yet I find myself hiding behind my job as a pastor and thinking I'm proclaiming the gospel. Let's be honest we all do it from time to time, we can talk about Church,we can debate Bell, hell and our air tight doctrines but keep Jesus out of the conversation. When I was first introduced to the Vineyard Tribe, I was grabbed and attracted by how much more people talked about Jesus than Paul. I live in an island where better preaching means we talk more about Paul than Jesus, strange don't you think?

It's a challenge to move from Church talk to Christ, its said, that whatever your passion is, you are likely to bring it into conversation within three minutes of meeting a new person. I'm passionate about a lot of things such as Indian food, my wife, my kids and the Swifts FC and by the way this isn't in order of preference. What do you talk about?

It begs the question, do we like Jesus? I know He's our LORD and Saviour but be honest, do we like Him, enjoy Him, and take the opportunities to talk about Him when the opportunity presents itself. Do we hid behind badges, bumper stickers and symbols of a fish? What if we talked about Jesus, what if we talked about the change He's made in our lives, what if in conversations we said something like "here's what Jesus said about that," what if we told people about the adventure it is following Him. If we tried this new strategy it might take the pressure of us and what if we lifted Jesus up and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

What if we stopped doing evangelism, what if we stopped talking about Church and Christianity just for a week and talked about Jesus and see what happens. I have a feeling that your faith and energy to proclaim the good news will grow and come alive. The pressure is off when we conclude that it's not about us and to a certain degree it's not about how we deliver the good news.

“Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is himself the way.” - Karl Barth

Vineyard Tribe

2011-05-16T14:20:00.002Z

Last Saturday (May 14 2011) the Vineyard Uk & Ireland gathered in 10 different venues across the Uk & Ireland to thank God for His past faithfulness and to factor in His future faithfulness. It was a great day of worship, prayer and stories of transformation.

We continually say, that we are not the only Church or the best, but we do have something to contribute to the wider Church and indeed a message of the good news of the Kingdom to share with the world. I'm humbled and thrilled that God has called us and uses us to be part of His Kingdom.

The video below will give you a glimpse of the Vineyard in the Uk & Ireland. If, after watching the video, you have questions about the Vineyard or more importantly, Jesus then shoot us an email to info@vineyarddungannon.co.uk and we will try our best to answer them.

Enjoy!

VNC 2011: Celebrate from Vineyard Churches UK & Ireland on Vimeo.

St Patrick

2011-03-17T13:30:00.001Z

It's St Patricks day and I guess our friends in North America will out do us with celebration. Who was St Patrick? Did he really drive the snakes out of Ireland? He must have, I've never seen any native snakes yet in Ireland other than pet stores. Patrick is a hero of mine, we know little about him but here's what we do know

Patrick’s communities, missionaries, and monasteries (not to mention the movements and missionaries had their roots in the Celtic movement—Aidan, Columba and their disciples) were known for their warmth, hospitality, love for creation, being naturally supernatural, and the importance of community combined with a theological emphasis upon the closeness of God. The Celtic Model advanced the Kingdom in a new fresh way without watering down the orthodox faith of the Apostles.

It's time to redeem what God has given us and move with it.

Have a great St Patricks day!P

Legacy - Jubilee 2011

2011-03-08T14:13:00.005Z

Last Sunday we launched a new series called Jubilee 2011 here at VCD we kicked it off with a time of celebration, giving thanks to God for what He has done with us during the past three years through our Leaving a Legacy campaign. When we launched Leaving a Legacy in April 2008, we believed that God was going to do something amazing. It wasa huge deal for us here at the VCD, we only had around 80 adults connecting and the project seemed huge, it was for our kids, our town and our future. I don’t think we knew how big a net God would give us, but this is what I’ve learned through Legacy, that our reality is bigger than our dreams when God initiates.

We changed our morning celebration around so we could throw a surprise party half way through. So after I'd finished my talk we had the Vineyard kids bring a party into our gathering. We have three entry points so they used all three as they entered the room with balloons, party blowers, party poppers and sweets. We had a few people primed to bring out crisps (chips if you’re from North America) and drinks and then we worshipped. We can be very conservative here at VCD but the whole place jumped into celebratory worship that was loud, fun and a little chaotic.

I was planning to write here about our Legacy deal and connect it to the idea of Jubilee but I can't get past how we, as pastors and churches, call out to God for our community, our church and our world and when God delivers (always bigger than we expect), we behave like the lepers that Jesus healed when only one out of ten returns to say thank you. It just doesn’t seem right. I get so focused on the 'next move' that I rarely stop and celebrate and say thanks, I mean really intentionally plan a celebration to thank God for His faithfulness and goodness.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I'm from a Pentecostal background and Lent really wasn’t up there on our holiday calendar though we did Easter and Christmas. Lent started around 325 AD when the Church decided to set aside 40 days before Easter, a time to go on a spiritual journey towards Easter and particularly holy week. Lent simply means to lengthen, relating to Spring time and day light getting longer. It's a time for a spiritual check up, a spiritual spring clean deal.

It’s a great time to check what needs to go, the stuff that keeps us back from a richer, intimate, authentic relationship with Jesus. I wonder how the 9 lepers justified not coming back to thank Jesus, they weren’t given any advice or instructions to return, just to go the priest. I’d guess they got on with life, they had so much to do now that they had lost the untouchable label.

Let’s take the time and the space to enjoy God and what He’s done. Over the last three years God has been so good to us here at the Vineyard and so at this ancient period of time we call Lent, let’s take time and space to thank God and enjoy and maybe throw a party!

Just Show Up!

2010-12-21T10:03:00.003Z

I grew up in Church were we would take the city in prayer meeting, they were great nights but to be honest I didn't see much change in our community or the city. It's not that I doubt the power of prayer for God to move but I'm convinced He moves through people; His church.

I wouldn't live my life by Woody Allen but I do agree with his observation on life when he said "eighty percent of success is showing up. " If we want to take the city and talk about revival then before we try to take the world, lets take ourselves to the secret place then to our communities.

About a year ago I went to a home of a family who’s teenage son was diagnosed with cancer, a lady from our small group came with me to give them some groceries, the family weren’t in any financial need we just wanted to bless them and say we care. Before we left I asked the lady with me to pray for the mum, on the spot what could she do but pray; I call that discipleship. I left that home thinking about my boys and how would I cope with this.

Last Christmas eve we did our traditional food hamper giveaway and after each family gave out their food hamper we had some spare. So some people got to give away two hampers. One lady was a dilemma as she had a family Christmas gathering that night but so wanted to give out another hamper, she felt the God nudge and went with the hamper, she grabbed the address, got her kids and hamper into the car and headed off. Soon she was at a familiar place, with a dog barking and kids in the car she sat for a moment wondering how to get the hamper to the house.

She got out of the car and headed towards the house when she was met by the mum who had now lost her boy through cancer. The mum instantly recognized the lady, threw her arms around her and said you came with food before and prayed for me. The Kingdom of God came to this hurting family in the form of an available lady and a box of food and a reminder that God had not forgotten them.

Outward Focused Christmas

2010-12-10T16:18:00.004Z

Each Christmas at the Vineyard Church Dungannon we try to create a different way of doing Christmas through our Outward Focused Christmas. The idea came about after I read my good friend and mentor's book called The Outward Focused Life which is all about creating a servant culture in a serve me world, if you don't have a copy pick one up as soon as.

I thought what better way or time to turn the tide on consumerism in the Church than at Christmas time so instead of doing the traditional Christmas talk we set aside December and talked about Grace, Attitude, Availability and Generosity I guess there's alot of Christmas in those titles. We set the month aside and still do each year to serve our community, we did free Christmas wrapping, giveaway chocolates, went out to the town centre at the weekend to meet clubbers and pub goers with a coffee and chat into the small hours of the morning. Then Christmas eve we gathered as a community of faith to give out hampers.

When we started giving out hampers at Christmas here in the Vineyard, it wasn’t huge in fact Christmas 2007 we gave away four luxury hampers to families we knew were in need. I can still remember Michelle, the boys and myself dropping one at a home just about 3 miles from where we live, a lovely picturesque village, neat gardens, respectable homes. We found our house; it looked cold even from the outside, curtains half open, it looked forlorn. We got out the hamper and my three boys where loaded with questions, why are we doing this? Who are these people? Why don’t they have food and toys this Christmas?

We knocked on the door, a boy about 8 or 9 years old came to the door, he looked wary, cracking the door open about 6 ins. We asked could we talk to your mum, dad, he looked blankly, so we told him we were from the Vineyard Church and we wanted to give him and his family the hamper to remind them that God loved them. He opened the door just enough for the hamper to squeeze through, he had wee dirty bare feet, and dragged the hamper through the gap in the door. He didn’t speak, he didn’t say thank you – he didn’t need to. We knew that his Christmas had just got a whole lot brighter. As we have been talking about moving from ‘here to there’ we have gone from 4 to giving away 267 hampers and £1500 of oil heating in 2009. Christmas is getting brighter as this year we plan to give away 1000 luxury food hampers and oil heating for those in need this Christmas.

Why not start your own Outward Focused Christmas 2010 and as my friend Dave Workman would say "Let’s make a difference in someone’s life today…let’s go serve somebody."

TO OBEY GOD IS LIFE

2010-09-30T15:32:00.003Z

Last Sunday at the Vineyard we had an amazing Baptism Celebration with up to 25 adults and young people being baptised! The sense was, that the Kingdom had broke in and the cool part was people being born again into the Kingdom.

What was it that triggered this great morning with 11 people signed up to be baptised and then 14 spontaneous baptisms and 2 people coming to faith. There was a great sense of God among us and a sense of expectation; experiencing the Holy Spirit leads to greater expectation.

Through my talk to introduce baptism and through the stories we heard, was one common theme. There was no hype or feeling of high emotions as people told their stories what was evident was the central theme; Obedience

Two Assumptions and Three Assignments (Gen 1-3)

At the creation of humankind, two things are assumed about the man and the woman in the text. The first is that God was in an intimate relationship with them. The text tells us that God had planted a garden east of a land called “Eden,” which would be fed by the waters that flowed from that land. God set Adam in Eden to serve God and protect creation. Adam walked intimately with God. God walked freely with him in the garden (with nothing in-between them).

The second assumption is that humankind, created as male and female, were equally as intimate. The text says that they were “naked and not ashamed,” metaphors for Intimacy. On the basis of these two assumptions, the man and the woman are given three more assignments.

The assumptions: The sovereign, omnipotent Creator had created humankind to walk intimately with him and with one another.

The assignments: On the foundation of those two assumptions, human beings were given three assignments by God: to multiply the image of God through the bearing of children, fill the earth with that image and rule the earth as God’s ambassadors.

The stipulation: The only stipulation God placed on the man and the woman was that they were to obey him. The specific test of their obedience was that they not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As is seen in the narrative with the serpent, this obedience was based in faith, faith that God’s Word was true and God’s character was trustworthy. The honour of God’s very Name (to use Exodus language) was at stake.

The reward for obedience: While no specific reward is described or explained in the text, you could assume that it would be the fulfilment of all that God had purposed. This could be seen as the outcome of being able to eat from the tree of life as often as they wished. To obey God is life.

The consequences of disobedience: If the man and the woman ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God told them that they would surely die.

John Wimber used to say that ‘We want to grow up before we grow old’. The way that we measure maturity is the length of time it takes you to obey. How quick we can give our yes to what the father is doing is a sign of how mature we are. God is showing up in the Vineyard, we are seeing teenagers come to faith, our family support worker is seeing favour and openness as she steps out and offers prayer. We are hearing God speak through the prophetic/words of knowledge on Sunday celebrations, seems to be more clarity and people are responding.

“Our job like experienced surfers is to recognize a wave of God’s spirit and to ride it. It is not our responsibility to make waves but to recognize how God is working in the world and endeavour to join Him”. Rick Warren.

What can we learn from Sunday?

When we step out in obedience God favours us with his presence and the Kingdom is ushered in. Our job is to obey, risk (step out in faith) and see what God does.

We need to be aware of the manifest presence of God among us and respond. This is not just about Sunday mornings but our Monday to Sunday.

What does the manifest presence of God look like and how do you respond. How long does it take you to respond to the Spirits promptings?

Let’s catch the wave!

Vineyard Essential - Generosity

2010-09-12T13:14:00.019Z

When I came into the Vineyard 11 years ago it was like I had come home. I loved the intimacy in the worship, loved how the talks/sermons were practical and applicable to everyday living, I grew up on a diet of deep teaching, you know, the deep as in you don’t have to do anything with it. I loved that The Church had a heart for the poor, that everyone gets to play and through all this and more there was this thread often not spoken about but demonstrated big time called generosity. I was impressed by how generous they were and if I'm honest my mind was sometimes offended, which really said more about my heart.

Generosity is a Vineyard Essential, it’s a vital ingredient to Kingdom living. The most important thing we can do in our lifetime is to bring the kingdom of God to earth; your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matt 6:10 (NIV). One of the ways we usher in the kingdom is through generosity I'm convinced the greatest evangelism in our culture is ridiculous, outrageous generosity. I often hear people say we need to get back to the first century church, well take a look at how they viewed their stuff and money.

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. Acts 4:32-35 (NIV)

Church, you and I are simply signposts pointing to the King and His Kingdom; The Kingdom calls us to live generously, love generously; I think it leads to emotionally tough questions, questions like what do we do with what God has given us? As followers of Christ shouldn't we have a very different approach to your lives? The reality of the Kingdom is that we not called to be consumers, the essential core as followers of Jesus is that we are to be sowers and investors.”

This isn't going happen overnight this is a radical renewing of the mind, living right side up in an upside down world. The only way we can do this is to be intentional, taking the risk of investing—sowing. I'd encourage you to begin the journey of using your stuff & money to usher in the Kingdom and see how remarkably free your life becomes.

Why shouldn’t I consume everything right now? If you have used your stuff, opportunities and money to signpost the Kingdom then the reality is that someday on the other side of this dust ball of a planet called earth people will welcome you, people that you might never lock eyes with on this side. In the Vineyard we really believe that everybody spends their forever somewhere. If you get this you will see money matters because people matter. Use your opportunity, your time and money and make friends who will greet you someday on the other side.

This is not about tithing, it's about surrender. The only time that someone turns down Jesus' call to come follow is when it was connected with money and the heart. Generosity is not the exception to the rule but the essential to living the Kingdom life. There is no joy in consumption, there isn’t much value in collection but there is incredible joy when you catch this and view money through this lens that it’s a tool that can change lives.

Crash 2010

2010-08-03T09:05:00.013Z

For the last three years, on the second week of August we serve our communities through an event called CRASH. We kicked it off in August 07 with about 20 people committed to serve for a week, thinking back on it now, these guys really worked hard. it wasn't pick a project or choose a place to serve according to your gifting and passion, it was all hands on deck, everyone did a kids club each day, everyone hit the streets and housing areas to give away free stuff. In the evening we would sit in the Vineyard telling stories of what God was doing and imagining what would happen if we created a servant culture within Vineyard Church Dungannon, what would that look like, what impact would it have?

I'd love to explain why we do CRASH each year from a conversation we had during that first CRASH in August 2007. It was a Thursday evening and about eight of us set around two sofa's and a coffee table in the corner of where we do Church and began a conversation:

We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

1 Thess 1: 2 - 10

Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it..What is so exciting that it rings out into our community? We began to tell stories of what God was doing when we walked among our community but we also began to dream and paint stories of what could be, dreams exciting enough that the Message of the Kingdom would spread like God gossip from town to town, village to village, street to street. Here at Vineyard Church Dungannon we are still asking the question, exploring possibilities and serving opportunities; is there something exciting that rings out into our community that points to God?

Paul tells us this Church saw people who followed pagan gods become passionate followers of Christ. He describes them as the model Church so what was their program and what was their struture like? They had none, I've discoverd that we program what we don’t have in our culture, and as for the structure there was none but there is belief, a heart, soul, conviction, ethos, passion.

We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Never has the Church today been better resourced, trained, deveolped, skill and informed and with all this we have embraced all sorts of ideas, implimented programs and written many, many books and enrolled in trainging and equipping events but what if we are ignoring what we need and more importantly what society around us groans for; a people who live by faith who are known by love and are givers of hope. Sounds very simplistic when you read but hey so does reading your bible and praying to grow in God.

On Sunday the 8th August we launch our fourth CRASH, this year we have over a hundred people crashing forward with faith, hope and love to see God's message ring out not only in Dungannon but throughout Ireland and beyond. We have our kids club every morning (you get to choose that one now) we paint homes, garden, giveaway free stuff, wash cars(FREE), pray for people on the streets, each evening we have a youth event from 8 - 10pm. Its all happening this year and it happens when a small group of people devote themselves, throw the servant towel over their arms and GO.

Election Time

2010-04-12T16:01:00.002Z

This election is very interesting, as in, its hard to call it. Steve Chalke, baptist minister interviewed the three main runners on behalf of faithworks.

Go figure!

Easter at Vineyard Church Dungannon

2010-03-31T09:41:00.004Z

I’m really looking forward to Easter, the greatest day of the year for followers of Christ. This is the celebration that marks the resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah! It’s more than a religious tradition for us—the resurrection is the reason for our hope.

We kicked off a week of prayer here at Vineyard on Monday and we will continue through to Fri. God is showing up big time as we pray and yesterday we had a lady come in and give her life to Jesus. That's a great prayer meeting. Come in any time, the doors are open from 9am - 9pm

Good Friday - Reflection service here at VCD 7.30pm. Each year we encourage the Church to fast this day so we can set aside time to prepare ourselves spirituality for the celebration of Easter. The Reflection Service will be contemplative a moving one - hour worship service recalling the events surrounding the Passion of Christ.

Easter Sunday - We will gather at Castle Hill, which was the home of the legendary 16th century Earl, Hugh O'Neil at 8.30am. The Press cafe will be open from 9am to 10.30am at the Vineyard.

Resurrection Celebration - We kick of our celebration at 11am (come for coffee & donuts from 10.30) with our vineyard band.

Let's pick up the phone, email, facebook, tweet and invite our friends, family, co-workers to the Vineyard this Easter.

See you there!

Jason

Now & The Not Yet

2010-03-10T05:10:00.007Z

I'm back in Lucknow North India teaching pastors at an OM conference (http://www.om.org/). Its a great honour to connect with these guys, one guy who really inspired me was a 23 year old pastor called Deepak, who has been pastoring now for 3 years, makes me feel old. Each morning we teach and in the evening we have been out in a village Church and a slum Church. The people are hungry for God and all want prayer, so its about 15 minutes message and the rest of the evening is praying for the sick.

On the Monday evening in a village gathering we started praying for people with eye problems the first lady that we got to pray for was blind in her right eye, you could see what I'd describe as a film/coating over her eye, it was red and had a growth in the corner. I prayed along with Will MacLaughlin, after a short pray asked her what was happening she said she could see a little, it was very hazy so we prayed again and again asked how it was going, her reply was a little better but everything was very dark, again, third time we pray and this time I covered her left seeing eye and asked her if she could see, she said yes, so not believing her and thinking she was being kind I kept her good eye covered, put up different fingers and got her to copy and she got 100% right.

So from there we continue praying for eyesight, many people confirming great improvement. Backs and pains were healed that night also but what I really loved was watching kids play with balloons for the first time ever- simple fun. It just seemed the most natural way to end a great time of healing. I must be honest it was our children's pastor @ VCD who insisted I take the balloons out, what a great call.

On Tue evening we headed out to a Church that was made up of people from nearby slums, very lively, lots of children who loved to sing and laugh. I talked little (hard to believe) then prayed for the children, and then we prayed for the sick with the children's help. People said they had pains that had gone as we laid hands on them which was great. Then we met a girl whom we prayed for last year who couldn't speak. Last time at her home we'd prayed briefly, and when we left she was saying a few words, so my heart leapt when I spotted her, then sank when I realised she had no improvement. She was recently seen by consultants in Portugal who found no physical medical reason why she couldn't speak. We prayed and prayed but no great signs of improvement. In an honest moment it felt as if the party was cut short.

I know the Kingdom theology of the 'now and the not yet', and how we live in the presence of the future, and yet in a moment of standing with a mother longing to hear her daughters voice it's a difficult, frustrating time. I love theology on paper but sometimes it's hard living between the page and the pavement. The thing is I have nowhere else to go now, I have tasted and seen that God is good, I have seen His compassion come and heal the sick. I live in holy frustration, continuing to contend to see more blind eyes open, the deaf hear and the mute speak. There is no other message other than the one Messiah, Jesus, came with. Again I'm cornered by the Kingdom.

Making Disciples

2010-02-11T13:56:00.005Z

I’ve always been convinced that the best way to disciple people is when we are on mission; this was highlighted for me yesterday when one of our staff told her story.

Maybe we should tell more of our stories, but I love it when those outside of our community of faith tell them for us as we engage with them; I feel more comfortable with that, hey I’m a pastor and prone to exaggerate. Anyhow here’s a story that might help those of you who are constantly asking the question “what’s the deal when it comes to discipling people, what is the best model?”

Sharon who is our family support worker @ VCD went out to make a visit to a lady which was a referral through one of the many local social agencies we work with. That’s a whole other God story in itself. Sharon headed out with a befriender (befriender is a volunteer who will go out into our community with Sharon and lend support to someone, pray etc). They take some groceries for the lady they are visiting and then Sharon offers to pray for her, she accepts (Sharon has 100% record on people accepting prayer. Try it, most people say yes).

In the room Gods presence comes and Sharon prays; hope begins to rise for the lady and in a prophetic prayer God leads and gives direction to the conversation. Here’s the cool part, the befriender with Sharon is there, watching, listening and after the visit she turns to Sharon and says “I need to learn the listening to God part, as it’s totally new to me”. I don’t know where the befriender is on her spiritual journey as she has just started coming to the Vineyard but I do know from yesterday that she is a lot further on in her walk with God.

There is actually a model out there for Churches; I’ll give it to you without any coaching fee. Take a look at 1 Thessalonians 1: 2-10
We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

The model is faith, hope and love, Paul said “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Gal 5:6) I want to encourage you, if you want to see disciples grow then teach them how to live by faith, be known by love and become dealers of hope in your community. When this happens people get hungry and become passionate followers of Christ. Here’s the result from the text. Paul describes this Church as a people who took people that once followed pagan gods to passionately follow Christ. Not bad eh?

jasbook

2010-01-12T13:39:00.002Z

It was about three years ago that I felt God ask me the question “If Vineyard Church closed the doors tomorrow would anyone in our community know or more importantly would anyone care?” It was a sobering moment to say the least. From that time we have, as a community of faith each year continued to ask ourselves this question.

My good friend and mentor Dave Workman (www.vineyardcincinnati.com) has always encouraged me to dig deep to find truth, we have talked many times on how stories are easy to find but truth not so easy. In the culture of social networking I’m concerned that we (The Church the BIG C) are creating a culture of spin and self promotion and avoiding the truth which is ultimately the life blood of the Church – mission is why the Church exists.

Confession time, I’m a sucker for Facebook and just recently signed up to the newest, brightest and better ‘foursquare’ (you wanna be my friend?). I join causes and accept some invitations but can’t help but conclude that it’s a heck of a lot easier to sign up to ‘attending Jesus birthday party’ than being incarnation Christianity. When we hit the 1 million target of invited guests we give ourselves a pat on the back or a virtual high 5 instead of walking out the Christmas message of hope through our towns and communities.

I’m more and more convinced that it’s your community that will give the signals of what how good we are really doing at being the Church and not self promotion on our status updates on facebook and twitter. It’s those outside of our meetings and networks that give a sign, an alert. If the local church is in the business of seeing lives changed then we need to know what are the signs in our community; is it broken marriages, is it teenagers who are self harming, is it lives being wasted by addiction, what’s our sign, where is our favour?

I’m learning that our job is simply to discern what those on the outside of our churches are saying to us regarding the dreams that we have for the community. Don’t be fooled by believing our own hype but let’s get courageous and honest to go and find the truth.

Prodigal God

2009-11-15T18:17:00.006Z

Today we kicked off our mission month under a series called ‘Prodigal God’ centred around Tim Keller’s book.

One of the amazing things about Jesus is that even though he was a righteous person he would do life with unrighteous people. The strange thing about Jesus is that even though he came from God he would spend time being with ungodly people.

In the first century people who were nothing like Jesus would want to be about Him. They wouldn’t be put off by Him; people who were not religious didn’t get offended by what he said or did. The people who would describe themselves as not good living at all would enjoy his company. The thing that gets me and sometimes frustrates me is that all over this country people will gather just like we do in the Vineyard but with very few people who look nothing like us or believe what we believe. The local Church is to be as close to Jesus as you can get. For some reason we don't have the same effect isn't that odd?

The big question is why was Jesus so attracted to people that were nothing like him and why is it that people who were nothing like Jesus, gathered sometimes in their thousands to hear him?

If we embrace this question and come to it with an open mind, wrestle with it and even bring more questions to it then we begin to shape the future of the Vineyard Church. We have to come to this point and honestly ask and answer this question; are we going to give our time to reaching people or keeping people?

The people that thought they were most like him were always put off and offended?

Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." We can almost imagine them saying: “He welcomes sinners! This kind of person never comes to our meetings. This must be because he is telling them what they want to hear.

The message of the gospel when it’s presented clear, with grace & mercy will result in broken people, sceptical people, sexually immoral people, and social outsiders, attracted to Jesus more so than the religious people. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.” (Matt 21:31)

I want to encourage you to begin to invest and invite people that you know who as yet are not followers of Christ. Jesus sees the world like this, lost people and found people, broken relationships and people back in relationship. The challenge for you and me is this, will we become externally focused or be a Church that has the older brother syndrome; it’s all about me? The challenge for me and for you is, will we focus on what Jesus was focused on, the disconnected the disenfranchised?

We have all been lost, we all have had the broken relationship and there was a party when we came home, you and I should be catalysts’ people passionately motivated, people who would go and call those not yet convinced to come.

Have you ever lost something that was huge for you and no one helped you to find it. Frustrating right? I often wonder when God looks at us, does He look and say “do you even know how frustrating this is to look for my sheep, my coin.”

I'm here to seek and save the lost and God invites you and I to join the search. Aren’t you glad someone broke the silence with you? If what Jesus said is true we need to be doing it and getting around those not yet connected. I could spend the rest of my life without impacting non believers I could make myself busy and it would be a lot easier. I think at the end God might say great Church wrong focus.

Here’s what I want you to do today… Invest; Ask God to bring someone to the front of your mind, pray for them, email them, pick up the phone, call with them and Invite them to come with you to Church this Sunday.

We have a great Church and great people, we could be so tempted to stop. Now imagine if we could look back by this Christmas and say I was part of someone being found.

Graciously,

Jason Scott

September is the new January

2009-09-15T08:17:00.003Z

I love September, to me it feels more like a new year than January, here’s an idea, maybe we could start a campaign on Facebook to change it. After coming out of summer I’m ready for routine, well at least getting the kids of to bed at a set time. I have a little more energy, probably all that Vitamin D stored up from all the sunshine we had here in Ireland over the last two months. There’s a visual and atmospheric change also about September which is another huge argument for making it the New Year; the colour in trees, the light in the day getting shorter, the crisper cooler evenings and seeing your breath on an early morning.

In September I do more evaluation of my life than I probably do in January; what do I need to change? Add? Or more often the case, get shot of? During September and October at the Vineyard we are taking a journey, a journey of spiritual renewal, looking at spiritual health. All of us have areas in our lives that we need health in. Paul said this “It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right I inevitably do what is wrong. There is something else deep within me, my lower nature, (sin nature) that is at war with my mind and wins the fight.” Rom. 7:21, 23 (LB). Sound familiar? Yesterday I was exhausted, planned an early night, ended up watching two back to back’s of Ramsey’s ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ and hitting the sack after midnight.

Read these words of Henry Thoreau and then take four minutes to watch the video below.

I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
~Henry David Thoreau

Crash 09/ Disciple Making

2009-08-18T09:50:00.007Z

Each year the Vineyard Crash their community with faith, hope and love. The idea is to collide with our communities leaving them with this one thing; God loves you and wants a relationship with you.
This year we had a team of 22 come from our sister Church, Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio (www.vineyardcincinnati.com) to partner with us. Each day we kicked off with a kids club, then after lunch we headed out to paint, wash cars, garden, visit nursing homes, do healing on the streets and then each evening we opened the doors in The Storehouse for teenagers. It was a great week for many reasons; people received Gods love in a practical way, kids got to have fun, we saw the power of God as we prayed for the sick and the weather stayed good (no small thing in N.Ireland). I guess you could safely say the week was a huge success. What was really cool was the fact that when we become outward focused when we go after the lost God, takes care of his children on the way

This week highlighted the fact for me again that we do our best growing in God when we go and serve those not yet in the Kingdom. I was so proud; thrilled to watch our kids hear Gods voice and encourage each other. One teenager told me how this week was the first time he heard God speak to him through someone else and how it blew him away. I’m convinced that when we go on mission God does so much in our hearts. I guess that’s what means when the ancient scriptures say "To Find Your Life You Must Lose It" Matthew 16:24-28. When we are fully committed to serving God, He does so much more in us than through us.

I totally believe in equipping followers of Jesus so that they can grow in their faith, character and love for humanity. I have watched people shout for disciple training in the context of “pour into my life”, “spend time with me”, “Teach me theology”. I mean no pastor, leader would look at these things and not come to the conclusion that they are essential to the Christian faith and walk, and they are of high importance and pivotal to every follower of Jesus Christ. Here’s the BUT, if it’s all great connection without a great commission then there is no real growth, maturity or lasting fruit.

Listen to this, this is mind blowing, if you get this everything changes from here on in for you and the people around you, The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it. 13 From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it. That's how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. 14 Whatever you request in this way, I'll do. (The Message John 14:12-14)

Let me ask you a question; if you are follower of Jesus Christ what do you bring to your workplace, university, school, what do you bring to your community? Because of Jesus coming to earth, bringing His Kingdom and defeating death, because of the resurrection we have the opportunity to bring life. We bring right acts, joy and peace because of the Holy Spirit. You and I have the right and the responsibility to act on behalf of Jesus as His followers, bring light to darkness, beauty to brokenness.
Have you ever looked at the world and thought is Jesus Kingdom among us? Where is His rule and reign?
So many followers of Jesus have resigned themselves to the thought that nothing will ever change until Jesus returns to sort out the mess. Maybe it’s because they look around and see the mistakes and past failures of the Church and doubt that things will ever be put right here on earth, resigning to watching, waiting and often criticizing; Problem is this doesn’t fit with what we see and know of Jesus commissioning His followers. The tasks Jesus leaves us to carry out His redemption work is straight forward, though it’s straight forward and reads OK on paper it’s daunting and demanding. Our first task or command is this – You have authority - ‘so go and make disciples’

Thanks to all the Crash team who showed up, stepped out and brought beauty to brokenness. Who walked out their discipleship by advancing the Kingdom. I have no doubt that everyone grew more in faith, character and love for God and others. I guess you could say there is theology in all of this.

Keep crashing forward!

Anger

2009-08-02T13:50:00.002Z

Today we continued with 'Riddle's of the Wise' looking at the practical sayings of Proverbs. I often find myself after screwing up, saying "Aw well you live and learn" wonder is it a universal saying? Though proverbs is giving an alternative to this and teaching us to learn and live, which really is a better way to go.

Proverbs 16:32 Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city. What I like about the writer is he realises the emotions we have and doesn't ignore them as if we become robots when we become followers of Christ. He also realizes the courage, strength and discipline that it takes to control them. Not easy! I find myself more often than not falling short when it comes to controlling anger.

Jesus once talked about anger "Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." “Raca” is Aramaic for “empty-headed one”; the insult is about the same as the one that follows it, “Fool!” —.

Have you ever read scripture like this and pretend you haven’t just read what you read. I mean you block it out. Call someone a fool and off to hell you go. Gehenna is one word used for Hell. It comes from the Hebrew Gey-Hinnom, literally "valley of Hinnom." Its a real place, south of the old city of Jerusalem where the city's rubbish was burned. At one time in history, live babies were thrown crying into the fire to be sacrificed to an idol called Moloch. This place was so despised by the people after King Josiah abolished this sick practice so they made into a rubbish heap. Bodies of diseased animals and executed criminals were thrown there and burned. Listen if you continue with anger and it results in you calling and swearing at humanity with anger, the result is your life could end up like Gehenna – the rubbish dump or looking at it another way, Gehenna could end up taking over your life and making it stink.

Back to the learning to live point. It's worth checking the heart regularly to see if we are living with anger. You see when we lose it we find ourselves saying another phrase "I don't know what came over me" well it's not that it came over you, it usually comes from within. How's your heart? When someone asks for bread are you giving them a stone? Are you carrying anger into relationships? Here's one I find alot, people leaving another Church in anger. They might have a lid on it but it usually ends up in an environmental disaster with toxic leaks.

Don't keep a lid on it, deal with anger, get shot of it as quick as possible.

Happiness is an attitude

2009-07-23T17:27:00.004Z

I'm just back at to work this week from a fantastic two week break at the North Coast of N.Ireland, thanks to the generosity of friends who let us use their holiday home. When we arrived at our destination we discovered that our bike rack pulled our boot (trunk) off line, which caused the car battery to go and then the alternator went; £300 and 5 days later we had our car back. Given my Pentecostal roots it was time to blame the devil and see this as an attack from the enemy. Michelle became a Calvinist saying “God was in it and working through it”

Happiness is an attitude and a choice, the reality was we where staying in one of the most beautiful parts in the world, the sun shone even though the forecast predicted rain, we had great friends who gave us their car and we reconnected with friends that we hadn’t seen for a while.

In two weeks, friendships, family and creation cried out God is BIG and He is GOOD all the time. Happiness isn’t so much about what happens, it’s more about a life well lived and as followers of Christ we are called to a life that is filled with opportunity and joy.

“Joy is a rare thing, you don’t find it everywhere it’s different thing from happiness” Bono

The Apprentice

2009-06-30T12:01:00.003Z

The Apprentice:

It is interesting that the word “Christian” hardly appears in the New Testament. We use the word all the time, but the word “Christian” only appears in the New Testament, get this - 3 times. Compare that to how the ancient scriptures describe a follower of Jesus Christ. Nearly 300 times they are called “disciples.”

We reserve the word “disciple” for people, who are really, really serious about their faith, saints, people who are really holy, however we scale that. Here’s the crazy part, somewhere along the way we have come up with the idea that you can be a Christian in the Church but not a disciple. You graduate to become a disciple I guess through knowing more of the Bible? Going to Church? Tithing?

When Jesus walked on a beach one day beside the Sea of Galilee he begins to call the first two disciples, and because these guys were working in the family business meant they weren’t following another Rabbi, these guys are not the best of the best. The beauty of what Jesus calls us to is not made up of scholars alone, but of working class, young, old, rich, poor, educated and so called drop outs. What I truley love about being a disciple is that it is a movement for everyone.

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"?
- 1 Cor 1:26 – 30 The Message;

We have no problem believing in God, no problem believing in Jesus? The stumbling block for many followers of Jesus and I guess the reason why we have added the label Christian to followers of Jesus is because we struggle with the idea that God believes in us. His call to become a follower, a disciple an apprentice means because of His authority you and I can take action, bring beauty to brokenness, and become peddlers of hope. You and I can live like Jesus and do what he did; the bible says yes even greater things. He believes in you and entrusts you with the pear of great price; The Kingdom

The question that remains is, ‘Will we accept His call and commission?’
Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations.

Once Upon a Time

2009-05-24T21:58:00.004Z

Ivan Illich brilliantly said, “Neither revolution nor reformation can ultimately change a society, rather you must tell a new powerful tale, one so persuasive that it sweeps away the old myths and becomes the preferred story, one so inclusive that it gathers all the bits of our past and our present into a coherent whole, one that even shines some light into the future so that we can take the next step forward. If you want to change a society, then you have to tell an alternative story.”

Over the last three weeks we have invited people to come and tell their story, each week people have been inspired, encouraged and I pray awakened to write their own story this side of eternity. We are all part of a once upon a time moment…a true story… that's directed by God the father, every one's story is connected to His story or put this way, ‘for everything absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him - The Message Col 1:16

Many followers of Christ and not yet followers forget or don't realize that they are the story.
Paul said, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. " (eph 2:10)
Sounds a little heavy right? I mean you could pick up from reading this ancient text that this Christianity is all do, do, do. The fact is within this text we miss something living and life giving. The word workmanship comes from the Greek word poiema word poem. It is only used twice in Scripture yet conveys meaning that is almost breathtaking, and of great importance.
The word poiema is used here first to describe God's work of creation in Romans ; For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (rom 1:20 NIV)

Get this, with all our mistakes, selfishness and pride amongst other stuff, we are doubly a divine story in the penmanship of Our Sovereign God, when we give our lives to Him! How special is that! We are first a divine poem, art, story, part of His wonderful creation; but when we allowed sin to enter the world back in the garden , God wrote another divine story, that of the story of sweet redemption. Through Christ he rewrites us, recreates us all over again. Get this, It’s not about works it’s a love story of boundless grace and you and I become the story.

Outward Focused?

2009-05-14T12:34:00.003Z

I am just back from catching up with a good friend who was in Armagh today on business, we met at the Bagel Bean (well worth a visit, cream cheese and mango chutney on a Jalapeno bagel, its amazing). Anyhow we got talking about Church, Christ and Mission. He heads up a thing called 'Face to Face' each week in his home town where a team head out into the streets and simply take risks as God leads them people. They don't have literature or free stuff all they do is rely on The Holy Spirit to show up and begin conversations.

This guy has been consistently on mission since I've known him (18 years) no matter if its in work, the street, the pub, he's always looking to see who the Father is calling to Himself and joining that conversation. The only thing that gets to him at times is the fact that he has lost 75/80% of his hearing. I guess you could call that an outward focused life, even though there are obstacles and times of doubt and discouragement, nothing ignites his soul more than seeing people come into relationship with God the Father.

I have to ask myself the question; "Am I really outward focused?"

Graciously;

Jason

Making space for another

2009-04-22T15:10:00.002Z

Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person (lost) may not remain estranged from him (2 Sam 14:14)
This text reminds me of my mortality; I’m awakened to serve my generation to live deliberately, to get aggressive with the temptation to be apathetic which desires to steal my soul.

In this text I see the God of mercy, sweet mercy, I see His character, God is good, He’s not bent on destroying people but He is creatively coming up with ways to bring the nadach (Hebrew) lost back to himself.
God is coming up with different ways of bringing the lost back to himself. We need to get in on them, lift our eyes to see white fields.

God is doing something unique here at the Vineyard in Dungannon
“Our job like experienced surfers is to recognize a wave of God’s spirit and to ride it. It is not our responsibility to make waves but to recognize how God is working in the world and endeavour to join Him”. Rick Warren

I can’t live without seeing life change and no Church will live without lives being changed. We are not called to survive history but to serve humanity. I love Starbucks, well I love the Starbucks experience and if you’ve been in that experience you might have noticed a statement on the wall ‘Starbucks changing the world one cup at a time’; I love their passion, I’d love us to have a passion that changes the world one soul at a time. Let me warn you that just like the caffeine there is an addiction when you start to see the few and the ones and two’s come to know Christ.

We need to make room for them when they come and so on May 10th we will be adding another service. Our new service will be 10am and then we will have another service at 11.40am. Both will be identical and offer the same children's programs.

It's harvest time!

12th April 2009

2009-04-11T21:22:00.004Z

Tomorrow we kick our Easter celebrations off at 8.30am on Castle Hill, The site was the ancient King of Ireland, Hugh O'Neill's Home, which I think is very cool and very kind of Dungannon council to open it up for us. Here's what's very cool though, all around the world on the Sunday the 12th April 2009 every tribe and tongue will sing, read, worship, some will dance, some will worship in silence, some will turn it up to 11 but all of Christs Church will confess and celebrate His literal physical resurrection.

No matter what our difference is regarding doctrine or worship style, tomorrow the body of Christ with one voice will declare "He has risen, He has risen indeed!". I love that

Jesus the REVOLUTIONARY

2009-03-30T09:40:00.005Z

We have had a novel idea at the Vineyard with our Easter series that we kicked off 3 weeks ago, we have decided to look at Jesus for 6 weeks.
What I find strange here in my small part of the world is that many followers of Jesus give the perception that they revere Paul more than Christ, that if we say anything about Paul it would be close on blasphemy, Paul is often quoted by many more than Jesus Christ

We are looking at Jesus the Revolutionary who is changing assumption's we have grown up with, we have hit the reset button and are searching for Him anew.

Jesus steps on to the world stage with this message "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near" Repent: change the way you think. I think that repentance goes deeper than repent for our sins.

He's asking people to change their thinking because He is bringing a revolution.
It Is Here!
Jesus’ acts of authority and his confrontations with Satan force people to ask ultimate questions: Who is this? What is happening? As we look at Jesus, we find that his every action is a revolt against the system called religion and against the powers of darkness.

There is only one kingdom, undivided, that has come, is coming, and will come. This Kingdom is a Revolutionary Kingdom. When the kingdom draws near everything changes, the presence of the Messianic king, the outpouring of the Spirit, the coming salvation, the forgiveness of sins, the healing of the sick, the resurrection of the dead, eternal joy, the liberation of the captives, the judgement of sin, and the newpeople of God in a new Jerusalem, are all present with every in-breaking of the kingdom.

Have we repented enough to see the Revolutionary Jesus or are we living with false assumptions?

Lucknow

2009-03-08T16:16:00.003Z

First full day in Lucknow, North India. This morning we (Brian Cummings) and I headed to one of the Good Shepherd Churches which is part of the OM organisation. We were meeting on the roof of a school.

Yet again I'm amazed and humbled at the peoples hunger to gather together as the Church, to sing and worship without a Redman, Thomlin or Young, they pray like the Acts 4 prayer meeting (I'm guessing never attended the Acts 4 prayer meeting).They love to hear a message of the Kingdom and are eager to come and get prayer. The Kingdom is breaking out here.

What is it that makes the Kingdom moments? hunger? expectancy? the quest to seek His face? These I will wrestle with at least for this week until I get back home and start working on creating environments and atmosphere.

Next week we kick off a new series at VCD called 'Jesus the Revolutionary' so here's teaser for week one. "The West is not the center of Christianity. Asia, Africa and Latin America is—with Christianity exploding exponentially."

Brian prayed with a lady we prayed with in August who was deaf but now she can here but wanted prayer to be able to speak. We wait to here her testimony.

One Thing

2009-03-01T14:14:00.003Z

Mary and Martha lived with their brother Lazarus at Bethany, a village not far from Jerusalem. Jesus shows up at their house one day with his disciples, maybe just calling in on the off chance of getting dinner.Martha could be thinking "the masters here, the one who talks about serving, I could impress him". She ends up distracted. Jesus calls her name twice to get her attention.

The Master said, "Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. 42 One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it's the main course, and won't be taken from her."In the same spirit of Mary a King, writer, poet and a warrior writes a song, the lyrics describing how he’s feeling deep in his soul; he said "One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple"

On Jesus’ last evening after he and His disciples sung a hymn they left the upper room went across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives. He is going to a garden called the oil press. That night he prayed like no one prays, so intense that He sweats blood through his pores, this has only happened to a few people in history. He wanted to share his prayer but the one thing he asked them to do they didn’t, they wanted to but couldn’t manage it for one hour.

How do we manage 'the one thing'? How can we turn our prayer life around? There is a heart to seek God built within us by God Himself. It’s a desire, a craving. It grows when exposed to God and His nature. He creates an appetite for us to seek Him more as He reveals His glory, goodness and generosity to us. I’m convinced that every follower of Jesus has a desire to seek the face of God, to choose the one thing.

What stops us? Distraction? Yea I guess, business of life? Yep. What about self sufficiency? These are all possible good reasons why we don’t choose the one thing (prayer) but I want to suggest that the main reason is we haven’t yet allowed ourselves to be exposed to His nature, which is good all the time. This reality takes place when we give ourselves the time to behold him through this amazing privilege called prayer and I guess the word prayer has become a tired word, but I’m talking about connecting to the living God not some religious routine or duty.

When we allow the desire to grow the appetite grows and the benefits make it a lifestyle.
What began as a discipline can become a passion, what begins as a discipline can become a lifestyle and what begins as a discipline can be the thing that gives you life. Prayer, seeking His face will expose you to the character and nature of your heavenly father.

The question is are you ready for the quest to seek Him, find Him and allow Him to bring revelation and His presence that will put passion in your faith and walk with God? Are we desperate enough?

There was a prayer meeting in the book of Acts I would love to have been at. I wonder what it was like? passionate, loud, desperate radicals on a revolution to change the world by bringing the Kingdom? The room shook, God showed in power and the people got their prayers answered.

Drenched

2009-02-23T09:26:00.006Z

'I believe in the Church' continued, as we celebrated our 5th birthday with a baptism. What a party! I'd say my favourite service at the Vineyard has to be baptism's. People telling THEIR STORY, "a person with an experience is never at the mercy of a person with an argument".

It's a powerful moment when people tell their story of how God has changed their life and how He continues to show up in their everyday ordinary life. Sometimes when I feel tired and stuck on this journey of Church planting, the one thing that propels me forward is life change. I confess I'm an addict, I can't live with out it, I crave it; seeing God change life's.

Michelle and I got to baptise our two boys yesterday, I was so proud of them. They came up front during our morning celebration with the others who were being baptised. Each person tells their story. Micah (aged 9) did a great job explaining the theology of water baptism. "Jesus did it so I want to do it too".

You know what? "I believe in the Church"

Invest & Invite

2009-02-15T14:34:00.003Z

Today we continued the conversation 'I believe in The Church' with the idea that we are all called to invest & invite. A few years ago when I worked in retail a guy came into our gentleman's emporium who owned a Hotel in the city centre of Belfast. He ended up inviting me to a party, it was after music awards party, oh and he said U2 would be there. I thought yea right, I live an hour's drive away from the hotel and it won't kick off until about midnight and what's the real chances of U2 being there so I turned it down.

I wake up next morning to the news that U2 was in town and guess what they attended an after show party at 'THAT HOTEL'. Regrets, I've had a few....missed the party.

Meals in the Roman-Greco and middle-eastern era represent who can associate with whom in the larger society. They lived in an honor-shame society where the rich ate with the rich and the poor ate with the poor. We see this somewhat today but in Jesus day there was no middle class. Who you ate with determined who you are. There’s a narrative in the ancient scriptures; a king is arranging a banquet for his son. The king sent out an invitation from his servants to the expected guests (the religious-political-economic elites, royalty). You would think that they would mark down the event on their calendar and be there at all costs! I mean this is the King’s invitation-this is very special but what happens? They insult the king, snubbed him. They were too busy for the king.

The king keeps inviting but they still refused and even mocked him and then others do harm and killed the King’s messengers.

Finally, the King does something that is totally against the culture. He invites everyone-those considered good and bad by going out to the streets and the highways to the poor, outcasts, riff-raffs-even prostitutes those considered least in society to come, to party, to fiesta! There are no strings attached when God calls you to the great fiesta-God’s kingdom.

The Kingdom of God really is a party not a prison; it’s everything you need to be satisfied. People having a blast just by the fact that they have been invited by God Himself. My dream for this Church is that God by His Holy Spirit would continue by grace to allow the Vineyard to be a place for all types of people regardless of their social, economic or ethnic background come and not just to feel they can come but that they feel welcomed when they do.

We said right from the start that the dream of this Church is that it be a place where the hurting, the depressed, the frustrated, the confused, can find love, acceptance, help, forgiveness, guidance and encouragement. The Church is a place that invites chaos in… Think about the party…the chaos the rag tag mob of brokenness.

People live in such chaos because they live in despair. We are responsible for bringing them the good news of the Kingdom not to be the moral police. It's not that we back away from sin. No not at all but if were are smart, we let the Holy Spirit come and bring change. Our deal is to bring the Kingdom of God, His rule and reign in their lives. Ultimately we are hope pushers Kingdom peddlers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ3-IZ1rT5g&feature=related

Dylan Thomas Wales’ greatest poet said “Do not go gently into that dark night….rage, rage against the dying of light”. It’s not that we are passive to the darkness no we rage against it and save the light.

The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." Let each one who hears them say, "Come." Let the thirsty ones come--anyone who wants to. Let them come and drink the water of life without charge
The Spirit and the bride which is the Church say come. The Holy Spirit and the Church are commissioned to invite those outside to come to the party. The Holy Spirit moves supernaturally, He draws people, devises ways so lost people can be found and as He moves we the Church shout come to the party. The message we should have hung over the doors is ‘you’re invited’

I believe in The Church

2009-01-12T08:56:00.007Z

I often hear many say that they love God but not the Church, they love Jesus but not His Church. The sad thing is I don't think you can love Christ and not His Church. It was never Gods intention that people stop believing in the Church. Christ is committed to His Church and if we look back at history you will see that She is irrepressible. GK Chesterton once reflected that, “On five occasions in history the Church has gone to the dogs, but on each occasion, it was the dogs that died”.

She may not always get it right, man might occasional give her a bad name but she is God's redemptive plan here on planet earth. She has the capacity and God given power to comfort, bring community to the lonely, She builds bridges to those who search for God, She opens her arms to the forgotten, the oppressed and provides a place of belonging to the marginalised.

Maybe we should think before we criticize what Christ gave His life for.

There is too much at stake, heaven has invested heavily, God has placed His redemptive purpose on the shoulders of the Church. We (followers of Jesus) are part of something mysterious and beautiful. She is not a building "over there" but she is a community of struggling, weak people who are on a journey to and with God.

Let the sails be hoisted and the wind blow.

I love the Church. I do not want to write about the Church as a problem, a source of conflict, a place of controversy, but as the body of Christ for us here and now

- Henri Nowen

Outward Focused Christmas

2008-12-09T15:57:00.003Z

It's no secret, I love Christmas!!!

It's the highlight of the year in the Scott house, though Michelle has me warned each year not to get the boys hyped before December.

Have you ever read the bumper sticker "Jesus is the reason for the season"? Actually, the reason there's a Christmas is because we are broken people. The reason we have Christmas is because of people like me.

2008 years ago God did something totally opposite to what you and I would do when he looked at all the junk and relational mess, he didn't turn away, instead He leaned into it! At the very first Christmas God looked at the darkness and the lifelessness and leaned into it. He didn't respond with bolts of lighting but sent His one and only son to live among us and walk among us and at the end of His time - He made known the Father's view of us by telling us that God allowed His one and only son to die on a cross. Merry Christmas!

That's a picture of grace... and that's what we're going to look at in this first week of our Christmas series called The Outward Focused Christmas. Grace is the undeserved favour - the unearned love, the offer of a "supernatural power to be free" - from God, to you.

If we don't understand grace, then we won't understand the heart of God. If we don't understand grace, then we certainly won't understand Christmas, and if we don't understand grace, then we'll never really become outward-focused. Being outward-focused is one of our core values here at the Vineyard; what better time to talk about it than Christmas, when we have a great opportunity to live out the Christmas story.

What if we changed the bumper sticker from, "Jesus is the reason for the season", to "you're the reason for the season", "your husband is the reason for the season", "your mum is the reason for the season", "your workmate is the reason for the season"Let's turn Christmas outward this year and have the same attitude as Jesus.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that - a crucifixion.
Phil 2: 5-8 (The Message)

Let's turn Christmas around this year and go serve

During our Outward Focused Christmaswe have a daily devotional of Outwardthoughts and inspiring stories of people serving. http://www.vineyarddungannon.co.uk/ofc_devotional.php

Come Holy Spirit

2008-11-18T12:02:00.003Z

We are continuing with our series called deeper. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better(Eph 1:17).

Everywhere I go I find that God’s people lack something. They hunger for something. Their Christian experience is not all that they expected and they often have recurring defeat in their lives. Christians today are hungry for Spiritual fulfilment. The most desperate need of the nation today is that men and women who profess Jesus be filled with the Holy Spirit. Billy Graham.

There is no going deeper without the Holy Spirit, we have nothing as followers of Christ without the Holy Spirit, our evangelism is powerless, our understanding of the ancient scriptures won't make sense, our transformation doesn't happen without the Holy Spirit. The one thread that runs through our lives going deeper with God, others and ourselves is this word 'SURRENDER' and many people don't want the empowering presence of God to come because it doesn't fit with our controlled, airtight life.

I wonder do we maybe try to hard to explain God, to even apologise for Him at times, so people will be OK with us while denying them the real chance for life change and a power encounter with the living God. We want to be in control of what the Holy Spirit does. We are talking about the kingdom of God, God’s right to control, God’s right to reign. We are talking about a violent wind. Despite the fact that we are so used to being able to bend and twist and shape others by what we do and say, here is someone you can’t manipulate someone you can’t control. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that “the wind blows where it wills.” And you can’t tell where it is coming from or where it is going. A lot of us don’t go deeper because again we have to give up our will and let God come.

Deeper

2008-11-03T19:53:00.003Z

Typically only one-tenth of the volume of an iceberg is above water. The shape of the remainder under the water can be difficult to surmise from looking at what is visible above the surface. This has led to the expression "tip of the iceberg"

The problem with many of us is that there are layers beneath the surface that remain untouched by Jesus, areas we don’t allow to surface because we can do all the other stuff such as worship, pray, read, serve and ignore the hidden stuff that holds us back from becoming totally whole people, effective and healthy in work life, home life, church life and friendships.

Scripture is written in Hebrew and Greek, God choose two languages to communicate His revelation to humanity. Thing is although the N.T is written in Greek, it is primarily written by Hebrews translating their thoughts into a Greek environment. There is a point to this and its this Hebrew thought tended to view man as a whole, while Greeks tended to categorize and divide men up into compartments.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is often a disconnect for Christians in that they divide their lives into “secular” and "sacred" compartments. Human beings have the default to live compartmentalised, double lives. Sunday is worship and the drive home we swear at the driver pulling out in front of us, Mon – Fri is work life.

What layers lie beneath the surface of our lives that never get dealt with? Is there a difference between our spiritual life and our everyday life?

Breakaway Recap

2008-10-21T16:22:00.003Z

Last week we hit the pause button. We had done six weeks on a series called 'Breakaway'. Looking at issues that cause us to run away, give more of our life way to find out we are more confused and trapped than ever before. We talked about porn. credit crunch, offense, religion and fear. Asking the question is there a way to breakaway without running away and so we faced these issues with courage and honesty, many finding freedom and better still transformation.

I often feel like we have become sermon junkies, one series runs into another, another theme, sound bite, then if you are greedy or crazy for more, we have podcast. Sunday was the first time at VCD that we stopped to recap, celebrate, breathe in and acknowledge what God has been doing with us through these recent conversations. I once heard Wimber say that he was still trying to live out a sermon he had heard many years ago. I wonder is too much information an unhealthy thing for us? Could information overload see many of us trapped in the world wide web?

Breathe out - Breathe in = stay alive

Fear, Tattoos, The Vets & The Kingdom

2008-10-02T11:22:00.007Z

I missed blogging on our Porn Sunday which was two weeks ago as part of our 'Breakaway Series'. We had Will MacLaughlin speak on it, he did a great job tackling this elephant, so if you are part of VCD and didn't make that Sunday I'd advise you to pick up a CD of the talk. This past Sunday we looked at breaking away from fear.

We all have the ability to fear, in fact I believe when God made us he made a space in our souls to allow us to fear just as He gave us the ability of emotions to laugh and cry. It’s an alert mechanism in your soul. I want my three boys to have a healthy fear of the road, fire and girls (girls until they-re are 16). They need a fear of things in life for their safety and so we as children of God need to fear things that threaten our safety. Sometimes it's good to get the hell sacred out of you. It's interesting that 'fear not' is the most quoted command in Scripture. Why is it that God would make this the biggest issue or records it in scripture as a command so much more than any other command that he taught? Lloyd Ogivie notes there are 366 “fear not” verses in the bible, 1 for each day of the year including one for a leap year. The reason is that fear is the no 1 reason why people are tempted to avoid and shrink back from what God has called them to do.

The key to us embracing God’s “Do not be afraid,” is starting with an appropriate fear of God.

What's your picture of God?

One of the ways that the ancient scriptures portray God, is as a lion. C.S. Lewis, in his famous children's books, The Chronicles of Narnia, portrays Jesus as a lion named Aslan. One of the children, named Lucy, asked, “Is he a man?”

“Aslan, a man?” said Mr. Beaver, sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you He is the King of the wood and the Son of the great Emperor beyond the sea. Don't you know the King of beasts? Aslan is a lion; the lion, the great lion.

“Ohhhh,” said Susan. “I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking they're either braver than most or else just stupid.”

“Then he isn't safe,” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver, “Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course, He isn't safe. But He is good. He's the King, I tell you.”

I wasn't planning to speak on fear, Sunday past but on my day off the Monday before I was walking into a shopping centre (mall) and saw someone in a wheelchair and all of a sudden fear gripped me, I felt paralyzed to believe the Kingdom has come and we can bring heaven to earth. I then walked into a shop with my wife and a girl working there was curious to know what my tattoos meant (right arm: Your Kingdom Come Your Will Be Done. left arm: On Earth As It Is In Heaven). So I explained you can bring heaven to earth, God's rule, God's stuff, healing, love. peace. She argued that hell has come to earth and this is impossible. I got the feeling I was being set up by the enemy and decided to allow the Fear of God to over ride the other fears.

Tuesday evening this week I had to collect my dog from the vets (£134 bill) and so a friend from Church took me to get her. It was busy and there was a lady there with her daughter, and her dog, as I go into a room to collect my dog, Brian (my friend) finds out her daughter is constantly not well and she was heading to a guy for a charm when she leaves the vets. A charm is a mystic cure (not a God thing) which happens alot in rural Ireland. Anyhow Brian tells here how God can heal, how we saw deaf ears open and other God stuff, he then tells her I would pray for her daughter. I come out of the surgery dog in arm, two kids and a £134 bill waiting for me and then find out I have to wait for the lady and her daughter to come out; she wants prayer. OK long story long, she comes out excited with her daughter, forgets about her hyper springer dog , and wants to get prayer. I pray for daughter there and then, the vet comes out, he's wondering what on earth is happening, the lady working behind the counter she comes out, and wants to know does she still need to go and see the guy with the mystical cure? I pray, they are very happy and go home.

Man did it feel good to respond to peoples needs, not fear, and to bring heaven to earth. Thanks Brian!

Breakaway

2008-09-17T07:43:00.004Z

Here at VCD we are looking at issues that keep us imprisoned as people and discovering how we can breakaway. The problem we face is that culture tells us that to 'breakaway' we need to runaway. many of us do it when we want to break-free, we run away from relationships, responsibilities and every-time we do it we seem to giveaway more of our life in a bad way.

Everyday the news is talking about money, credit crunch, recession, the rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two weeks ago these guys could have been rappers to me, the rise of fuel, food but what caught my attention was the lady talking said what we are facing is an economic tsunami, interesting tilt. There is just no escaping – It effects us personally. How can we breakaway from the stress, the worry, without running into more debt? How did we get here?I’m not an economist and I’m not going to argue whether we are officially in recession or not – truth is all I need to know is the oil and grocery bill is up. Well that isn’t totally true – the other thing I do need to know is when does it end?

Well I don’t think it does end, as such – I think it will get better, it will stabilize, welcome to the new world economy. Just as competition within the retail sector is fierce with many, many retailers fighting for a limited resource called customers, competition on a global scale is just as fierce, with many, many countries and people fighting for resources like oil, food, grain.

So it is classic supply & demand - with China & India starting to really grow and develop, there is increasing demand for resources - oil, food etc - hence prices grow. The sad part here is nothing has changed for the poor, they are not eating more, earning more or being educated more. It's the old story of the top, creaming the top.
Napoleon once said 'Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.'

I’m not an economist. I’m not here to sort out the global economy but I do have something that will help all of us breakaway from a wasteful commercialised culture and ease the credit crunch. Without over simplifying things and without sounding like an old man we need to gain perspective. Without sounding old fashioned we don’t realise just how much things have changed over the last 20 years - when we were all kids a treat was a chocolate biscuit - now it is the norm. A fizzy drink was a rarity. Our parents all ran around shouting at us for leaving lights on etc - now it is the norm. We walked places. Digital TV, consumerism, brand culture, Internet - we've all become accustomed to a much more wasteful culture where waste and extravagance is accepted.

The credit crunch requires us as parents / adults to realign our values to salute and reward being economical and not wasteful and then to teach these values to our kids. In doing this can we 'correct' the unhealthy swing to commercialism that has 'poisoned' us and our generation. It’s a time for renewing the mind, finding Gods good, perfect and pleasing will, this is about breaking free. I want to leave a text and some tools to help you begin a journey to financial freedom.

Money gets alot of blame for stuff it didn't do. I want to suggest that alot of our credit crunch problems are down to a dangerous thing called 'discontentment'. Discontentment is robbing our generation. The unique thing about Iiving in our western culture is that we are daily bombarded with messages that cause discontentment and cause us to be dissatisfied with our current situation. We live in a culture where you actually see the stuff you don’t have, you don’t just hear about it you see what you don’t need. Discontentment is a weird thing! You see stuff you needed but didn’t know you needed it until you saw it.

1 Tim 6 A letter written buy a guy called Paul to a young man named Timothy funny enough. The Bible isn’t complicated sometimes we just make it like that to look clever. Paul is coaching this young guy and writes to him to give him advice. This text is written to rich people, hold it before you switch off and say this doesn’t apply to me let me fill you in on what is meant by rich in that culture and time that this letter is written. If you have more than you need you are considered rich, if you’re not living hand to mouth each day. There was no benefit for people. If you’re not living hand to mouth and I mean getting food from day to day if you’re not at that point then your rich. We would all be considered rich people.

HOW TO HARNESS DISCONTENTMENT

How do you save yourself from getting trapped? How do you breakaway? How do you stop yourself from taking out extra loans, overspending, re mortgaging yourself way over your head. How do you break away from the pursuit of bigger, brighter and better? Or do we just go deeper? I want to give you three things that will help us harness and manage discontentment.

1. Make a conscious decision to flee and pursue.

2. Generosity harnesses discontent

3. Intentionally make decisions to look beyond yourself

Long blog I know but big issue.

Treasure Hunting

2008-08-31T15:55:00.005Z

Just finished of two weeks talking on the ultimate treasure hunt and I'm just in the door from doing one. The ultimate treasure hunt is bringing the good news of the Kingdom through supernatural encounters, its about seeing the God opportunities and divine encounters as part of the normal Christian life and when this happens you and I get to be part of a great discovery that brings a party to earth and heaven.

The ultimate treasure is the people who are waiting to be discovered. Those who desperately need an encounter with God, to meet their overwhelming needs and have a desire to connect with their creator and Father. They are everywhere, shops, businesses, estates, streets, pubs, clubs, schools and churches. They are everywhere we go and they are Gods ultimate treasure.

Can you not find treasure without clues and a map? of course you can. But wouldn’t you want see what Jesus sees, pray what we prays, say what he says and do everything that he does? I keep coming back to Jn 5:19, Jesus did what he saw the Father doing and just like Jesus don't you want to make it easy for yourself and depend on the Holy Spirit. Why search the soil on your own for treasure when there is a spiritual metal detector available? Like I said last week this is not personality driven nor is it a special gift for a certain person it’s available to everyone to find the ultimate treasure and get on the great commission.

I don’t know about you, but I go through seasons of discovering God in a new way, I guess that’s what lovers do, you rediscover beauty, a quality. The last few months I’m undone with how good He is all the time. Everything He gives us is good and for the good of others (1 Cor 12 for the common good). The divine clues, the word of knowledge is good for everyone. As we went out today with our maps and written done clues we hadn't everything tied up but we did meet people, told them we were followers of Christ and the guys even got opportunities to pray for people. That's Ok for me!

I'd encourage you to have a go and do a treasure hunt, I'll guarantee you, it will be good but be careful it came become a little addictive. Here's the map that I got from Kevin Dedmon author of The Ultimate Treasure Hunt. Let me know how it goes.