The Vine Church OC

This past Sunday, Pastor Michael Swanson shared a special message exploring what opportunities God is inviting us into amidst the storm that is Coronavirus. We pray you will find encouragement, strength, and hope through this time of worship.

In the midst of the storm of Covid-19, the human tendency can be to worry, or even panic. Our reserves are being strained, and we are suddenly overwhelmed by unknowns and uncertainty. This was exactly the situation Jesus' disciples are experiencing in today's Scripture reading, and we see them crying out to Jesus. This is the invitation to us in this season, too - to turn to the one who has power to calm our every storm.

In the face of all that is going on in the news, and how the coronavirus is affecting all of us in different ways, this is a timely message of hope from Pastor Michael Swanson. He looks at the way this season mirrors times of fear in the life of Israel, and how God sustained them and sustains us. He invited us to lean into these times with our eyes open and hearts tuned in to what God may be up to right now.

We have been looking at Lent as a holy journey to the heart of God, so this week we talked about how we can worship in a way that draws us to the heart of God. We all worship something, and in our culture we can sometimes look to entertainment as the object of our "ultimate attention". What we need is a "Copernican revolution", where we reorient to God as the center and ask what can we bring (instead of "what can I get?" in entertainment culture).

One of our newly announced Assistant Pastors, Denis Cruz, spoke this week about our calling. We (anyone who is - or wants to be - a child of God) are called to return wholeheartedly to God. We looked at the story of Nehemiah and his grief over Jerusalem's broken walls, the work to fix it, and the ways that work was opposed by enemies (who even made themselves at home in God's house!). We, too, have an enemy trying to create chaos for us, but God is inviting us to step into the pasture of his peace.

If you consider yourself a part of The Vine and missed the Annual Meeting this weekend, here is the audio!

There are defining moments in our lives - an invitation from God and a choice we face about how we will respond. In the story of the Israelites spying out the Promised Land, Caleb had just such a moment (as did the other leaders!); and our church is at just such a crossroads. Pastor Michael talked about the "state of the church" and shared a vision for what it seems God is calling us into in this season.

In the second installment in our Discipleship Essentials series, Pastor Michael looked at the basics of prayer - what prayer is, why we pray, and some helpful tips about how to enter into prayer (particularly if we are unpracticed at it). God wants us to talk to him about the actual "stuff" of our everyday lives, and we get to see so much more of him at work when we talk to him about the little things (and not just the big ones)! Prayer is relational, and through that, it becomes a partnership with God in the world, too.

We began a new series this week, entitled "Discipleship Essentials". Pastor Michael took us through some of the WHY to read the Bible, and practical steps of HOW, too. Whether you have been reading the Bible your whole life, or you are brand new to it, Michael gives some helpful recommendations and an invitation to come [again] to the life-giving, God-breathed Scriptures.

Dr. Tony Baron joined us this week, speaking about Paul's concern for the church at Ephesus in Ephesians chapter 1, and how that connects with what we, too, need in our day. He described this age as one transitioning out of anxiety and into rage, and spoke about how God has given us every thing we need to live and bring light to this world.