During the Church’s Birthday Month (21 year anniversary of the church, 5 years since Steve and Lyn Burnhope took over as Senior Pastors), Steve shows some statistics about the Church’s average weekly Sunday attendance, James Tweats (head of compassion ministries) shares about the growth of Storehouse, and Liz Machell (head of children’s ministries) talks about the growth in Vineyard Kids.
Jesus’ famous ‘Great Commission’ in the closing words of Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 28) challenges us to ‘go and make disciples.’ Aylesbury Vineyard’s Head of Youth Ministry, Amelia Godden, looks at what Jesus meant and how he himself went about it — focusing on the four invitations he gave his first disciples on their own relational journey.
Guest Speaker at our Birthday Services, Chris Lane (founding Senior Pastor of St Albans Vineyard, https://www.thevineyardchurch.co.uk/), talks about Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed and how it speaks to us about the nature of our calling to be his Church.
Going into the Church’s 21st birthday month (and the 5th anniversary of Steve and Lyn becoming the Senior Pastors), Lyn Burnhope offers some reflections on the past five years, on what ‘success’ looks like, and some encouragements for the next five years.
In the last of our current series on ‘Big Questions,’ Steve Burnhope looks at why — if God loves us and wants the best for us — we still face hardships in life. If ‘having faith’ is the key to health and prosperity (as some would say) then where are we going wrong? Steve looks at the life of the Apostle Paul for some clues ...
In the second of our latest Big Questions series, Steve Burnhope looks at the Bible. What’s it for? What’s the point of us having it? People sometimes say that it’s ‘God’s Instruction Manual’, but if so, which instructions? What makes a 2,000-plus year-old text relevant to today?
In the first of our latest series of ‘Big Questions’ about Christianity, faith and the Bible, Steve Burnhope looks at the Church. Jesus said, “I will build my Church” — but what sort of Church did he have in mind? How closely does that resemble what we see today? Is there a kind of Church that’s worth believing in…?
We welcome guest speaker and comedian Andy Kind to Aylesbury Vineyard. Sunday 2 September 2018
Steve Burnhope interviews Tanya Malpass about her experience of being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour (with a prognosis of a twelve-month life-expectancy), how she found God in what happened, and how four years later she is alive and well and flourishing.
It’s interesting that neither Jesus nor the Apostle Paul used the term ‘Christian’ (or, ‘Christianity’) — and it only appears in three New Testament verses. By far the most common word is not ‘believer’ or ‘follower’ — rather, it’s ‘disciple’. But that’s an unfamiliar word today — so what does it mean? Steve Burnhope suggests five characteristics that are the difference between being a ‘disciple’ versus just a ‘believer’ or a ‘follower.’
Leading up to our summer Baptisms Service, Steve Burnhope explains the reasons why we do this strange and embarrassing thing called ‘baptism’, in front of all these people!
Lyn Burnhope shares some thoughts about Aylesbury Vineyard’s ‘mission statement’ based around Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 – with an important added dimension, of “being known by him” as well.
Guest Speaker Emily Smith, Senior Pastor of the new Gloucester Vineyard (https://gloucestervineyard.org/), shares some thoughts about what ‘obedience’ to Jesus looks like. It’s not the opposite of what we want, it’s the very best for us — enabling us to live life to the full and know him more intimately.
Young Adults’ Pastor, Luke Martin, explores some thoughts on what God’s kind of leadership looks like — whether it’s at work, school, family, home, community, or church — encouraging us to lead with patience, love, transparency, confidence and a willingness to step up, step out and not be afraid of making mistakes, to learn from along the way.
James Tweats shares about the times in his life where he's asked himself that same question (as many of us have) and looks at two Bible characters who also felt disqualified because of who they were and what they’d done: Moses, in the Old Testament, and Jesus’ disciple Peter, in the New.
Both Paul and Peter talk about the church being ‘the Temple’ (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Peter 2:4–5) — Steve Burnhope looks at how the Temple features and functions in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, and the exciting implications for what that means for us as the church today.
At our ‘Kids Takeover’ Service, children’s leader Laura Michel talks about how we can honour each other, across the generations, as part of the church family
Guest speaker from St Albans Vineyard (https://www.thevineyardchurch.co.uk), Mark Helvadjian, looks at what success in life looks like, and the kind of ‘works’ and ‘working’ that God does and doesn’t intend for us.
Liz Machell explores how we can be ‘sold out’ for Jesus and serve him without becoming ‘burnt out’. Sunday 17 June 2018
In the third and last of our most-recent series on some 'Big Questions' about the Bible and Christianity, Steve Burnhope looks at the options for how we think about the place of other religions in our multi-cultural postmodern society.
In the second of our latest ‘Big Questions’ series, Steve Burnhope talks about how we can understand the Bible as one overarching story from cover to cover — the story of God and us — and the big questions about life and God that that ‘big story’ is asking and answering.
This is talk one (of three) of our latest series of ‘Big Questions’.
On the second Sunday of his visit, Guest Speaker Luke Geraty explains why we need a ‘both-and’ (not ‘either-or’) understanding of what it means to be and do ‘church’. He encourages us not just to think about receiving, to be blessed ourselves on Sundays, but also to serve on teams to bless others, so that they too can be welcomed in and encounter the transforming presence and power of Jesus.
Luke Geraty, our Guest Speaker from Red Bluff Vineyard in California (http://www.redbluffvineyard.church/), explores how the Holy Spirit brings unity to a Church community and how, surprisingly, he works in and through ‘conflict’ in achieving his goals.
Georgia Gasson looks at the exciting challenge of loving and serving others in the way we live our lives. Jesus modelled that for us — “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28) — but it’s still such an alien way of thinking!
Lyn Burnhope looks at the meaning of Jesus having “learned obedience through the things that He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8), and what maturing in our own faith looks like, asking the questions ‘Who am I, who do I want to become, how am I going to get there?’
Steve Burnhope looks at the biblical accounts of the Israelites about to enter the Promised Land, and of David’s encounter with Goliath, and asks whether we too have a ‘giant’ in our life that’s standing in the way of all that God has for us — the abundance, the fruitfulness and the joy and peace of our own ‘promised land’ in him. Just as David experienced, in Jesus we too are chosen, anointed and empowered to slay our giant and be free.
Was Jesus religious? Do you have to become religious to be a follower of Jesus? And if so, what does he want the religion that bears his name to look like? In a postmodern world where increasing numbers of people would call themselves ‘spiritual, but not religious’, Steve Burnhope looks to answer those questions from Jesus’ encounter with the woman accused of adultery in John 8.
Lyn Burnhope explains why we prioritize giving time to engage with God in intimate worship, seeking his presence. She talks about the ‘Why?’ and the ‘How?’ of worship and encourages us to become intentional and passionate worshippers, in mind, body and spirit.
The biggest question that Jesus asked his disciples was “Who do you say I am…?” He’s still asking each of us the same question today — so how will we go about answering it? Steve Burnhope shares some of his own journey of discovering Jesus and what it means to ‘become’ a Christian.
