STORIES: Celebrating our diversity in a multicultural kingdom

Waitangi Day reminds us we are not a one-culture-only-nation. We are multicultural; diverse, yet unified here by this context of place. This weekend we are going to take this moment to remind ourselves that God’s kingdom is a place of cultural-diversity. The church is meant to taste like this:

“After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.”

— Revelation 7:9

What does it mean to celebrate the stories of our diversity? How might we learn off each other? Come and hear the stories this Sunday as we host a panel of Central Vineyard people from diverse cultural backgrounds.

It's going to be ka pai.

PRE-GATHERING COMMUNITY PRAYER

The seal of the Moravian church: a community that prayed non-stop for 100 years and one of the most impacting missional movements of church history.

SUNDAY'S 9.00am

We're praying before our Sunday gathering every week for people to meet God both within our family and outside of it. God is already doing amazing things in our midst but He also asks us to keep knocking on the door, to keep expecting more.

So, let's get together to pray for the anxious to be free, the sick to be healed, the lost to be found and for God to keep carrying us forward into the great unknown.

God can and will change the world through our prayers.

Message series: "Intention (What do you want?)"

We're kicking off 2017 with a summer series that investigates our intention and looks at an important question we all need to ask: "What do you want?"

This confronting question from Jesus reveals the power of our intentions and what they lead us to do. It will be a great journey for both you as an individual, but also for us as a family, as we look at what the intentions are for our year ahead.

“Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them.”

— John 1:38

Message series: "And I will give you rest."

“...and I will give you rest.”

— Jesus

You've worked hard this year and to work hard is good. You've created new things and contributed to what is going on in the world and the Kingdom of God. You've poured your time, energy and resource into the things you love most.

Now, as we head towards Christmas and a summer break, what does it mean to take a break and rest?

Join us in our new series "And I will give you rest" as we explore what the rest God offers looks like, and why it's important.

We've got guests coming!

For the next two Sunday gatherings at Central Vineyard we have guests coming to speak and share. Don't miss out on hearing from these two Vineyard NZ leaders and great friends of Central Vineyard.

Lloyd Rankin, national director of Vineyard Churches Aotearoa NZ, is coming to speak on Sunday, November 13. Lloyd and his wife Victoria pioneered the Vineyard movement here in NZ and have planted several churches over the last two decades.

Jacinda Lilly, who pastors Coast Vineyard with her husband Matt, is coming to speak on Sunday, November 20. The Lilly's were sent from Shore Vineyards (just like us!) and planted Coast Vineyard three years ago, and continue to see it grow and bless the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.

Central Vineyard's First Birthday + Photos

Our journey so far

Our first birthday

A big thanks to all who helped pull this special celebration together and to Cameron Thorp for taking these photos.

Engage: Gifted - ministry gifts and building fires

At Central Vineyard we want to take our spiritual health seriously, so we take self-awareness seriously. To go along with this recent sermon on our ministry gifts, here are three tests we recommend you doing to help you have language about what you are gifted for.

1. Strengths Finder - a great tool for finding out what strengths you have

2. Sacred Pathway - a quick test to find out the ways you best connect with God

3. Ministry Gift Finder - a test to find out your Ephesians 4 ministry gifts

Engage: Gifted - practicing the gift of faith in daily prayer

As pursuers of Christ who are following what the Father is doing by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become people who are a bridge between the broken and the holy. In this place, we have various gifts we can use and when we use the gift of faith we are choosing to stand in the gap between people who may not have faith themselves for what God can do for them.

As a church we want to stand in the gap for the broken and lost, and one of the ways we can do that is through joining in this prayer challenge we have found from a church called Church of the Highlands. 

Join us in engaging the gift of faith by committing to pray for 1 person, for 1 minute a day, for 1 month. So, set a reminder, take a screenshot or save this is as a bookmark, and here's what to pray each day::

1.    That the Father would draw _______ to Jesus (John 6:44)
2.    We bind the spirit that blinds _______ mind (2 Cor 4:4)
3.    That _______ would desire to know God as their Father (Rom 8:15)
4.    That believers would cross their path (Matt 9:38)
5.    That _______ would have a divine encounter (Eph 1:17)

So, let's stand in the gap and trust that God will do His part in seeing these things happen.

Engage: Gifted - practicing everyday prophecy

THIS WEEK

1. Set a side a section of your journal/get a new one.

2. Ask God daily for words for Christians you know and write down everything you see with as much detail as you can.

3. See. Pray. Wait. 

4. At the end of the week allow whatever is still brewing and has life to be shared with the person it's for.

5. Practice giving the word in a strengthening, encouraging and comforting way with a few of these helpful phrases…

• “I believe God is saying...”
• “I get a sense that you...”
• “I see ... and I feel it could mean...” or “It appears to represent...”
• “I see a picture of... and I don’t have a direct revelation of what it means but I sense that...”
• “Test this with God in prayer, see if it holds any weight with you and the Spirit”
• “Does this word align with what God and others are saying in your life?”

Message series: "Gifted"

One of the core values for a Vineyard church is that "everyone gets to play" - meaning that everyone can use the gifts of the Holy Spirit to play their part in what God is doing in this world. We are natural, ordinary people of a supernatural, extraordinary God.

At Central Vineyard we feel called to go on a journey, for the next couple of months, to explore together what it is to be these kind of people. We're going to teach about it on Sunday at our gatherings, we're going to practice it and we're going to have our Engage blogs adding a little extra to your week.

It's going to be a lot of fun!