From the Vineyard Newsletter on 11/11: Count Your Many Blessings

The holiday season is upon us; today is Veterans Day (be sure to thank our veterans for their service and sacrifice), and in two weeks it will be Thanksgiving, followed by Advent and Christmas. From here to the end of the year it can be a real mad-dash to New Year.  So before you get ramped up with holiday traditions and general busyness, let me invite you to join me in one of my favorite November traditions, “Count Your Many Blessings!”

From here to Thanksgiving I want to invite you to focus on how God has blessed your life: friends, family, work, home, transportation, you name it. Maybe you have been able to travel, or you have your grandchildren living nearby? (I know I wish mine did!)  I am grateful for this church body, not just as a job, but for genuine friendships, the attitude of service, worship, and many other blessings. I love central Florida for the great weather, the beauty and greenery, and the easy access to fun attractions and fresh vegetables all year long.  

Let me invite you to stir up an attitude of gratitude in our church and community, among our friends, family, and neighbors. Will you join me? Starting today (with thanking our veterans) and then every day for the rest of this month, let’s make a real effort to post on social media one thing each day that we are grateful for. You can do more if you like, but let’s give God the glory and credit for the goodness in our lives. Then let’s take a step further; let’s be sure to write notes to our family and friends. You can text, mail, or email it; you can scribble a note in their lunch bag, draw on their mirror, or hide a sticky-note in one of their books. But let’s make a real effort to appreciate what we have, who we have, and give thanks to God and to the people around us. 

One more thing: would you be willing to bless a stranger? Let me invite you to pick up the tab for a stranger. It could be a coffee, or fast-food, or something else. It does not have to be big, but sometime this month bless a stranger.  If they ask you why, tell them God loves them, no strings attached. Then do this: walk away without preaching--no strings--just make sure they know God loves them. 

This is how we do life together in Christ. We love God, we love people, and we pass it on. We connect with people, we grow in Christ, we give generously, we serve God and man, and we live ordinary lives by the extraordinary power of the spirit at work within us.  

Grace and peace,

Hal

From the VCC Newsletter on 12/17: The Faithfulness of God- Something to Celebrate

Have you ever considered that Christmas is more about the birth of world missions and less about the birth of a child?The God who gave us his Son did so because he loved the world and wanted that no one would perish but have everlasting life. The first coming of Jesus (Advent) was not just a sweet story about pregnant Mary and her fiancé traveling to Bethlehem, to avoid judgement by the neighbors or even to pay taxes to Cesar. It is the fantastic account of God’s faithfulness to humanity, keeping his word from Genesis 3, and his multiple promises to the people of Israel, the Kings, and the Prophets. It is a story of redemption, not just for a lucky few nor a cover up, but an important chapter in the very long story of redemption, forgiveness, and love.  In one week from today we will be celebrating that God took this mission so personal that he sent no one less than his own Son.

At this time of year I am often asked if celebrating Christmas is something we should do in light of the many non-Christian winter festivities that have become part of Christmas tradition. Actually, I think that is one of the best reasons to celebrate Christmas. Jesus took the extraordinary step of becoming fully man while retaining all of what it meant to be fully God. His incarnation becomes the message itself. The very heart of missions is that we engage the world with the gospel by becoming all things to all men, so that we might save some. And our God takes sinful humanity and makes us Saints. He takes all of our failings and turns them into the message of reconciliation. So then he who redeems all things, redeems our winter festivities,  traditions, and our cold hearts and makes them new. If I can believe in the redemption of the humanity and creation (Revelation 21.1-5) then can anything be too hard for God to make new?

In the spirit of missions, redemption, and Christmas, I hope you will invite your friends, family, and neighbors to hear the Good News on Christmas Eve at one of our two services (4:00 or 6:00 pm).

Merry Christmas!

From the VCC Newsletter on 12/3: Christmas Giving

Our church mission statement is a simple one: Love God, Love People, and Pass It On. Yet fulfilling that mission is no small task. Everyday we are faced with decisions about how we treat people, how we interact with God and men, and how we steward our resources (time, money, relationships, and stuff). As we move from Thanksgiving to Christmas, most of us are busy shopping and focusing on showing our loved ones how much they mean to us, as well we should. I don’t want to discourage the spirit of generosity. Instead I would like to add-on and ask you to pray about the very mission of Christmas. Jesus came into our world in the most disarming way, as a helpless baby, for one of the most demanding missions ever: to save the world. No pressure! In doing so he left the comfort of heaven to walk among a people who would later curse and crucify him. The very spirit of Christmas is one of making ourselves available and vulnerable to those who need the good news desperately but are not grateful we came. They don’t see our gospel as good news, and often reject us just because of who we are. To that world God gave his Son, and to that world God has called us to minister in the most inconvenient ways, sometimes to an ungrateful, disrespectful, and ever-suspicious world. One that is divided politically, racially, and theologically. To that same kind of world we have been called to continue the mission.

Over the last year we have been through numerous transitions, including a big change in staff. Meanwhile we have expanded our ministry and made several improvements to make our building more functional. We made numerous improvements to the community center (far exceeding the special donations given for that building) and expanded our community outreach . Currently we are wrapping up the new lobby entrance and ramping-up for the Christmas season and all of its related outreaches. Each step we have walked by faith, being diligent to manage every dime. As we look toward to the New Year, we are full of vision and we have some exciting plans. But as you can imagine, just like all of you, we have increased expenses at the end of the year, and in the new year. However, unlike retail, there is no Black Friday to help us; in fact, it is easy for expenses to exceed income during this time of year. So I am asking you to consider your giving in this season of generosity to include the mission and vision of VCC. Thank you for all of your support and confidence in the ministry of VCC. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Feast of Giving Thanks

As we head into this week of thanksgiving, we often think about being thankful for the things we have. The emphasis is on the material, and then we are surprised that people go out the next day and act so materialistic. Ha! Well, I propose something different. The original intent of thanksgiving. It was not at all about being grateful for stuff. It was a day to say thanks to God for what he had done in their lives. The original thanksgiving was not celebrated in the Americas as a result of surviving the winter. It was a feast in the Old Testament, a time to reflect on the goodness of God, and have fellowship with God. This biblical feast included a time of dining with God in the tabernacle (or temple) grounds. The animal was presented to God as an offering of thanksgiving, then they would have a feast with God is his honor. They literally sat down to eat at God’s table, as God’s guest, and the entire meal was eaten in the presence of God, on his terms, and everything about the meal was holy, and all the attention was on God. Notice I did not say it was formal, or rigid, or stuffy, like a bad religious experience. I said it was holy, meaning set apart from other meals, and God was understood to be present, that they were at his table, enjoying fellowship with him.  It could be done at any time of year, and some did it more than once a year. It included lots of wine and joyful celebration. The people stayed and ate until everything was gone. Sometimes it took several days. Sounds like fun doesn’t it? 

As you head into this thanksgiving, its good to be thankful for our blessings, all of our stuff, but the focus really is not what we have, but who has us. Who do we belong too? Who has given us life? Who invites us into his care? Who is worthy of all our attention? Its called thanksgiving not because of the stuff or the stuffing. Its thanksgiving because it is all about God and the great things he has done. 

Remember & Observe

As we rush toward the holidays, I am reminded that the essence of holiday is holy days. Time and seasons that we set apart from the rest of the calendar to observe and remember. These two elements are key to making these days holy. I often hear people lament the loss of Christmas to commercialism, but I don’t share that concern because I know that my faith and my choices are not controlled by outside forces. My personal experience of these holy days are set and controlled by me. Years ago, Dawn and I made the conscience decision to remember and to observe. A  decision that met lots of resistance from our extended family.  So what do I mean by remember and observe?

By remember I mean to remember what God had done for us through Christ, to remember our heritage of faith handed down to us over the generations of faithful Christ followers in our family, and to remember the price paid by Christians in every generation so that the message of Christ could be transmitted to us. There is a lot to remember. We do this through specific traditions, and stories that we share with one another, and over the years we have handed-off the opportunity to our children to tell those stories back to us. No amount of commercialism has stopped us from doing that. 

By observance I mean that we have put into practice times of reading the Scripture, prayer, and song into our observance of these holy days. We have made sure that no matter how many people come, and no matter what agenda anyone else brings, at our home we observe these practices, and we do not go to anyone else’s home until we have observed our time with God.   

This past week my children thanked me again for our decision not to let what everyone else did determine our holiday celebrations. Turns out they didn't miss the commercialism either. Maybe being like everyone else isn't what it is cracked up to be?