Thoughts and ideas from members and friends of Compass Vineyard.


Saturday, November 19, 2005


About Compass


Compass Vineyard is a small and growing church, with members in South Birmingham and the Black Country.

Our new website will be up shortly. In the meantime, please feel free to email us on the address below. We are affiliated to Vineyard Churches UK, meet weekly in Harborne.

mail at compassvineyard.org.uk



Sunday, October 30, 2005


Changing the world...


From Latina Liz


When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.

When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world."



Thursday, October 20, 2005


Sin


Graham is having a discussion on his blog which includes touching on sin. I decided to post something of my response here for a bit of fun.

I don't think of sin as individual acts which someone needs to be punished for. I would say that sin is all about self. When we put ourselves first, and pay attention to ourselves to the neglect and detriment of others, we devalue ourselves and we devalue them. If life is as, I believe about relationship, including with Jesus, the focus soley on self can only diminish that. The human condition.

I believe that when we begin to follow Jesus we begin the process of learning to lay down our own self, our own ego, - dying to ourselves in fact.

I used to believe that when I sinned, I somehow damaged my relationship with God, that he somehow thought less of me as a result, or perhaps more that I was less as a result - it's a very harmful concept, and I still struggle with it. I believe now though that God loves us the same amount, always has and always will, and that our level of selfishness/sin has no part in his relationship with us.

Rather though as we move through life, learning in part to be less self-centred, to lay down our selves more for others, and for Jesus, to practice the love and inclusion Jesus so clearly demonstrated, being Jesus to others, that we become more able to understand the true nature of God, and experience that.

I'm not sure what I believe about end times, though I'm proably leaning towards a restored earth thing. I do believe in judgement though - that is, that we come face to face with the true love and selflessness of God, and we see our own lives in the light of that. A healing process, where we grieve and celelebrate our lives and actions - who we were, and who we are becoming. Where after we have grieved over those parts we are not so proud of, and celebrated our struggles and lives, God says - well done, you are forgiven, and I'm proud of you, and we move on. The fulfillment of what we've been moving towards in our lives, (if we have been), and the final breaking (though understanding, a very therapeutic type thing), of the power of sin and selfishness over our lives. What that means for hell I'm not sure, but to have spent one's life moving away from God, towards selfishness, and to come face to face with pure unselfisness in God, seems to be a big thing.

Either way, I'm not as fussed about afterlife as I used to be. For me, the importance becomes now. The idea of speading the message of Jesus becomes even more urgent. It's not about saving somone from hell, but about who people are becoming right now. Who we are now, is a part of becoming who we were made to be, and who we are in eternity. That's not to say that pain and sorrow won't pass away - but that we are now becoming the person God created us to be - we don't have to wait for heaven fo rthat to start.

I belive that Jesus was the ultimate example of all of this - a person living a life as close to the person he was created to be, as anyone ever has. Who died to his own will and self, his own ego, and submitted himself completly to us. How it all worked - the mechanics as someone said - I not sure I need to know. (not that I don't have opinions).

The other thing it means for me, is that we are all in this together, not just Christians but everyone - that we are a people as a whole, and that we who have found a calling in Jesus are called as if a militia, armed with knowledge and the spirit of Jesus, and a promise to live as he did, to be Jesus to others, and tell of him.

I guess it's time to begin to practice that more...



Sunday, March 06, 2005


Christians v The BBC


Below is an item about the latest action being taken by Christians against the BBC. It's really just for info and, or if you like, a comment.

PaulL
:-)


Christian body sues BBC - Broadcast 04 March 2005
The BBC is being taken to court by a prominent Christian group over its decision to screen the controversial play Jerry Springer – The Opera.
The Christian Institute has accused the corporation of breaching the human rights of Christians, and has filed papers with the High Court.
A judge will now assess whether there are grounds to take the legal action forward.
The legal action is believed the be the first time the BBC has ever faced accusations of breaching religious human rights, and the case could go all the way to the European Court.
"The state has deliberately made a broadcast that is profane and mocks the core beliefs of the Christian faith," said solicitor Paul Conrathe of Ormerod's, the firm representing the group.
"The fact that the BBC is a public service broadcaster underpins all of this. It's quite different to a private organisation like a theatre. The state has overstepped the mark."
The show – in which Jesus is portrayed as "a bit gay" - received a record 50,000 complaints when it was aired in BBC2 in January.
The Newcastle-based Christian Institute says the BBC has breached its own guidelines on taste and decency, and gone out of its way to deliberate offend Christians.
Spokesman Mike Judge said: "Under it's Royal Charter the BBC has certain obligations on standards and decency, and they've clearly breached their own standards."
A spokesman for the BBC said the corporation had not received any notice of legal action, and would not comment.
Source:broadcastnow.co.uk



Monday, January 24, 2005


Breakfast


Hi everyone -

On the second Saturday in February (12th) we'll be having breakfast
and some time for prayer at Pete and Alisons House, starting at 9am,
and lasting till ten at the latest.

The three things you need to know

- Start at 9 with 25 minutes for breakfast and catch up etc.
- 9:25 we'll have 25 minutes of worship/listening/prayer. We'll
try and keep it moving, keep the energy
- At 10am (ten minutes after we finish) I will be ushering people from
the house. This way we can get together, while being sure that our
Saturday, (Pete and Alison included) will still be a viable time for
whatever we have planned.

It would be great if you could let me know whether you will be coming
as soon as possible, and book it into your diaries. I'll email a few
days before as a reminder as well.

Cheers everyone



Sunday, January 23, 2005


What about the poor?


For a little while, God has been speaking to me about who we are as a church. I jotted these initial thoughts down before Christmas. I'd love for you to print this off, and take a quiet moment or two to read it, (it's very short), and see if it sparks anything off.

Blessings - Steve

What about the poor?

Jesus talked a lot about the poor. The most well known bit perhaps is in Matt’s gospel, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’. I don't always read that as talking about the poor, but for Jesus, and for the people who heard him, that would have been a large part of it.

In fact Luke goes further when talking about the same speech, and says it much more directly, ‘blessed are you who are poor’. It’s an interesting thing that the Jews equated poor in spirit and poor. At an initial glance I took it as simply one of those cultural differences, and in fact to say the same today could easily be considered patronising.

Isaiah said:

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces and we esteemed him not. Surly he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.

When I read that earlier, I thought about Jesus, and I also thought about my experiences of the poor in our society – those who for various reasons live a life of relative poverty financially, but who also often live a life lacking in opportunity, hope and empowerment.

I wonder if the Hebrews were very wise in equating poor in spirit with poor – certainly in our society it often seems to be the case.

It’s the last lines of that quote from Isaiah though that mobilise me into looking again at who it is we are as a church, and who we serve.

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.

What does it mean to be like Jesus? Jesus didn’t come to merely speak to good news, he came to embody it. He didn’t come simply to tell people about their sin, but to ‘bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, and the let the oppressed go free.’

This wasn’t a ministry simply about speaking truth, or proclaiming right and wrong, but about embodying the good news, a new deal for the oppressed in our society – there is someone on your side, there is someone who will aid you, who will speak for you, and with you. I’m sure Jesus statement had spiritual connections, but in Hebrew thought spiritual was not that different from practical – and Jesus had a very practical message.

esus came for the oppressed, and in our societies, the same as in first century Judea, that overwhelmingly means the poor.

So I’m going to make a bold statement. If we are not drawing alongside the poor and oppressed, connecting, aiding, embracing – we are missing a huge swathe of the message of Jesus, we are diluting the new deal of Jesus. To follow Jesus means to care for the poor in spirit in our society.

So let me invite you to ask yourself this question – what are we doing for the poor in spirit in our society, as a body of Jesus, one intended to embody the gospel of Jesus, what new deal are we bringing to the poor?

Jesus – thanks



Sunday, January 16, 2005


Begin, Belong, Grow


I came across Columbus Vineyard while adding Vineyard Blogs to the new Vineyard Blog Aggregator (have a look it's interesting).

I'm used to the Vineyard motto of:

Belong - come along and join in, adjust your character till people are comfortable with you
Believe - what we tell you that is.
Behave - in the way that we think is appropriate

A little cynical perhaps, but it can easily be seen that way. Instead Columbus Vineyard follow a different model.

Begin - recognising that we don't belong overnight, we grow gradually towards belonging, and move at our own pace.
Belong - their is no demand to believe the same things in the same way, simply a modeling and an allowing of people to develop their beliefs in their own time and own way
Grow - Again, it seems much more willing to treat people as complicated adults, we grow ourselves and our behavior changes gradually as a result, rather than learning to, or being taught to behave.

I recognise my own reaction here, and that some of the comments on the first model are a little unfair, potentially anyway. Nevertheless, I think the difference is important.

Steve


Click here for link...