Elm City Vineyard Church Talks

 To close our Advent series, we’ll hear short messages from a few of our Roots youth, celebrating and reflecting on God’s love.  - Series Description -  This is work. It’s the work of Christmas — to strike a match not just for ourselves, but for our community, the stranger, the oppressed, the one left out. This Advent, we’ll be looking at how the flames of hope, peace, joy, and love - the traditio...

It’s easy to experience life as a rat race for happiness. Who can get it first? Who can make it last the longest? Is joy any different? When we sing “ Joy to the World ,” are we singing for the world to have momentary happiness? Let’s hope not. Thankfully, the joy of a Jesus follower is more than a fleeting happy thought. Even better: joy is from God. The pressure is off for us to manufacture happ...

During Advent we remember that the babe in the manger is the Prince of Peace – the one who will one day bring an end to all war and discord in us and in the world. Among the Lord’s last words to his disciples before his death are these: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27 NASB). And after his resurrection, he greets his disciples on multiple occasions, “Peace be with you.”...

This is work. It’s the work of Christmas — to strike a match not just for ourselves, but for our community, the stranger, the oppressed, the one left out. This Advent, we’ll be looking at how the flames of hope, peace, joy, and love - the traditional themes of Advent - call us to holy work. We must nurture hope, fight for peace, cultivate joy, and embody love. - Series Description -  This Advent,...

In our last talk of the “So You Want To Be A Christian” series we will dive into the topic of suffering. Nobody wants to suffer, but we all will at some point in our lives. Being a follower of Jesus does not disqualify us from suffering. As a matter of fact, Jesus himself suffered and was known as the man of sorrows. - Series Description - In our new series, "So You Want to Be A Christian?", we’ll...

When we say yes to Jesus, we receive the gift of forgiveness that God offers us. And as we find ourselves in the story of God as those who are forgiven, we’re invited to join God’s Kingdom work by forgiving those who have sinned against us. Join us this Sunday as we continue our teaching series, "So You Want to be a Christian?" by considering how following Jesus involves receiving and extending fo...

If someone were to make a movie of your life, what would the genre be? Action-adventure? Rom-com? Slice of life? Epic? You could probably imagine a few different versions. Which one do you think is true ? It matters a lot. The stories we tell ourselves-- the stories we live in and through--tell us what matters, what our lives are for. To be a Christian means, in part, to live into and through God’...

Saying yes often looks like saying no.  “Drop your nets. Leave your boats. Come and follow me.” - Jesus   Why does following Jesus mean leaving certain things behind? Like any other decision, following Jesus involves a cutting off. It is, as Jesus says, a narrow path (Matt 7:13-14). To truly say yes to Jesus, we also have to give other people and things a no. This is uncomfortable and requires tru...

When we say yes to following Jesus, what comes next? It can be tempting to think that the most important thing is to get rid of all the mess in our personal lives, or to immediately get to work doing important things for God. But the gospels give a simpler and more radical invitation: we get to know Jesus by hanging out with Him, and receiving the grace he abundantly offers us. Come this Sunday to...

This Sunday, we’ll explore how our first step is to say yes. Not just yes to a task, but yes to a person — someone who calls us to himself and to his mission. - Series Description -  In our new series, So, You Want to Be A Christian? , we’ll cover the beginning steps of following Jesus. At times, these are the steps we’re begging self-proclaimed Christians in the public arena to follow. Other time...

We started our Jubilee series with the people of God recently freed from slavery in Egypt. They were freed. Now they needed to stay free and free others, accomplished by practicing Sabbath and Jubilee! While the people of God didn’t always live out these practices, God always offered them rest and a reset, not just for themselves individually, but for their whole community. In our closing talk, we...

Jubilee sounds nice at first – Sabbath rest, freedom, and the expansive favor of God. But Jubilee also costs us something and inevitably brings offense. The favor of Jubilee extends to our enemies and threatens our sense of the portion of God’s grace appointed for us – more for them might be less for us. At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry he is received with great favor, but that favor quickly tu...

The Year of the Lord's favor continues even as it's clear that God's people are not practicing Jubilee as outlined in Leviticus. This week we'll study chapter 61 from the book of Isaiah the prophet who has a future vision of restoration for God's people-- the shalom we talked about three weeks ago. Isaiah carries Jubilee forward into God's future: the year of the Lord's favor isn't just an ancient...

God rescued people from slavery in Egypt with signs, wonders, and miracles. God does the same thing today, and He encourages and equips us to go and do likewise: Get free. Stay free. Free others. And yet it’s easy for any of us to get trapped by constraints and to let others face the same fate of bondage. This is our reality. God’s vision of Jubilee, a forerunner of God’s coming Kingdom, has somet...

Rest is the way to a reset. Not just personally, but communally. Rest also requires trust. In Leviticus, God calls for a Sabbath (one day a week), a Sabbath year (the seventh year), and a Jubilee (the fiftieth year). This set apart time is not meant to be a burden, but a blessing. If we can trust the Lord that timing matters, risk rest, and then join Jesus in the reset, we can see more than just o...

ECV was founded in 2007 with a call to seek the peace of our city and pray for it because in its peace we’ll find our peace. In 2025, it is clear our need for peace has not diminished. Our God of peace does not provide only an external peace for others but an internal one for us. Through the work of the Spirit, peace can spread throughout our communities from the inside out. It’s a beautiful integ...

Throughout the Book of Acts we find accounts of how God speaks and acts in miraculous ways, even as the Apostles and the early church act with wisdom and boldness to bear witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus. The power and presence of the Holy Spirit are normative in the pages of Acts, ever intertwined with considered action, bold preaching, and the willingness to suffer to bring the wit...

The Book of Acts tells the story of the birth of the church and its remarkable expansion in the early decades of its existence. Central to that story is the crucial encounter between the Apostle Peter, an observant Jewish man, and Cornelius, a respected Gentile military officer, and his family. Through this encounter, the fledgling church-- and our church, too-- learns that faith in Jesus is not m...

What are the costs of following Jesus? Sometimes, it’s easy to think about our lives as our existing lives + Jesus. In this scenario, Jesus is a simple add on to what we are already doing. As we continue our series in Acts, we will be challenged by bold lives full of integrity that face staggering costs as they live for Jesus and live like Jesus even amidst intense pressures. After all, Jesus says...

Political power can seem threatening these days. Or overwhelming. Maybe just exhausting. The good news is that the history of the early church is full of stories of people faithfully following Jesus in the midst of conflict with the political powers of their day. Join us this Sunday Matt leads us further into our series on Being the Church, looking at the models Acts provides for being faithful in...

If we’re interested in lives of generosity, we have to consider not just what or how much we give but also where we hold back from giving. God is invested in full lives of surrender where we let God steward all of our lives, including our finances and possessions. This Sunday, we will look at a tough tale in Acts 5 involving a couple who did not know how to be honest with God about their reluctant...

In the Gospels, the main figure is clearly Jesus. As a “sequel” to the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles might seem to shift the focus from Jesus to his 12 disciples as the main players. But the central figure of Acts is the person of the Holy Spirit.  Join us this Sunday as we learn about how the early church was filled with the Holy Spirit to live in freedom and be formed into God’s family. We’ll al...

In the Gospels, the main figure is clearly Jesus. As a “sequel” to the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles might seem to shift the focus from Jesus to his 12 disciples as the main players. But the central figure of Acts is the person of the Holy Spirit.  What do we see the Holy Spirit do time and time again in Acts? The Holy Spirit fills up and raises up new leaders, including many beyond the roster of...

Few narratives in the Bible describe an event as impactful as the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. At Pentecost we see the birth of the church, the reversal of the divisions of Babel (Gen 11), the breaking down of ethnic and linguistic barriers, the ingathering of thousands to faith in Jesus, the radical generosity of the early believers, and a foretaste of all the chur...

In this first week of the “Being the Church” series, Andy Saperstein considers what it means to bear witness to our faith in the world among friends and family, neighbors, strangers and enemies alike. In the early verses of Acts, Jesus declares that once the Spirit has fallen on the church, we will be his witnesses both near and far, from our own homes to the ends of the earth, as we fulfill our i...