Toowoomba Vineyard Church

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 In fact, we're taking the bible as a set of historical documents and seeing what happens when you study the life of Jesus from there.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?

This talk is the final hurrah in a 3 week blitz through the theme of work and rest in Genesis 1-3. Weeks 1 and 2 focused on work, so... here's our take on sabbath rest. If you've ever wondered whether Christians need to observe sabbath, this one's for you. Also, if you've ever wondered what Abba's Super Trouper can teach us about the state of modern society, listen on!

Last week we talked about 'the blessing' in Genesis 1 — humanity's role in helping God continue the creative work of seeing the creation flourish. We ended with a fairly significant caveat... that often our work (or vocation) is awful. What's with that? This week's podcast has the answer.

This November we're spending some time in the opening chapters in the bible, looking at the biblical theme of work and rest. Our first message in this short series is all about the reason why humanity was created. Curious? We thought so.

In our third and final instalment of 'Demonstrating the Kingdom', Chris talks about the 'natural' ways we can show people what the Kingdom is like. To wrap up the series, he shares a simple object lesson that could help us understand why it's so hard to share our faith...

We're in a brief 3-week series called 'Demonstrating the Kingdom', which is all about the ways we can show people what the kingdom is like (for when they get sick of us just talking about it). This week, we're talking about the so-called 'supernatural' ways to demonstrate the kingdom, in particular the infamous 'spiritual gifts'. Chris explains how we can follow in...

Fresh after a week off, we kick into a new mini-series called 'Demonstrating the Kingdom'. The idea is that if we want to be followers of Christ, we need to emulate him in his ministry. His ministry can be summed up by the phrase 'the proclamation and demonstration of the Kingdom of God.' As a church (in the West) that loves talk, we get 'proclamation'. But what does 'd...

In our last excursion into Colossians (for now, at least), Chris unpacks one of the trickier bits of the bible... if you read the title, there's a hint at which one. It turns out that with a small amount of context (courtesy of our friend Aristotle), the meaning of this passage totally changes. And if we read it in context, it's not even about what we think it's about... --- Once you&#...

This week our good friend Grant Armstrong (from Toowoomba Wesleyan Methodist Church) brings the word, continuing our series from Colossians. It's so good to get his perspective, coming from a different tradition, reminding us that deep, soul connection is supposed to be at the heart of the Christian tradition. We hope you don't mind the American accent 🤭

We continue on through Colossians, and this week we have the privilege of the venerable Laura Hoek (who you may know from our podcast intro/outro) bringing the word. The passage is a slightly uncomfortable one at the start of Colossians 3, which walks a delicate balance between a list of things not to do, and the fact that we can’t earn our salvation. How do we walk that tightrope? We’re glad you...

In this week's podcast, we really get into the meat of Colossians. In 2:5-16, Paul is writing to this fledgling church about how to experience true fullness — and how to avoid making it more complicated than it needs to be. No actual cows were harmed in the making of this podcast.

This week, we begin in Colossians proper! After some opening banter, the apostle Paul kicks off with a poem (or possibly a hymn) which sums up the gospel, at least as it serves the purpose of the letter. There are two little words towards the end of this passage that totally blow up our narrow minded view of the good news, and help us realise that God's plan for reconciliation is way bigger th...