We try and avoid dirty words in our sermons, but every now and then you do need to bring up things like 'vulnerability' and 'commitment'.

If we want to be 'transformed people' who are transforming culture, being rooted in community is essential to the process. Mandy explains why quality friendships are essential to our faith journey and how to go about cultivating them.

When we zoom all the way out and look at the bible as a whole, we see a grand narrative the spans the creation of the world, the unfortunate moment it all went wrong, and the final moments when God makes all things new. This might sound high and lofty, but it changes the way we live right here, and right now. But how? Mandy explains.

As a Vineyard church, praying for one another is a core part of our culture. And yet, because it requires a level of vulnerability, it's way too easy to get hurt. So what does respectful, emotionally healthy prayer ministry look like? How do we navigate ministry when big stuff comes up? And what does 'success' look like in prayer ministry? Hint: it's not when you get a big 'spiritual' reaction...

Everyone's trying to do it. Everyone's reading the same book (mostly). So why are there so, so many different kinds of church that all claim to be biblical?

There are a bunch of reasons, but the big one is that we all interpret it differently. And the reason (one of them at least) is that we come to the bible with different lenses.

To try and get at what it means to be a biblical community, Chris leads us through a little thought experiment — two readings of Galatians 3, each with a different story at the beginning. The lesson? We need to stop taking the bible at face value and learn to let it read us, submitting to its authority, rather than casting ours over the top of it.

If you asked a super-intelligent AI powered robot how it would destroy humanity, what would it say? Well guess what... we asked a robot (Chat GPT) and the answer was kind of scary, because in many ways it's already happening. We live in a world where the technology that's designed to help us has, in a way, made us into its slaves. Conspiracy theories aside, it's kind of crazy.

But... guess what? This isn't a surprise to the authors of scripture. While they might not have anticipated the iPhone, or social media algorithms, the ancient Israelites knew what it meant to be slaves, and God gave them the secret to stop them falling back into it. What's the trick? We're glad you asked...

We've been talking the 'why' of church these last few weeks, so this time around we turn to the 'what'... what does church look like on its best day? There's an amazing passage in Acts 2 that describes the very first few weeks and months of church, and it provides an inspiring picture... but one that, it turns out, isn't quite sustainable. Yet Acts 2:42-47 still has much to teach us about how church community can thrive in the 21st century.

Last week we started by sharing the story of TVC so far. This week we zoom out a long way and look at the story of the Vineyard movement. From its roots in the Jesus movement of the '70s to the ministry of John Wimber, to church planting across the world, we come from an incredible heritage. But the point is not to convince you of how wonderful Vineyard is (that's a nice side benefit), but to help those of us who call TVC home in the story that God has been writing. Chris shares about some of the things that have made the Vineyard unique, and what he feels is next for our movement (and therefore TVC!).

Welcome back! After 2 weeks off, we're launching into a new series... with no title, and no outline. Rather, we're sensing that as a church we need to take a few steps back and remember why we're here, who we are, and who we want to become. Chris opens this 'series' with a look at our new-ish mission statement: 'Transformed people transforming culture.'

So what does it look like to be a 'transformed person', and how do we go about 'transforming culture'?

People have been talking about the end of the world since... well, probably as long as people have been talking about anything. There's something that captures our imagination when it comes to how all of this ends. The bible certainly has a piece to say. But unfortunately this topic gets hijacked all the time by well meaning people who are convinced they've finally solved the puzzle of Revelation.

But what if that's not the point at all? Chris unpacks what the bible has to say about the end times, and in particular how our view of the end shapes how we live today.

On the church's (sort of) birthday, Mandy appropriately takes us through the 101 of the church. Scripture uses a bunch of analogies to talk about who we're supposed to be, so Mandy walks through the key ones and makes the point that church needs ALL of us to work right!