More Music From The Gadsden Vineyard Musicians

Soaking 1

From Rick and Beckie Trussell, "This track has been taken from a live session at the House of Prayer in Huntsville, AL. Our objective was not to entertain but merely to create a soundscape by which folks could encounter His Presence. This being a live recording, you may hear some mistakes but we felt that enough of Him was there to warrant leaving it as is, warts and all. We prefer to stay away from labels as much as possible but when some friends asked us to make these tracks available, we had to come up with some sort of name for ourselves. So, to keep it simple we chose RicnBec. We hope you enjoy Him as much as we did while this was in the making." 16:41

You can find this MP3 at Cdbaby for 1.99

www.cdbaby.com/cd/ricnbec

They're not just a church. They're a lifestyle.

I overheard one of the downtown business owners express their observation about Gadsden Vineyard:

"They're not just a church. They're a lifestyle."

What a nice thing to say. (I hope we live up to it.)

Vineyard Style Reformation

We need a Vineyard Reformation.



As John Wimber, the founding father of the Vineyard, put it, "Faith is spelled R-I-S-K." I don't know if John first said it but he was the first person I heard say it and live it.


In the beginning of being around John and other Vineyard people I came away with this concept of Divine Appointments. I can remember driving to the schools where I taught art and asking for at least one divine appointment for that day. I would be on the lookout for an appointment. I would be disappointed at the end of the day if it looked like I didn't have one.


Then something happened after having a few dozen appointments. I quite asking for them. I still had some occur but I forgot or got busy with pastoring the people that I had met through the divine appointments. Weird.


Paul tells Timothy: "Stir up the gift that's in you."


We need a Vineyard Reformation!


We're old enough as a movement that we can "go back to the old ways". Some of them are "old" and some of them are "for as long as we live". We need a new-old T-shirt slogan: "Faith is spelled R-I-S-K."

If you're like me say it with me:

"I need a personal Vineyard Reformation!!!!"

Jess Tells Her Insights About The Story Of Gomer (YouTube)

Why A Statement Of Faith

Part of the reason I love the Vineyard movement is how we approach life. I include this note because it shows a little of how we think and I spent yesterday uploading our common Statement of Faith. Today I get a letter from Bert, our National Director, which included the section below:

"When I was a part of the group that put together our present Statement of Faith, I asked John Wimber why we didn't call it the Vineyard Confession of Faith. He responded without hesitation, “Because we are not a confessional movement.” He then went on to explain what he meant. He said that a confessional tradition, in his understanding, was shaped by the idea that members must agree with the entire confession to be in good standing with that tradition. The “Confession of Faith” was an outside boundary that one must adhere to if he/she wants to be a part of that community. He further explained that our Statement of Faith was not designed to serve in that way. It was not designed to keep people out of the Vineyard. Rather, it served to identify us as a movement within the general, basic, framework of orthodox and Evangelical Christianity.

This explanation has been very helpful to me in counseling people who want to come into the Vineyard but have questions about something in the Statement of Faith. I have from time to time had people say, “You know, I really want to be a part of the Vineyard, but I have some difficulty with the language that is used in certain parts of the Statement of Faith.” I then relate the conversation I had with John and assure them that, unless what they believe is in violation of the historical Christian faith as mediated to us through the broad Evangelical tradition, there is room in the Vineyard for them even if they have some reservation on the way a particular statement is worded." - Bert Waggoner, National Director, 1-11-11

Catch The Fire - Toronto Ministry Team

We got guests! CTF ministry school sent a team of international students and we get to host them. They will be here on Sunday Jan. 9 and Jan. 16 at 10.30a plus on Wednesday nights at 7pm. Drop by and meet them if you get a chance.

Song Writing Interview:Todd Bagley & Michael Bynum at the WH (YouTube)

Christmas Day 2010 at Jim and Patsy's home

We Are Taking A Day Off After The Snow Day

Christmas Day Snow 2010 In Gadsden

Freezing night temps with ice forming. So we decided the safest thing to do was take the day off and not try driving into town. Gravel trucks came by seven times during the day and night. Wind slamming frozen limbs against the house. This is the South. Meaning this kind of weather doesn't come this way often and we lose all of our wisdom concerning autos on black ice patches. No live streams today.

A Little Saturday Morning Christian Discussion Over Coffee

Discussion with Wayne Findley, Lane Smith, Bobby Sparks. Jim mans the Nano
cam.

Talking About Priorities

I thought I would go and look over our priorities from the 2010 perspective. I was told by the God to “start a church” back on January 16, 1983. It took two years to wander around with this mandate and by January 1985 we had a checkbook with our name on it: Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Gadsden. That’s our real name registered with the IRS. AVC-USA got concerned that the Vineyard movement would lose the “service mark” of the name “Vineyard”(It’s like if you and I say “Coke” when we mean any soft drink then the word “Coke” would go into general use and no longer be a “trademark”). Anyway, AVC asked the Vineyard churches in the USA to change our names and stop calling ourselves “Vineyards” but call ourselves the name of the city (or something), then Vineyard (like the Baptist, etc. - the name of the association or domination), then the word church. So ten years into this change I heard many Vineyards refused to change their name. (I sound so obedient to authority, don’t I?) Michael Bynum was telling me one pastor’s story that he refused to use the word “church” because he said the word “fellowship” had a greater connection for him. He said “fellowship” communicated better the value of “church life” being about “a spiritual family that fellowships together”.

So why are you writing about this you ask? Because WORDS are a way to communicate IDEAS, and STORIES do an even better job of it. The old saying is so true: “A picture is worth a 1000 words.” Sometimes even 1000 words can’t do it justice. My conflict inside over the word CHURCH versus FELLOWSHIP continues. I’m sure you have some ideas that would be communicated better if you could just find better words to use.

An example of someone who can write with such clean thinking would be C. S. Lewis. Go and read any of his 54 books for a few minutes and your mind will become clean and your thinking level.

Or read anywhere in the Gospels. After a few minutes you will find that the air clears, you start to get in touch with who you are, who God is, and everything starts to come into focus.

K & L > Z

This time next week K & L will be on their way to the Far East to get Z! What a long and exciting countdown it has been.

There’s a calendar that Father is keeping and He has circled the Wedding Feast of His Son. All of creation is counting down. Hope you know (yada) Him. Get in touch with me and we’ll get you on His list!

Eye has not seen and ear has not hear what God our Father has in store for us, for YOU!

Blessings from Gadsden, Alabama, USA  - jim 

OUR PRIORITIES

Introduction

   Priorities describe how we spend our time, energy, and money. They are the things we do. Priorities grow out of the things we value and believe in. Our priorities are based on the Bible, the Word of God, that is the standard for all that we do at the Vineyard. In other words, nothing that we do should ever be opposed to the Bible’s teaching. We aim to do all that the Bible teaches. We have a particular approach to the Bible. We think that it was given not only to give us insight and understanding but also to equip us to do God’s work. Thus, we emphasize training that is doing the truth in addition to knowing the truth. Because we stress doing, our teaching and preaching are intended to be practical and relevant. We aim, through expository preaching and topical messages and modeling the Christian lifestyle, to call people to follow every part of the Christian life as revealed in the Scriptures.

1. Exalting God’s Presence (Worship): The highest priority of God’s people is to worship Him, that is, to give to God the worth that He ought to have in our lives. In the Bible, one meaning of worship is to draw near. Thus, in worship we give ourselves to God in love and He comes to us in the fullness of His Spirit. We believe that an intimate relationship with God is the basis of all that we do as Christians.

2. Expressing God’s Love (Ministry): Ministry at the Vineyard flows from two basic assumptions. First, it is based on the compassion and mercy of God. Jesus was the embodiment of God’s compassion and mercy toward those in need. Thus, through the imitation of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, we seek to minister out of hearts which are filled with Christ’s mercy and compassion.

   Second, Jesus Christ as the Messiah came to establish the Kingdom of God, that is, God’s right to rule in the world (Matt. 9:35-10:10). This kingdom rule and reign of God is extended through the world in, among other things, the following ways:

 Preaching the Gospel with the aim of making disciples

 Praying for the healing of the sick

 Teaching believers to follow Christ

 Feeding the poor

 Counseling those in need of God’s wisdom

 Giving to the work of Christ

 Building up families

 Social action

3. Enfolding God’s Family (Fellowship): Vineyard exists to care for and to build up people, not programs. Fellowship begins with our relationship with Jesus. It also involves our commitment to Christ’s body.

   We believe that this commitment to Christ’s body can best be expressed by being involved in small groups (i.e. kinships, home fellowship groups, special interest groups). We must know one another in order to love one another and to share one another’s burdens. Small groups are the basic structure in the Vineyard for comfort and counsel, service to one another, intimate relationships, healing and prayer. In these groups, we stress such things as honesty, integrity, reality, acceptance, and love.

4. Edifying God’s People (Discipleship): The New Testament calls Christians to a radical commitment. We believe that we are called to an unconditional surrender of our whole lives to Christ. We do not do this in a legalistic way or to impress or judge one another. Instead, our surrender to God springs from a response of love and thanksgiving to God who loved us and gave Himself for us.

   As a church we stimulate one another to discipleship. One meaning of disciple is pupil or learner. It involves binding oneself to another so that the disciple does what the master does. In Christian discipleship our aim is to be bound to Christ and to imitate Him. We believe we are to imitate Jesus in all He did—preaching, healing, praying, delivering the demonized, caring for the poor, etc.

5. Evangelizing God’s World (Evangelism, Church Planting & World Missions): Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15). He accomplishes that salvation through the witness of His people accompanied by signs and wonders (Mk. 16:20). There are almost 150 million unchurched Americans in the post World War II generation. That means that an enormous missions field exists for churches like the Vineyard here in the United States. The large urban centers of this country are ripe for the harvest. There are also tens of millions of unreached peoples around the world whom we are called to reach (Matt. 28:18-20).

   Studies in missions, evangelism, and theology show that a chief way  to evangelize nations and peoples is to plant churches. Therefore, local, regional, and global church planting is a Vineyard priority.

©1997, 2010 Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Gadsden – Revised 12-1-2010

Interview with Jordan Magee about Prophetic Dance

Jordan Magee is a singer, songwriter, dancer, and
now a dance drama playwright and choreographer.
It's also exciting to see how others got involved with the
dance drama.

Living Like The Future Is Now

In The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber relates a story he had heard about what Tom Watson, the founder of IBM, had said concerning the success of IBM. It is said that Tom answered his questioner as follows:

IBM is what it is today for three reasons. The first reason is that, at the beginning, I had a very clear picture of what the company would look like when it was finally done. I had a model in my mind of what it would look like when the dream—my vision—was in place.

     The second reason was that once I had that picture, I then asked myself how a company, which looked like that, would have to act. I then created a picture of how IBM would act when it was finally done.

     The third reason IBM has been so successful was that once I had a picture of how IBM would look when the dream was in place and how such a company would have to act, I then realized that, unless we began to act that was from the very beginning, we would never get there.

     In other words, I realized that for IBM to become a great company it would have to act like a great company long before it ever became one.

     From the very outset, IBM was fashioned after the template of my vision. And each and every day we attempted to model the company after that template. At the end of each day, we asked ourselves how well we did, discovered the disparity between where we were and where we had committed ourselves to be, and, at the start of the following day, set out to make up for the difference.

     Every day at IBM was a day devoted to business development, not doing business. We didn’t do business at IBM; we built one.

(emphasis mine)

From The E-Myth Revisited, pages 69-70, 1995

CHRIST IN US, THE HOPE OF GLORY. "God willed to make known among the nations the riches of the glory of this mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations but now has been revealed to his saints. It is Christ in you the hope of glory" (Col 1:26-27).

The IBM vision of Tom Watson is a good illustration of this 

passage. If we live today as if we really are seated in Christ 

what would our everyday lives look like? It just might be that 

living like we were already mature would cause us to mature 

more quickly. Imagine that you and I are the adopted sons 

and daughters of God Most High. Wait a minute, WE ARE 

ADOPTED SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD MOST HIGH!!!

How To Run The Great Hall Sound Board

David, Nathan and A. J. Talk About Healing