Micah 6:8 - The Invitation - you have a part to play

Today we shine a spotlight on the life of this church. Today is a day in which I am making an invitation to this community to join in for another year.  If you are a guest with us today you are most welcome – please forgive our focus for today.

Last year we adopted this motto: Love God, love people, love in action.

Some friends sent me an email recently in which they said, "the Vineyard isn't the sort of church you can just go to on a Sunday and not get especially involved in".

 

I take that as a great compliment. The phrase love God, love people, love in action is an active one. Active as opposed to passive. We are a group of people on a mission – a kingdom mission. We have a direction of travel and a purpose to our existence and my invitation today is to check that we are all heading in the same direction and committed to the same purpose.

It isn’t about doing lots of things, stacking up rota commitments, early starts and late nights, energy sapping meetings and hard graft lugging kit. And I apologise if you have been on the receiving end of too many requests to get involved! It is just that we love to do a great job and give everyone a part to play.

 

We have to get balance into our lives – just like Jesus: Time to work and earn our keep. Times of rest and stillness. Times with family & friends, especially friends who don’t know Jesus. And times when we get on doing the stuff.

Indeed we have to fight for stillness in a world which demands our attention and activity minute by minute. We are commanded to develop a lifestyle that does have a rhythm of rest: annual holidays, weekend breaks, a weekly day off, breaks during the course of your day.

This is why we have a tradition of keeping 5^th Sundays (next weekend) free of planned activities and why we don’t meet on Sundays or in housegroups during August. I encourage you to use those breaks for rest.

When it comes to our Kingdom mission, we all have parts to play. Some are more visible and louder than others. But it can all neatly be described by our theme for the coming year, do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.

How can you respond to the invitation? My question? Do you want to join in?

Prayer

 

You may just love to pray. You may be convicted to fast. This is what you can do, you have a gift for prayer. We are all called to pray but for some it is more of a gift and a calling than for others.

God invites us to pray – both to discern His will and to pray into it. And He delights in answering our prayer. Maybe that is the main way in which you are to join in.

• You pray on your own (the primary place of prayer, certainly the starting place)
• Praying by laying hands on people – within the church and on the streets
• Leading small groups to pray
• Pray on the website forum

Support

Perhaps you are restricted in your ability to get out and about that much. Maybe you have commitments which are a priority (Alison cares for her parents, some are at an early stage of a career and need to study for exams, some are in debt and have work extra to pay it off). Or you may not have many skills or handle stress or groups of people very well.

Well, you still have a part to play in the Kingdom. You can still be part of the ministry of this family.

• You can pray
• Encourage people with phone calls, emails, notes
• Pray and encourage people through forum notes
• Bake a cake
• Babysit for someone who needs to go out

Serve

We would dearly love you to find somewhere to serve which fits pretty closely with your passions and giftings. If not, I hope you will be happy to serve anyway, in the knowledge that you are contributing towards the way this church seeks to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.

Some have a capacity to do one thing once a month, others can carry more of a workload or responsibility. That’s OK, just

make sure you keep a life, that you do a good job, that you take time to rest and be still and to pray.

 

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Doing church costs money but when we looked at that verse in Micah, with what shall I come before the Lord, we discovered that giving starts with receiving. We have been given huge riches by God – both financially and in friends and beauty and opportunity and in His saving acts.

 

 

We gather as a community: to love God, love people and put love into action. And action inevitably costs money – paying wages, renting or buying premises, food and drink, communication, keeping compliant, serving the poor and needy. It all costs money.

 

So as the Lord generously provides for us we honour Him with giving a portion to this community:

 

Malachi 3:10 (The Message)Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple. Test me in this and see if I don't open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams. 

Use the orange cards to indicate what you plan to give in the next year. Put your details on the back so we can ensure we claim back the Gift Aid if you pay tax. That adds 25p to every pound you give. Please tear off the right hand side to keep as a reminder.

The only people who see individual giving records are Anne, Helen and (occasionally) me.

 

The May Invitation

Neither the giving nor the offers of prayer, support or service are contractual. They are not an obligation – it is an indication to help us plan. I know people’s circumstances change and no one is going to hold you to this if things change in the coming year.

Many of you are already giving, serving, praying. This is an opportunity to review what part you think God given you to play. You may simply carry on as before – or your circumstances may cause you to expect a change.

If you don’t pray, support, serve or give regularly please use the cards to indicate what part you would like to play and we can help you make it happen.

 

I am inviting you to join in the life and mission of this community of faith to the extent that you would like to and whilst maintaining a balance to your life. I am inviting you to play your part in making a difference. Join a people who want to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with their God.

 

Many of you have imagination for some wonderful things. If I had a couple of hours I might share with you just a few of our dreams.

 

For now I want to describe what goes on already and what we feel committed to for the coming years. But your response is really important because, frankly, it will reveal whether we have the resources to fulfil these plans. If things are on track and we all join in enthusiastically and give generously then we can crack on. If not, we will have to have a re-think.

 

7 main areas of activity:

 

 

Administration

 

Some people are good at making things happen. They can organise, manage the finances, plan, explain. Frankly, without people who do administration, most of what we do wouldn’t happen. Someone has to order the coffee and deliver it and without coffee would anything get done?

 

Someone has to ensure the website has useful up to date information. Someone has to connect the people who need furniture with the people who can deliver it from our store.

 

Are you good at administration – do you have skills in IT, graphic design, spread sheets or are you good on the phone? Maybe you are happy to ensure that the kids’ boxes are kept hygienic and refreshed each week.

 

Housegroups and SGOP (small groups of people)

 

The heart of the church is found in the housegroups and small groups. You can pray for the leaders. You can babysit for when they have to go to a training meeting or for someone who is taking a friend to Alpha. You can host or act as a social secretary for a group. Maybe you would like to go on a training track for leaders of small groups.

 

 

Events and BGOP (big groups of people)

 

We have some fun times in bigger events – such as the Vineyard National Celebration last week or weekly worship here most weeks. They all need prayer (there is a group that meet before ww every week at 10.00am) but they also require quite a lot of hard work, early starts and late finishes. It takes about 35 people to make ww happen each week. On the other hand, it is a lot of fun working in teams alongside friends.

 

There is plenty of scope for serving on one of the teams – welcome, refreshments, resources, set up, PA/AV, resources table. Some of the work requires muscle power as well as a smile and a cheerful disposition!

 

 

Worship/Creative

 

We love to give space to creativity and a frequent expression is in the music we use in worship. If you are creative there is bound to be somewhere you can join in. Perhaps leading worship in a small group or for Vineyard Kids. Perhaps teaching children to dance or painting during worship times. If you have served for a while you are welcome to audition for the Sunday bands.

 

Families

Children and young people are a wonderful and significant part of the family here. Some 60 children & young people take part here every Sunday. There are housegroups for teenagers, FNP is a youth group, Vibe is a singing group, Belly Buttons runs every Friday for parents and babies. If you bring children to the Vineyard then we would love you to join in in caring for them and serving them.

 

But whether or not you bring children, this may be an area for which you can pray or where you can support with encouragement, or baby-sitting or making a cake. Many of you have a gifting and a calling to see God in action amongst the children. I get a continuous stream of reports of the wonderful things God is doing amongst the children and young people – join in and get in on the act.

 

 

Reach Out

What we do together is great and a very important part of learning to follow Jesus and to worship Him. But we have super-good news which we are not to keep to ourselves. We want to share the love of Jesus with those around us, near and far. We do this in many practical ways – from running Alpha Courses to decorating people’s houses to taking food and drink to the Big Issue sellers on the streets of Leeds. We do Acts of Kindness in our communities and we send teams overseas on mission (there are two going this year, one to South Africa and one to Latvia).

Our aim is for our lives to be ones that Reach Out as well as reach in. This is somewhere we can all play a part, however small.

 

The Vine

Last Tuesday evening we had an inspirational presentation about two chunky bridge-building projects we are launching through The Vine. The Vine is a separate-though-linked charity which we have established as a sort of bridge-building entity. Where we think we are called to enter onto a major project which may take additional funds, involve outside agencies or people from other places. Something which may need staff or buildings – we can use The Vine. It has its own

trustees (Vineyard people) and its own finances and will do separate though related things.

 

Two projects for the next year or so:

1. A Debt Advice Centre in partnership with CAP (Christians Against Poverty), a world class debt counselling service based in Bradford. Gwen Procter has been employed to manage this and went live this last week. People who go to CAP for help are often in dire circumstances and this ministry provides a huge opportunity to help people and bring the grace of God into their lives. Debt can wreck people’s lives, marriages and health. In providing this service we are getting involved in the Kingdom goal of setting the captive free.
2. A Child Contact Centre. When families break up and it gets to the point that it becomes impossible for parents to agree on access to children great damage and pain can be caused. Contact Centres provide a place to which the court or lawyer can send a family in order to give parents access to children from whom they have been separated. For example; a mother may come with her child to the VC, leave them with their father with children’s toys and resources at hand and then go upstairs for a coffee. When the hour is over the father would leave and the mother collects the child. A very simple but profound way in which to bring grace and mercy into the lives of broken families.
   
   In both of these there is plenty of scope for volunteer help.

 

Which of these provides you with an opportunity to pray, to support or to serve? Take some blue cards, write down the details of the part you would like to play and take it to the relevant table outside. Have a chat, encourage the people there.

 

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It’s a re-commitment for some, a step change for some and a completely new decision for some.

 

So shall we meet again in another year? And discover that we have:

• helped people get out of debt
• given parents a place to meet their children
• sent people to minister overseas
• prayed for the sick
• fixed people’s gardens
• taken refreshments and friendship to people on the street
• seen children experience the presence of God in their lives and come to know Jesus
• enjoyed times together celebrating, worshipping, learning, hanging out
• expressed ourselves in many creative ways
• gone on a journey in a small group where we have been known and where we know others, receiving healing and growing up along the way
• seen people decide to follow Jesus, get baptised
• and doing it all as good stewards in an organised, legal way whilst staying in the black?

Let’s look at our theme text for this next year:

 

With what shall I come before the Lord? He has shown you O man what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.

 

Do you remember the wonderful testimonies from the VNC last week and which we have heard over the years here. Knowing we are surrounded by people with empty lives and empty stomachs we are compelled into action by the love of Jesus. We can do nothing on our own but we serve a King who is mighty and willing to save.

 

The Church is the primary, though not exclusive, residence of God’s Kingdom rule and we, in the Vineyard, hand in hand with the rest of the Church and with the power of His Holy Spirit, will play our part in seeing His Kingdom come. 

 

We will be able to make a difference, to see the hungry fed, the sick healed, lives transformed, souls saved - as we do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.

 

And so I invite you to decide on what part you want to play.

Please, come and join in the life of the Vineyard here.