Merton Vineyard Church

Change slowly - day by day. One of the key elements in our faith is to continually change and grow towards God. One of the best parts of that, is that it is God who does the change, we simply need to be obedient.

Having spent a week in the Wilderness, Matt reflects on the things that God was speaking to him, about Easter, the cross and the Resurrection 

As part of Lent, we take a look at resting, and the Sabbath - one of the key disciplines that most of us really don't appreciate. It is, however, one that is so incredibly beneficial for our development.

One of the most challenging issues we face today is that of restlessness and continually pursuing desires that seem to be empty. In part one of this series, we look at how restlessness is an epidemic and we start to try and understand the soul.

Lent - the 40 day fast to chocolate binging. For me, Lent is about preparing ourselves for the incomprehensible reality of what Christ did on the cross for us. By looking at the time Christ spend in the desert - as Philip Yancey puts it "spending time to figure out who he was" it helps us better understand who we are, and who we can be, in Christ

Sometimes all we are missing is a bit of genuine thankfulness. Thankfulness can be incredibly healing and help us to grow. 

What is holiness? What does scripture say about holiness and where do we fit into the picture. The church should be the out-flowing of God into the community - affecting families, society, lives and nature. Where is your church? 

"Faith doesn't need to push the river, because faith is able to trust that there is a river. The river is flowing, We are in it." Richard Rohr. The first thing we tend o do when wanting to change, is to try harder. In this talk, we suggest that trying softer might actually work!

Who's really driving your life? Being able to truly surrender our minds to Christ is a wonderful thing - the pressure is taken away and the stress and anxiety of having to achieve starts to melt too. Looking at the story of Gideon, and his ultimate trust in Gods, helps us towards understanding that Gods ways are definitely not our ways.

We take a break from our theme of Flourishing, as we celebrate Merton Vineyard being 5 years old. We briefly looked back over the past 5 years, and more excitedly, got our leaders to share on what they feel God is saying for the coming time ahead.

We continually compare our lives to others - our families, our work, our love lives even our spiritual lives. However, God created us all uniquely, and has a desire to have a unique relationship with us. So instead of focusing on what you need to do, to better yourself, look to where the Spirit of God is moving and go jump in. 

We often desire to have a closer relationship with God - we see the exciting things happening with others, and yet feel so far away. This morning we looked at how often our habits that we form can actually separate us from God.

We try so hard to change bad habits, but by the grace of God we get to trust in Him. Today we looked a bit at who I am, and who I would like to be. And the amount of times we have failed to be that person, when all we need is to hand it all over to God. 

At this time of year, we all start to make various promises and plans regarding practically ever part of our lives - and really, how often does it work? This year we starting to look at how we can flourish - not just exist, and how this is actually Gods intention. 

How many time do we trust God, but also make sure we have a pragmatic plan “just in case”? Of course we need to be sensible, but so often have 2 or more idols in our lives - God (for feel good) and something else (money, relationships, kids??) “just in case” we need them more. 

What’s your definition of patience, and how patient are you? Sam led us through a balance of patience and expectations - our expectations are more often than not, what God has promised us. 

In the first week of December, we looked at what our hope is in the lead up to Christmas. Are you dreading it? Or excited about it? What are your hope and expectations in, as we lead up to Christmas?