Blog - Vineyard

Taking the plunge... Why baptism?

Published on 11 May 2012 | Julia Pickerill

Baptism is weird. As followers of Jesus, it is one of those things about which we ask, “Hold on a second, why are we doing this again? What does this have to do with my faith?” It can just seem like such an arbitrary act. Not only can it seem arbitrary, but also divisive. Infant baptism? Adult baptism? Dunking? Pouring? Sprinkling? For ‘salvation’? For church ‘membership’? In other words, there are both theological and practical interpretations of baptism that slice in a hundred different ways.

We're moving on 8 April!

Published on 17 March 2012 | Julia Pickerill

Meeting Point...
...same time, same gezelligheid, more room to sit...

Starting Easter Sunday, our Sunday services will move around the corner to begin meeting in de Rode Hoed, Keizersgracht 102.

Many of you have heard of de Rode Hoed, as it’s got a rather large public reputation as being a cultural debating center: a center for the arts, and politics, literature and dialogue. It’s a historic building, with a chic foyer and café’/bar. It’s very beautiful. We’re incredibly grateful to be able to meet there. read more »

Making Room for God

Published on 8 February 2012 | Spiritual Disciplines | Eric

There are loads of people who have written brilliant things about the significance of prayer. I won’t add anything profound to them; what I have to say is rather simple… Prayer is simply making room for God. Making room for God to speak, to act, to be known. When we never learn to pray, or when we forget to pray, our soul begins to shrink, like our lungs when the oxygen is sucked from the room. Teresa of Avila wrote, “Souls without prayer are like bodies, palsied and lame, having hands and feet they cannot use.” Without prayer, we are limited, small, working like a machine. With prayer, we become large, full, a heart alive. read more »

A poem for as we prepare for Lent...

Published on 8 February 2012 | Poetry | Julia Pickerill

Slow Me Down

God,
I have been going on and on
As if I were a machine;
Help me to be
A human being.
Slow me down
To sanity
Before life comes
To a grinding halt.
I have been scraping away
In a dust bowl,
Dying from the dregs
In this dry canteen.
Where did You put my cup
That runneth over?

by David Redding read more »

Share Offering

Published on 16 January 2012 | Julia Pickerill

VA held a special offering for our Share Fund in December.

Vineyard Amsterdam will use the Share Fund for people in our church community who are facing financial difficulty. This is a concrete way that we can express our mutual concern for one another: that we come together not just on Sunday mornings, but also that we support one another in times of need. Our community responded with obvious enthusiasm - during the Share Fund collection on the 11th, we collected four times as much as during a normal offering, and have also received additional generous gifts into the church bank account. We have already received €2.400... an extravagant sum.

If you have not yet given for this special purpose, and would like to contribute, you can still do that via our account 1594.83.999 t.n.v. Vineyard Amsterdam, noting 'Share'. read more »

Who do you say I am?

Published on 11 November 2011 | Local Church | Eric

Two Sundays ago at Meeting Point, we started a new sermon series called "Who do you say I am?". We'll be talking for the next several weeks about the "I AM" statements of Jesus... and looking at the book of John for insight into how Jesus actually presented himself to the people around him.

As many of you heard at church, the I AM statements of Jesus (ie: "I am the way"....) are rooted in the I AM statements of God in the Old Testament. In other words, when the historic man called Jesus used that language, He was deliberately identifying himself (a young, unknown Jewish man from a small tribe and an unremarkable family) as the God of the universe. And as offensive or crazy as that claim was to many religious people, the words and actions of Jesus started a spiritual movement that has changed the world. read more »

Connect Groups: To help each other remember...

Published on 19 September 2011 | Community | Mark

Why do we talk so much about community at Vineyard Amsterdam? Why do we get together on Sunday mornings? Why should you consider joining a Connect Group? Why do we even want to share our lives with each other? Have you thought about these questions? read more »

Reflections on our retreat

Published on 8 September 2011 | Eric

I had such a wonderful time with you at the retreat that I wanted to write to you and tell you how much I love you and love what is happening in our community. It is really a special thing that we should recognize as a beautiful gift from God, as Eleanor so wonderfully pointed out. One of the most special things for me was seeing how the Holy Spirit was touching many of us in new and surprising ways. One person said to me, “I like what is happening here because we are just giving room for God, but nobody is forcing anything. We are just giving space for God to move, and then everyone can respond in ways they are comfortable to respond.” That was a great encouragement to me. read more »

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