This week at Central Vineyard, Alisha Wiseman continues our series The Gift and the gifts by exploring encouragement — the gift that puts courage into another.

Biblical encouragement is more than positivity or saying something nice. It is the Spirit-empowered gift of coming alongside someone, seeing where God is at work, naming what is true, and inviting them further into the life of Jesus.

We apologise for the low audio quality at the end of the talk, we had a technical difficulty.

Before the eigth part of our The Gift and the gifts series, Ella shares a story of recent healing for their little girl, and then Strahan Coleman contributed to our series by speaking on how the gift of prophecy is first and foremost the testimony of Christ, and a word that is to encourage, strengthen and care for the Church.

This week Dan continues our series The Gift and the gifts by exploring one of the most beautiful, hopeful, and complex gifts of the Holy Spirit: healing.

Healing is one of the places where hope and disappointment often meet. Many of us carry stories of God’s surprising power breaking in, and many of us also carry stories of waiting, groaning, and unanswered prayer. So why do we still pray for healing?

In this talk, Dan explores healing through the Vineyard lens of the Kingdom of God — the now and the not yet — where Jesus’ ministry reveals God’s future wholeness breaking into the present. Every healing is a signpost of resurrection, a glimpse of the world as God intends it to be, and a foretaste of the day when all things will be made new.

The talk also looks at the gift of faith, the gift of healing, and the simple Vineyard five-step model for praying for the sick. It finishes with an invitation to be a church who pray with expectation and humility, asking the Holy Spirit to give us a taste of God’s future wholeness now.

To watch the Vineyard USA "5 Step Healing Prayer" video, do so here.

This week at Central Vineyard, Dan continues our series The Gift and the gifts as we turn from the Gift of the Holy Spirit to the gifts the Spirit gives.

Exploring the New Testament’s teaching on spiritual gifts, Dan frames the gifts of the Spirit as “gracelets” — little manifestations of God’s grace, given for the common good. These gifts are not labels to possess, platforms to build, or performances to admire. They are graces received from God, practised in love, developed through use, and matured in the way of Jesus.

From words of revelation, to works of power, to acts of mercy and service, the Spirit gives gifts widely across the whole body so that everyone can participate in the life and ministry of Jesus. The invitation is to ask, “What grace is God giving me, and how can I pass it on?”

The talk closes with a simple prayer practice, inviting us to behold someone in love and ask the Holy Spirit what grace might be needed for them — a word, a prayer, or an act of service.

In this fifth part of our series, and on Pentecost Sunday, guest speakers Mel and Kirk Beyer share on the Pentecost effect then and now, with Mel framing it up with some theoloical thoughts, and then, Kirk sharing a recent story of how it looks in reality.

NOTE: We apologise for the audio quality of this recording, we had a technical difficulty.

In this fourth part of our series, and on Ascension Sunday, Alisha Wiseman explores the strange and beautiful tension of life with the Holy Spirit: Jesus is reigning, the Spirit has been given, the Kingdom has come — and yet so much of our lives can still feel unfinished.

From Acts 1, we are invited to see that waiting is not passive, empty, or meaningless. It is one of the places where God forms us. We wait with honesty about our need, attentiveness to the Spirit’s presence, and surrendered trust that God is still at work — even when our experience does not yet match the fullness of the promise.

The good news is that we are not abandoned in the waiting. The Spirit is already here, already within us, already moving among us — sometimes suddenly and miraculously, and sometimes slowly, quietly, forming us into people who reflect the likeness of Jesus to the world.

In this week’s message from The Gift and the gifts, Dan traces the big biblical story from Eden to Pentecost to New Creation, asking: how will God dwell and commune with His people again?

At Pentecost, the long ache of Scripture begins to be answered. The Holy Spirit is no longer mediated through a certain space, or just a few prophets, priests, kings, or leaders, but poured out on all God’s people as the new Temple People. This Gift restores communion with God for all people, makes the Church a preview of the coming future Kingdom, and invites every one of us to participate in the ministry of Jesus.

The promise is not just for the unusually spiritual or the impressive few. "We all get God. Every one of us. We all get to play."

In the second part of our Pentecost series, The Gift and the gifts, Dan explores the Holy Spirit as the Gift who often surprises us and widens the frameworks we thought were fixed.

Tracing the story of Peter, the Wimbers (early leaders of the Vineyard movement), and some recent stories from at Easter Camp, this message invites us to see that life with the Spirit is not something we generate through hype or pressure, but someone we receive with open hands. The Spirit is the living presence of Jesus among us — teaching, filling, empowering, and sometimes lovingly expanding the grids we have carried.

In this opening message of our new Pentecost season series, The Gift and the gifts, Dan opens the series with Jesus' instruction to the dicsiples to "wait for the gift."

Preparing us for the season ahead of Pentecost in the Church calendar, we consider the gift: the Father who promises, the Spirit who is given, and the grace-gifts poured out for the good of others. Pentecost reminds us that the Christian life begins in gift — not achievement, earning, or proving ourselves ready enough — but in the astonishing generosity of God who gives His own Spirit.

And because the Spirit is poured out on all people, this is not a series for the spiritually elite. It is an invitation for every one of us to receive, participate, and join in the ministry of Jesus in the world.

Join us for a special week celebrating baptisms and the stories of those who were baptised.