I attended a very lively and positive meeting of our Vineyard group. Mike who presides over the Bath area and is a trainer to new churches, gave us a talk which included the problems that the movement went though during Covid, and the revised challenges of what God had shown him to be necessary. The theme was ‘Making Jesus Known’.

He spoke with great conviction and clarity. I was motivated to contribute by sacrificing the cost of a glass of wine per week. As I am partly teasing myself I shall share how and why I made my decision at the meeting tomorrow night – Monday.

I shall also speak about the noise made by young children during a service. To be fair the officiant asks the children to leave after the singing and praying. I get it that the children pick up the vibe of belief, and at a very young age. I also get that parents would like to be involved in the service BUT the noise made by unruly children for me takes away from the ability to focus and concentrate. I don’t see how the parent guardians can fully concentrate either as their charge might suddenly scream out or run around . Most parents especially the doting ones react by smiling or grinning. Since when did smiling result in a child being quiet.

I am not sure about prayers to God to ‘move amongst us’.  Water and air do this automatically. It is their nature and they don’t need asking.  Surely the point is that God is within us and we have to become more sensitive to intuition (our intuition?). God is within us not somewhere else.  He is not waiting, hanging around so to speak. The onus is entirely on the individual to DISCOVER their own ‘likeness in the image of God’ and behave like it. God does not have to be begged. You don’t have to say ‘please’.  Also how can God ‘save’ us when he has already given us the tools to do so.