Toowoomba Vineyard Church

In the Vineyard, we love to talk about healing. Sometimes people get healed, and sometimes they don't. But what happens afterwards? Rarely, if ever do we talk about health, and staying healthy. Armed with a litany of funny nursing stories (which she's not allowed to share for legal reasons) Laura gives us a brief overview on the topic of health.

It's week 2 of 'We don't talk about that', and this week, Mandy certainly does talk about 'that'. Conversation about singleness isn't completely unheard of in the church, but it's usually in the form of cheap platitudes. Drawing bravely from her own story, Mandy prevents a new vision for singleness in the church that recognises the diversity of the experience.

We begin a short, four week series called 'We don't talk about that' with a brief overview of the topic of sin. Chris opens with a controversial quote from Pope Francis as we ponder the question — is humanity, at its heart, good or bad?

In our final instalment of 'The Awkward Lurch' Chris explores the tension between staying relevant and being orthodox. We look at three examples of church movements speaking to their culture, and ask what's next for the Vineyard — ergo, us.

This week's 'Awkward Lurch' instalment comes courtesy of the wonderful Mandy, unpacking the tension between public and private faith. Her language for this is all about 'dwelling' and 'doing' — which one do you lean to more naturally? And how do you follow Jesus' example?

After a week off last week, we return to our 'Awkward Lurch' series. Cindee shares about how to hold the tension between grace and holiness — it turns out it's not so much a tension to be held as a relationship to be nurtured.

In a famous verse found in Exodus 34, God seems to say two contradictory things. First, that he is gracious and compassionate, forgiving sin and extending mercy. A sentence later he says that he doesn't let the guilty unpunished, punishing not just them but the generations after them. Which is it? Laura takes us through the justice-mercy conundrum we find all through the bible, and it turns ou...

As our tensions series turns towards 'unity and diversity', Chris unpacks this important topic by looking at the biblical thread of 'nations'. It turns out this is a really important theme throughout both the Old and New Testaments, but surprisingly, God does not resolve it in the way you'd think. As a result, as God's people today we're supposed to embrace diversity in...

It's week two of our tensions series and this we tackle a doozy — honour culture vs humility. Working through two different stories from the life of David, Chris explores why these two have to be held in tension, particularly in light of what seems like a constant stream of prominent leaders failing morally. We finish by talking about how to create a culture of 'goodness' that combats...

It's new series time! Between now and the end of May we're going to be working through a set of 'genuine' biblical tensions we have to navigate in the life of faith. Chris begins with a slightly awkward analogy for how to navigate tensions, then unpacks the core Vineyard theology of the 'now and the not yet'.

This week we're privileged to have special guest speaker, Vineyard veteran Greg Trainor. Tracking through the gospels, he shares about the calling on our lives to be supernatural people, operating in the authority of Jesus and power of the Holy Spirit. It's a good one. Buckle in.

It's Easter Sunday, and this year we're taking a slightly different spin on the resurrection. In fact, we're taking the bible as a set of historical documents and seeing what happens when you study the life of Jesus from there. Do you get a different picture of Jesus from the one church tradition suggests? Let's find out.

It's the final parable! In our series, anyway. We're a week out from Easter and this one's a doozy — Jesus predicts his death, and in fine form the crowd says 'surely not!' But as we have come to learn, Jesus was right. While the parable itself seems like an easy interpretation, there's a sneaky link to an old song, and it turns out the villain isn't who you think it is...

As his ministry went on, Jesus' parables got increasingly spicy and increasingly cryptic. This week Mandy has the joy of unpacking the parable of the ten (which is actually three) minas, and what that teaches us about the kingdom (hint — it's not investment advice).

It started out as a seemingly very simple parable... but turns out the story Jesus tells about a Pharisee and a tax collector is a very interesting study on the topic of humility. Laura takes us through the parable and why the old 'humility is thinking of yourself less' doesn't do it here.

This week we turn our attention to one of the other very well known parables of Jesus — the prodigal son. This is is profound story of a wayward child and a gracious father. Yet we often miss the other storyline, of the jealous older brother. How do we read these well-loved verses with fresh eyes, and what does it teach us about welcoming people who don't fit in church?

When Jesus was dining at a Pharisee's house, he had some things to say about their constant jostling for position and prestige. Even after teaching them directly, some still loved the fact that it was the cream of Jewish society's crop around the table. Jesus told a controversial story in response, and this is Jen's thoughts about that parable.

In our next instalment of the Parables in Luke series, Jen shares about two tiny but mighty examples that sit next to each other in chapter 13. The first is about a mustard seed, and the second about leaven (or yeast) in bread. They show us that the kingdom is both simpler and more profound than we could possibly realise.

The second parable in Luke is very, very well known — both inside and outside the church. But it turns out, in context, there was a whooooooole lot more going on in this story than what we typically realise. It's not a nice story with a moral. If anything, it's deeply challenging, and hits just as hard today as it did back then.

There's a big shift happening in the Western church right now. The way we tell the gospel story, and the way we read the bible, are changing. One of the most helpful types of scripture to understand this shift are the parables. In today's podcast we launch into our first series for the year, delving into Jesus' parables in Luke.

It's 2024, summer break is over, and the podcast is back! We kick off the year with a bit of a look forward, recognising our vision is less about what we're doing, and who we're becoming. It's so easy to slide into church-as-a-business mode, that we forget culture is more important than numbers. Chris talks about the kind of church we want to become, a little about what we're d...

Can you believe it's the final podcast for 2023? Despite apocalyptic weather we gathered at the Bowlo to celebrate Christmas Eve, and Chris shared our final Isaiah 9:6 message: "Prince of Peace". Working from Psalm 46, he suggests that in fact, we're all doing peace wrong. Here's how to do it instead.

This week's title for Jesus (from Isaiah 9:6) is 'everlasting father'. It's a bit odd to ascribe a title like this to a child. So Laura does a wonderful job of helping us getting our heads around this, and what it means about letting God be our father.

In the bible, we read all sorts of stories about God doing mighty works. Creating the world with a word, parting the seas, calming the storm... but what's he done for us lately? Is God still mighty? Or is our definition of 'mighty' a bit off? In this week's message, Chris explores what it means that Jesus is our 'mighty God' through the most powerful image of power in the s...

It's almost Christmas, which means it's time for our advent series! This time we're going through the four titles of Jesus in Isaiah 9:6, starting with 'Wonderful Counsellor'... is Isaiah saying Jesus is our therapist?