Vineyard Church | Weekly Update August 28th, 2024

I am searching for a pithy way to begin this blog, so while I have my creativity running in the background, how about we just get down to business. By now, you have likely seen the big news we teased through the last month of summer. We have partnered with RightNow Media to provide an account to the entire Vineyard Fam, both present and future. We can use this as a vehicle to bring us closer to Jesus and closer to each other. How exactly will a content streaming platform accomplish this?

If you joined us for our family meeting in July, in addition to the financial and facility updates, I gave some vision for our way ahead. One reality that we face together is that God has given the church an active mission that we are called to serve. Another reality is that, in the context of accomplishing the mission, what has worked in the past is no longer effective.

Except… that really isn’t true, or maybe it is only true if you look at it from a “program” perspective. Also, we have to be careful about what we are measuring to discern effectiveness. If we are looking at filling the seats and filling the offering box, we are utilizing metrics that suggest we are engaged in building our own kingdom rather than engaged in expanding the Kingdom of God. Missional objectives like baptizing people and teaching them to follow Jesus allow us to trust God with the sustaining while we do the abiding.

From that perspective, a better statement is, that what has always worked will work again if we are willing to do it. Using Jesus as our example, we focus on the fundamentals and leave the attractional to Him. The pages of the Gospels provide us with the best training manual ever written, which makes it time for a sports metaphor: Borrowing from the playbook of legendary coach Woody Hayes, 3 yards and a cloud of dust is our way to emulate this ancient and effective strategy. Gritty, grindy, not spectacular but leads to spectacular.

The 3 yards and a cloud of dust strategy is demanding, requiring high endurance and high pain tolerance. This is true because the strategy requires us to be in relationship with those around us and relationships take a lot of work. This strategy means we get into the gritty with people and we show them the path to peace; we enter the long game because people matter. So many of our core scriptures speak to this which means it is in our DNA. Put down your selfish ways, pick up your cross, and follow Me… Freely you have received, Freely give… Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

So how does RightNow Media work itself into this? Found on this platform is content that will educate and invigorate. Encourage and challenge. I truly believe that if you see something you like on this platform, you are going to tell someone about it, and before you know it, you are engaged in the mission of God. The natural response to our growth is to want to share it with others, and the more we do this the more common it will become.

We will learn together, we will grow together, and as we grow together we will invite people we want to share this with. Small groups will have awesome content to connect with which means discipleship opportunities grow. The wins abound, and as the dust clouds clear, we will see that 3 yards at a time led us to the endzone.

RightNow Media is the next in a series of wins that are making us better together. The last one, Sammich Sunday, has become a staple of our family routine and one of the most impactful days of the month. Building on the fact that we like being together, we have a new tool to help us learn together, and the wins are piling up.

This fall, my hope is to see a handful of small groups utilize RightNow Media content to grow together as a supplement to the groups that have been successful for a long time. Small groups are the pointy end of the discipleship spear, the dust-raising play that gains 3 yards each time, the place where relationships grow. I am excited to see how this shapes us.

So, if you haven’t signed up for a Right Now Media account, get to it! This is a gift for us that will help us continue to be the activity of the Living God.

Adam Greenwell
Pastor
Billings Vineyard Church | www.billingsvineyard.org