Christina has written an introduction to the Vineyard Catalyst Network. The actual site (quite empty at the moment) is over here.
So in terms of where Geoff and I are at the moment, we’re part of one of the ‘three communities’ that already exist – in it’s infancy, and meet fortnightly. We also are currently going along to Ranges Community Church.
“At the same time you love it but you also hate it with all your guts” (Thanks Les…)
This is exactly how I feel, or at least in the past have felt about Gush. It intrigues me to work out if this is where I need to again pour some effort or if I should wait for somewhere else to pour that expense. It is an expense. It is time, heart, pain and mental energy. It is well and truly worth it.
Do we get a say in what our ministry is? (I don’t like the term ministry by the way, and I’m not even sure of the concept of it as a stand-alone but just run with it). Or do we just somehow arrive there?
I also reckon marriage is a ministry by this definition. Not in a bad way – of hating it’s guts, ha. It’s wonderful, but at the same time it’s a lot of giving up of self and that’s marvelously difficult at times. Today Geoff made me breakfast in bed and made me lunch (err.. when I was in bed again being lazy/sleepy). It was very good.
Deep hearts hollow
and low
Cradling within an emptiness
a heavinessa gravity,
a weight,
the bottom echo
hollowGiant marbles on a wooden floor
banging together
not sensible
people holding hearts
a pendulous echo
God listening,
just listening.
Christina spoke this morning on Job 3 and about pain relating in particular to the apparent absence of God. And this is what I wrote. To be honest, not a lot of thought went into it, or feeling, it just kind of wrote itself. Mainly because I was feeling too blah – I’m coming down with something (always at the most inconvenient time of the year!)- to bother joining others for a discussion.
“Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Church up at Ranges today – it’s Easter Sunday. There were a stack of stations set up for reflection. The one that grabbed me most was, quite oddly the station about Hunger. The Bible mentions hunger quite a bit. It is wound very tightly into humanity, we need food to physically survive and food for contentment.
Each image showed was of lips – a conceptual variety of those covered in glitter holding dice, eating paper and words, half painted red, a child feeding from it’s mother.
It’s so easy to satisfy hunger with stuff, with life with busyness, with wants and percieved needs. It is not easy to satisfy hunger of the other kind with Jesus. But it is better. And things seem right when the hungry goes searching for the holy. And because the holy can relate to us in our hunger, it makes it possible.
Last night was the start of a spin off thing happening through Ranges. We don’t know really what it is, except that Les and Vubka (I know I’ve spelt that wrong), Bob, Tim, Cat, AJ (and Lily and Annabel), Geoff and I – not an exhaustive list for future reference as it’s rather open ended- met for dinner and had a good discussion on the Kingdom of God, church etc.
If injections were more positive things I’d equate it with that. It was good, whatever it was. And it was right. I came away hopeful.
Les very succinctly described our role in the Kingdom of God as not to ‘go build’ (Whatever the hell that’s meant to mean anyway) but rather as stewards. Taking it back to the Garden of Eden, where when ‘the fall’ occurred; there was a split in horizontal relationships between people, the land etc and we lost that perfect vertical relationship (with God) was affected. And this then are the areas we are stewards and the point being to draw things closer to that perfect vertical…. I have explained it terribly and I’m sure it’s not complete and I don’t know fully what it looks like, but it’s certainly not about a point of ‘salvation’ and a ‘go out and make converts’.
I like these people. I like what God is doing.
