Life on Mission from Acts 29 Network on Vimeo.

At The Vine, what my friend Doug explains below is how we desire to operate as a church community.  

Doug Wolter:

Here’s a short illustration from my latest sermon on showing the difference between trying to do life on your own versus life together in community. The visual of “the juggler” and “the wheel” was taken from the book, Total Church, by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. 

 

The soul of the Great Commission and the Great Commandment leans into difficult people and their complexities. It’s to be the essence of who we are as Christians. In fact, unity of mind and generosity of spirit in the midst of diversity is the distinguishing mark of true Christian community.

It’s a bold, radical endeavor: to love our neighbor. But it’s the endeavor God has called us to. It’s where the gospel becomes real. It really speaks to the power of Jesus if we can work through our discomfort and overcome the barriers we too easily let divide us.

This concept, this theology of discomfort, can be seen throughout the Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testaments. So much so it makes me realize how often we can know what is right but practice what is merely expedient.

Throughout the Old Testament we hear that we are to radically love outsiders, widows, and orphans, to act as a voice for the voiceless, and to be a father to the fatherless. In Corinthians we see God saying he focuses on the weak of this world to speak to the mighty. In John 14, Jesus explains to the disciples that obeying him and loving the “least of these” in society give us deep understanding about him and his way.

- Dave Gibbons, The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church (Leadership Network Innovation Series), p. 82

This is a hard one for me.  I like to hang out with people who are just like me.  Thankfully Jesus' default setting is different than mine.  I heard someone once say (can't remember who) "You want to understand the Gospel?  Go find someone hard to love and love them."  Romans 5:8 rings a bell there.  "Sinners" and God like are oil and water, yet God embraced the theology of discomfort for the sake of our salvation.  Let's join him in the theology of discomfort for the sake of displaying the glory of Gospel to the world.

When God had mercy on us, when God revealed Jesus Christ to us as our brother, when God won our hearts by God’s own love, our instruction in Christian love began at the same time. When God was merciful to us, we learned to be merciful with one another. When we received forgiveness instead of judgment, we too were made ready to forgive each other. What God did to us, we then owed to others. The more we received, the more we were able to give; and the more meagre our love for one another, the less we were living by God’s mercy and love. Thus God taught us to encounter one another as God has encountered us in Christ. “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God (Rom. 15:7).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community, 34

(HT:  Tim Chester)

For those in Madison interested in learning more about The Vine Church, on Sunday, July 11 and Sunday, July 18 at 6 pm we will be hosting a supper and social time where you can meet the leadership team and their families. One of the socials will be at the Nielsen home in west Madison and the other at the Sterner home in north McFarland. 

Coming to one or both of these socials doesn’t obligate you to anything, but will simply give you an opportunity to get to know us better and to get some more specifics on what this church will look like in future days. If it’s possible, please let us know if you are interested in attending one or both of these events by emailing either me, Nate, or Zach or by dropping a note to our general email address, “info@thevinemadison.org”. All are welcome, so feel free to pass on this information to anyone you feel might be interested in learning more about The Vine. We are looking forward to getting to know you better!

When we lived in Nashville we attended a church that was a recent plant. We met in a movie theatre and every week had to do the hard work of setting up and tearing down all the music and kids gear. During those years I was a traveling musician so when I was home on Sunday I got to observe how challenging it was to plant a church. Oftentimes I would turn to my wife and say “The last thing in the world I would ever want to do is plant a church.” God has a good sense of humor as I sit here in Madison, WI five years later with the sole purpose of planting The Vine Church. more…