Vineyard Church | Weekly Update November 29, 2023

This dude don’t know his hind end from a hole in the ground…. 

This grammatically challenged thought passed through my mind this week as I listened to a talk given by some high-powered psychology dude after he said something that made me think he was more full of it than a Christmas goose. 

“You are the average of your five closest friends.” This psycho-dude obviously does not know the jack wagons I pal around with, because I am clearly the cream of that particular crop. If you are reading this and wondering if you are one of the jack wagons, well, likely so. I wanted to use this statement as the reason to tune out the rest of the talk, but the Holy Spirit had another plan in mind.

I am the average of my five closest friends…. In other words, I am a reflection, a fruit of that community. This could be seen as a resounding endorsement or a scathing indictment if we miss the point of process and intent. I didn’t realize it until I was driving back to the office, but this point is exactly what we need to finish off our last 13 weeks of looking at the parables of Jesus as lessons on how to abide in Him.

Thirteen weeks of sermons amounts to roughly 280 hours of prayer, study, conversation, and writing. The process begins several months before the series begins by being sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is doing in the church, city, and world; and what types of events, experiences, and conflicts people in our congregation are living through. This, coupled with prayer and conversation, gives a direction that leads to a topic or book of the Bible that will lead to the series taking shape into the several sermons used to deliver the point.

Preparation for the Abide series began during the Lent season last year and developed into the series we just shared. About 280 hours of work, which leads me back to the premise of this post…. If I am the average (read reflection) of the community I am a part of, what am I reflecting and what did I contribute to influencing that reflection? In other words, what was the point of those 280 hours? Did it matter? Did it change anything? Is what the Vineyard reflects into Yellowstone County positively changed by what we did this fall? 

The message of John 15 led us to evaluate where we draw life… either things eternal (Jesus) or things material that reflect the culture of the world rather than the Spirit of God. This evaluation is meant to be a benchmark for progress rather than an entry point of shame or condemnation. We take stock of where we are and we use that information to drive us closer to the goal of drawing life only from Jesus and thus bearing the same fruit in the lives of others as He has for us.

So, did it matter? If I am the average of those I am close with, I can become the metric that provides the answer to that question, and that answer includes both short-term and long-term opportunities for data. In the short term, how am I postured to those around me? In the long term, over the course of the next year (a year that will see the continuation of wars in Ukraine and Israel; community divisions at the local, regional, and national levels; and what might be the most contentious presidential election in the history of our nation), will I be a participant in division or a warrior for unity? The binary nature of things suggests that there will not be a middle ground, and as followers of Jesus, that middle ground is not a comfort we are afforded. So, as we end our Abide series and prepare for the Advent season, our question is: Did it matter?  

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