Vineyard Church | Weekly Update January 7, 2025

Hello Vineyard Fam!

One of the quiet dangers of a new year is how quickly we move from reflection to resolve. We pause long enough to ask good questions like Who am I becoming?  and What needs to change? but then we rush to fill the space with plans, goals, and strategies. We assume that movement equals faithfulness and effort equals growth.

Scripture, however, often slows us down before it sends us out...

Last Sunday, we began Following the Way by paying attention to where the Gospels begin; not with instruction, but with revelation. Before Jesus does anything, we are invited to look at who He is. The Word made flesh. The Light that moves toward darkness. God coming near.

That matters, because formation doesn’t begin with action, it begins with attention.

What we attend to shapes us. What we listen to forms us. Many of us live surrounded by voices that measure us by output, progress, and performance. Even our spiritual lives can quietly become another place where we try to prove something; sometimes to others, sometimes to ourselves, sometimes even to God.

The way of Jesus seems to begin somewhere else. Before mission, there is presence. Before obedience, there is relationship. Before becoming, there is receiving.

This week, rather than rushing ahead, consider what it would look like to stay in that space just a little longer, to resist the urge to fix or improve, and instead practice paying attention to what God might already be saying.

A Few Practices for the Middle of the Week

You don’t need a long devotional time or a perfectly quiet house; these are small, intentional practices meant to interrupt the noise

1. Practice listening before responding
Once a day, pause for sixty seconds. No phone. No words. Just notice your breathing. Ask yourself: What voice has been shaping me today?

2. Practice naming what you’re carrying
In a journal or a quiet moment, name the pressures you feel right now, especially the ones connected to proving, achieving, or keeping up. Simply naming them can loosen their grip.

3. Practice staying close
Faith is not meant to be carried alone. Stay close to Jesus by staying close to His people through worship, Scripture, shared rhythms, and honest conversation. Formation happens best in community! 

Here’s a question worth sitting with as we move toward Sunday:

What if the most important thing God wants to say to us right now isn’t about what we should do, but about who we already are?

The invitation of this season is not to rush ahead, but to walk attentively. To stay close. To let God form us from the inside out as we follow the Way together.

More to come... See you on Sunday!

 
Adam Greenwell
Lead Pastor
Vineyard Church
www.billingsvineyard.org