Toowoomba Vineyard Church

This week, the BELLS series takes a slightly awkward turn... it switches gears from 'doing' to 'being'. If we want to transform the world around us, and not be transformed by the world around us, we need at least as much input as we give output. Today's habit, 'Listen', invites us to spend at least one period of time listening to the Spirit's voice.

Give the people what they want — this week's podcast isn't Chris! In week two of our series on Surprise the World Jen takes us through the second habit of highly missional people... hospitality. Following on from last week, Jen unpacks the problem with the Christian huddle at middle of church, and how we can live like Jesus on the edge. ------- Find us on social media: https://instagram.co...

Have you ever wondered how the church can be effective in telling people about Jesus, in a culture that’s becoming increasingly hostile to the faith? Us too. In this week’s message, Chris kicks off a series called ‘Surprise the World’, working through Mike Frost’s book of the same title. The premise is that we can take up a set of simple, repeatable habits that help us be missional in our everyday...

We live in a world that's becoming increasingly polarised — opinions are black and white, and shades of gray just don't seem to exist anymore. What's more, there's this idea that beliefs come in sets... if you believe A, you must also believe B, and C, and D as well. As it turns out, the Vineyard movement was born into just such a world, and gives us frameworks to navigate these te...

It's finally happening... we're becoming a real life church! Not that house churches aren't proper churches... but, you get the idea. We're meeting publicly from next week onwards. In this week's message, Chris reflects on the journey so far, fills us in on the roadmap moving forward, and the invitation for those of us who are going to call Toowoomba Vineyard Church home. Hint:...

If you've ever visited a Vineyard church, chances are you've come across the movement's favourite (and sometimes only) liturgy — 'Come Holy Spirit'. Since pretty much the beginning, the ongoing work of God's spirit has been central to our practice, and the Vineyard has always used this prayer as a way to get the fun started. But is the Spirit just about having fun after a S...

When you pick up a bible, what exactly do you have in your hands? What is it trying to communicate? When was it written, and why does it have these books (as opposed to the many other ancient texts we have that speak about God)? This week, Chris shares 5 'fun facts' about the bible, which help orient us to what it actually is. It turns out when we read on its own terms, we get a 'higher' view of s...

Have you ever wondered how the church got to be so divided and argumentative? Us too. Sadly, we don’t have a quick fix to make everyone get along, but we do have a value of ‘keeping the main thing the main thing’, which would help a bit. In this message, Chris unpacks what the ‘main thing’ is and how we can learn to coexist with people who think differently from us. ------- Find us on social media...

This week we turn our attention to the aphorism 'come as you are, don't stay as you are'. Chris talks through John 8:1-11 (the woman caught in adultery), a passage where Jesus perfectly navigates the tension between welcome and challenge. He goes on to examine how we can practice this tension as we welcome people who don't neatly fit into white, middle class Christian subculture. The short version...

This week, Chris talks about something that's been almost assumed knowledge in our talks thus far — the Vineyard's practice of the supernatural. We unashamedly believe that God can and does continue to be involved in his creation. Sometimes this looks very 'natural'. And sometimes it doesn't.  This talk is split into two parts. The first looking at how to be naturally supernaturally supernatu...

As we continue to work through our values, this week's message is about 'Everybody gets to play / Everybody needs to play'. But... due to some personal hangups from our speaker, we're calling it 'The Kingdom is not a spectator sport'. In said message, Chris explores three possible models for ministry in the church and what it means for everybody to 'play' in a post-Covid world. If you're after the...

This week, Chris continues our conversation from last week about the Kingdom of God. There’s a fairly significant questions that presents itself when we talk about God making all things new… if God is fixing the world, then why is stuff still so awful so much of the time? The theological answer to this problem is ‘the now and the not yet’ of the Kingdom, but that’s a hard concept to live out. It t...

We talked a lot last week about kingdoms without really explaining what one is. It turns out they’re pretty important in the bible and they help us understand what this Christianity business is all about. In this message, Chris explains how he first discovered Jesus, and how his understanding of the ‘good news’ shifted through a discovery of the Kingdom of God.

It's week two and this time, we're talking church. Chris shares the story about how the church came to be in the bible, and what that means for us today. He also unpacks the four fundamental priorities of the church (according to us, anyway), and how they will shape what we do as a church plant. If you get to the bit with the four illustrations and want to know what he's talking about, you'll find...

Hey, thanks for checking out our podcast! We're a brand new church in Toowoomba, Queensland, discovering the joy of following Jesus together. In this message from our very first meeting, Chris shares from the last few verses in Matthew 11 and what it means to follow Jesus in a post-COVID world. You could call it a vision talk, of sorts. If you're interested in finding out more, you can visit our w...