Tag Archives: Bert Waggoner

Payette River Vineyard, Sermons

Who Are We? Vineyard Values Series

(Audio recording of this sermon can be found on the PRV website)

Today, I’m going to kick off a five or six week series looking at who we are because I believe it is extremely important that we know who we are and why God put us here in this valley – in the Payette River drainage.

Then over the next few weeks I am going to be talking about the five values of the Vineyard Movement – one at a time:

  1. The Theology and Practice of the Kingdom of God
  2. Experiencing God
  3. Culturally Relevant Mission
  4. Reconciling Community
  5. Compassionate Ministry

This should bring us up to mid-April, just in time to celebrate Easter. Following Easter – say, the beginning of May – I would like to take a look at the big picture of the Bible. What has been God been doing all this time? What is the central motif or framework that supports everything throughout the Old and New Testament?

A lot of time we hear stories about Abraham, Noah, David, Ruth and Joshua – but we really don’t know how they all fit together. They can become isolated stories that may or may not have an impact on our lives….

Starting in May, I would like for us to start on a journey through the entire Bible (don’t worry, we will be moving a lot faster than we did with Acts!) – looking at its unity and focus and how we can join with God in His mission.  Sounds good?

Ok…

Continue reading Who Are We? Vineyard Values Series →
Theology Thoughts, Vineyard Movement

Thoughts on Bert Waggoner’s Letter to the Vineyard USA

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It is interesting that right after I wrote yesterday post about celebrating the plethora of movements within Christianity, I received a letter from Bert Waggoner (Vineyard USA National Director) highlighting the diversity within the Vineyard.

Within our movement there are “former Anglicans, Methodists, Nazarenes, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and all varieties in between…Reformed, Calvinist, Wesleyan, Armenian, Catholic, Evangelical, Post-modern, Post-Pentecostal/Charismatic – you name it.”

We have folks on both (or more) sides of almost every theological issue facing church today – not to mention the vast differences of practice within the Movement. There are those who think that the “church should be involved in social justice, protecting the environment (tending the garden), pushing for immigration reform, fighting sex slavery, addressing racism, and resisting war. Still others think the church should confine its efforts to saving souls, healing the body, and perhaps feeding the poor.”

Don’t forget that we have both “left-leaning political liberals and right wing ultra-conservatives” – people from various ethnic group, different geographical area -“north and the south, urban and suburban, urban and rural residents, university city dwellers and small town residents.”

The only folks we don’t have are the true theological liberals or the hard core fundamentalists – neither group could tolerate the kinds of diversity embraced by the Vineyard.

“The fact is, we have few ideologues or theological purists. Most Vineyard leaders do not live in the world of black and white in terms of theology or practice, but rather in the gray that is the reality of church life.”

As Bert pointed out all diversity within the Movement, I began to wonder what held us together… Luckily foresaw that question and answered it with words that echoed those in my heart: Continue reading Thoughts on Bert Waggoner’s Letter to the Vineyard USA →

Payette River Vineyard, Vineyard Movement

Vineyard National Conference Audio Files

There where some power hitting sermons at the national conference last week. Shoot – I’m still processing a few of them!

The good news is that they are now online! Laughing

Session 1: Bert Waggoner

This was a great session outlining the future of the Vineyard Movement, the challenges faced and the opportunities ahead.

Session 2: Cherith Fee-Nordling

Wow! Cherith preached one of the best and hardest sermons I have ever heard. She called us to “die” so that Christ can “resurrect” us into a new life. If you only have time to listen to one session, listen to this one![@more@]

Session 3: Don Williams

A powerful look at the empowerment of the Holy Spirit – no matter what we do as believers, we need God’s Spirit to guide us and empower us. You may remember that yesterday's post was about this session and the ministry time that followed. Smile

Session 4: Jay Pathak

Jay did a wonderful job at calling the church to be the church instead of building up walls and trying to protect itself from “evil”. I loved his comment about if you want to reach people, go where they are (ie. the bars, clubs, parks, streets, etc) instead of waiting for them to come to you (ie. the church building).

Session 5: Wess Stafford

This session was a close second to Cherith Fee-Nordling’s session – but in a different way. Wess is the president/ceo of Compassion International and boy did his heart for the young and forgotten ring out across that hall. I have never seen a man so passionate about reaching children in my life! This session would be the second session I would listen too if I had to pick.

Session 6: Rich Nathan

Hmm…I have to admit that I did not attend this session as we had to catch a plate back home. Undecided I will listen to it though as I have been enjoying reading Rich’s book “Who Is My Enemy? Welcoming People The Church Rejects”.

Vineyard Movement

The Vineyard Core Values

I was browsing the Vineyard National site when I noticed an article published by Bert Waggoner about the Vineyard Core Values. It seems that the National Board has simplified the long list of beliefs and values into five (5) core ones:

* The Theology and Practice of the Kingdom of God
* Experiencing God
* Reconciling Community
* Compassionate Ministry
* Culturally Relevant Mission

There was also an article by Ken Wilson giving a concise overview of each value.  It is a great article – so if you have time, check it out (don’t worry, it’s short).

In the meantime, I wanted to highlight the first value – seeing that is where God has been focusing my time these last few years. Smile[@more@]

Here is what Ken wrote about Kingdom Theology & Practice:

The Vineyard is committed to the theology and practice of the kingdom of God — rooted in the vision of the Hebrew prophets and fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. The movement is distinctively rooted in a renewed understanding of the centrality of the kingdom in biblical thought. We view the kingdom of God as the overarching and integrating theme of the Bible.

From the beginning, the Vineyard has been committed to proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God and to bearing witness to the “already and not yet” of the kingdom in our words and deeds—through healing (physical, emotional, and social), doing justice, and delivering those held captive by evil. Since the kingdom of God is the future reign of God breaking into the present through the life and ministry of Jesus, we are a forward-leaning movement that emphasizes the ever-reforming nature of the church and engages the world in love.

Good stuff to chew on.

Theology Thoughts, Vineyard Movement

Is the Church To Police Society? Part 7

Bert Waggoner had an insightful answer when asked about church vs state:

We are not called to police society. We are called to be a people who genuinely, authentically love and display the gospel in order to be salt and light and bring transformation.

Here’s the thing:

The Church should not be frightened at the downward spiral of society’s morality. If anything, we should be cheering as now the Light of the Gospel can burn brighter in the darkness around us.

Christians in the West have relied on the government’s control of morality for far too long. We have gotten complacent knowing that we could send our children to the public school and they would be taught under a Judeo-Christian worldview. We like the fact that the government controlled how much sex or cursing we (and our children) saw on TV. It was nice knowing that we could stop sinful behaviors by simply voting.

We liked it that way because it meant that we did not have think about it or deal with it. Out of sight and out of mind.[@more@]

To me, this is the reason a lot of the church is fighting to save Christendom. They want the government to regulate their morality, instead of by the body of Christ. 

IT MAKES ME SICK!!!

Just like in the Judges, God wants to be King in each of our lives – individually and corporately. He does not want us relying on a human government to regulated morality. If He wanted to do that, He would of done that at the very beginning when He made us.

We, the Church, need to be different – to live different, to act different – to engage our culture, while being different. We need not be afraid of sin or the sin around us. We serve the One True God – the One who made the Universe. Nothing can take us from His hand.

Let us stop trying to police society and live for God.

Theology Thoughts, Vineyard Movement

The Vineyard Legacy by Bert Waggoner

I discovered a lecture by Bert Waggoner, the US AVC National Director, entitled "The Vineyard Legacy" – given at the 2008 Northwest Leaders Gathering – Vancouver, WA. In this session, Waggoner pretty covers everything we have been discussing in this thread!! If you the time, I would highly recommend downloading and listening to it!!

Here are a few highlights from Waggoner's lecture:

  • The Kingdom of God is our legacy. It is who we are and it is the mark we must leave behind for the church and the world.
  • Waggoner commented on his concerns that the Vineyard movement is losing it's focus on the Kingdom of God. These concerns came out of three experiences:[@more@]

1) He was recently in India speaking to the Vineyard pastors about the Kingdom. During this time, five pastors came up and asked what was the Kingdom of God as they had never heard about it…..

2) When he sign a document promoting a two state solution to the Israel / Palestine issue, several Vineyard leaders/pastors came to him disagreeing based upon a dispensational theology.

3) The Vineyard Movement is a center set where people are "judged" (my word) on if they are moving towards to center (ie. Jesus and the Kingdom), not on where they are currently located. This is different from a bounded set where folks are judged on being "in" or "out".

Being a center set, the Vineyard makes room for different people, ideas, and cultures. However, more and more leaders are coming to Waggoner wanting him to set more rules on what's a Vineyard and what's not. Meaning that folks are wanting to go from a Kingdom center set to a bounded set….

  • In discussing his concerns about losing the legacy of the Kingdom of God, Waggoner spoke about the danger of losing the Kingdom. He did this by walking through the Parable of the Sower – mainly that if we fail to understand the Kingdom, satan will take it away.  We have to fully understand the Kingdom so it can be applied to one's life.

Three ways the Kingdom can be taken away:

  1. A hard heart; allowing satan to steals it away. This can be a theological hard heart. (on the path)
  2. Surface emotion responses based upon experience but no theological framework rocky ground)
  3. We can get caught up in life and forget about the Kingdom (thorns)
  • Waggoner ended this selection with the comment that "practice without theology goes bad; theology without practice is dry…and is usually destructive."
  • Why is it such a big deal?  Because it was and is the central message of Jesus. After Jesus rose from the grave, he spent 40 days teaching the disciples about the Kingdom of God. This was his LAST days on earth and he spent it teaching on the Kingdom!

As such, we must:

1) We must go through a theological conversion and fully understand the Kingdom of God

2) We must make time to understand the Kingdom. If we don't constantly seek to understand and teach the Kingdom of God, we will be overcome by the cares of this world (ie. work, family, ministry, ect)

3) We need to embrace the full message of the Kingdom and how it transforms society, creation, hearts of men, ect