Leadership Resources
We're asking Vineyard leaders all over the country the question, "Why the Vineyard?"
Jacinda Lilly, who pastors Coast Vineyard in Whangaparaoa with her husband Matt, shares why she loves the Vineyard because of it's quest to make all we do accessible to all people.
by Jacinda Lilly, pastor, Coast Vineyard
The first time I heard the phrase “Walking with a limp” was from John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard movement, when he said, “Don’t trust a leader who doesn’t walk with a limp.”
His point of reference came out of Jacob wrestling with God in the form of an angel in Genesis 32. At the end of Jacob’s all-night struggle, God touched the socket of Jacob’s hip and damaged it so that from that time onward Jacob walked with a limp. This encounter with God changed him in other ways too. He got a new name and moved into a new phase of his life. He was now fit to lead.
There is a remarkable quality that can come from the lives of people after they have wrestled with God and life and the resulting limp is an order to themselves and a sign to others that God has humbled them.
We have some pithy little statements that we throw about, like “When life sends you lemons, make lemonade.” It makes tough times sound so easy, but life isn't always so simple and lightweight phrases do little to recognise the challenges we wrestle with.
In 2012 I wrote a paper to complete my masters study on one idea that I considered essential for a healthy spirituality. My focus was on the theology of suffering. In hindsight I have to laugh. I think God wanted to take me into a deeper and richer experience of what I wrote about because the following year turned into one of the most challenging years I’ve experienced in a long while.
In February 2013 my husband Matt and I started a church plant in the Hibiscus Coast. Two and a half months later I was diagnosed with a number of overlapping conditions that meant I had to stop my teaching job and spent the next 10 months struggling with severe fatigue and other physical symptoms that significantly affected my ability to function well. At my worst I started each day with 10 pills and slept or lay down for big chunks of every day. This was not the glorious start to our church plant that I’d been anticipating and added a really big load to our family and in particular Matt as he managed working two jobs and caring for me and our girls.
“This season became another opportunity for me to wrestle with some hard things and again acknowledge my great need for God and for others ”
Forget walking – I could barely stand at times. This season became another opportunity for me to wrestle with some hard things and again acknowledge my great need for God and for others – to walk with a limp.
All of us experience seasons of wrestling, testing, discipline and sifting (Hebrews 12:1-13). We may wrestle with health issues, financial stress, depression, relational difficulties, brokenness, failure, loss and grief, and desert-type seasons in our spiritual journey. If we don’t anticipate and expect it, we will be surprised and confused when it comes. There are some key thoughts for us to consider as we prepare ourselves for these seasons.
Perspective is everything
“CS Lewis reminds us that, ‘God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world’”
Our perspective of the place of sickness, pain and challenges in our lives probably needs some thought. We are well served if we take some time to develop healthy theology around pain and hard things in the life of following Jesus. As John Wimber frequently said, “If our theology doesn't work in real life then we need to rethink our theology.”
When we experience difficult seasons it doesn't mean God isn't present or has stopped loving us. It doesn’t necessarily mean we lack faith or have brought this upon ourselves through doing something wrong. Following Jesus doesn’t exclude us from encountering pain and challenges in our lives – in fact we are told in scripture to expect it.
A robust theology equips us with the knowledge and expectation that when pain comes, God walks with us through it.
These difficult realities are part of living in the now/not yet of the kingdom and of God’s commitment to us as His children so that we grow up into Him. Our perspective is important because it affects how we respond to hard things. Will we see these seasons as a reminder of God’s lordship and loving activity in our lives that can lead us to greater intimacy with Him or will we see it as evidence of His absence and lack of love which leads to bitterness, fear and isolation from Him and others?
CS Lewis reminds us that, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Pain and suffering can help us put things in perspective, value what is truly valuable and be a transformative tool in God's hands.
Are we prepared?
Our culture does little to prepare and equip us for hard things. We live in a culture designed to maximise our comfort and pleasure, celebrates these vanities and distracts us from what is real and lasting. If we take a look at what we’re sold by the media, we should expect life to be as easy as possible – filled with things that entertain and delight us, that ensure we live hassle free lives.
From this perspective, pain is something to be avoided or ignored as much as possible. In reality, however, this is not how people actually live. We may be cushioned from the impact of suffering and pain for long periods in our lives but inevitably we are forced to come face-to-face with the harsh and often crushing realities of real and unavoidable heartbreak. God doesn’t allow us to become too comfortable – He knows that too much isn’t good for us. Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, encourages us that going through "trials and temptations can be a blessing when they undermine our pride and our reliance upon ourselves and teach us to put our trust in God's mercy and goodness."
So where do we go to learn how to wrestle with life’s challenges well? How do we equip ourselves to face and deal with life's pain and suffering in a way that enables us to retain our sense of dignity and our faith in God, where eventually we can emerge from the valley of the shadow of death in good shape? How do we prepare ourselves to be able to do this when our hearts, minds, spirits and bodies are crushed under the weight of pain and suffering that can sweep into our lives without warning? We look for a place of hope and truth ahead of time.
Build well
We need a pre-emptive strategy. When you visit ancient towns and cities, particularly in Europe or the Middle East, you often see large fortified city walls protectively surrounding the area. These were an essential piece of fortification and safety for these cities and their people during times when they were under siege.
What we often fail to consider is that these walls were built during times of peace, when life was good. We need to build well when life is good. This is the time to invest in our key relationships – with God and others. This is the time to dig deeply into prayer, worship and scripture. It’s here that we find examples, from Jesus and his disciples and others in scripture, of suffering and wrestling in ways that bring hope and life and are firmly anchored in the goodness of God. When life is good, that’s the time to cultivate life-giving habits that will help sustain us when we are stretched. We must anchor ourselves in truly believing that God is good and that He loves us.
Then, when we are in the thick of things and life is just plain tough, there are a few things that can help us.
It’s only for a season
God knows we need constant reminders of His goodness and involvement in our lives, so He has given us many in scripture and in the way He has orchestrated the rhythms of nature and history.
I have found Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 incredibly encouraging, where we’re told there all things in this life have a season – they don’t last forever. There is “a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance” (v4). Nature reminds us of this truth also. We would not experience the bursting of life in spring without the seemingly lifeless winter season. No matter how long a season of suffering can feel – or indeed is – this season will pass.
We can choose
While we don't generally choose to suffer, we can choose how we respond to it. In a commentary on Jeremiah 18:1-6 it is noted that, "Only in our co-operative surrender does God have the freedom to mould us in His likeness. We do not stand outside of our being created; there is a decision, a will, a choice to be made."
If then we choose to be willing participants in the process that suffering takes us through, what could we discover? If we choose to expect to find God in the dark and desolate places of our suffering will we discover that hope and meaning is found in the midst of our suffering?
Viktor Frankl is his book Man’s Search for Meaning would say this is possible and even essential for us to navigate periods of suffering well. "The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity – even under the most difficult circumstances – to add a deeper meaning to his life."
Frankl tells us just how vitally important our response to unavoidable suffering is where we choose to change ourselves when faced with suffering that we cannot change. This is when our suffering can become a tool in God's transforming work in our lives. For Christians, it is as we remind ourselves of the purposes of God in the midst of our suffering and take hold of the comfort that He never leaves us or forsakes us that we find meaning, hope and endurance for our most difficult times.
We are not alone
Suffering will come but we are not alone. Once we come to a place of knowing that God is with us regardless of how we feel or what we’re going through, we can also acknowledge our need for others. When we are going through the hard things in life, it is tempting to withdraw from others and hunker down – but that works against us. We need to look for and ask for help from anyone who can support us in our hard seasons. This may be our doctor, our counsellor, our immediate family and it most certainly should include our church family.
It was so difficult to tell our launch team that I was struggling so much with life and health and yet people’s loving response and ongoing practical and prayer support really kept me going. We need one another. We aren’t built to live alone. Ecclesiastes 4:12a, “By yourself you’re unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst.” We need to take the risk of allowing people to truly know us – when life is good and when it isn’t.
We aren’t disqualified
We need to remember that we’re in good company. God has made a practice of using broken people. If you think about it, they are all that are available to Him. No matter what our struggles are, none of us is disqualified from loving Him and serving Him and His people with whatever we can bring to Him.
In our situation during our church plant, I’d stay in bed on Saturday and Sunday morning so I could turn up at our gathering with our launch team on Sunday afternoon. Much as I wanted to be able to bring vision and energy and excitement to our emerging gathering of people, many times all I could bring was just being there and having others carry a lot more a lot sooner than I would have planned.
Interestingly, our launch team grew, an atmosphere of being real and caring for one another emerged and God demonstrated His ability to grow the church regardless of our personal circumstances. This has deepened my ability to rest into Him and know that He is God and I am safely and lovingly held. God is truly good – all the time.
Let’s not be afraid of walking with a limp. It’s a reminder of our encounters with God and with the realities of life. Let’s choose to embrace the transformative process that God uses in our hard times and grow deeper into being His people marked by humility and faith.
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
1 Peter 1:6-7
We're asking Vineyard leaders all over the country the question, "Why the Vineyard?"
Steve Brown, who is part of the pastoral staff at Urban Vineyard in Auckland, shares why he loves the Vineyard because of it's call for everyone to participate with the gifts they have.
by Dan Sheed
Every year on the 25th of April, New Zealand stops to commemorate ANZAC Day. This day always involves some deep reality-checks for me. I find the stories of sacrifice by our soldiers calls me from my normal, self-absorbed day-to-day life to view a different story. ANZAC Day invites me to see a different narrative in the history of our world, to remember it and then live differently tomorrow as a result.
This is all a bit like Israel’s moment of stopping at Mt Sinai in Exodus 19 and 20. After miraculously being taken out of Egypt, where they were slaves to the power and glory of the Egyptian empire, God stops them at Sinai to command them how they are to interact with Him and each other. This is a reprogramming of sorts, a moment of God telling them how they are really meant to be as His image-bearers. The first of these re-humanising commandments is that the Israelites are to "worship no other gods but me”.
This commandment can make God seem a little egocentric to some people, but if we look deeper we can see there is actually something very beautiful in all this. God is saying the man-made gods and idols like they saw in Egypt are not worth their time, energy or money because they will ultimately only let them down. God is the only one able to meet their needs – as He already had by miraculously taking them out of Egypt. God knows the Israelites are going to put their worth into something, and He wants them to know He is the only God worth it.
We live in an Egypt culture of power, glory and gods. We spend our days, weeks, months and years worshipping various man-made gods. But a church takes this power of worship and changes its direction. We, too, can have our Mt Sinai moment. As we gather to worship and fellowship we can notice a God who is miraculously working in our lives. Like at an ANZAC Day service, we can notice another narrative going on around us and our worship can change from being directed to the gods our culture says will satisfy our needs, and instead we give our time, energy and resource to the one who has already done so.
“There is an old truth that “We become what we worship” – and it is still a truth. What we give worth to is ultimately what we become more like, and seeing the call of a church gathering is to become more like Jesus, as Vineyard churches we value spending time giving Jesus our worth by singing together.”
There is an old truth that "We become what we worship” – and it is still a truth. What we give worth to is ultimately what we become more like, and seeing the call of a church gathering is to become more like Jesus, as Vineyard churches we value spending time giving Jesus our worth by singing together. We believe that with our worship we can bless God directly and give Him joy, so we use the words and prayers of those songs to intimately express to Him how we are thankful for all He has done, is doing and will do.
When we do this together we, as Paul says in Colossians 3:16, “let this new message of Christ dwell richly among you”. And in the midst of singing and praying, but also in talking around cups of coffee and catching up, of listening to each other and encouraging one another, or of coming to the communion table or enjoying a meal together, we experience this new story of the Kingdom of God and grow in the hope that it is making things new in this world. Church is coming together to do any of the things that would give you that kind of perspective, and to then live that into the world.
We're asking Vineyard leaders all over the country the question, "Why the Vineyard?"
Christoph Zintl, who along with his wife Jane is planting The Story Vineyard in Wellington, shares why he loves the Vineyard because of it's expectancy for the Kingdom of God to break in and change everything.
We're asking Vineyard leaders all over the country the question, "Why the Vineyard?"
Vic and Fran Francis, pastors of Shore Vineyard Churches in Auckland, share why they love the Vineyard because of it's value for everyone getting to play their part and a sturdy theology which allows for both healing and sickness.
by Lloyd Rankin
"The church” is a very easy and soft target for any criticism of Christians, and any group of Christians. Yet the church is the visible sign of Jesus’ presence on earth today. Together we are the church, and any criticism of one is a criticism of all. Any success of one is the success of all. We are the church and we stand or fall together. The church is not an “it” it is an “us.”
The church is Jesus’ idea, and He builds and nurtures and grows His church. “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28 TNIV)
A few years ago God reminded me to not get my “orders” mixed up. It was one of those dark moments when life gets a bit much, and people can seem to be the problem. (Perhaps I am alone in having these moments??) I was wanting Jesus to look after loving people so I could get busy building His church. He firmly and lovingly and gracefully reminded me that I had it the wrong way around. “You love the people, and I will build the church!” He won’t do our work, and we can’t do His work. Jesus said ““And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18 TNIV)
As Vineyard churches in Aotearoa New Zealand we are focussed on the mission of helping lost people find their way to Jesus, and we do this through the planting of churches around our country. Churches are redemptive missional communities of faith hope and love. We are stretching and encouraging each other in this mission by working towards having 40 Vineyard churches in NZ by 2020.
We want all sorts of churches: small churches, house-churches, middle sized and large churches, mega-churches and multi-campus churches.
When we read the word “church” in the Bible it is normally an english translation of the Greek word ekklesia, which simply means a gathering of people for a shared purpose, or “called out ones.” In the scriptures it was used to describe something as big as the people of Israel, and it was used to describe something as small as a town council meeting. What Jesus and the apostles did was to invest the word with special meaning for followers of Jesus
The church (ecclesia - called out ones) exists at several levels
In this series we are looking at six attributes of a church. As we plant and develop churches this is what we are working with. Martin Luther wrote about the distinguishing marks of what makes something a church, as distinct from simply a being a group of people with similar ideas or purposes. We can summarise them in to these six attributes
So I am briefly working on the first - that church is a gathered group of believers. Many of us will know people who have been hurt, disillusioned or just frustrated with church, and have made the decision to disconnect from church. There can be valid reasons, which can easily be understood. When you gather with a group of fallible human beings feelings can be hurt, mistakes can be made, things can go wrong. Yet the very nature of our relationship with God calls us into family, and family groupings. Someone who has removed themselves from a gathering of Christians may still have a faith, but it is not a biblical faith. Biblical faith calls us into relationship, into deliberately connecting with others.
Church, at it’s most fundamental understanding, is a community of people who have chosen to arrange their lives together around 3 commitments:
While there is no promise that gathering together to deliberately do life together will be easy (it isn’t!!) it is actually the only way forward. Through our gathering together on a regular basis (at least weekly) we accomplish more than we can ever hope to accomplish alone, and we grow in maturity, because God designed us to be social creatures who flourish when brought together, and the act of being together enhances and enlarges our individual lives.
“The church exists in the act of being gathered together with Christ in the centre. We become the church when we come together. Never forget the incredible power and miracle that occurs every time we gather together as church. We have the incredible privilege of working together to make our gatherings as wonderful and life giving as we possibly can. ”
“On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.” (Acts 14:27 TNIV) The church exists in the act of being gathered. We become the church when we come together. Never forget the incredible power and miracle that occurs every time we gather together as church. We have the incredible privilege of working together to make our gatherings as wonderful and life giving as we possibly can.
So can I encourage everyone of us that loves and follows Jesus to regularly, deliberately and wholeheartedly gather with our church community, and grow and serve together. Come to the gatherings with the expectation of using your gifts talents and abilities, and in so doing you will receive as you give. Welcome to the adventure of being the church.
A wonderful book to read further on this topic is “Life Together” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Like most people, my life often feels over-full and very stretching.
When people ask how I am doing, I don’t like saying, “I’m busy”, but try to reply, “My days are full.”
I say this for two reasons. First, when we say, “I am busy”, sensitive people easily interpret that as “he is too busy for me” and sometimes an opportunity is lost. And second, being busy seems to be worn almost as a badge of honour these days.
But being busy isn’t a virtue: being fruitful or being effective really is much more important. Being busy can easily result from being disorganised, distracted or misdirected, as it can from doing too many things that make a difference.
It is better to live full days which include time to listen, think and reflect, as well as time to do.
Sometimes, we have days that seem to get taken over with things we didn’t plan for. (Now I know well-meaning goal-setting, life-planning people say that you are in charge of your own schedule. Meanwhile, on Planet Reality, things happen that can’t be planned for, or even anticipated.)
“After many years serving in ministry roles I have come to understand ministry as a series of conversations and interruptions. So often, Kingdom advances happen on my margins rather than in the middle of my planned activities. ”
Just last week I had had a particularly full week, and needed to write my sermon for Sunday, as well as have a couple of key phone/face-time conversations. I also had an evening commitment and a full Saturday. So there was no margin for not completing that main task of preparing Sunday’s teaching that day.
By 2pm on Friday, I hadn’t even turned on my computer to study and write because there had been several long interruptions. But they were good and fruitful interruptions. They were Kingdom interruptions!
So with the timeframe now severely compressed, I asked God for unusually quick clarity of thoughts, captivating images and sentences. And by the end of the day, God had graciously compressed a process that would normally take much longer, and require more work on my part.
After many years serving in ministry roles I have come to understand ministry as a series of conversations and interruptions. So often, Kingdom advances happen on my margins rather than in the middle of my planned activities. We know life consists of “Kingdom set-ups” where we serendipitously meet someone, or a conversation heads down an unplanned direction, or a simple (sometimes shallow) prayer suddenly ushers in a “God moment” when the Kingdom of God draws near and we find ourselves in what the Celtic church called a “thin place”. These are the moments of ministry.
While we must, of course, be present and attend to the things we have to do (though it is good to regularly prune what those things may be), so often it is the conversations and interruptions that bring the change.
Being at our desk, reading blogs, listening to podcasts, having coffee with people and being at meetings isn’t always ministry. Ministry is about God and the people he brings to us to love and bless. Everything else we do is simply about getting to where we can do ministry as we join Jesus in what He is doing around us.
So just as fruit grows on the branches and not on the trunk, don’t be surprised that Kingdom advances happen in the margins rather than the centre of our activities. Ask our Lord to open our eyes to spot the God moments.
By David Ruis
I have a distinct memory of sitting in my study one day as I was pulling together thoughts and materials related to stepping out on yet another church planting adventure. I was quite excited, feeling that rush of risking faith that these types of pioneering ventures demand, ready to pull together my demographics, cultural analyses and various and sundry cool ideas that I was envisioning for this new emerging community.
In the midst of the swirl of documents, scribbles, ear-tagged books, notes and the latest DVDs – on everything from relevant communication trends to systems and community development – was my Bible. Open.
Staring up at me were the words given to Paul as he was launching on his first foray into church planting and mission. Peter, James and John, considered to be the pillars of the early Church in every regard, agreed that it was time for Paul to step out. To risk. To put his hand to the call on his life to participate in the expanding kingdom of heaven through missional endeavors out into the Gentile world far out of the reach of Jerusalem and Samaria.
Their words of instruction to Paul were there on the page burning not just into my eyes, but into my heart as well.
As Paul would step out he would become the first intentional missionary and church planter in the history of the Church. The gospel had spread to many places of the world through persecution and the dispersion of believers for various reasons. But this was a first. This was important. The key elements of the gospel of the kingdom must be proclaimed and modeled.
Pretty big stuff.
The thing Peter, James and John said to Paul was not just gripping my heart, but shifting my thinking. In fact, the more I pondered what I was reading, I began to get somewhat angry as I looked up in my study to see, as Wimber would say, ‘words, words, words, words’ – so much instruction; teaching; training information about faith; life and the church. I couldn’t remember anyone in the midst of all these ‘words’ telling me what Paul was told.
I was ticked. Why had I never heard this before?
‘All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing that I was eager to do all along’ (Paul the Apostle, Gal. 2:10).
That’s all they asked. Full stop. At the one-year evaluation as to how things at your church are going, there is only one question on the exam. At the two-year point, just one question still. At the 10- year mark, there is just one requirement that cannot be lost in the midst of all the challenges and hurdles of living out faith and building community:
Did you remember the poor?
The more I walk this journey in my own life and in the midst of the community of faith I realize that this one simple request is more and more central than I ever dreamed to the understanding of the gospel, the call to follow Christ, and the mission of the Church.
Remember the poor. Don’t forget the poor.”
This article is reproduced from the booklet 'Come, Holy Spirit' with permission from Vineyard USA.
The complete booklet and other booklets in this series are available to buy from Vineyard Resources.
Victoria & I recently climbed the Tongariro Alpine Crossing – the first of our list of Great New Zealand walks that we intend to do over the next few years. I asked the owner of the lodge we were staying at what were some of the more memorable climbers he had had stay there. And the stories started to tumble out. At one point he used a saying I often use. He was talking about how people would come completely unprepared (E.g. the young woman who appeared in the morning ready for the climb in her high heels clutching her handbag… “Umm, there are no shops on the mountain. And high heels aren’t really the right shoes to wear…”). He said sometimes people presented as perfectly capable, but they really shouldn’t do it. “Even though you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
“One of the tragedies of our culture is overcommitted people rushing from place to place, opportunity to opportunity, meeting to meeting, person to person, and not actually enjoying the incredible gift of being alive and present to the moment.”
“Even though you can, doesn’t mean you should” is such an important saying to remember, perhaps even more so at the beginning of a new year. The temptation is always to take on a few too many things because we are fresh from holiday, and itching to get in to the year. But a very helpful piece of advice I received a long time ago becomes really important at this stage. “If you are going to add something new to your life, what are you going to take out to create the space?” Our “stop doing” list is just as important as our “to do” list. (And while I’m mentioning lists, our “have done well” list is also pretty important to celebrate as well.) We simply can’t keep adding more to our lives without cramming our lives too full and overloading them. One of the tragedies of our culture is overcommitted people rushing from place to place, opportunity to opportunity, meeting to meeting, person to person, and not actually enjoying the incredible gift of being alive and present to the moment.
This is not just applicable to us as individuals. It is equally important for churches and ministries to pause for a moment before saying “yes” to a new opportunity, and remind ourselves that even though we can, doesn’t mean we should. It is such a hard thing to say no to some incredible opportunities, because they are just that - they are wonderful. Perhaps all of us have to confront our FOMO (Fear of missing out). Maybe it is a moment to remember that it frees up others to pursue the wonderful opportunity.
This is a wonderful moment to stop and remember that we are finite humans serving an infinite God. That the need and the opportunity will always be bigger than our capacity to take them on. Probably we will all die with an incomplete “to do” list. Jesus said ““Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.””
(Matthew 11:28–30 MESSAGE)
There is something beautifully redemptive about simplifying our lives, our work, our churches and our families to the essential, to the important, to the lasting. There are so many good and worthwhile things we could spend our hours and days on, but we must pause and remind ourselves that saying “yes” to this opportunity, actually mean we are saying “no” to another at the exact same time? Even though you can, doesn’t mean you should!
“There is something beautifully redemptive about simplifying our lives, our work, our churches and our families to the essential, to the important, to the lasting. ”
Perhaps take a moment right now and ask yourself and God that question. And then ask Him for the grace and the strength to say no to the extra and yes to the essential.
For more leadership thoughts, see growingthinking.com
