Monday, Monday

Well, it's been a few days since I returned to the land of hills. I'm feeling encouraged and challenged by the time spent at Nettle Hill. It was good to make some new friends and spend quality time with some old ones. These things, by their nature as an open forum, often have a danger of either becoming a "winge fest" or an insular talking shop. This was nothing like that. We discussed the felt needs of outr local communities, the regions and our national movement. Everyone was on board, and I could see that fundamentally everyone was more interested in what God wanted for the Vineyard worship community than anything personal. In fact I saw a return of the sheer hunger and passion that was around in the early days, before we got all "professional". This time we'll have the quality with the passion....what an unstoppable combination.

As the Vineyard is pretty new in Scotland, what I took away, again, was that our missional job is simply to introduce people to the concept of engaging and encountering God through simple, accessible love songs. I think that this is the Vineyard's gift and calling. It's happened in each nation it has ventured into, ever since that first meeting in John and Carol Wimber's home. Over the years we've tried repacking, questioning, dismissing, embracing, re-formatting, in equal measure, our expression of worship. But, call me old fashioned, it seems to keep coming back to the desire in every human being just to sing praise and pour out there heart to the Father, whether they realise it or not. Here in the Forth Valley, we want to create a place where that can happen.