A small reminder that we have our monthly evening service this weekend. Please note, there is no Sunday morning service. If you are visiting or just passing through, we’d love to meet you. If you don’t usually go to church, you are especially welcome. Come as you are!
January 31, 2014 in event, news, news & events, news and events by andrew
ASD writes:
Just quickly reporting in….
Emma and I, and others, had a great week away with our family of Vineyard churches across the country at NLC. Here are some of the briefest of highlights to show what happens when over 1,000 leaders meet together in a wet month of January at Trent Vineyard, Nottingham. I simply dread to think how much coffee was drunk, but we can probably expect a national shortage!
We met some truly inspirational church planting pastors from India and Peru. As a church we were able to financially contribute to their growing churches in these countries.
We also enjoyed having our close friends from HTB and St Aldates, Oxford with us. Most notably, Pete Grieg (27-7 Prayer), Mark Elsdon-Dew and pastor/theologian Simon Ponsonby. But most of all, we were so grateful to feel the Lord’s presence with us throughout the week. Worship was wonderful.
It is always a significant week, but in someways this year perhaps more so. Interestingly, the words spoken into the Vineyard movement, inside and out, resonated so strongly with us all. In particular, to pursue ‘holiness’ and to encourage all to love God’s Word. We are living in times when authentic faith needs to be seen more than ever. It does feel, without any intention to hype, that everything is moving up a gear for us a movement. We are, of course, not suggesting that we are ‘it’, but something is in the air among our rabble of churches!
I hope some of us at SVV, and our wider friends, were able to watch some of the conference on the live feed link that was texted out to you earlier this week.
Eleanor Mumford was simply outstanding. What a gift she and John are to us! (Videos will be made available on the Vineyard Churches UK & I website soon.)
Meanwhile, maybe think and pray seriously about sacrificing the time to come with us next year. It is hard to convey all the benefits of a conference like this, but it really is worth pulling out the stops for! Or we will give you your money back! (Trustees – note I’m joking!)
The Vineyard National Leaders’ Conference in 2015 is Monday 26th – Thursday 29th January at Trent Vineyard, Nottingham.
God bless,
Andrew & Emma
January 31, 2014 in event, news, news & events by andrew
We are pleased to announce that Stour Valley Vineyard Church will be hosting a 6 week mid week course entitled ‘Discovering Father’s Love’.
The course will be run by John and Maureen Hammond at Assington Hall. They invite you to “come and explore with us Jesus’ invitation to come to the Father. It is a means of manifesting truth concerning our identity as sons and daughters of God. It will commend itself to the conscience of those taking part concerning the revelation of God the Father.”
If you are interested in joining the course pick up a course leaflet at our Sunday morning service and return the booking form (details for returning your form will be found on the leaflet). Please note HOME groups will be joining together for these six weeks.
The course will run every Tuesday evening from 11 March through to 15 April 2014 at Assington Hall, Assington, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 5LQ (see directions below). There will be tea and coffee served from 7pm, the course will start at 7:30pm. There is plenty of parking at the front of Assington Hall.
All enquires please contact: carl@stourvalleyvinyard.org or call: 01787 377 670
January 28, 2014 in event, news & events by andrew
Do your see yourself sitting in the black chair as the next master mind? Or maybe just fancy a great night out with other 20s and 30s? If so come along to the East Anglia Area Quiz Night.
Come and test your brain power on Saturday 22nd February. There will be drinks and desserts from 7:30pm with the quiz starting at 8pm (£10 per team) at The Hunter Club, Bury St Edmunds.
If you are interested in joining a team from Stour Valley Vineyard contact Carl Ward at carl@stourvalleyvineyard.org or 01787 377 670
You can also find information at: http://vcukieastanglia.org/
January 25, 2014 in event, news & events by andrew
Please note, the church office will be closed on Wednesday 29 & Thursday 30 January as the staff will be at the Vineyard National Leadership Conference (NLC), Trent Vineyard, Nottingham. Please pray that our pastors Andrew and Emma and those going meet with God, are refreshed and renewed by His Spirit.
January 24, 2014 in event, news, news & events, news and events by andrew
We are pleased to announce that Marc James will be our Sunday Service special guest on Sunday 20 November, 10:30am at the Delphi Centre.
Marc is the youth and student pastor at Russell Park Baptist Church in Bedford and was previously the Worship Pastor at St Albans Vineyard. He has released a number of albums, which includes popular songs such as ‘Surrender’ and ‘He Reigns’. He has also regularly led worship at summer events such as Soul Survivor. Marc is married to Veronica, who hails from Argentina and has worked for many years in missions with Youth with a Mission. They have two children: Lemmy and Leilani.
In the meantime if you would like to listen to some of Marc’s music you can click on the link below;
Marc James – To The Broken and The Shattered
January 21, 2014 in news & events by andrew
Some quick thoughts by our senior pastor, Andrew Stewart-Darling (Reproduced from Community News magazine)
How do you start a New Year? I mean beyond the obvious alcohol detox and rash gym membership purchase, how are you looking to approach 2014?
The king’s advice to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s book is a good place to start as any: “Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end.”
I like that pragmatic approach. We all like a party on New Year’s Eve, but beyond the Hokey Cokey it is just a way of seeing the end as a beginning. Nothing changes at midnight, apart from the date. Yet, 2014 could be the year that everything changes.
You may be aware that part two of Peter Jackson’s film of The Hobbit is now out. Recently I watched the first one again to put me in the mood.
The world of the hobbit is a very safe and confortable place where nothing extraordinary ever happens, not least to Bilbo Baggins.
However, his life changes when a grey wizard by the name of Gandalf comes visiting: “I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.’
The response by the hobbit is sniffy: “I should think so — in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!”
Yet Gandalf, and the company of dwarfs, cause him to assess his cosy, predictable life, leading to unexpected feelings being stirred up from within. We see him catch up with the departing dwarfs. Albeit unprepared and without a clean pocket handkerchief.
Change can be good or bad, but one thing is for sure, change is here to stay. Nothing stays the same, whether we are hobbit or human.
Gandalf disrupted Bilbo’s life to recruit him for a greater cause – to serve the needs of others and put himself last. This is not dissimilar to Jesus’ call upon a Christian’s life
For those of us who have decided to put our faith in Jesus we have committed ourselves to an adventure bigger than ourselves. And an exciting one it is too! It is why we have as our church’s slogan “For a life less ordinary.”
Part of that journey at Stour Valley Vineyard Church has seen the start of Storehouse Foodbank in Sudbury, which has now seen a number of other groups and churches join us.
We have taken up the invitation to put our faith in Jesus. That has meant, in short, leaving the safety of “The Shires”.
We have seen many lives wonderfully transformed, along with new beginnings. It is a spiritual journey that changes us forever.
Bilbo Baggins saw himself as nothing out of the ordinary. We may feel the same. But to God we are special and most definitely loved. Furthermore, we shouldn’t underestimate our own worth.
As Gandalf said, “I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay… small acts of kindness and love.”
ASD
January 20, 2014 in news & events by andrew
Vineyard Churches UK and Ireland will be hosting a wide variety of events during 2014. Listed below are the main events:
January 27th – 30th | National Leaders’ Conference | Nottingham
February 18th – 21st | Youth Worship School | Winchester
May 3rd | Great Big God 5 Recording | Winchester
May 23rd – 26th | Dreaming the Impossible | Lincolnshire
May 31st | National Live Album recording
October 17th – 19th | Worship Leaders’ Retreat | Derbyshire
November 7th – 9th | Children’s Leaders’ Retreat | Northampton
January 7, 2014 in news & events by andrew
