Grapes from the Vine

With this post I am starting a new series that is going to address values and distinctives of the Vineyard as I understand them.

The first thing is about who God has called us to be. While I am asking this of us as a church in general I really want to drive this down to us as individuals. People think that only pastors and ministry leaders have callings. In fact, each and everyone of us has a purpose that we are called to in God's kingdom. How do we go about getting back to that calling or maybe finding out what it is?

When each one of us came to the Lord and started exploring the Scriptures there were certain verses that stood out for us that became engrained in our lives. Psalm 46:10-11 and Jeremiah 29:11 are some of the verses that were pivotal for me. However, as I began to read the Word for myself to intepret it for myself beyond my Sunday School teachings, the verses that stood out for me were the verses in the Gospels where not only did Jesus perform miracles but he sent out his disciples and they performed miracles. Then in the book of Acts in the early church signs and wonders accompanied the development of the early church. It frustrated me that I wasn't seeing that happen in my church or that the theology of the church attempted to explaing why it wasn't happening in our church. My thinking, as simplistic as it was, was that if it was in the Bible and we served the same God as they did, we ought to be doing the same things they did and seeing the same signs and wonders as they did.

When I looked at the way we did church and how I saw the church in the New Testament I saw two different things. Our church was a westernized professional production of a progam that emulated what many years ago had started as a Spirit led move of God. They had codified the forms and erected monuments to those forms. Now the substance was gone and only the form remained.

I realized that my desire, my passion was to worship God and lead others to experience Him in a real and powerful way. That is church.

When I first heard John Wimber talk about "doin' the stuff" and "everyone gets to play", he was articulating the theology that had formed in my mind all those years ago as a teenager.

We have to continually fight mission creep and return to our first love if we want to see renewal. People will not be passionate about my vision, but will buy into what they see that I am passionate about. People will toil for a while to help a pastor's vision come to life, but will dedicate their lives to the things that you release them to do by showing them God's vision for their life and by giving them authority in addition to responsibility. Our job is to equip and release.

A while back I had a conversation with Pastor Karl about sending out leaders and we were discussing that leaders are on loan from God. We are to send them out with our blessing when God's vision for their lives exceed our limited vision.

We want to be a church that equips the saints for works of service. We want to make dsiciples that make disciples that make dsiciples. The forms don't matter. What does matter is this:

1. Is the body reproducing itself?
2. Are people coming to know God and experiencing His presence?
3. Is the proclamation of His Word accompanied by the demonstration of His Power?
4. Are people making disciples?
5. Is everyone empowered and released?

The Vineyard is all about the Kingdom of God not about the Vineyard. Matthew 11:12 says that from the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven has been andvancing and forceful people are taking hold of it. Are you advancing the rule and reign of God? The rest is just window dressing.