Toowoomba Vineyard Church

In the middle of a sermon full of heavy hitting teaching, Jesus drops in some of the most comforting words in all of scripture. The 'do not worry' passage has helped many not to be anxious, but if it's true, why do Christians still experience hardship? If God is going to provide, why do so many in the Kingdom go without?

Another of Jesus' revered teaching is on treasure — 'do not store up for yourself treasures on earth'... It might be a familiar saying, but what does it really mean? If you made a table with one column being 'treasures on earth', and another saying 'treasures in heaven', what things would go in each column? The answer may surprise you.

We live in a world that's obsessed with authenticity. Brands live and die by it. A shred of insincerity can crush a celebrity's career. But ironically, thats in the midst of a culture that's never been more curated. Turns out this isn't a modern problem. As we get into chapter 6 of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus turns to authenticity — in the practice of our faith.

One of the most challenging teachings in the New Testament, or maybe the whole bible, is Jesus' command for us to love our enemies. Not because it's hard to understand, but because it's so easy to theologise away, or just ignore. When we look at the state of the church, and the world today, it's easy to imagine how putting this teaching into practice would change everything. And ye...

OK, so Facebook doesn't have a 'Maybe' button on events anymore (it has 'Interested' which is kind of the same, but not quite). But that little button has worked its way into our culture to the point that we almost have a crisis of commitment. Whether it's showing up to events, saying 'I'll pray for you' and actually following through, or how we show up on socia...

Amongst many other things, the Sermon on the Mount is a strong reminder that Jesus wasn't afraid to throw punches. In today's instalment, we tackle not one, but two difficult passages. Tragically, both have been used to shame and control people in the church. And yet when we take some time to understand Jesus' context and language, we discover his words on lust and divorce are actually...

'You have heard it said, do not murder, but I say to you...'. At this point in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gets stuck into the details. He begins a series of sayings that reinterpret and raise the bar on the Old Testament law with anger — something we can all relate to. Laura unpacks...

In the third instalment of our Sermon on the Mount series, we turn to Jesus' controversial (yet profound) reinterpretation of the Old Testament law. In this opening section, he claims that to enter the Kingdom of Heaven his followers must have 'righteousness that exceeds even that of the Pharisees and Scribes'... in other words, the guys whose whole life purpose was to follow the law t...

Following his epic (or strange?) opening to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus turns his attention to two analogies his audience would've been intimately familiar with — salt and light. What's interesting is what he doesn't say: you will be the salt of the earth, or you could be the light of the world. Two words stand out in this section... you are. So what would these analogies have meant...

We sometimes fall into the trap of treating Christianity just as a set of doctrines to be believed. But if you started reading the New Testament from the beginning, you'd quickly arrive at Jesus' most famous sermon (and possibly the most epic sermon ever), and would really struggle to get that — instead, following Jesus is a way of living that permeates all of who we are. As we begin a new...

After a somewhat unsatisfying 'coming home' narrative last week, we do the better version here — by looking at Jesus. In this Easter Sunday special, Chris walks us through the entire story of the bible through the lens of exile, with a focus on the new home God is making for us... not in some far away place, but here on earth.

We're sort of at the end of our Exile series, so we get to talk about the happy ending... the triumphant return to Jerusalem! Or at least we would be, except it wasn't entirely happy or triumphant, and it certainly wasn't the ending of the story. The Israelites returned to a complex web of generational, political, and social tensions they had to navigate as they rebuilt their city, tem...

Our next instalment of our journey through the exile lands us in Daniel 3. The mighty king Nebuchadnezzar sets up a golden statue and demands everyone bows down to worship it, which everyone does... except for three Hebrews. After a fiery exchange, he tries to burn them alive, but joke's on him — they walk out unscathed. We love to tell this story of defiance, and God's resulting deliveran...

If there's one thing we've learned so far in this Exile series, it's that we can readily identify with the Israelites in Babylon. Yet that raises the question — how do we actually respond to living in a world where we don't belong? There are at least three natural responses. It's only natural to want to resist, withdraw, or assimilate. Yet in Jeremiah 29, God encourages the Isr...

As we continue our look through the biblical theme of Exile, Laura unpacks one of the key outlets the Israelites had during this time — lament. Drawing from Psalm 137, she explores three key myths that come up again and again in Western church life, and in doing so, gives us permission to bring our grief to God and community.

Last week we focused on the question: 'why did Israel go into exile?' This week we turn towards the exile itself. What was the exile, and why did it matter so much? It turns out the exile (which was more of a process than an event) is like a two sided coin. While it was a curse and a horrific trauma on one side, it was a blessing in disguise on the other. Importantly, however, we can't...

Having finished up Genesis 1-11 last week, we're skipping just a little bit of the Old Testament and fast forwarding to Exile (in other words, the end of the Old Testament). Thankfully, Chris comes to the rescue with a brief summary of all the bits we missed. In the second half of the message, Chris opens up to Amos 5 — a famous indictment on the Northern Kingdom's performative practice of...

For our final foray into Genesis 1-11, we look at the famous 'Tower of Babel' narrative. For just nine verses, there's a lot to be said. Chris introduces the idea of 'turning the gem' as a way to study scripture, looking at three (and a bit) different ways to view this passage. While most of the ideas in this passage are big-picture, human-condition level lessons, there's an emotion driving it all...

Remember that story you heard in Sunday school (or that you heard about from the kids you knew who went to Sunday school) where Noah gets all the animals together and goes for a nice boat ride? Well, the bit the Sunday school renditions of Noah’s Ark leave out is where God wipes out the rest of humanity. The flood stories in Genesis are deeply troubling, but Mandy comes to the rescue by giving us...

Back in 2022, we decided it'd be a good idea to build a church around Matthew 11:28-30—that passage where Jesus talks about 'rest for your souls'. It turns out this isn't a great way to create energy and momentum. But we're still convinced it's what God has asked us to do. In this year's vision talk, Chris reminds us of Jesus' invitation to a life of walking alongsi...

If there’s any story in the Bible that suffers from over-familiarity, Genesis 3 is a strong contender. It’s a deeply strange passage: a talking snake, a tree “of the knowledge of good and evil” (whatever that’s about), and a God who seems to get it wrong—after eating the fruit, the people don’t actually die. And yet, despite all this oddness, we rush to theologise the story. Righteousness. Disobed...

In 2026, our teaching is going to take us alllll the way through the story of scripture, with each series helping tell the story of creation through to new creation (with a few stops along the way!). Mandy kicks off right at the start of the bible, with a deep dive into the Genesis 1 creation narrative. Through the lens of the Babylonian exile, she explains that this famous story probably doesn&#3...

Each summer, we take an extended pause from our Sunday gatherings to intentionally practice Sabbath together as a community. Rather than simply taking a break or breather, Sabbath is a deeper practice—one that looks back on the story of God’s goodness, looks forward to new creation, and invites us to engage more fully with our own lives in the present. Our third and final instalment of this year&#...

Each summer, we take an extended pause from our Sunday gatherings to intentionally practice Sabbath together as a community. Rather than simply taking a break or breather, Sabbath is a deeper practice—one that looks back on the story of God’s goodness, looks forward to new creation, and invites us to engage more fully with our own lives in the present. Toward the end of last year, we recorded thre...

Each summer, we take an extended pause from our Sunday gatherings to intentionally practice Sabbath together as a community. Rather than simply taking a break or breather, Sabbath is a deeper practice—one that looks back on the story of God’s goodness, looks forward to new creation, and invites us to engage more fully with our own lives in the present. Toward the end of last year, we recorded thre...