Guelph Vineyard Church

Todd Rutkowski, Vineyard Emerge Catalyst, joins us to talk about the Kingdom of God and how it intersects with daily life. A Kingdom Centric lens on life helps us understand that the “ACTIVITY OF GOD” is the center of God’s work on earth and that includes the church Gathering as well as what we find ourselves engaged with on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday too!

As we began reflecting last week, the bullseye of God's desire for us is a statement by Jesus wherein he distills the whole thing for us by sewing together two principles: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  This week we're going to dig deeper still into what loving God Wholeheartedly looks like.

Over the next little while, we're going to be considering what it looks like to live a wholehearted life. Jesus, as always, is our centre. Jesus who clearly lived the most whole-hearted life that has been lived. Jesus who sometimes wrestled but never hesitated. Jesus who weighed the cost but never withheld. Jesus who stared down the scariest pathways but never flinched. Jesus who could have claimed the whole world as his own, yet gave everything for the sake of that world. What would our lives look like if we lived into the promises and invitations of the Kingdom without reservation? 

Two disciples are on the road, travelling to Emmaus in the days immediately following Jesus' death. The resurrected Christ joins them on their way, and yet the two disciples don't recognize him!! In fact this whole episode takes place on the very day of resurrection, though they don't yet understand that he's risen, only that something fishy has happened. A most incredible thing happens in the midst of their doubts and questions on the road. There are seasons in post-resurrection life when we have a really hard time recognizing Jesus. Could it be that he is hiding in plain sight, engaging us in our questioning and uncertainty, anticipating the moment of insight and disclosure?

In this episode, we reflect on another aspect of Jesus's Resurrection: All Things New.Jesus promises an eventual eternal New Day, but there's also language of "newness" throughout the scripture that we can experience in our lives now.  These are echoes and tastes of the New Day we look forward to in the Resurrection of Jesus. Renewed promises. Renewed grace. Renewed wonder.Scripture for further reference:2 Corinthians 5:13-2114 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliati

The events of Easter Weekend form the foundation of everything we believe about Jesus. His profound and baffling work on the cross and the never repeated moment of His resurrection on Easter Sunday speaks a more profound word than anything else, anywhere. He is Risen Indeed!

This week we look to ‘the way of the cross’, (that great paradox embedded in our respective Christian journey), to seek a fuller understanding of our identity. What kind of life was I created for? How do I find the life I was created for? How do I know that I know I’m living the life I was created for?Guest Speaker: Wayne MacQueen

What is justice? In our culture we typically enact it through a series of restrictions and protections. We associate our laws of the land (restrictions & protections) with justice because we live in a broken, fallen world. In our culture, there is a lean towards "fairness" as the highest and best goal. And, there's a strong case to make that we've made some progress on this front. But that system, while helpful in so many ways, falls drastically short of what appears to drive the idea of justice in the scriptures, particularly the idea of justice that is demonstrated in the person of Jesus on the cross. 

Speaker: Rachel GlenThis week, we look at the power of the Cross. We are going to talk about how Jesus reimagined our understanding of power, turning it completely upside down and why that is good news!

When you think of the love of God what comes to mind? This Sunday we look at what the cross has to say about the love of God. “A love like this".

Right at the centre of the gospel of Jesus we find the Cross. Something happened on that cross, something shocking and revolutionary. The cross wasn't just the method of Jesus death, but he made sure it was part of our own process to encountering the eternal life He invites us to. For the next 6 weeks leading to Easter, we are going to reflect on this most crucial moment in history. See you Sunday.

Like computers, people have “operating systems”, sets of rules or assumptions we use to navigate life. “The code” we talked about last week (earn worth to get love), is actually a virus that robs, diminishes and ultimately destroys.Jesus doesn’t simply fix the old operating system, he explodes it completely and rewrites everything.

Do you wrestle with disappointment, disillusionment, frustration, hopelessness, depletion, exhaustion… going through the motions without it ever feeling like it’s enough?That comes from something we’re going to call “The Code”. What’s the code? Earn worth and you can be loved. But the code is a liar that destroys relationship with God and with others.Yet here’s the wonderful news: The code can be detected. The code can be hacked.Hacking The Code Part One – Notes

Last week we touched on a couple of the creative processes that He seems to use over and over again. Creating something where previously there was nothing, and then bringing order into the chaos that comes from that initial flourish of creativity. The very next thing He does? He grows stuff. Plants, vegetables, trees with fruit, stuff with roots. This week we’re going to explore God-the-gardener and consider what it means to tend growing things, to trust in the invisible behind-the-scenes processes that ultimately lead to healthy, delicious fruit. And the bible has amazing things to say about fruit!

God's primary work today is what it's always been: Creating a good and beautiful creation. All through the big story of scripture, from the initial reveal in Eden, through the fall, the law, the prophets and straight through to the redeeming work of Jesus on the Cross, in every moment, God has been creating and recreating, artfully leading his creation towards his beautiful intentions. And he's invited us to share in that work. This is the work of the Kingdom.Every artist has tools and processes. This week we unpack two of the processes that God seems to use over and over again. We look at each, and explore how we are invited to come alongside him in this work, both in our own lives and in the lives of those around us.

We're starting into a new series about the work of God that will take us through to lent. We'll be looking at the work of the Kingdom, the work God has for us to do, through the lens of the work he's doing to this very day: Creating a good and beautiful creation. We're going to explore what's in the toolkit of God, and look at how all this broadens what we can think of when we think about serving Him.

Joyce brings a powerful word to us about how Jesus has come to us from among those in the margins of society and what that means for us as we find our identity in Him.

When I think about the healthiest expressions of "home", three things come to mind, primarily:1) Home is where we know where we are.2) Home is the place we can extend hospitality. It's the primary place we have the right to say “mi casa es su casa”.3) Home can be more than a location.There is a clear sense that God is inviting us into a kind "homecoming" season. This week we continue the conversation we started a couple of weeks ago, digging a little deeper into what it means to be at home in Christ.

"I will be their God and they will be my sons and daughters"Such a profound statement that drives home  the teleos of God's Redemptive plan. ("Teleos" = the completion of where all of this is going). Once we were slaves to sin, giving all of our energy, time and resources to trying to be good enough to live a good enough life. But now, Grace abounds, and freedom is available to be free from the project of trying to fix ourselves and trying to fix others. Together, let's consider once again how "It is finished" provides us with freedom -- to freely give away what we have been freely given.

This Sunday we're going to start to explore two stories of homecoming in the scriptures. We'll take a look at what happened when God spoke to the Israelites and said "This land." And we'll also start to consider what happened to the early Church when God pointed to the wide world and said "These people".*Technical note - We apologize that the audio quality isn't quite up to our usual standards. Sometimes stuff happens.... ;)