It has been percolating in many of us and now we would like to say it out: New Life Vineyard is all about Saving lives and making disciples; Growing and seeing fruit.

Yaaay – A New Wine Skin!
By now you should have figured out that your pastors have been called out to doin’ the stuff in a new skin wine.

We believe that we have been called to start afresh. To get things done right (God’s way) from the start. Plant a fellowship that will subject itself to the Word and to the Spirit.

Avoid mistakes we have seen
Like a church having no sense of purpose. One that has no idea why it exists except to carry out programs. Or has traditions as its highest value. Other mistakes are highly rigid structures, inability to accept any risk or failure, fear of men not God, and weak pastoral leadership…

How we will do church
Purposefully – Asking all the time if what we are doing will result in Saving lives and making disciples; Growing and seeing fruit?

Modeling it – Teach by example. Behavior is best “caught” not taught. Discipleship is a highly relational thing and you can only reproduce who you are.

Value guided – Some of the values that are already working for us are servant leadership, faithfulness, holding paradoxical truths in tension (Word/Spirit; too little/too much structure; holiness, justice/grace and mercy, free will/consequences, your part/his part) and we value being Spirit dependent, culture relevant, the best we can be.

Everyone gets to play – Everyone can do something significant. Ministry is not church bound, not something that is just done in church. It is shaped by who you are and where you happen to be (and what the Holy Spirit is showing you there and then!). Significance is not dictated by numbers and the best result could be to minister to people “one by one”.

As a community – We encourage you to take “ownership”. Belong and help build a loving and supportive environment. Extra hands and warm bodies makes the work light. “A cord of three strands is not easily broken”.

Observing priorities (what we must really be doing) – Worship, Word, Fellowship and sharing of lives in small groups, Service (ministry, healing and mercy), Equipping, Sending (missions and church planting).

Unifying theology – The Kingdom of God – learn it – believe it – do what Jesus did!

Building infrastructure in tandem with growth – Sunday Services; worship team, ministry team, prayer team, Care group leaders and more cg groups, leadership team.

Church Plant Challenges
Fear of lack (small numbers and low resources) – Remedied by prayer, faith, and God who gives the increase and the one who multiplies.

Attracting brokenness, people with different agenda, former church paradigms – Love them, heal them then deploy/disciple – Bless them on their way out if they are fully convinced that their expectations or needs can be better met elsewhere.

Murmurings – Kill it, communicate purpose and vision (will come next). Keep telling our story and His story. Encourage everyone to be a part of the solution; share praise reports (create virtuous cycles).

Discouragement – Don’t be put down. It is all about faithfulness. Success is doing many unimportant things day in day out in one direction. God will honor faithfulness. God’s business is in growth and saving lives. We are just helping him to bring in his harvest. You will find something to be thankful for if you look for it. Really!

WIIFM (What’s in it for me?)

Those who believe are children of Abraham. So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. “The righteous will live by faith.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Galatians 3:7-14

We sense that God is saying this to our fellowship:

The blessings of Abraham: Exaltation (Promotion, esteem), Health, Reproductiveness (Increase and multiplication), Prosperity, Victory, and the Lord’s favor are due to you who will live by faith and believe. The blessings are for my people who will obey all my commands. I am pleased with this new wine skin and my blessings will flow out to you since in this community you have resolved to do everything according to my commands. And this community will be light and salt to the people around you

In Lee Strobel’s book, Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary, Lee describes Harry as a person who is not interested in the truth. Therefore, he does not react well to “Thus sayeth the Lord”. And Harry is not interested in heaven since he thinks that it is out of reach; therefore, reaching him through concern for his eternal destiny is futile. What Harry is interested in is feeling better about himself. He is asking, “What can help me deal with my pain”; he is interested in “his marriage, his friendships, his career, his recovery from past pain and so on”.

We find that Lee’s description of Harry and Mary is apt even in the Singapore context. And since New Life Vineyard is a fellowship that is committed to reaching the unchurched, we face a bit of a tension.

It is well expressed by the eminent writer and preacher, Dr Lloyd Jones. In his view, the gospel is not just a message of comfort. The church does not exist merely to dispense some soothing syrup. The gospel gives truth, and the comfort (the self esteem, the fulfillment) is the result of (believing in and acting upon) the truth. You cannot bypass the truth and merely get what you want. You may want this and that, guidance and all sorts of things, but you will not get them apart from the gospel. The gospel is to be believed first, then, one of its product or by product is the comfort and the ability to live, that you want so much.

So the $6.4 million question we face is, “How do you reach Harry and Mary with the truth, help them with their most critical need get right with God through Jesus Christ and get their attention when they are not interested in merely religious messages, when in the first place they just want a tangible benefit?”

It would seem to us that for several mega church leaders, “felt needs” is the porthole through which Harry is reached, and the fuse to ignite his interest in the truth. For instance, Robert Schuller determined that the deepest human need upon which the church should focus was self-esteem. And Bill Hybels determined that it was fulfillment followed by identity, companionship, marriage, family, relief of stress, meaning and morality.

When Jesus stood at the entrance of the tomb of Lazarus, a good friend, he felt the pain and the sorrow of the family. Jesus was filled with compassion, and he wept. Jesus best epitomized the man on a mission; his coming to earth was to die in our place, and to fulfill the Father’s will for us all. His word and works were purposeful. Yet he was filled with compassion and ministered to the felt needs of those around him: To friends, to strangers, on sad and joyful occasions (such as a wedding), in mundane matter like providing a meal to the multitudes.

The gospel of the Kingdom of God that Jesus preached about is not a merely religious message. The sharing of it by Jesus involved both speaking and doing stuff, such as healing, casting out demons and miracles. As such, to reach Harry and Mary, we at New Life Vineyard will follow Jesus’ example: How can we not respond with compassion and lovingly to felt needs? We will be willing to speak about what has happened, and to exercise Kingdom authority and faith, as Jesus has done. We will also be offering any tangible helps that is within our means.

Doing our part in speaking will especially mean dealing with and pointing out the “why” first. We will explain and demonstrate as best we possibly can the wisdom of God and His words, His purpose with us, and His love for us. And we will illustrate and provide living examples of the efficacy of following Him, and be witnesses to the gospel as something that really works. We hope to lead Harry and Mary to know and experience firsthand the love and grace of God. Touch their hearts and lives and provide the motivation, before asking for a decision for Christ, before giving directions and before expecting a transformation!

And we will speak the full gospel by offering the icing on the cake, that with Jesus, the Kingdom of God is brought near. We will tell Harry and Mary that heaven is so close that it can just break through into their lives, and give to them life in all the fullness that Jesus promised. In doing so we are fully dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit to deliver.

We are just to reflect the glory of God. May we reach many many many Harrys and Marys and show them His mighty works, and lead them into His Kingdom.

We have used this phrase “satisfied customers” quite a lot in the first year after we left our previous fellowship to do church planting.

It is a simple notion that new customers look to see if you have existing satisfied customers. That’s how to grow a business. That is the ethos we wanted to have in our home cleaning business, and it is reflected in the company’s slogan, homes like our own.

Similarly, when attracting people to Jesus and gathering people into our new fellowship, will they not look for satisfied customers too? A member of our Young Professionals care (small) group recently spoke up perhaps not in the exactly the same words but in the same spirit, saying, “It’s going to be hard to attract people to Jesus and to New Life Vineyard if they cannot see that you are satisfied customers!”

And so here is our challenge, in the first place to testify that we are satisfied customers and then to be able to see that the followers of Christ in our fellowship are also satisfied customers.

Is it hedging when we say, “Wait till you see the other fellow?” Unfortunately, you often hear this response when a boy gets badly beaten up in a fight, bloody nose and all, and in a brave voice he tells the dad, “Wait till you see the other guy!” But we believe that it is valid to tell ourselves and others in the fellowship that, “If you think you are in a bad shape, wait till you see the other fellow who is without Christ.” You are so worse off without Christ!

As good pastors we may say as well that, “Just because other people (especially unbelievers) look successful and all put together, don’t think that they have no problems.” People put on masks to cover up their real situation. And we may also say, “Wait till you get to heaven.” You will have all of eternity to rejoice, after realizing that the sufferings cannot be compared with the glory revealed in you.

Are we satisfied customers? Aren’t we “happy” to be planting this church? It’s really not that we are fudging a plain answer. We’ll do that in a while, but Lye Heng came across a recent testimony of Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, which is pertinent to our answer. We quote an extract from the testimony below:

Life is a series of problems. Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one or you’re getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ-likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys – you go through a dark time, then you got to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don’t believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it’s kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-centeredness, “which is my problem, my issues, my pain.”

But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people…You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before.

Okay, are we satisfied customers? We can really say that, “It has been great and fulfilling for the both of us. You will be fulfilled too and, we would whole-heartedly invite you to join us in this adventure and journey.” But as the testimony of Rick Warren would suggest, please don’t imagine that it is because only good things are happening in our lives and fellowship.

With this church plant the purpose of my life has shifted. Where once I only lived for my family and close friends, and attempted to be a “good” Christian, my life is now consciously driven by a need to fulfill God’s purpose in whatever I say or do. It’s about touching lives for Christ and helping others as much as I can. And to leave behind what I call “footprints” that would guide and encourage others in the faith. My heart’s desire and passion for the fellowship is to build a place you can call, “home”.

If you know Lye Heng, he has a somewhat different personality, but he has similar feelings. He sees that he is really doing things that are significant, and making a difference in people’s lives. He has the faith to pray, and exercise kingdom authority for God’s grace and love to be made manifest (evident) in the fellowship and in newcomers’ lives. He fervently believes that we have been called to demonstrate the wholeness of God, God’s righteous nature and also His love and grace. He knows and he know and he knows that our Father knows our humanity. Therefore, despite the ever presence of brokenness, emptiness and even despair, our message will be full of hope: that God will deliver the needy who cry out! More than that (for 2 Corinthians 9 has been a wonderful source of guidance): God will provide sufficiently for each one of us so that you give out of your fullness, grace for grace as it were. And through Jesus, how much more will God’s abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in our lives? (Romans 5:17)

There is so much to share about how God has provided for us and blessed us individually and as a fellowship. Confidentiality does not allow us to share some details. But with our own eyes we have seen brokenness mended, characters developed and spiritual growth. Our prayers were answered over and over again in mundane (real life) areas such as, favor when dealing with customers (and getting sales), employers, banks and creditors. Sita and her husband, Narayan (our friends at Econ) responded to our ministry by accepting Jesus, and she has said her eye sight has improved with our prayers for healing!

In our own case, we have personally experienced God’s provision time and time again and we are learning again and again that He is our all-sufficient source and portion. For instance, we remember crying with joy over Sabrina’s acceptance to read Law at the NUS. Within a matter days, we effortlessly transferred Samuel to ACS Barker Road School (contrast with the rebuff the year before with Sam’s former principal at Maris Stella). Prayers practically sustained Shawn during his student exchange stint at the University of Sheffield about this time last year and when he encountered difficulties with some of his courses there. You may know that on 8th January 2005, we were sent to plant a new fellowship, and Lye Heng’s journal on the 10th asks the rhetorical question, “Where does my help comes from?” He was a little concerned… Within a few days, a lovely person outside of our fellowship sent a generous love gift for the fellowship in the mail, and she said she had felt God prompting her to do that. We had never felt God so close before, and the gift assured us again that God is our portion, and He would take care of the fellowship. In the same journal entry, Lye Heng had also asked how would we put together a worship team and where to get our equipment from? When looking at our worship team recently, Lye Heng had said, “I am so proud of all of you.” He feels that they are so sweet in their offering to serve. They make sweet music and it is really good. Lye Heng says, “I can also feel God’s pleasure in this and it makes me want to cry!” It is a blessing for us because these guys and gals tangibly represent something which our God (the One over our “impossible” situations) has once again made possible.

We are witnesses to the wholeness of God working in our lives and the fellowship. Yes, we are satisfied customers!

First we’ll examine where the Vineyard’s Statement of Faith comes from (all quotes are in italics). See the making of it so to speak. Then, we will see how much it tells about the kingdom of God.

We start with confession of the Trinity and the two natures of Christ incarnate, both fully God and Man at the same time. The source: the creeds of the Church Fathers.

Next, we identify ourselves as heirs of the Reformation. Like Paul we declare that it is “Justification by Faith” alone. The Word of God written is the only absolute authority for the church. Spiritual warfare is a reality. While we live in Christ’s kingdom, we do battle with Satan’s kingdom, knowing that the victory has already been won and God’s kingdom is forever.

Thirdly, we embrace the themes of the Evangelical Awakening of the 18th century led by John Wesley. Conversion to Christ is through the “new birth” authored by His Spirit. Personal holiness is a necessary fruit.

Fourthly, we are beneficiaries of the “Great Century of World Missions” (the 19th Century). We believe that the “Great Commission” stands, making us intentional “missional communities.” Calls for conversion and church planting are not optional.

Fifthly, we are also heirs of the 20th Century Pentecostal/Charismatic renewals.

Lastly, we have the teachings from the “Biblical Theology Movement”. We see New Testament faith as fully “eschatological.” This means that we are not simply waiting for the End, we are living in it. The consummation of all things has already begun in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and the outpouring of his Spirit at Pentecost.

It may already be evident that the kingdom of God is deeply ingrained in us. It should not surprise as this is a key premise that explains who we are and what we do. Now let’s see how our Statement of Faith narrates the kingdom of God.

Satan led a heavenly revolt. He tempted our original parents who fell from grace, bringing sin, (and) sickness…to the earth. And so, Human beings are born in sin, subject to God’s judgment of death and captive to Satan’s kingdom of darkness.

But God still rules. He is intent on restoration. He established an unconditional covenant with Abraham, promising blessing to the nations. He delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt, and by gave the law through Moses. Its purpose is to convict us of sin, bringing us to Christ alone for salvation. Later, God made an unconditional covenant with David, promising an heir, seated upon his throne forever.

This is fulfilled in Jesus, the incarnate, eternal Son who was anointed as God’s Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, inaugurating God’s kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Gathering His disciples, He reconstituted God’s people as His Church to be the instrument of His kingdom.

Of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we say, In His sinless, perfect life Jesus met the demands of the law and in His atoning death on the cross He took God’s judgment for sin which we deserve as law-breakers. By His death on the cross He also disarmed the demonic powers. Jesus now reigns as King: The covenant with David was fulfilled in Jesus’ birth from David’s house, His Messianic ministry, His glorious resurrection from the dead, His ascent into heaven and His present rule at the right hand of the Father. As God’s Son and David’s heir, He is the eternal Messiah-King, advancing God’s reign throughout every generation and throughout the whole earth today.

More to tell, for on the Day of Pentecost: The Spirit brings the permanent indwelling presence of God to us for spiritual worship, personal sanctification, building up the Church, gifting us for ministry, and driving back the kingdom of Satan by the evangelization of the world through proclaiming the word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus.

Finally on that day of Christ’s visible, glorious return everything will be consummated, including Satan’s destruction, the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment. Then God will be all in all; His kingdom, His rule and reign will be fulfilled in the new heavens and the new earth…in which righteousness dwells and in which He will forever be worshiped.

So what does the Statement of Faith say of Vineyard?

We belong to mainstream, historical Christianity. What a rich inheritance we have! Vineyard is basically conservative Evangelical. But we are Evangelicals with a difference. In short, as Alexander Venter has put it, we embrace Evangelical theology and Pentecostal experience, and in doing so cut across Evangelical experience and Pentecostal theology.

Vineyard is about following closely after what Jesus has done. We preach and minister the kingdom, and train disciples to do the same.

From beliefs to practice, that’s the way Vineyard “does church”. For example, when our Statement of Faith confesses, We believe in the filling or the empowering of the Holy Spirit, often a conscious experience, for ministry today. We believe in the present ministry of the Spirit and…exercise…all of the biblical gifts of the Spirit. This leads to action. We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing, and for recognition and empowering of those whom God has ordained to lead and serve the Church.

Acknowledgment: Our thanks goes to Don Williams, a highly regard theologian and Vineyard pastor for his research on the subject and publication of the paper “Why Vineyard: A Theological Reflection”
By Don Williams

Dear Dawn who is editor of vineyard vines in Vineyard Singapore thought that I might be able to talk about our values in a number of very short articles. (We have a readership of about 60). She is very persuasive and I agreed but confessed that I won’t be able to say anything meaningful if at each go I was just limited to just 100 words; she would be free to liberally edit what I contributed. Anyhow here is what I wrote for the first installment.

An integration of beliefs, values and actual practices is the way Vineyard “does church”. And if you consider that Vineyard has become distinctive it is also because its kingdom theology is clear and central.

Each specific (local) Vineyard Church should have a belief about the part or role that God has called it to play in the overall body. This is its vision and mission, its purpose statement, the reason for existence. John Wimber’s advice was to be focused, keeping to the “few bare essentials”. Next, the statement of faith is another important declaration, at the foundation of each church. However I must confess that until recently when I came across some writings of Don Williams, pastor of the Vineyard in LaJolla California, I was rather dismissive of the declaration as just another “creed”. But evidently, the Vineyard’s “Statement of Faith” is also the Vineyard’s “Story of Faith.” I will tell more of this in the coming weeks. Suffice to say for now that it is written to reflect our beliefs about the kingdom of God, and as we live out this faith, we contribute to the larger Church.

Permeating the whole way we do church are our values. Our values describe what we consider of great worth, that is, worthy of our time, efforts and money. They are the reasons for what we are doing and serve as the criteria to guide our decisions and evaluations. A lot of other things may change but values will not. They may not be found directly in scripture but they will be Biblical values, and for example we will value the pursuit of God, servant leadership, being Spirit led and filled, offering “culturally current” worship, preaching the gospel, building community, mercy, and planting churches. Don’t be surprised if over time these guiding values become the character of the church and its members.

Finally, what we actually do are our priorities, and the practices we aim to in instill in every member. The practices deal with “people” issues and the practical skills that every disciple ought to have, like, leadership requirements; prayer skills, marriage and family skills, and general ministry skill.

Vineyard’s approach to doing church is obviously a tested and working model. It is a blueprint or for building a church from the bottom up.

It’s really tough to say anything simply and with an economy of words. But Dawn apparently feels that I have done a resaonably decent job this round. (Thanks for being so encouraging!)