Making Headingley Our Home

Acts 2:42-47
 

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Our mission is to introduce people to Jesus, introduce them to our Friend. To share the good news and to help them into relationship with Him too. People need to know Jesus. We are called to demonstrate, to persuade people that Jesus lived and died and rose again so that they can be saved. It is a life or death mission.

We do this in two main ways – we say “come and see” and we “go and tell”.

Next week we will talk about “go and tell” – but part of making a home is about “come and see”.

John 4:29 – come and see a man who told me all I ever did.

Hebrews 10:25 - let us not give up on meeting together … but let us encourage one another.

Milton Jones, You don’t have to be part of a team. You can go and kick a ball around in a field on your own if you want. Just have a plan for when the opposition turns up, that’s all.

Getting together is expressed in many ways – some are not necessarily linked to any place – socials and reach out. Much is done through housegroups all over the city. A lot is done through weekly worship on a Sunday morning. All those things but particularly Sunday mornings and VC-type activities will increasingly happen in and around Headingley.










So how will Headingley become a home?

What does it mean to make somewhere our home?
·         familiarity
·         investment
·         home advantage in sport
·         homely
·         know the people around you
·         relationships
·         the way we like it, hang up my pictures
·         people know where you are
·         address
 
We all have our own homes – so we are not talking about moving to live in Headingley. We have our own homes and neighbours and local relationships in our communities all around Leeds.
So what do I mean when I say, “Let’s make Headingley our home”?


The Hermit crab takes up residence in redundant shells (usually) until it ourgrows them and then moves on. For the first 10 years of this church’s life we behaved like a hermit crab crawling from venue to venue as we grew. No home to call our own. Eventually we bought an office building to act as a base for our office and many activities but met on Sundays in other places. The Vineyard Centre is great but it is not a home.

Consider St George’s and Bridge Street – although people come to those churches from far and wide they have deep roots and involvement in the community at either end of the Headrow in Leeds. They have been there for decades.

Alison was reminding me the other day about when we were teenagers walking home from the youth group at Moortown. The trees down Stonegate Road were just saplings, freshly planted. Now, 35 years later they are fully grown trees with deep roots, not easily moved, part of the landscape.

Eventually we will find somewhere in Headingley and “move in” and plant our sapling. We will be doing our stuff somewhere  where it is easy to interact, to meet with people. We will worship there, talk with people, meet together, do the stuff, pray for the sick, counsel the indebted, re-connect broken families, build bridges.
But - unlike the last 10 years of moving around, we will still be there in 10 years, 35 years. What will our sapling have grown into? What fruit will we bear? It will be home by then – what will it be like?
 
I grew up in a house where bringing friends home was normal and expected. It was rarely just the family round the dinner table – usually Alison and John Wilson too.

I have to say that I also like times when we don’t have visitors and I can just relax a little bit more in my own space.

If your friends liked coming to your home, what did they like?
·         Friendship, belonging, acceptance, relax
·         Food & drink – emptying the fridge
·         Family – watch and learn, join in
·         Full-grown – alternative, how to deal with life
·         Fun – action

So when your friend or a member of your family takes up your Vineyard offer to “come and see” … what will they see? How can we make this home a place which they will love to visit with you.

Milton Jones, “Some people think of the church as a Winnie the Pooh pyjama suit. Safe and warm but they hope to goodness no one sees them in it.”

Perhaps that’s how we feel sometimes – we like it but are a bit embarrassed to be seen in it?
Well too bad – people are watching. There are some guests here today for the first time to see us in our Winnie the Pooh pyjama suit. People know you “go to church” and they are watching to see what you are like and what they can discern about the church from you.

We have met with Jesus and together we are learning to follow Him. Home is the environment where people can see this happening. So we make the Leeds Vineyard a place where you can happily invite people “home” – to encounter Jesus.

• Friendship, belonging – deep need for community and relationship, acceptance, relax
• Food & drink – both doughnuts & coffee and spiritual food & drink
• Family, watch and learn. John 13:34 – love one another
• Example, alternative. Not always cool but an example of how we are meant to live. Observe values. Not needing to compromise.
• Fun, action – do stuff, relaxed, not stuffy, play, activity

Our strapline/motto is:Love God, love people, love in action

That’s what I want people to see and experience when we invite them “home”.
 

Love God: worshipping Him and learning about Him

Acts 2: 47 – praising God
Ephesians 5:19 – speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music … always giving thanks…

It’s not about meeting for meeting’s sake but about learning to love God. I want you to make meeting together to worship, learn and pray a priority in your lives.
 

Love people:  building community, caring for one another

Acts 2:42-45 – sharing life together – gaining favour
John 13:34 – this is how people will know we are His disciples, that we love one another

This does not come easily. Within this community there are cross words and resentment. That happens amongst people. But I want you to take responsibility for your behaviour and your attitude to each other and to deal with anything which falls short of loving one another. Go to the Jesus and repent and ask Him to change you. Say sorry to those you have hurt, forgive quickly when someone says sorry.

Love in action – reaching out, serving others, making a difference

Acts 2:45 & 47 – serving the poor, having favour
Matthew 20:28 – the Son of man came not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.
Matthew 16:18-19 – I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven … whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven

Jesus sets us an example but this passage provides a Kingdom imperative. We are on a battle ground equipped with heavenly firepower. Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. So I want you to take up arms and put love in action. It will cost you time and money. It may cost you career opportunities or sleep or energy. But, in a host of ways, with the power of the Holy Spirit, you can make a difference for the Kingdom. And you are part of a community that makes a difference.

I hope you can get a picture of what bringing someone “home” to meet with Jesus should look like. In many ways it does already. I want this to grow and flourish.

In making Headingley our home, in putting down roots and investing in that community, by spending time there, there will be a transformational impact on that community. I believe that as we share the good news of Jesus we will continue to hear more and more salvation stories and many of them will be in Headingley.

Wherever we are, but increasingly in Headingley, The Holy Spirit will fall on the people around us and we will see lives rescued. He will transform the relationships they have and we will see the Kingdom come.
Like the woman who encountered Jesus at the well or like Philip going to collect Nathanial; who, having met Jesus said, “come and see”.

Businessmen and politicians, children and grown-ups, students and the elderly, rich and poor – all will testify to the work of God in their lives as the Lord helps us make a home where we can say “Come and see”.