New Wine family and friends of New Wine,
In our previous two Pastor’s Blogs, David Skevington and I have been unpacking the language that expresses the uniqueness of New Wine Vineyard in our pursuit of becoming a healthy church. This language we have termed our values. Thus far we have looked at the first two values: ‘Be Real’, and ‘Keep Moving’. All our previous blogs are available on our website, under ‘News’.
Today, I want to explore the third value: ‘Continue Practicing’.
The Church and indeed believers generally have been criticized for being all talk and little practice. Put another way, we are deemed to be a people who proclaim a faith, that simply we do not live out in practice. Jesus, James and Paul have some challenging words for us in this regard. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21-
23). James says this: “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead… Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds” (James 2:17-18). Paul writes: “the kingdom of God is not based on talk, but on power.” (1 Corinthians 4:20 AMP).
Many churches use a slogan, which is displayed above the door where one would leave the church building. It reads: ‘You are now entering the mission field’. The point of this slogan is to remind us that our church services, connect group meetings and the courses that we present at church, are opportunities for us to learn and experience and encounter. Once we leave the building or home, the challenge is for us to practice and apply what we have learned or what has been modelled to us. In fact, at New Wine, we are constantly building space into our services and connect group meetings for us to practice and apply what we are learning together. We are given many opportunities to respond by practicing and applying our faith. Listen, learn, reflect and then practice!
So many of us as Christians grow spiritually fat, because we do not exercise (practice) what we are learning and receiving. We spiritually eat, eat, eat and then eat more, without using what we have received into our lives. Spiritual food is designed for us to absorb into our lives and then through exercise (practicing), to work it off. Through exercise and practice, we get stronger as believers, drawing on all the spiritual food that we have absorbed into our lives. We need to be intentional about practicing what we are learning- practicing continuously
and consistently.
Paul, in his letter to his young disciple Timothy, stresses the goal of exercising and practicing our faith: “All Scripture is God- breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We keep practicing and exercising our faith because we know that as we practice, the Holy Spirit is shaping us, transforming us and equipping us to be fruitful and productive in the service of our Master, Jesus Christ. Continue listening,
continue learning, continue reflecting and continue practicing!
At New Wine, we are passionate about encouraging our people to continue practicing. We don’t want God’s people to stop learning and growing in their walk with Jesus, and we know that the best way to keep God’s people growing and to keep them coming back for more, is to keep providing opportunities for, and to keep challenging our people to practice, and then to practice more!
Jesus celebrated when His disciples came back after practicing what He had taught them and modelled to them: ‘The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”. He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.’” (Luke 10:17-18). May all of us at New Wine, know the joy of coming back to Jesus after practicing again and again what we are learning of Him.
Bless you all,
David Stansbury