Tag Archives: Tri Robinson

Payette River Vineyard, Sermons

Moving From The Throngs To Being A Discipler of Disciples

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Public Reading: Luke 6:12-19

•    This passage outlines four reasons why folks gather around Jesus

o    To be taught and learn truth
o    To be healed
o    To be set free from bondage I their lives
o    To be close and touch Him

•    This is basically the reasons anyone anywhere comes to Jesus and church
•    The other thing that this passage shows is that there are three groups of people surrounding Jesus

o    There were the crowds or throngs who were coming from all over
o    Then there were the followers of Jesus – “large crowd of his disciples”

*    The 70 or the 120 that we hear about later in the Gospels
*    These were the folks who had already committed to following Jesus

o    The Twelve

*    From within the disciples, Jesus choose 12 whom he would call “Apostles” or “Sent Ones”

•    While each person for all three groups came for a reason, at some point there has to be a transition between a throng mentality and a multiple of disciples mentality.
•    Likewise, there was to be a transition between the multiple of disciples to one of the 12
•    Part of our goals as followers of Jesus and a church is to help folks move from one group to the next – to run after Jesus with everything within them.

Continue reading Moving From The Throngs To Being A Discipler of Disciples →

Book Reviews

Revolutionary Leadership by Tri Robinson

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When you grow up with something, it is easy to forget about it and for it to become ‘normal’….

The leadership model taught by Tri Robinson at the Vineyard Boise is one such item that became ‘normal’ in my life. I had stopped thinking about it and just did it as it was engrained into my life and became second nature.

Yet as I traveled around the country and talked to different pastors and leaders, I slowly begun to realize that the way I did things, nay, the leadership structure I caught from Tri was different… and, even more amazing, it was a structure that allowed for the shifts in church life promoted by folks in the emerging and missional church.

Having noticed this difference, and having fairly recently become a senior pastor, I decided to go back and re-read Tri’s book leadership book, “Revolutionary Leadership.” In doing so I realized the main differences in Tri’s leadership structure:

“I realized that the church is truly a living body that wants to mature, but in order to do so it must be in a constant state of change. I learned that healthy church growth requires a structure that will continually facilitate transition. It requires a senior pastor who is willing to continually facilitate transition. It requires a senior pastor who is willing to give up the controlling entrepreneurial spirit and give away authority and responsibility to competent, willing people.”

As you have probably realized, the above principle of creating a church structure to “continually facilitate transition” is a tough one. Yet it is one that I believe can be implanted into a church through an ongoing Synergy Cycle comprising of three main principles:

Continue reading Revolutionary Leadership by Tri Robinson →

Vineyard Movement

“The Brothers are Coming” by Tri Robinson

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Four of many Vineyard brothers (Roy Conwell, Tri Robinson, Glenn Schroder and Steve Fish)

Tri recently posted an article about a dream his wife Nancy had about the USA and UK Vineyards.

The crazy thing about it was that as I read it I felt a wave of emotions sweep through my body – starting at my head and moving down, bring tears to my eyes.

It was like the Lord was saying, “Listen up Josh, I’m moving here so pay attention.”

Yeah…crazy stuff to happen while reading a computer screen…but, wow, what a powerfully way statement?!

So go – click this link and read the full post – for the “brothers are coming”!!

For me the message that the “brothers are coming” is a great encouragement that goes deeper than simply the UK and America. For me it is something deep God wants to do worldwide. I believe God wants to take the Vineyard into a new season where he is going to draw like-hearted, like-minded leaders throughout our movement together for a common cause.  I believe he wants to move us from an association or organization to something more organic and lasting. He wants us to fall in love and join arms in a great quest. I believe he wants to build us not simply into a relational community, but a purposeful fellowship; a genuine brotherhood. – Tri Robinson

Book Reviews, Vineyard Movement

“Rooted In Good Soil” by Tri Robinson

I have long been a fan of Tri Robinson’s books – partly because I know Tri personally, and partly because I believe in what he is writing about.

This time is no different.

“Rooted in Good Soil” is an easy-to-read book full of personal stories built around the Parable of the Sower and the theme of cultivating and sustaining authentic discipleship. Only, instead of writing an exegesis of the text, Tri looks at the Parable of the Sower through the eyes of a farmer – as you can see by his chaper titles:

  1. Finding the Secret of the Harvest: The Condition of the Soil
  2. Cultivated and Broken: Repentance
  3. The Compost of Our Lives: Growing through the Pain
  4. The Planted Seed: God’s Hidden Work
  5. Soil, Sun, and Rain: God’s Hidden Work
  6. Photosynthesis: Transformed to Serve
  7. Symbiotic Relationships: Becoming Part of an Authentic Community
  8. The Trill of the Harvest: Bearing Fruit

The best part about this book for me was getting to know Tri a little better. I had heard some of the stories at one point or the other over the last eight years (I’ve even lived through some of them) – but it was quite interesting to see how God fitted them all together to shape Tri and his wife, Nancy.

All in all, it was a wonderfully refreshing look at an old parable. 🙂

Vineyard Movement

Vineyard National Conference Tales: Workshops

Most of yesterday was spent in workshops…only the ones that I really wanted to go to got lumped together on Thursday. 🙁

Some quick notes on the two workshops I attended yesterday:

1) Families – a fairly decent workshop about  joining with families in teaching their kids versus trying to tell parents how to do it or simply doing it for the parents.  For example, one church stopped hosting a very successful vacation Bible school program because they noticed that parents simply dropped their kids off and didn’t stay.Instead they started a program teaching and helping parents learn how to read to their young ones.

For me the one thing that came to mind is the possibility of hosting a Love and Logic class in Sweet. This is a class Em and I have been wanting to do ourselves but we could not find a group to do it with – so originally we thought about just buying the books and reading them by ourselves. Now I’m wondering if we – i.e. the PRV family – should not host a community class for all parents…  Granted, I don’t even know if anyone besides us want to do it… well, it is worth praying about.

2) Alt. Church – this was slightly more interesting, if not confusing. The crazy thing was as I was listening to the speakers, I kept thinking about how their alt church sounded a lot like my ‘regular’ church…. so much so that after the workshop I asked the main leader, “If this is alt church, what is ‘regular’ church?”

Continue reading Vineyard National Conference Tales: Workshops →

Current Events

Maintaining Hearts of Tranquility in Times of Global Turmoil

Tri and Nancy Robinson (picture courtesy of trirobinson.org)

There is a lot of fear in the world today about the future. People are scared of earthquakes, super volcanoes, political shutdowns, and the apocalyptic Second Coming of Jesus.

Some of this fear is good as it prompts us to prepare both our hearts and our lives. Yet, unchecked fear is a bad thing.

It is to this unchecked fear that I would like to highlight Tri Robinson’s recent article entitled, “Maintaining Hearts of Tranquility in Times of Global Turmoil.”

This article captured my heart on the subject of global turmoil so beautifully I had to share it with you all.  🙂

Here are the five points Tri makes:

1. Simplify your life – “Physically, emotionally and spiritually. Most of our lives have become cluttered with material things, out of control emotions and wrong choices which have not only complicated our lives but caused a form of paralyzing dysfunction.”

2. Be prepared for short term crises– “Having the experience of working in disasters such as Hurricane Katrina it became evident to me that people who took basic steps of preparedness recovered much quicker than those who became dependent on government help. Not only that, but many of those with the mindset to be prepared also became the workforce that served others in the aftermath of the crisis.”

Continue reading Maintaining Hearts of Tranquility in Times of Global Turmoil →

Ardell's Art House, Vineyard Movement

The Role of the Arts in the Vineyard by Scott McElroy

Scott McElroy is the author of "Finding the Divine Inspiration"
Scott McElroy is the author of "Finding the Divine Inspiration"

In an amazing display of timing, Tri Robinson published an article about the arts by Scott McElroy yesterday.

It is amazing because last night I was listening to an old VLI lecture on church history. In this lecture Steve Robbins mentioned how the worldview of a culture is changed through the arts.It is the movies, the music, the paintings and writings of the people that will guide and direct a culture.

Scott’s article about the role of the arts fits beautifully into this vein as he calls for a “New Renaissance“:

A movement to release prophetic, divinely inspired art in the church, and powerful spiritual art into the culture.

I would encourage everyone who reads this blog to go over there and read it as Scott has a powerful word for today.

Vineyard Movement

What is the “Best”?

A few weeks ago on DeepChurch we discussed Tri Robinson’s papers “Take the Best and Go” about the current state and future of the Vineyard Movement. Previously, we looked at whether or not the Vineyard is still a center-set movement. Today I would like to ask a simple question: what is the “best”?

In a lot of ways this is a loaded question as I’m sure everyone within the Vineyard has their concept of what is the “best.” Tri answers this question in the first of three papers:

“Some saw us as a movement of signs and wonders, some as a prophetic movement, some as a church planting or church growth movement. Still others viewed us as an innovative, evangelistic movement, and in later years a movement of social justice – compassion and mercy. As for me, it’s all Kingdom stuff, and because of it I see it all as being the “best.” In the end, the best is ALL of the Jesus we see in the gospels and as interpreted for the churches by the letters.”

Along these lines, I would like to suggest that the “best” of the Vineyard Movement is nothing less then the ability to live in the tension.

Currently there are many organizations and movements that focus on worship, compassion, signs/wonders, church planting, etc. The unique thing about the Vineyard is that God taught us how to live in the tension of all these movements. Continue reading What is the “Best”? →

Vineyard Movement

Response to Tri Robinson’s Position Paper, “Take the Best and Go”

I had the pleasure of talking to Tri Robinson (senior pastor of the Vineyard Boise) last week and he mentioned that he recently wrote a position paper about the future of the Vineyard Movement. Seeing that this paper is connected to the recent blogsphere conversation – and seeing that Tri has been in the Vineyard for over 30 years and has served as regional overseer and national board member – I think it is important to read and discuss the concepts in his paper.

To start the conversation, I wrote down my thoughts about Tri’s papers along with several questions that followed out them. Jason Clark of DeepChurch.org.uk offered host the conversation on his blog in an effort to each more people.  As such, please join me at DeepChurch.org.uk to discuss the Tri’s papers and the future of the Vineyard Movement.

Book Reviews

Small Footprint, Big Handprint – a book report

Every once in a while you come across a book that echos the cry of your heart – in a lot of ways, Tri Robinson's Small Footprint, Big Handprint: How to Live Simply and Love Extravagantly does just that. It puts words to the desire to go beyond the status quo of normal, everyday life – to go beyond our wildest dreams and change the world for the Kingdom of God. This may seem like a cliche – but it is truly the cry of my heart – one that will not shut up or be quieted.

Small Footprint, Big Handprint echos this cry and gives the Church a choice: simplify your life and live big for God or continue with the same old live that fades into nothing.

I, for one, choose to take on the challenge and change the world for the Glory of the Most High Lord.

Summary:

"For when I begin to live simply thus leaving a smaller footprint, I can begin to love extravagantly thus making a bigger handprint."

This quote sums up the entire book. If we really want to make a difference in the world for the Kingdom of Heaven, we must begin to simplify our life – getting out of debt, living simpler, and basically creating a smaller footprint. Once we have done this, we will have the resources (time, money, energy, etc) to pour into the work of the Kingdom. [@more@]

"Whenever God calls me to do something, I want to be able to do it immediately, free from excessive responsibility that prohibits me from following him fully. And when I'm living a simplified life, I'm more free to love others, demonstrating the power of the Gospel at its essence."

Through out the book, Tri provides actions points for people who want to try to simplify their lives. At the very end, he recaps everything in four steps to reformation:

  1. Consecration – a willful decision to commit oneself to God
  2. Transformation – this is an issue of the mind. It is the process of coming into a new worldview – the "Kingdom perspective"
  3. Sanctification – the process of which God makes us more like him. God renders our hearts "to see the world the way he sees it and gives us not only the desire to do something about it, but empowers our gifts and abilities to be effective".
  4. Reformation – we must be willing to let God re-form not only our individual lives, but also we must be willing to let God reform us on the corporate church level.

"A reformer is an agent of social change, a person who will never be satisfied with a complacent status quo society that's destined for destruction. A reformer is a fighter who as the heart of a Spirit-filled warrior. They are not overwhelmed with hopelessness and despair, but have received the call to place themselves on the very front lines of a world in crisis, seeing it as Kingdom opportunity. They have embraced the adventure. They are people who believe that God delights in doing extraordinary things with ordinary people – if they will have the faith to believe it and a willingness to step out."

Likes:

I love how Tri calls people to live boldly – to embrace the adventure of living for Christ:

"The adventure is not an organization; it's a philosophy…The adventure is simply embracing the idea that we can join a movement that is a spirit-inspired and change people's lives. Try as we may, we can't keep God under control. It's up to us to recognize what he is doing and join him in the great adventure that he is laying out for all his people who will willfully and joyfully follow."

Through out the book, Tri provides actions points for the reader to follow – both in a small group and as an individual. This is a rare jewel to find in a book.

Dislikes:

None.