Vineyard Church | Weekly Update December 31st, 2025

Hello Vineyard Fam!

I hope you had an awesome Advent Season and Christmas celebration, each year I enjoy it more than the last! Next up is the New Year, which always leads to the look-back reflective whiplash of a year that flew by at breakneck pace (see what I did there??).

We look back on what’s been, we think about how things unfolded and what didn’t turn out the way we hoped, and we make plans, set goals, and imagine a better version of ourselves somewhere out ahead.

Beneath all of that activity sits a quiet but important question:

Who am I becoming?

Not just what do I want to accomplish this year, but what kind of person is my life shaping me into?

At the Vineyard, we’ve spent the past several months talking about surrender... about letting go of the false stories we live by so that God can form something real and lasting in us. During Advent, we leaned into the truth that Jesus doesn’t just come to inspire us; He comes to transform us.

As we step into this new year, we’re beginning a new teaching series called Following the Way, a journey that will take us from the opening words of the Gospels all the way to Easter. Along the way, we’ll walk with Jesus through His life, His teachings, His compassion, His surrender, His cross, and His resurrection, following the rhythm of the church calendar.

This series isn’t about learning more information about Jesus. It’s about learning a way of life.

The Gospel of John begins with a striking claim: before Jesus does anything, before He teaches or heals or calls disciples, we’re told who He is. Jesus is the Word through whom all things were made. The Light who enters the darkness. The One who comes near, makes His home among us, and reveals both the heart of God and the shape of a fully human life.

And that matters, because following Jesus isn’t about becoming less human, it’s about becoming truly human. It’s about having our loves, our habits, and our hopes slowly reshaped as we walk with Him.

Each week in this series, we’ll listen to the Gospels together. We’ll pay attention to how Jesus lives, who He welcomes, what He teaches, and how He loves. We’ll also listen to the deeper story of Scripture, how the Old Testament points forward to Him and how the hope of His return shapes how we live now.

The invitation will be simple, but it won’t be easy: Come and follow Jesus. Let Him form you. Let Him change you.

As this new year begins, we’re not starting with a checklist or a challenge to try harder. We’re starting with a Person. The journey of transformation doesn’t begin with what we do for God, it begins with receiving what God has already done for us.

Wherever you find yourself at the start of this year; hopeful, tired, curious, unsure; come walk with this out with us. Come join us as we follow His way!

See you on Sunday!

 
Adam Greenwell
Lead Pastor
Vineyard Church
www.billingsvineyard.org