We might not always think of the possibility of a person being a thinker and/or teacher and also a practitioner…some one good at practice. I would love to invite you to our gathering on the 29th June, where we have Greg Trainor, of Cabramatta Vineyard in Sydney sharing with us, one who is both.

Greg has taken his church family through the process of changing their church to being more organized around the call to mission then other aspects of the faith that we would normally organize around. Greg is a great practitioner but also recognized within the Vineyard in Australia as one of our foremost thinkers and teachers. Vineyard Australia has just established a school, and Greg will be one of the teachers in that.

You are welcome to join us on the 29th.

Spent the last couple nights with a family who have lived here in South East Asia for nearly 10 years now having come from the west.  They are doing well, however there is a cost and an impact from living cross culturally for so long.  At times there is a tiredness, there is the constant experience of them all (especially the children) standing out, there is the slow process of building relationships and especially growing deeper, there is the busyness of the culture, there is all the cross cultural differences, there are many obvious needs with not always easy answers and there is the constant spiritual battle.

 Perhaps you know some people, some friends or others who have chosen to be salt and light, to share Jesus love with people in another part of the world. Perhaps as you think of them now.  Pray.  Perhaps you should plan to take one of your holidays and visit them. It means a huge amount, oh and more importantly it will impact you.  I will be processing for awhile what and how it impacts me, and what to do with it, but I do know it has impacted.  Perhaps that would be good for you as well.

The biggest thing I can say it don’t take life for granted.  Pray.  There is a huge battle in our world and they need all the prayer and support you can muster.

One of the observations from my short trip in South East Asia, has been how small the world is these days.  Growing up as an Aussie in west africa 30 years ago the world was so different.  Communication between there and home was long and difficult; letters and telegrams, phones not working all the time.  These days the world is getting smaller.  Of course there are obvious differences in culture, food etc, but everywhere you see as an example, mobile phones.  I sat in a market watching the sights, sounds and smelling the smells of this part of the world and sent a few txt to my family.  Right there and then I heard back from my father. 

Earlier in the day I met a friend of my host, the local shop keeper.  She spoke of one of her sons studing in Melbourne.

Communication, travel, and in many ways…we live in such a smaller growing world.

I have a chance to stop and check my e-mail and write a few words.  We have been involved in a camp with a church community which went real well.  What has been fun is the variety of food and the enjoyment of eating it all.  Everyone wants to take us out and chat, and eat, and chat some more.

In the midst of good food, the basis of relationship and conversation, the oportunity always seems to avail itself to talk about the Kingdom.  To talk about the things of God.  To encourage, to pose questions, to teach and disciple through the way questions and conversation and lives intersect.  To learn and receive as much if not more then you give.  To be a blessing and to be blessed.

 The thing about food and conversation, is that you stop, you slow down and you enjoy being together.  Time gets forgotten and the next thing you know it is after midnight and time has flown.

I think coming from the west, I do realise we get far more time concious.  We feel we need to be ordered and stop.  We move on to the next thing. 

It is often in the lingering, in the food and in the conversation of life on life we get stirred or reminded of the things of the kingdom.

Heading overseas for a trip to encourage some churches and missionaries.  Really looking forward to it.  Been a busy period of time.  A major job ended today, with the  graduation from the course I have been managing in my other job at EastWork.  Will let you know re my trip, hopefully as we go.  

A couple of days ago I read through the latest Cutting Edge magazine.  Lots of great ideas, things to ponder, questions for myself about how we are doing.  Things like are we doing enough?, Is there more?…the usual types of reflection when you think and read through lots of great ideas.  As I went walking this morning I found myself reflecting, thinking, praying…Lord where to with all this?  What do I do with it all?  Do I need to do something, change something? One of the great things about the Lord is that He speaks.  He has promised that His people will know His voice.  You learn and you grow in discerning.  For me one of the aspects of His voice is not just what He says, but the peace He brings when He speaks.  Today the Lord reminded me to keep going with what He had already said. To persevere!  Hebrews 10:36, in the Bible says…”You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” “Great reminder Lord…and great that you bring peace when you speak(see Phil 4:6.7 for more clarity).  I will keep going on those things you have said.”   Oh and I was going to share them here as well…

A couple post’s ago I mentioned a verse from the letter to John in the Bible. Let me share another couple verses that we have been thinking about as we have built on that theme over the last couple Sundays.

John 5:17 Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too, am working.” He then builds on from that in verse 19, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

In a word or two. God the Father is at work. Jesus showed us the cry of His heart was to be so close to His Father that he was in tune with what He was doing and that he then would imitate and go with that flow. We do not have to try and do this thing called ministry off our own great ideas…we need to follow the Master. It is about staying so close to Jesus…and then following where we see He is and where He is going. Or as it says elsewhere in John fruit comes from remaining!

Ever pondered about postmodernism…or mumbled about modernity…or considered the topic of community?

You might like to check an event we are having on November 25th at 6pm.

I’ve known the speaker almost as long as I have breathed…and we are still best of mates! I just finished his 250 or so page thesis, which if you have any interest on how we should view the age old truths about God and the call of the church in a world that (bye the way) has changed, then it is worth the read.

And he is committed to walking it out in his own life and ministry both in Canada and beyond. Have a look at the school he is involved in helping to pioneer. You might have some young people looking for a gap year overseas and they could do a lot worse.

I was so proud of our Church last Sunday. As we had said previously on this blog, the school where we meet had invited us to be a part of the market they were running last Sunday. We gathered as the church, but gathered in a different way, gathered to serve and be a part of the market with the school.

We had considered it, prayed about it and felt that as the Lord had placed us in this school and our heart was to serve not just use the property, that this was a natural and exciting opportunity to give back to the school.

We helped with set up, delivered leaflets prior to the day, cooked sausages on the day, played music and ran a coffee stall serving coffee, tea and scones and jam and cream. It was a great day. We laughed a lot. Had fun serving the school and raising funds for them. We enjoyed interacting with parents, children, staff, market stall holders and visitors. We offered and gave a way free coffee’s to the stall holders, children and others were surprised with free gifts of drinks. As a church family we grew as a team both relationally and as we saw various gifting shine through this event.

Did Bay Vineyard meet last Sunday? Yes! We met to serve the school where we meet. We met as we went, going amongst the world where we have been placed. We met as we had opportunity to leave a great taste in people’s mouths…and I am not talking about the great coffee and delicious scones.

I believe we left a taste of Jesus, of what the church can be, of what community is like, of what service is about. It seemed a healthy and natural way for us to engage with our community around us, that we are increasingly being invited to be a part of. And it was great.

1Peter 3:15 says: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”.
We spent a bit of time discussing this scripture and discussing answers to questions that we might get asked about our faith. Hearing everyone’s take on explaining their faith was a wonderful experience – see the teaching page for a pdf file that has our questions and some answers.  We hope they help to equip you in being prepared to give reasons for the hope that you have!  If you’ve got some further thoughts on the questions, why not leave a comment on this blog?
We also briefly reviewed the Vineyard 5-step prayer model developed by John Wimber - that’s also posted on our teaching page.
Finally, we’re serving at the local primary school market this weekend - a great chance for us to say thanks to the school for being so open for us to use their facilities - will be a great time (click here for further details) - hope to see you there!