Today at the Vine I preached on the Gospel-Centered church through the lens of the meta-narrative of scripture. The meta-narrative is a fancy way of saying the big story of scripture which includes four main chapters, the creation, fall, redemption, and recreation. Why explore the Gospel within the context of this framework? Well, it’s kind of like reading the manual before taking pictures with your new camera. You could certainly skip learning about the whole camera and how all its features work together, but you’ll never get a consistently good product without a comprehensive understanding of the overall capability.

Here’s a few more reasons it is helpful reflect on the Gospel (and all of life) through the meta-narrative of the scriptures.

• Sometimes we get too hung up in the church focusing on individual passages of scripture and we miss out on the greater story of scripture. Kind of like missing the forest for the trees. Interpreting individual passages through the lens of the bigger story gives those passages richer context and meaning. 
• Our suffering in this life finds more hope when we recognize that those who follow Christ are part of a story that ends with complete healing, vindication of all evil, and restoration of all that is good.
• The meta-narrative confronts our tendency to be dualistic (i.e. physical world bad, spiritual world good). The reality is, God created a physical universe and will one day recreate that universe in the new heaven and new earth. This has all sorts of implications for how we view our stewardship and enjoyment of creation (environmental issues, art, vocation, creativity, etc.)
• If we embrace the meta-narrative we can better avoid the churches tendency to over emphasize one “chapter” at the cost of the whole. (i.e. creation only thinking leads to naturalism, sin only thinking leads to moralism, cross only thinking leads to dogmatism, recreation only thinking leads to pentecostalism). 
• Once we know the big story of scripture we see that our God is a God on mission. A God who is advancing his Kingdom on earth. Why would we not want to contribute to so great a story?
• The narrative magnifies the amazing gift of the Gospel by showing us that the cross is the central solution for the problem of sin. More than that, the narrative helps us to see how the cross is at the center of our eternal worship in the new heaven and new earth. In other words a perfect eternity is one where the cross is central, where we worship the lamb (Jesus) who was slain for the sins of the world. 

Below are some graphics that detail the overall story of scripture represented by the creation, fall, redemption, and recreation. 

In a few weeks we'll be introducing The City to The Vine Church. The City is an online environment that utilizes the power of the web to connect people in community. Those in the Vine will have the ability to sign-up, get a personal login, edit profiles, participate in groups, and even access personal spiritual growth tools like scripture memory email notifications. Feel free to learn more about The City at their website or by watching a short overview video here. You'll be learning more about this great resource in the near future!

July 25 through August 15 we’ll be having our Sunday gatherings at 10:00 am at the Warner Park Community Recreational Center. Though we are planning to meet closer to the heart of the city throughout the school year, this will be our temporary location as we continue to search for a better place. In the mean time, be sure to join us at Warner Park the next four Sundays at 10:00 am!

• July 25, The Gospel-Centered Church
• August 1, The Transforming Church
• August 8, The Distributed Church
• August 15, The Gathered Church
• August 22, The Reproducing Church
• August 29, The Incarnational Church
• September 5, The Compassionate Church

We will likely be gathering at the Nielsen residence (10 Merlham Drive) but there is chance there will be a change in locations. Be sure check in at our website for updates.

Last Sunday night we had our first info gathering for The Vine in Madison.  We mainly fellowshipped around great food and then the pastors shared how Gospel, Community, and Mission will play out at The Vine.  It was a great night with about twenty adults and almost as many kids in attendance.  We are having another info gathering this Sunday night.  If you know anyone in the Madison area who might be interested, all the info is on our website.

In some ways it was very surreal to be gathered with those folks last Sunday night.  We have been meeting and planning as pastors for around 16 months and now we are actually working with real people!  It is a huge blessing to see the beginning stages of our church take shape.  Would you pray with us that the Gospel would bear much fruit in Madison, WI?