There is a phrase in scripture that has been running around inside my head over the last days…The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away…BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD. Having had three months of sabbatical and come back together to discern the Lord’s direction we have come to the decision to close Bay Vineyard.  It is not without sadness of course, however since coming to the decision we have been carrying the Lord’s peace in this decision which has been such a blessing.  The Lord  is so good.  Of course we never set out 6 plus years ago for this outcome, but as we have looked at ourselves as a group and attempted to discern His leading, this is where we believe He has led. At times it is easy to get into all the why questions, but we unanimously feel this is the Lord’s way which has brought the peace and stopped the questions.  It is almost like the Lord had us plant a church for a season, filled with people in transistion.  That now seems to have come to an end. Of course this is not the end of our journey with Jesus, or our connection to church or our serving of Jesus; simply a redirecting, a changing ,a new beginning. Thanks to those who have read our blog, visited our church, prayed for us.  May the Lord bless you as you follow Him. Personally I intend to continue to blog…so watch out you may find me again in cyberspace..Blessings

As a church we are having a change of pace over the summer months.  See our calendar page for details.  We decided that we needed to change what we were doing, and many of us needed a slower pace over the time.  I am going to be having a break from writing and other ministry tasks over summer and taking some time to rest, pray, play and pull back.  Sabath rest is something that even the Lord practiced and advocated.May your Christmas be refreshing and may you see Jesus afresh…the reason for the Season.

On Sunday we had a retreat sunday like we have 4 times a year…a chance to stop and as church encourage each other in a different way.  We met in groups of three or so and used the below questions to answer and therefore use to share our lives.  Perhaps they can be a challenge/encouragement for you.  Find a couple of friends and share your thoughts on what is below…

Scripture thoughts

Romans 12;1 ,2 (The Message)

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.  Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God.  You’ll be changed from the inside out.

Psalm 86:11 (NIV)

Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

Hebrews 10:24,25 (NIV)

…And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Questions for sharing and reflection

1. Above are scriptures we have reflected on in the last few weeks; share aspects that grab you from the Word of God.
2. We read from Phil 3 today about the heart to know Jesus, share on your inner relationship and journey with Jesus.  How is it going?
3. On the recent DVD Peter Fitch said the journey is, from the image of God to the likeness of Christ. What area of character growth is God stirring right now in you?
4. How would your spouse/children say you are doing in the home?
5. Why has God placed you in the work you are in? 
6. Where could you connect in more than you are now within the church?  Where could the church support you more?
7. Did you have a Sabbath in the last week to play and rest?  When did you last spend time in nature?
8. Where can you see God at work that you are involved in or could be involved in?

Prayer in groups

What image or thought comes to mind when you read that phrase?  Somewhere in the midst of that there is the idea of being a whole hearted, passionate, fully committed lover of Jesus.  As Jesus called us to Love God; with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength.  With our entirety, with all that is within us. The phrase White Hot Faith is one of the descriptions my friend Steve uses to describe the marks of a Jesus movement.  I look forward to this book coming knowing the years he has been living in this conversation. And wouldn’t it be great if the church all over the world began to discover itself again as a missionary movement and not a denomination or religious institution.  What if we began to focus more on God establishing His Kingdom rather then building a church.  

I lived to tell the tale.  My walk of 50 klm of the last blog went fairly well.  Lets just say…I walked well to start with, hobbled around the next day hardly able to walk.  Unfortunatly an “old war wound” surfaced and made it increasingly hard to put one foot before the other, but I managed 38klm which is not bad for one day.And talking about when you do not mind technology not working; part way through the day I realized that the pedometer that I had been training with had not been working well.  In my training I had seemingly walked further then I had thought I had.  So glad it had not been the other way.   Still some great money raised for such a good cause.  Worth the pain.  

It is early morning and I am preparing to walk 50 klm today to raise money for a big need.  Start walking at 5 am, be done by midnight.  Been training for 4 months.  The jokes about what condition I will be in have been running hot.  I will update later. 

The other day I went to a presentation on some research done recently on the state of the church in Melbourne.  One statistic stood out.  In Melbourne there is 1 church for every 2070 people.  Considering the size of many churches and the amount outside the church, there is plenty of room for church plants like ours and many more.  Many people still need to hear about Jesus. 

I wrote last about our being involved in the carnival that the school where we are meeting was running. It was a great day. Good to get involved and help them, good to continue to build relationships within the school community and good to just have fun being with them.

Church is after-all…God’s people and God’s people are called to go as witnesses to who Jesus is and what he has done in our lives, to go as those called to love our neighbor, and called to go and make other followers of Jesus. On  Sunday reflecting on it, I made the comment that at the heart of the way we live is that we want to be natural. Natural enough that people know we are real and that we can relate to real people in real ways. As Christ followers…the church sometimes through our language, our busyness or our preoccupations we can lose connection. Doing things like the market keeps us grounded, keeps us connected, keeps us real and natural.

I also mentioned Sunday that the other side of the coin is that we are called to be Supernatural. Check back another time and I will write on that.

This Sunday our church is not gathering as we often would on a Sunday morning; having time to sing songs that describe our love and worship of Jesus, opening up the Bible to learn more about the Jesus that we follow, praying for each other in the journey of being a Jesus people, and enjoying time encouraging each other in life and faith.

No instead we are joining with others who are part of the Mordialloc Primary School school community in their carnival celebrating the schools 140th birthday. We are helping with different aspects of the day, serving, setting up and just being involved. In one way it may seem to be a different way to spend a Sunday as a church, on the other hand it is a natural way to be a part of the school community.

It is just nice as a church to be a part of a wider community where we meet. Jesus asked the church to be in the world where we live and be a representative of Him. This is one of the ways we can practice what He has asked.

I wrote last about going off for the national conference. We have been back a week. Had a great time. I love being with a church family where it is good to be together and enjoyable in many ways. Last Sunday we gave opportunity to share. All of us had connected to the last session, where Lloyd Rankin from the Vineyard in NZ had shared.

A few weeks back I had made mention to a couple of laws of learning. One is the law of recency, where the last thing you mention in a learning environment is what is remembered. It was perhaps for that reason we remembered, but also because the language and the point he was making made so much sense to us where we are at.

His point basically was that the King (Jesus) is always at work and His Kingdom is moving. WE do not have to do this thing called ministry by trying to be the smart and clever one and try and make it happen, but we need to learn to keep up with what the Spirit is doing and do that. On the edge of where the kingdom is advancing is where the action is. We began to see areas where perhaps God is at work in our church and can see that we want to move in that direction.

Was good to be challenged and encouraged and to come back together with a few things clearer.