Sunday, 14 July 2013
Duration: 30 mins 30 secs
All Christian ministry is a mixture of both trellis work and vine work. Vine work is proclaiming the good news of Jesus and seeing lives transformed by God through His Spirit as a result. Trellis work is that which supports and gives structure to the vine. It is easy for trellis work to take over from vine work as we focus on programs and events instead of people. As the Great Commission reminds us, our primary responsibility as Christians is to be disciple-making disciples of Jesus. In order to do that, we need to make a conscious mind-shift away from establishing structures and towards growing people. This is by no means an easy process, but when the vine overcomes the trellis at our church that is when we will truly be fulfilling our commissioning.
Sunday, 07 April 2013
Duration: 23 mins 48 secs
In the last of Jesus’ ‘I Am’ statements in the gospel of John, Jesus uses the illustration of a gardener and a vine and its branches to convey the spiritual reality of the relationship and work of the Father, Himself and His disciples. Jesus declares that He is the true vine in comparison with Israel, His Father is the gardener who cuts off dead branches and prunes the weak ones, and that we as disciples are the branches. He calls us to remain in Him, to know our place, to be fruitful and to show love, all for God’s glory. What do these things look like for you?
