pat loughery

Random notes and thoughts from the National Vineyard Pastors & Leaders Conference

Philip Jenkins, Gordon Fee, … here

Columbus Vineyard hasn’t yet entered the wifi world. (Delayed liveblogging).

Worship set: Robbie Rieder leading; Casey Corum on the team also; can’t see who else
For the Myopic Pilgrim especially 🙂 and any other worship leaders reading today:
Setlist done Dead style (-> is a segue between songs for you non-heads)

Holy Holy Holy (the hymn; “early int he morning my song shall rise to thee”) ->
Holy (Brown) ->
Holy Holy Holy
More than Ever
Be the Centre (loop background) ->
Nothing but the Blood
O Praise Him (David Crowder)
(this one rocked; it was

“You might be Vineyard if…” jokes from Happy Lehman

Missio Dei is the conference theme

Bert Waggonner – Main session, Monday afternoon

The Vineyard is in a crisis. Perhaps the church is always in a crisis.

Maybe faith is really spelled “crises” (Wimber: “faith”).

What’s the nature of our crisis?
– It’s not church planting – at 30-60 churches per year, we’re doing very well.
– It’s not in church planting missional partnerships. Worldwide partnerships are going well.
– It’s not in relationship – regional relationships are profoundly growing
– It’s not in leadership – we have unified, common vision at the leadership level (national?)
– It’s not in terms of the Holy Spirit’s power in the church. Conversions in large numbers.

But.. we’re at the point of crisis because we’re approaching 25 years. It’s a significant moment in the institution’s life.

Bert, reflecting on his leadership at the national level (and whether to continue) was directed to Joshua 1. The Vineyard really is at the stage of entering into the promised land. Isn’t that a bit presumptuous given our early history? There’s been a variety of confirmation: the Lord has led us to the river Jordan and is prepared to take us into the promised land that he has prepared for us.

What must we do to take possession of the land? The entire conference is answering the question. We have to join the Missio Dei – the mission of God in the 21st century.

Specifics:
1. Reaffirm who we are now, as the Vineyard movement in 2005. Joshua 1 refers to “His people”, the called-out ones who had a promise. You can’t enter the land with institutional MPD; with a fuzzy personality and understanding of who we are).
A. We’re a movement. Meaning, we haven’t arrived yet. The best is yet to come. We don’t know where we’re going or what we’re going to become. Movements look to the future; institutions look to the past. Movements are messy and always have e.g. Hank Hanegraffs calling them out. See Prov 14:4 (roughly “Where there no oxen in the stalls, the stalls are clean. But there’s much power in oxen”).
B. We’re a 21st-century movement. Meaning we’re the first of something, not the last of something. The words of Mordecai to Esther are significant: who knows but that we’re called to the kingdom for such a time as this. Are we going to be a movement of the past or a 21st-century movement? Can we take our place in the church as a new kind of prophetic voice?
C. We are a missio dei movement. The original use of the word “mission” implied the sending of the Son and the Spirit by the Godhead. Mission is joining with God in what he’s doing in the world. This mission gives to the church its substance. [STRONG EMPHASIS: If you have a church which gathers together to enjoy spiritual experiences but yo don’t go out, call yourself something else. You’re not a church!]. Missio dei is fundamentally evangelistic, church planting. But focused on the poor, issues of injustice, social transformation, taking care of the earth.
D. We are a 21st-century Kingdom of God movement. We’re an eschatological movement who believes that we can now experience the inbreaking of God’s future-coming Kingdom now, where we live, in our lives. The Kingdom is already/not-yet (and more familiar words for our family). We live in expectation tha tthe Kingdom is giong to present. God’s kingdom IS present when we come together. We’re not a prophecy movement, or healing movement… those are part of what we do. Or church-planting; tongues-speaking; charismatic; pentecostal; etc… we are a movement of the Kingdom of God. Our practices are not determined by what the past was, but by what is happening in the future-coming Kingdom. This is the core of what we are: a KOG movement.

2. Follow faith, and not fear.
(esp. in things that involve fear: spending money corporately, etc.). Note: When Moses sent spies into the land, Caleb & Joshua did what they were asked: spy out the land and determine how we can conquer it. The other spies thought their ob was to find out why the couldn’t conquer the land. If God has promised, what else do we need?

We need to get a clear picture of what the land looks like – esp. the strategic places.

As the distinguished sociologist Dorothy said to her dog Toto, “this isn’t Kansas anymore”.

We’re not in Kansas anymore. The culture is changing. Don’t be like Rip Van Winkle.

Bert’s been reading on quantum physics lately. Whenever there’s a major cultural shift taking place, there’s usually a scientific change happening as well. Paradigm shifts take 70-100 years.

Example: In Newtonian physics, relationships didn’t matter. In quantum physics, things are defined by relationship.

Chaos theory: (note to self: see fractal forms again)

We live in a postmodern thought, which challenges foundationalism (which seeks to find one core foundational truth upon which all other truths can be built; see Descartes’ “I think therefore I am”.) It’s a new world we live in. New epistemologies; deconstructionism, … all systematically in place here and now.

What does this mean for us as a movement? Do we become pomo? That’s not the issue – we don’t define ourselvrs in terms of the culture, but in terms of being God’s people. It means that we’re going to be in a mess for a while. If you want things neat and tidy theologically in the Vineyard, you’re in the wrong place. I’m not sure where we’re giong, but I do have deep confidence that God is going with us.

We must become like Men of Issachar: determining the times.

We have to be wiling to take the risk of understanding the times if we’re giong to be God’s people in the 21st century. We need a whole new army of scholars who help us understand the new world.

You might be saying, “oh no, we’re going to be an intellecturalist movement”. Is the Vineyard going to be an intellectualist movment, or an anti-intellectualist movement, or … ? We could be an intellectualistic movement or a mystical movement? But… we allow the Spirit to merge psychology, sociology, intellect, Spirit, … all the above. The Spirit bonds these together. BOTH-AND is a key value for us.