Continue reading »]]> New Year’s musing, Tuesday pm, 10 January 2012.
Dear KVC,
Happy New Year to you all. We pray that this year will be one of supreme blessing to us all. Come Lord Jesus, Come Holy Spirit! Give us a taste of heaven on this side of eternity.
Today sees us start the working year with two new staff members. Sisa (thanks to the generosity of Ikhaya and Oslo Vineyard) starts at Imizamo Yethu today. Sisa is currently staying in the flat attached to our home, but will probably (in time) need to find accommodation within the community at Imizamo. Welcome aboard Sisa, we wish you a long and blessed stay with KVC and Imizamo Yethu.
Rebecca has taken up her post as Church secretary / administrator and has, in a few short hours, already made inroads into making this inhospitable space more hospitable (: As with Sisa we wish her every success and blessing on staff, as well as fulfillment in her further studies.
2011 in hindsight
2011 Was, from a personal space, a very difficult one for me emotionally, with the death of two close friends in Simon van Niekerk and Malcolm Bates. I guess one of the realities of one’s mates going to be with Jesus is that it reminds you of your own mortality. At 49 I’m only now starting to realize that I won’t be running out on Newlands next Saturday, or indeed in this life time again! I’ve realized it, but now I have to make peace with it, which is a bit different. Please don’t expect me to be more serious though, because that will not be happening anytime soon! Please bear with me (:
On the family front things have stabilized for us substantially since March 2011. Anida is very happy in her career, and the kids are at various stages of their studies. Simone goes into her second year at Stellenbosch University, Marie’ has finished a certificate course at City Varsity and is now enrolling to do a B. Ed in foundational phase, and Emma goes into her final (Grade 7) year at Sweet Valley primary.
From a KVC perspective 2011, was a mixed bag with much more good than bad and no ugly.
Our church has grown steadily over the past 23 months, with a total of 46 regulars being added to our ranks and around 17 (as I count it) who have moved on from KVC. Some have moved due to transfer or relocation and some have moved because their season at KVC has come to a close.
The church is in steady growth phase. It is heart- warming to see some who had moved away for a time, back in the community. We have long felt that KVC will be a place where ‘exiles’ (not just from our movement, but from the church collectively) will find a home.
Points of significant growth during 2011
1. Worship under Rebecca’s leadership
2. The Men’s camp under Andy’s guidance
3. Ladies Camp, organized by Thy, Lecia and Marike
4. Ministry time in church
5. The continuation and stabilizing of ‘Healing on the Streets.’ We are chuffed that Rebecca and team have seen this ministry through and continue to push into it
6. Counselling, under Lindi’s guidance
7. The growth of relationship between Ikhaya and KVC, seen most visibly at the Ikhaya Sunday in Imizamo
8. Continued Vineyard visiting teams from abroad with SW London coming in 2011
9. Continued outward ministry trips – in 2011 the J. Bay trip was a highlight
10. Stabilizing of the small groups in the church under Barbara and Brian’s guidance
11. The great attendance of both Pat’s gifting workshop and the Healing Rooms seminar
12. The two ‘prayer and fasting’ weeks, although, to be honest, we lost momentum with the second one. It wasn’t as well advertised, or pushed as hard as the first one and it showed! We need to continue to encourage Urshi and the Gowie’s for the intercession that has gone on quietly (and not so quietly) over the past few years. It is your faithfulness that has seen the prayer temperature rise at KVC
13. The beginnings of a Conspiracy of kindness initiative
14. The ongoing benevolent ministry of ‘sharing love’ which Ken and Jan have so ably taken over from Kees and Henny
15. Two New Member’s Orientation courses
16. The new – and now with Rebecca on board – regularly to be updated Website!
17. The three great social / fundraising events in the two Barnyard evenings and the inaugural golf day. Thanks to Bev and Pat and Arlene for their involvement
Areas we need to look to in terms of improvement and focus
1. I would like to see some movement in the social justice initiative during 2012. Yolanda started this initiative in 2011, which turned out to be a year in which she was heavily snowed under workwise. It’s the kind of ministry that will involve a lot of talking and brainstorming before anything concrete necessarily takes shape. I urge those of you with a heart for transformation to come alongside Yolanda and Sean in 2012. This forum is the heartbeat of our outward mission.
2. Income, finances and fund raising. We will be setting up a fund raising team, separate from LT and ST.
3. The forming of a separate finance team (separate from leadership but with representation on it) in order to bring us in line with Vineyard praxis.
4. Our constitution needs to be revisited. It is old and dated. I am beginning to make work of this. Obviously the principles and praxis, and Vineyard values remain the same and all changes need to be brought to the church; but I will be making work of ‘reworking’ the constitution for open discussion. Fortunately quite a lot of this work has already been done in the merger between City Vineyard and CBUC
5. The office and administration – starting with a bang!
6. The fine tuning of Sundays, particularly in the absence of myself and Andy.
7. Inventory and upgrade of church house in the uncertainty surrounding any kind of move for us.
Things we need to diarize for the first quarter of 2012 – please check out the attached Year Planner for 2012
i. Alpha – starting in Feb!!!
ii. New Member’s Orientation
iii. Catalyst camp
iv. LT/ST Meeting
To end this opening salvo…some education for us all:
With Rebecca now being on staff, as well as continuing to hold her current portfolios on leadership, worship and HOTS, please don’t inundate her with requests for appointments, complaints, suggestions or anything else on Sundays. We would like her to be able to have a worship experience on a Sunday.
As a request, it would be well appreciated if Tuesdays and Wednesday afternoons could be specifically ‘office phoning slots’ to set up appointments and so on. Wednesday mornings will be taken up by staff meetings (now that we have a staff!) and prayer. The prayer slot will move from 10.00 till 11.00 so that anyone who wants to and is free to can join the staff after their weekly meeting for prayer.
This is all very exciting!
Agape
Melt

Continue reading »]]> Dear KVC,

This may well be my last musing before Christmas. I’ll make it a fairly substantial one, so that we have a good idea of where we are headed in the immediate short term and where we are going in 2012.

Good news, slightly less Good news, and even better news!

The good news for our church and our church office in 2012 is that Rebecca Carder will be joining us on staff as office administrator / secretary, on a 25 hour week. We have really struggled to be as organized and ‘slick’ as we ought to because Andy and my focus has been primarily pastoral.

Rebecca has been accepted to do a Master’s Degree in Education (M.Ed.) at UCT and will have 25 hours a week to give to the church. A more permanent organizational presence in the church office is long overdue. Rebecca’s appointment will not affect the church budget in any way.

On a slightly sadder note, Rebecca’s appointment means that Anri steps down from the administrative position she currently fulfills at KVC. Anri’s role and function will be shared amongst Tony van Niekerk (treasurer), Rebecca (church admin) and Sue Joubert (bookkeeper). Anri and I will be meeting shortly to discuss the handover process, as the church’s procedural governance is very important.

If money were not an issue, we would love to have Anri be able to handle the administrative side of church for us, as she is extremely gifted and competent in that area. Unfortunately the need for an organizational presence in the church office takes precedence for the time being. Thank you to Anri for all that she has done in her capacity as church administrator.

Anri remains on board at KVC, as an active member and consultant (along with Brian Hilliard) to the Leadership team.
Perhaps (certainly missionally) even better news is that we (KVC) are calling Sisa Danisa from 1 January 2012 as community development worker to Ikhaya and general pastoral worker at KVC. Sisa’s week will be split between Ikhaya (25 hours) and KVC (15 hours.)

We are very grateful to Oslo Vineyard for their provision of 63, 5% Sisa’s total stipend for 2012. Thank you too, to ikhaya le Themba for being willing to pass this funding onto KVC.
The above appointments were unanimously approved at a combined LT / ST extraordinary meeting in October.
In order for us to become a church that can sustainably work amongst the poor (beyond what is already being done in Ikhaya and elsewhere) and make a significant long term difference, it entails that we need take Missional ‘risks’ for the Kingdom now.

I.e. we may need to ‘risk more’, before we see the full benefit and Kingdom breakthrough. We have received some substantial pledges toward the end of first quarter next year and in light of these, along with present giving trends, and (more importantly) the sense gained from our 2 ‘weeks of prayer’ we are comfortable in moving forward missionally, rather than treading water.

There is more pastoral and organizational work surrounding a church the size of ours than most people realize, and I am delighted to finally have someone in the office on a more full time basis, as well as someone who can begin to assist with areas of pastoral weakness, such as Youth work.
Welcome aboard Rebecca and Sisa, we look forward to many years of fulfillment in the Kingdom and KVC together.

Men’s camp

A group of 32 men from all walks of life headed off to Montagu (De Bos) to hang out together. Some camped and some stayed in Bungalows.
We hiked, played golf, swam, sang, watched the Currie Cup final, worshipped, ministered to one another and…ate a lot of red meat. It was a really great weekend. Thanks to Andy and team (Murphy!) for making this a reality. We’d like to see 50 guys coming along next year.

Golf day and fund raisers in general

In explaining why we are doing fundraisers I would like to make it very clear that ‘fund raising per se’ is actually of secondary importance to the community aspect of these events. If, hypothetically, KVC were in a place in a year from today where our funds were pouring in and money was not tight, we would still do an annual golf day, a few Wijnhuis dinners and some Barnyard evenings just for the community / ‘kingdom party’ value.
Once KVC reaches a place of sustainable financial viability, whatever is raised in these events, will be donated to worthy causes.
In light of the above thanks to all who have helped in raising prizes and golfers for our inaugural KVC sponsored Golf Day at King David Golf Club on Friday 25th November. We will likely raise in the region of R20 000, as we have 80 players participating. Prizes are still welcome.
On the evening of 20 December we have our second Ikhaya / KVC Barnyard fund raiser. Last time out was a complete jol, so please join us if you are in and around Cape Town at that time. Bev Andrews is the contact. Many thanks to Bev for taking initiative in this regard.
We will be having another Newlands Wijnhuis fund raising evening on Thursday 1 December. For R250 a head, you will be served a three course meal, wine at the table and coffee. Please note that this function is restricted to 30 people maximum, so get your bookings in early with me. The full R250 per head comes to the church.

Sunday Services and spiritual temperature @ KVC

The commitment to our two separate ‘weeks of prayer and fasting’ along with the faithful intercession that happens every week on Tuesdays and Saturdays, along with Wednesday morning prayer and Sundays has seen a significant rise in the ‘prayer temperature’ of KVC.
One of the things that have stood out for me during 2011 was the desire to pray seen at the Conference in Magaliesberg. God responded to that increased desire and the Morning Prayer times were amazing. We need to keep pushing into prayer in every format we are able to.
Thanks to the loyal intercessors who have, in a very real sense, prepared the way for the community, by their faithful and continued seeking after God. Lord, let your kingdom come.
Sunday evening Catalyst gatherings are reaching the place where Andy and I will need to discuss what the plans for the future of this group are. Andy has faithfully stuck to meeting on Sunday evenings for a communal meal, worship and ministry and God is honouring that.
The overall 2011 Sunday morning experience has, for me, been one (generally) of increased expectation. There have been a handful of worship and ministry experiences which have felt like something of heaven coming to us, and generally the spiritual temperature and expectation from KVC collectively is higher.
There will still always be times when we feel ‘God didn’t pitch’ (He always does, but you know what I mean), or ‘we didn’t play our part in coming to the kingdom party’, but by and large, our worship experience has swung strongly toward Jesus.
We keep pushing in, keep praying and keep doing faithfully what we are able to do, always expecting breakthrough and always wanting more of His presence with us.
Blessings to you all

Melt

]]> http://www.vineyardchurch.co.za/index.php/2011/11/wednesday-16-thursday-17112011/feed/ 0 http://www.vineyardchurch.co.za/index.php/2011/10/worship/ http://www.vineyardchurch.co.za/index.php/2011/10/worship/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:11:17 +0000 roxzanne http://www.vineyardchurch.co.za/?p=177

Continue reading »]]> Why Do We Worship?

We worship because God has created us for the sole purpose to spend our lives worshipping Him. We worship God to bless Him; to express His might, power, holiness, awesomeness and our love for Him. As a kickback from worshipping God, we are blessed through touching Him, and connecting with Him. Our most meaningful encounters with God often occur while worshipping Him – very often these encounters deepen our relationship with God, thus becoming life changing.

What Does Worship Look Like?

Worship can take different forms. It can be private (in your home with a guitar or CD); or collective (in a small group or at church on a Sunday).
As a Vineyard church, we value worship greatly; and encourage worship to be authentic, intimate, accessible, and to be approached with integrity. No matter what type of worship you are involved in, these are the trademarks that we at Vineyard look for.

What Is Our Vision For Worship At KVC?

Our vision is two-fold: congregation based; and musically based.
In the congregation based vision, we want to see people connecting with God in a meaningful and deep way through worship. We want worship to go beyond ‘singing songs to God’, but to become an act of service to God that inspires life changing encounters. We want to see people expressing their love for God in whichever way they feel comfortable, be it falling on their knees, lifting their hands, singing, or dancing with abandon. We want to see people encountering God and the Holy Spirit through worship in deeper ways than they ever have.
In the music based vision, we want to develop and train musicians, song writers, worship leaders and sound engineers; who produce a high quality of music. God has called us to do all things to the best of our abilities, and this includes worship – we want our musicians to be Spirit filled, passionate and musically excellent. We want to become a church that produces worship songs that are authentic to who we are as a Cape Town church.

What Do We Want From You?

We want you to worship. Worship God with all your heart, soul, mind and body. We want you to look at the words of songs and find what they mean to you – then sing them to God, understanding what you are singing. We want you to connect with God through worship; we want you to be blessed. Practically, we also are looking for musicians and sound engineers who are passionate about worship and are willing to serve. If you are willing to serve and want to be involved, please contact:
beckycarder@gmail.com

Continue reading »]]> Dear KVC,

As year-end approaches (understandably) our energy levels tend to drop more than proportionately.  For most of us the working day becomes something we need to ‘get through’ rather than something we look forward to.

It is good to know that we serve a God whose energy levels never drop and who never stops to ‘re-charge.’  One day, on seeing Jesus we will be just like that too…aint that something to look forward to!

For now Lord we pray that you will allow each of us in our places of work to finish the year strong, and to be the continual presence of salt and light to the watching, waiting world.  Come Holy Spirit!

Recap of the weeks that were

In the past few weeks we have been busy with a number of activities out of the ordinary.

Our New Member’s Orientation (NMO) Programme sees four new people welcomed into membership at KVC.  Some are ‘old faces’ in that they have been around for a while and have now come into membership and others are fairly new to us and us to them.  This Sunday sees us welcome them officially.  Welcome to:

Jill Farrant

Gaylin Downie

Franlize Fourie

Arlene Pullin

Next (NMO) end of first quarter 2012 – please let me know if you’d like to attend.

The Ikhaya Sunday Service was…profound.  We are humbled by what God is doing in Imizamo Yetho through this ministry and pray for His continued blessing and protection over all the staff and kids at Ikhaya.

Thank you to everyone who made this day possible.  Thanks to Sisa for being our guest preacher on the day.

The Healing Rooms training day was attended by over 40 people, which was way in excess of our expectation.  Thanks to Thy and Claudia for organizing the seminar.

It was great to have Mark, Simone and Roxzanne Salida from J. Bay Vineyard with us (on and off!) for two weeks.  Thank you to Mark for preaching last Sunday and thank you to Roxzanne for the great new KVC Website.  We look forward to growing our relationship with you guys as a family and the family of J. Bay Vineyard Church.  Thanks to the Hilliards for hosting.

Conspiracy of Kindness was launched a few Saturdays back, with a few interested parties joining Marike.  Watch this space.

To look forward to

Starting next week (Monday 17 October) we are into our second prayer (and fasting) week for 2011.  Our focus will be:

• What is God saying to us as a community?
• Where is He leading us?
• How do we get there?  (I.e. what is our response to what He is saying and where he is leading?)

Please try to hear with us.  I feel that we need to come before Him with no agenda whatsoever.  I.e. ‘dropping everything’ and saying ‘OK Lord, here we are…willing to hear afresh. We come with no agenda, no preconceptions, no strategic plan, no impressive vision, but filled with expectation. Speak, for your servants are listening.’

Please fast as you feel guided to – i.e. parameters are yours to discern.

Prayer times and slots as follows:

Monday 17th – Each of us by ourselves, throughout the day.

Tuesday 18^th – Each of us by ourselves, throughout the day.  (Melt lecturing at Newlife ministry school in the evening)

Wednesday 19^th – Corporate prayer @ Church house from 18h00-19h30 Melt to lead

Thursday 20^th – Corporate prayer @ Church house from 18h00 – 19h30 Andy to lead

Friday 21^st – Corporate prayer at Church house from 18h00 – 19h30 Melt to lead

That’s all for now.

More Than Conquerors

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^[j]

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Shalom

Melt

Continue reading »]]> Miracles Still Happen

Is God real? Do miracles still happen or were they only for biblical times? What’s the point of Christianity – isn’t it just a club for happy-clappy, hypocritical, strange people who are out of touch with reality? Why does God let bad things happen? Is God still relevant in our day and age? Is He?

As a Vineyard church, we believe that God is real and that He is relevant in our day and age, and yes: we believe that God still performs miracles. We believe that God wants to reach out and meet with people, He wants to be seen as a mighty God, He wants to be seen as real.
As Christians, we have been told to go out into the world and “Heal the sick, raise the dead… drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” (Mat 10v8) So, every second Saturday, that is what a group of us do: we go and pray for healing for people. Here’s how a typical Saturday looks:

9am we meet at the City Vineyard building for coffee, catch up and a prayer session.
9:50am we leave the building with a few chairs, our sign and butterflies in our tummies.
10:00am we get down on our knees on the Grand Parade and ask God to come.
10:05am we’re open for business – asking people if they want prayer and praying for them if they do. And it’s amazing – all fear disappears, all embarrassment dissolves, and faith is increased as one after the other people come and sit in the chairs, wanting to be prayed for, wanting to be healed. And often, healing comes – a miracle is seen… a growth disappears, a leg lengthens, a foot is healed, back pain disappears, lungs are opened up… people are touched by God, and healing takes place.
12:00 we pack up, debrief and close in prayer; thanking God week after week for showing us that He’s real; for healing people when we ask Him to.

It really is an amazing experience. God is real. Miracles still happen. Everyone gets to play.

We’d love you to come and join us – be part of our team in any way you feel led… whether it’s just to pray in the background as we pray for others, or to join us in praying for people, or praying for us during the week, please contact us – we’d love you to get involved~ the more the merrier!

Contact: beckycarder@gmail.com

Continue reading »]]> Dear All,
A very short musing today, just around a few practical issues for the weekend coming up and beyond.
As you all know by now, we will be meeting at Ikhaya in Imizamo Yethu, Hout Bay, this coming Sunday to both celebrate their birthday with them, and to expose the church to the amazing work going down at Ikhaya.
If you need a lift / still do not have a map showing how to get there please respond to me via email and I will sort.
We are meeting at 9.00 for a simple breakfast of muffins, scrambled eggs, bread and the obligatory (Vineyard) coffee. The service will start at 10.00 am. Please join us for both brekkie and the service.
Our guest preacher will be the venerable, Sisa Danisa.
On Friday 30th September to Sunday 2 October Mark,Simone and Roxzanne Salida from J. Bay will be with us. Roxzanne will stay with us during the week following (Mark and Simone will be lecturing at YWAM, Worcester from 3-6 Oct) and be re-joined by Mark on Friday 7.

Mark will be ministering at KVC on Sunday 9 October.
We are urgently looking for someone who will be able to host all three of Mark and his two daughters, as it would be best if we could keep them together. Aside from the week that Roxzanne is with us by herself, they will have wheels, as they are driving down. Please consider offering hospitality to them. Roxzanne will be spending her week in Cape Town in the office with Andy and I re-designing and updating our church website, so will be occupied fully during office hours.
Fund raising
I attach a letter from our treasurer Tony van Niekerk for your attention. Whilst the church is not (yet) in a dire financial position, we are depleting our reserves fairly rapidly. If present trends continue we will run into trouble by early 2012.
As mentioned from the pulpit two Sundays back, it is with this in mind that we are moving into Fund Raising mode. The aim will be to raise approximately R100 000 between now and March of 2012, buying us some time.
I will share the golf day dates and details with you later this week and a restaurant fund raising date next week.

Please spend some time praying through Tony’s letter and hearing what God may be saying to you. As mentioned previously, I will put on my ‘fund raising’ hat for the next few months if needs be, but my long term call is to pastor, not to raise funds. Long term sustainability comes from growth and generosity.
Blessings
Melt

Continue reading »]]> Dear KVC,
I will likely not write again before return from AVLN conference in Magaliesberg on around the 25th so this may be a fairly long musing, as there is quite a bit I want to communicate. Some of what I need to communicate is quite hard to do, as for the first time in nearly two years I need to share some of my own disappointments.
Generally I share my hopes and joys, as there have been, and still are, many of those, and because that is who God has made me, but today I feel I need to share some of my concerns and (to be frank) sorrows.
2010 was not an easy year for KVC, or for us as leaders, and I believe that God has brought us a long, long way toward wholeness during that time. It came at a cost, as I was pretty near burned out (and still am) after the first 12-15 months. Whilst the bulk of what is happening, and has happened at KVC, is indicative of a move of God; there are still sometimes (if I’m absolutely honest) attitudes and approaches to church that sadden and amaze me.
Sundays past…
The past two Sundays have been special for different reasons. Two Sundays back for the very tangible and manifest presence of the Holy Spirit in worship, and this past Sunday for the presence of God in community. We continue to press into the presence of God on an ongoing basis. God is present in many ways, and certainly His presence in relationship is not of lesser importance than His presence in any other way He chooses to manifest Himself.
Due to a number of ‘takes’ on why we did what we did this past Sunday it’s probably necessary to explain our thinking. Bringing the service an hour forward allowed us to prevent a large portion of the congregation staying away to watch the rugby, and also allowed us to bring un-churched friends into our space. (The only argument against a North West wind is to put on your rain coat!) Thank you to those who did bring friends along.
There are probably two ways of viewing what we did: 1) ‘It is a disgraceful lack of commitment, and indicative of wrong priorities to change a church service to facilitate a rugby match.’ 2) It is an opportunity for the sake of the Kingdom and the Gospel, as well as an opportunity to hang out together socially. I.e. it is relevant from and evangelist and community point of view.
I choose to see the latter as our emphasis…and in hanging out together it was clear that this is something we need to do more often. If ‘church’ is only an obligation and duty, rather than a joy then I suggest we have missed something along the way. We are generally meant to have fun doing what we do. Life in the Kingdom may be bitter-sweet, but we do not seek out the ‘bitterness’, it tends to come our way! We seek out the sweetness. Most of what Jesus did on earth happened during ‘life.’ We are not into a duty bound moribund expression of our faith.
Thanks to the braaiers and thanks to all of you who donated food so generously. As for the Bokke, we were never in doubt…
Sunday Survey
Thanks to Thy and her team for the recent Sunday Survey, done in order to establish ‘how we are doing,’ in our most visible (and still most central) communal space of worship.
From all appearances, Sunday surveys, are an area in which Angels may fear to tread… The contradictory responses to the same questions are indicative of how impossible it is to ‘keep all of the people happy all of the time.’ I am grateful to God that having to do that (keep everyone happy all of the time) is not a task leadership is ever called to. Our task is to hear God and to go where He is going and follow where He is leading…
So for e.g. it is hard even to respond to contradictions like: ‘We need more ‘vibey’ upbeat African music’, and…’the music is too loud, many people have left as a result’. I commented on this difficult balance a while back but feel I need to do so again.
We do not always get it right. Sometimes (if the music is too soft) people struggle to enter worship. Sometimes (if the music is too loud) people struggle to enter worship. Sometimes, if the music is too upbeat and loud, our religious natures manifest and we are offended for the sake of apparent ‘decency.’
We will continue to try and get the balance right, but we will not always get it right. This is the challenge of life together. I’d suggest that the worship teams could do with some encouragement rather than petty criticism. They too, have come a long way and have begun again to lead us regularly into the presence of God. Thank you Rebecca and team.
If you really want to hear loud, pay a visit to Hillsong one Sunday…now that, really is loud! I’m not going to comment further on music volume other than to say that we will do our best to maintain the balance, but that when God comes by His manifest presence that kind of side issue tends to pail into insignificance.
In the same way, the fact that some like only expository preaching and others like only thematic preaching, and some like one preacher but not another, is actually a point of growth to maturity for the individual and the congregation (think back to Costa’s recent series).
Sunday services are not primarily about ‘who I like and what I want.’ They are about what God wants to do within this community, through the people (all of them) who preach and teach and worship here. KVC is a church – not a seminary and not a movie theatre…and our aim is not to ‘attend and then to crit.’ Our aim is to come together to worship Him…
I reiterate what I have said before: ‘There is a place for strictly theological education.’ That space is likely Tuesday evening Ministry School at Newlife, and VBI if you feel a call to theological education.

For the rest, our theology will ‘come across’ in bits and pieces in the Sunday messages, small groups and other spaces such as the course hosted this past Saturday, but theological education per se, is not the aim of Sundays. Sundays are for worshipping God…messages will attempt to facilitate that aim. The church is for God…He delights (hard as it may be to believe) in us, when we gather to worship Him.
Gifting is ‘cheap’, but character costs. Whilst actively seeking, recognizing and encouraging growth of gifting, as point leader, I will always place a higher premium on character than on gifting.
I will continue to pick up the bulk of the preaching, and will release the pulpit from time to time, to those who have emerged as teachers and preachers, and there are a good few of them. The preaching too, will range between expository (e.g. our Daniel series) and thematic (e.g. our present series on the difficult sayings of Jesus.)
Something I have learned in the past few months is that I do actually need to pick up the bulk of the teaching and preaching and that to release the pulpit for six weeks between two other guest preachers, was not necessarily my wisest decision to date.
Having said all of the above, there were a good few responses to questions in the survey that brought about a fairly collective if not unanimous response. To these issues – mostly aesthetically based – we will pay attention.
Two points to close this section:
1. The worship team cannot come down from the stage to the level where we all sit, due to the hard wiring of speakers, cables, snakes and the like. It was set up that way at a time when the congregation was bigger and the logistics of moving are too difficult, particularly if we face a relocation in the next year or two.

2. The taking up of an offering during the Sunday service is most certainly a Vineyard principle. The history of the Vineyard in SA looks slightly different to the history of the Vineyard in the rest of the world. Taking up an offering, as part of our act of worship, is done in by far the most Vineyard churches throughout the world.

What happened in SA, was that the Vineyard, as a movement, was planted at the same time as many of the ‘so called’ ‘seed- faith’ movements (i.e. what you give will be given back to you tenfold and more…) and our failure to take up an offering in SA Vineyard churches, was based more on our desire to disassociate ourselves from the ‘seed-faith’ movement, than it was on any biblical principle.

In that light, it was a ‘fear based’ principle. Fear based principles are seldom Kingdom. The SA National leadership, has recognized that we (to put it in the words of Dave Pederson) need to outgrow our ‘Hippy’ roots and to allow people, particularly those not monthly salaried, to give regularly – even if it is the ‘widows mite.’

In the same way, the breaking of bread, in the past at KVC, was not indicative of normative Vineyard practice. There are Vineyard churches (SW London to mention one) who break bread every time they meet. We will continue to explore and increase our practice of breaking bread together. Sunday coming (18th) will see us breaking bread together.
Healing Rooms and AVLN
The healing rooms seminar hosted on Saturday 10 September, exceeded expectation with over 40 peeps in attendance at Church house. Thank you to Thy, to the ladies helping with coffee tea and catering, (Lecia, Faye et. al.) and thanks also to the Pursers for teaching and sharing.
Healing is central to us as a movement and we will continue, whether through Healing on the streets, or Healing rooms, or Healing in any other way, to entrust ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually to the one who is risen with healing in his wings.
AVLN is being attended by all of the following from KVC, please be in prayer for us. Andy and Melt, Katherine Wilson Morse, Ricky and Mhinty Pato, Jenna Chipps.
Remember that on Sunday 2 October we will be having our Sunday Service at Ikhaya. More detail on this gathering to follow from AVLN.
Sunday 18th –The difficult sayings of Jesus #3 ‘Give it all away.’ Melt. (Breaking bread – Andy will lead communion)
Shalom
Melt