Monday

Good day! I hope you all had a terrific Thanksgiving weekend -- did you get enough turkey and pie to last for a month? I know that I had plenty!

I don't know much today except that I hadn't written in a while -- so I thought I would say HI! and let you know that I'm still here! It seems like over every Thanksgiving I'll hunker in the home bunker and hide out for awhile. It seems to rejuvenate me for some reason.

In a couple of weeks Nicki and I are going to Mexico -- I can't wait! This will be our first vacation without children ever! I hope we can find something to talk about!

We have good friends who asked us to help them do a recommitment ceremony for their 10th anniversary. They said that they've worked through so much stuff in their lives that they feel like they are now starting to connect as husband and wife. They asked if we would come and help them celebrate that! in MEXICO!!

I can't wait to see them and be part of their special ceremony!

Talk to you again soon! Chris

Breaking the Fast

Yesterday was the final day of our 3-week fast that Nicki and I were doing. I know that several others joined in as well -- I hope you're doing well!

As for me -- I'm feeling the best I've felt in a long time, especially since I've only eaten fruits and vegetables for the past three weeks. I really don't like Fs & Vs so my fast consisted of juices, bananas, sweet potatoes, and baked potaotes from Wendy's. It was very minimalist -- especially for me since I like my fudge stripe cookies and pizza so much.

I learned a lot through this whole thing -- I learned to depend on God more and to trust Him when my stomach was grumbling. I even continued to run throughout the fast -- there were many times I didn't want to go a step further and yet God was there and He carried me through.

I found my prayer times became more focused and that my times of reading the Bible were focused as well. Even times of worship were more intimate. I wasn't worried about when my next meal was coming or when I was going to eat again. God is so good! He meets the hunger inside of all of us!

One thing that happened as I went through this: I had many people asking me why my diet was working so well. This surprised me somewhat. The reason we (Nicki and I) fasted was not to lose weight -- it was to depend more upon God for the life of this church and our family. We became more dependent upon Him throughout, and a side blessing of that was losing weight.

I think God is calling me to continue to fast -- I'm praying about what to do on that. For those of you who fasted along with us, let me know how things went. Email me at creeves@southmetrovineyard.org and give me a shout out about it!

God's best to you all! Chris

Happy Thanksgiving

Vineyard Family,
After this weekend's message I was overwhelmed by the response of people simply for saying, 'Thank you'! Thankfulness does really lift our spirits and allow us to praise God! I was reading again in the Psalms today and came across Psalm 117 -- what a quick, yet powerful, praise of God's faithfulness! I loved it! (Then I came to 119 and got bogged down about halfway through -- I forgot how long it was !)

Anyway -- I wanted to just repeat my thankfulness from this weekend! In Thessalonians 1:3 Paul writes that we always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus!

This morning God prompted me to write a prayer list and to have that available for the mornings when I'm reading the Bible and praying. My goal is to make sure I pray for each of our church family by name at least one time through Christmas (hopefully twice!) I'm taking our directory and breaking it down so I know who to pray for each week.

Plus! Shari (our Children's Ministry Director) has a list of each of the children in our classes and has sent that list to some of you (me included!) I'm going to go through that as well! Would you consider joining me in this prayer!

Grab a Vineyard directory and pray for each person or family in it at least once through Christmas! Email me (creeves@southmetrovineyard.org) and I'll send you the list of the kids' names as well. BTW -- the list of kids' names is only a first name listing, to protect their privacy.

I am so thankful for this church body! And I pray that we will grow spiritually and numerically in the years to come! God bless each of you this Thanksgiving! Be thankful and show it!

God's best to you! Chris

It's been such a long time...

Hope all is well for you! I've taken a bit of a break this past week due to the busy-ness of the season, as we prepare for Thanksgiving around here! Things happen so quickly this time of the year, don't they!

I want to share a couple highlights from this past week:

Last SUN AM -- Melissa shared a testimony about growing in her ability to pray -- what a powerful testimony! I had a person write me a note following the service. Here's what it said, "I believe the Lord's presence was surrounding the whole congregation. I felt like the whole church (all the people) were being surrounded by a glaring bright white light which ran down through the aisles. The letter concludes, "I really believe His awesome presence was there today."

It is good to have God show up at His church!

WED PM -- Over 90 middle and high school students shared a Thanksgiving meal put on by the Student Life Department here at the Vineyard. It was awesomely amazing! That was a direct quote from one of the high school boys! The students ate a full Thanksgiving meal complete with turkey, cranberries (pilgrim's blood - aargh!), mashed potatoes, veggies, and a whole bunch of delicious looking pies.

It was amazing to see our students come together and enjoy themselves -- and the best part is that they invited their friends for the feast and to hear about God's love for them. Probably 20-25 of the kids heard about the love of Jesus through this event! As a father, I was extremely pleased that my kids invited 8 friends to come! We ended up taking two vehicles around to pickup their friends and drive them to the church! I love it when the church and the parents can partner together to share God's love with our kids' friends!

Thanks to all of you who served or prepared a portion of the meal and to those who stayed late to clean up! What a blessing that was! We have a generous church!

Tomorrow -- I can't wait until tomorrow morning! Turkey Fest happens here! We'll join with Christus Victor and prepare turkey meals for close to 200 families in the South Metro area. It will be good to join with an area church and work together to bless these families. I'll tell you more soon!

It is good to be a follower of Christ and to be able to do the things He's doing!
God's blessings to ya!

Food Giveaway

God is a good provider! Do you agree? This past Thursday I had a gal call into the office asking for help. She and her two girls were moving into a new apartment the next day. To sign her lease and pay her first month's rent she had to turn over her next paycheck to make sure she could get into the home.

As she told me her story you could just sense the discouragement in her voice. Here she was, a single mom raising two girls, working double shifts at a local taco joint at slightly above minimum wage, trying to get a decent place to live. Here's the catch -- if I turn over my check (which I have to) I won't be able to get any groceries for my family. Could you help me with groceries? Anything would help, I just want to make sure my kids get fed until my next paycheck.

As the church I think that these are some of the people we are to help; to share with them that God loves them and wants to help them as well!

Here's where God showed up! I went to run a couple of errands and meet a friend to pick up some stuff at Sam's Club. My friend's daughter met us there and showed me something pretty cool >>> she said look in my trunk! My daughter had a birthday party and instead of having the kids bring presents we ask them to bring a bag of groceries that we can give to the area food bank.

She said, "My mom said to bring them today and we'd drop them off at the church instead of the food bank!" I had just talked to the lady requesting groceries a little over an hour before and then boom! God provides! Here were six bags of groceries that I could give to this lady -- I just knew that God wanted to bless this lady and He also wants us to know that He is our provider!

As I gave the groceries to my new friend I was able to pray for her and her daughter. They were extremely thankful and truly appreciative of how we could help! The little girl was looking at one of the books on the counter (a small NT Bible). I asked her if she had a Bible at home -- she said no -- so I gave her that one.

Here was the coolest sight of all -- Mom walking out with the groceries and the little girl walking out reading her brand new Bible! Both knew that God loved them and had provided for them!

That's what I signed up when I decided to follow Christ! I want to see the empowering presence of God working through me and through you to bless others! Isn't that what you signed up for too?

The Father's Love

I really can't shake the importance of sharing with you how vital it is to come into the Father's presence! Since we've talked about it a little the last two Sundays - I know that it's really impacting how I'm thinking and feeling about things right now. I am learning how to deal with things in a more grace-filled manner...that's only by the Father's doing! Plus, I'm being driven to pray more and worship more. That gives me peace and fills me with a sense of purpose. I've found that if I miss that time in the AM then I get through the day...but when I purpose to spend time with the Father...then my day just simply goes better!

During worship this morning I put the CD on and in the middle of the set the song 'MORE' by Brian Doerksen came up and it really hit me again how much we need his love. Here are the words below:

More than oxygen I need Your love
More than life-giving food
the hungry dream of
More than an eloquent word
depends on the tongue
More than a passionate song
needs to be sung

More than a word could ever say
More than a song could ever convey
I love You more than all of these things
Father I love You more

More than magnet and steel
are drawn to unite
More than poets love words
to rhyme as they write
More than the comforting warmth
of sun in the spring
More than the eagle loves wind
under it's wings

More than a word could ever say . . .

More than a blazing fire
on a cold winter's night
More than the tall evergreens
reach for the light
More than the pounding waves
long for the shore
More than these gifts You give
I love You more

This is one of the first songs that helped me understand the how much I needed God's love and how much I loved Him. It was one of the first songs that helped me express to Him -- I love you! I still get goosebumps every time I sing or hear this song.

Take time to spend with the Father today. Let his love wash over you and fill you up. What we receive from the world, and even one another, pales in comparison to receiving from Him!

Have a God-blessed day! Chris

Time Flies

Wow! I just realized that I hadn't posted anything here for so long. Sorry about that! It seems that life has been a blur the last couple of days!

We had awesome Harvest Party here last week! Over 320 people attended with about 2/3 of them coming from our community! It's great to see new people coming into the building and seeing that Christians can have a bunch of fun too! It was fun to see the church respond with kindness and smiles and being so excited to welcome people in! Plus, our church is so creative with their costumes! I'll try to find a good picture of someone to post on here!

GOOD NEWS! Two little girls on SUN morning accepted Christ into their lives! In the childrens' ministry the teachers taught about communion and what that means to us as disciples of Christ. They shared about the bread being broken as Christ's body and also about the juice being Christ's blood which was spilled for the forgiveness of sins. Then they asked if anyone would like to receive Christ -- and two girls prayed to have Him come into their hearts!

Isn't that incredible!?! The Bible tells us that the angels in heaven rejoice when someone comes into God's family! What a party! That's the type of celebration I want to be part of every week!
Don't you?

Let's ask our friends and family members that don't know Christ to come and see how good He is. Invite people into His presence with you...invite them to church, to small group, to wherever God shows up! Let them feel the love that He has for them!

I can't wait to hear about and see more people (both young and old) who come to Jesus and have their lives transformed! Pray with me that we'll see more!

Have a God-blessed day!

NOV Congregational Letter

Dear Vineyard Family & Friends,

We are a ‘Kingdom’ people. Since God has sent His Son to the world we have been witnesses of an inbreaking of the future Kingdom…of the fullness of what heaven will be like. Through the words and works of Jesus we get a glimpse of what is to be. Throughout our prayer series I have been continually reminded to pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done!”

This, at times, seems to be an easy prayer. One which Jesus taught his disciples to pray and is still teaching us to pray. But I wonder if we underestimate the power of this prayer, if we underestimate the meaningfulness of what Jesus was trying to teach us? It seems to me that Jesus understood this prayer to be an offensive prayer – not in terms of offending people or offending God – but a prayer that doesn’t just defend the ground already taken in this spiritual battle but propels us forward to victory against our adversary.

Jesus understood that there is a battle between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light and that He was actually on a rescue mission – a mission to redeem mankind. Colossians 1:13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Do we understand that since we follow Christ we have been conscripted into His army and that very mission that he was sent on has been turned over to us? He’s on a mission; therefore, as his people, we are on his mission. We have been given marching orders to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. (Isaiah 61) Jesus says, “You will place your hands on the sick, and they will get well.” (Mark 16:18)

We need to understand this fact: God really likes showing us what he is doing. There is peace in knowing what he is doing and participating with him. We’re on his mission, not our mission looking for his blessing. As Kingdom people we are not commissioned to go out and do what we think God wants done, but we are to do what he is doing.

That’s where this dangerous prayer comes in – Your kingdom come, your will be done! God will show you what He is doing…in prayer! He will lead you into places where you may not expect. He will lead this church to places we haven’t been before…IF we trust Him and ask that His will be done!

Henri Nouwen, author of “In the Name of Jesus” writes that Jesus promises a life in which we increasingly have to stretch our hands and be led into places where we would rather not go. We, as God’s people have an opportunity to make a difference in this lifetime…to our families, to our neighbors, to our community! Prayer is the place to start. Find out where He wants to take you today.

I encourage you to take steps to pray each day. If you are new to this whole thing, start with one minute a day at one o’clock. If you desire to grow more, then set a time to pray daily. Develop a habit that will affect every aspect of your life! Connect with God and hear what He has to say for your life. AND, as a church, we need to pray together. Join together with others to pray and grow together in your ability to hear His voice. Participate in small group to build relationships and be encouraged in your willingness to pray!

As I wrote to you last month, I have felt increasingly pressed by the Holy Spirit to lead a whole church intercessory prayer meeting. Toward that end, I would like you to pencil into your schedules Sunday, November 12th, at 6:00 p.m. for a whole-church intercessory prayer time. My agenda is very simple. We will have individuals and the church corporately coming before God's mighty throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. We will worship and pray together for one hour. We’re going to ask that His kingdom come, His will be done with us at the Vineyard.

Are you ready to see what Jesus has in store for us at the Vineyard, and for you?

Have a God-blessed day!
Chris

I wanted to share with you this note from our Children's Ministry Director Shari. She does such a great job inspiring and also encouraging her team! Every time I read one of her emails it makes me think...so, I want you to think with me! And also pray for our children/families in the Nursery and Children's Ministry area.

I have a question for you to ponder.

What would the world lose if our particular children’s ministry ceased to exist?

Back at the beginning of September, my honest answer would have been something like “Well, the Sunday morning service would lose a bit of peace & quiet because the kids would all be out there.”

It is such a sobering question.

My answer has changed a little in two months. Now I could say that our kids would lose an opportunity to know the relevance of God and the Bible in their lives. Our kids would also lose an opportunity to worship God in a format that they can relate to. Our kids would miss an opportunity to know that the Holy Spirit speaks to them personally. But beyond us, what would the world lose if we ceased to exist?

I would like you to think about that question and consider how you would like to be able to answer it. For me, I’d like to be able to say that our community would miss an incredible move of God because our openness to His leading has brought them new life, joy beyond belief, and a hunger for more of Him. It’s not that we matter and that South Metro Vineyard be lifted up. It’s that we are here for Him. What are we doing for Him and in Him that is impacting our world? What would the world lose if our particular children’s ministry ceased to exist?

Speaking of being on the right track, have you noticed that worship in children’s church just keeps getting better and better. Paula and I were both in awe of God after first service this past Sunday. The kids had their eyes closed. Some had their hands over their hearts. Others were lifting their hands to God. Even our third and fourth graders are letting go of their “I’m too cool” attitude. Our preschoolers are looking around at the others and then following their lead. They are learning to worship Jesus.

During both services, most of the pictures that children received during worship related to the cross and Jesus’ sacrifice. God spoke to Matrim words that were a reaffirmation of this week’s lesson. He said that God told him to do more than his parents ask of him and to be more thoughtful than his brothers expect. Who but God could convince someone to give above and beyond earthly expectations? He is so good.

Shari's right! God is good...all the time!