Spirit | Church | Mission

The Spirit empowered Church for the sake of God's Mission

Women in the Kingdom of God (Resources and the Podcast)

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On Sunday, I shared a message addressing the question, “Is Christianity oppressive to women?” Take a listen by clicking “play” above or go here and download it. My conclusion is that, yes, sometimes Christianity has been oppressive to women and has marginalized their place and voice, but that’s not God’s intention for the decedents of Eve or how we should interpret the Bible.

Below are some resources to help you as you continue to study the subject, including some Youtube videos, books, articles, etc. [Read more…]

Uniquely Vineyard: Avoiding Theological Ditches

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Locating the Vineyard’s history is much easier than predicting our future, depending on who you speak to. The influence of the Quakers, Evangelicalism, and Pentecostalism is well known amongst students of Vineyard history but how other traditions will shape our future is less known, though quite important.

Bill Jackson famously noted that the Vineyard was the radical middle between Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism, an example of the alleged “Third Wave.”[1] As I consider our past and the present theological landscape of the Vineyard, I believe that part of being “Vineyard” is working hard to avoid what becomes for us theological ditches. [Read more…]

Thoughts on #SVS2018 from the cheap seats…

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This year’s Society of Vineyard Scholars annual meeting was at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. Featuring a number of well-known scholars (e.g., Howard Snyder, Craig Keener, Eleanor Mumford), Vineyard thinkers and friends of the Vineyard gathered together to share and hear and pray and reflect and hang out together.  [Read more…]

“Quadrilateraling” in the Vineyard: Creating & Maintaining the Wesleyan Quadrilateral as a Valuable Aspect of Discipleship within the Space of the Local Church.

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Below is a copy of the paper I presented at the 2018 Society of Vineyard Scholars’ annual meeting at Asbury Theological Seminary. In what follows, I attempt to explore the relationship of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral with our Vineyard DNA, building on Thomas Lyons’ previous SVS 2013 paper. After establishing this interface, I suggest a number of ways in which this valuable method of theological reflection can be cultivated and maintained within the context of of the lived-out and practical ministry of the local church, especially related to community discipleship (or you can download a PDF). [Read more…]

3 Ways to Get More Invitations in Your Church

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Let’s be clear, inviting someone to church isn’t necessarily the same thing as sharing the gospel with them. And attending a church does not equate to having a transformative relationship with Jesus. There are plenty of people who attend churches all over the world who are not engaged in discipleship and whose spiritual lives are not shaped by the kingdom of God.

That being said, inviting someone to church may be the first step in their journey and the beginning stage of coming to faith in Jesus. If church gatherings create space where people are able to learn the ways of Jesus and engage, interact, and experience God, why wouldn’t we want to encourage people to invite their friends, family, and neighbors to our church gatherings? This is, I think, an aspect of joining God’s mission, especially here in the west, despite the post-Christian world we live in. Our church, the Red Bluff Vineyard, has seen some radical growth (over 1,000% growth) and I think a lot of it is related to some simple things we did that made it easy for everyone to participate!

Here are a few ways you can empower church folks to invite non-church folks to your church gatherings:

(1) Use social media. You may not be the most tech savvy human alive, but you need to realize that social media allows us to connect with literally thousands upon thousands of people that we would never come in contact with! Friends of friends and what have you. You simply cannot neglect this medium if you want to both empower people in your church to invite others and reach people outside of your church community. [Read more…]