This past Saturday, our family and friends threw an awesome party for Char and I celebrating forty happy years together. We’re asked all the time, “What’s your secret?”, as if there’s some magic to it. Well the answer might surprise you…

I feel bad when I hear divorced people say, “We split up because we grew apart and got tired of each other.” Every now and then Char will half jokingly ask me, “After all these years do you ever get bored of me?” To which I give the only smart answer a husband should give if he knows what’s good for him, “Of course not, babe…” But if I weren’t so unpoetic, I would want to say, “Bored! Hell no! How could I be? Being married to you has been like going on an expedition together. We’ve had our thrills, our dramas, and our share of letdowns as well as our great escapes but they’ve also led to wonderful surprises and joy! How can I ever be bored? You’re the Indiana Jones of marriage!”

Back in ’72 we had it in our heads that marriage would take some getting used to but with enough work we’d get it, like learning mathematics. Boy, were we wrong and I’m so glad we were! Sure it’s been work but it’s been more like working my way through a great novel you can’t put down; that to your delight has lots of layers to it. Not a simple story but if you’ll stick with it, draws you in and causes you to think hard and is filled with unexpected plot twists and discoveries.

We’ve found that marriage isn’t something to be mastered like algebra – become familiar with the rules, practice, practice, practice and eventually you master it (that would be boring). Marriage isn’t mathematics. It’s a living, breathing relationship – the melding of two sometimes, as in the case of Char and I, very different, volatile individuals – that can’t be mastered by simply following a ‘how to’ manual. It’s a very special connection given to a man and a woman given as a gift by God to mirror the complexity and mystery of his very nature! I’m sorry it can’t be mastered like a foreign language. I’ve discovered that the things that make for a satisfying and exciting life together, like trust, transparency, patience and most of all, forgiveness, develop over time, through trial and error while under fire, in the middle of the untidiness, unpredictability and hard knocks of life. And as uninviting and messy as that might sound it actually can be terrifically satisfying and fun… the furthest thing from boring.

In all honesty, Char has led the way in what I think is our mostimportant collaboration – becoming friends. Lovers explore intimacy together. Partners work together. Both are very important ingredients. But friends enjoy one another. It’s so common for couples to move from attraction to sexual intimacy, skipping right over friendship. Our looks will fade. We get wrinkly and lose our sexual prowess but friendships endure. And that’s what I find missing in most failed marriages.

Those of you who know Char know she’s turned friendship into an art form. And like most artists she makes it look easy. She’s a natural. But what comes natural to her isn’t natural to me. Char’s greatest gift to me has been teaching me how to be a friend by being a friend not just my wife.

Now friendship is our heavy-duty shock absorbers on the rocky road of relationships, allowing our love to go deeper, opening the way to new adventures, challenges, discoveries and joy… but never boredom.

And there you have it. That’s our secret. We’ve become friends! At the heart of every good marriage is friendship. Who would have thought? Sounds too simple but almost half the people that try out marriage fail because they fail at friendship. Get good at being a friend and you get good at life…

Here’s to friendship
Mike T

One day, in the window there was a sign, “Under New Management”. Things suddenly changed for the better. It was like night and day. The new owner cleaned the place up. Laid down new rules. He insisted they serve better food and offer better service; establish better conditions, regular hours and a sense of pride. Before long, business picked up. They made money and the employees even got raises…

But I heard the craziest thing through the grapevine. Even though things were so much better for everyone, there were complaints about the new boss and how he ran things. A few of the old timers grumbled, “He’s a slave driver. Who does he think he is?” They didn’t like being told what to do or be held accountable. They wanted to go back to the way things were when they could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, the way they wanted. So they quit.

The resurrection and absolute power

I know you’re gonna think I’m off my rocker, but when I think of that restaurant and the reaction of some of the workers I think of the implications of Easter. The gospel is the announcement that in and through Jesus, God was rescuing and remaking the world. Despite popularly held opinions, the resurrection of Jesus doesn’t mean, “It’s all right. We’re going to heaven how.” No. Jesus’ earliest followers saw it differently. It was a show of absolute power. To them Easter declared, “The world’s under new management now. God’s in charge, here on earth as it is in heaven.” To them it meant that Jesus had upstaged the powers that be and was running the restaurant now. “He’s the Boss. Get used to it.”

Because of this, God lifted Jesus high above everything else. He gave Him a name that is greater than any other name. So when the name of Jesus is spoken, everyone in heaven and on earth and under the earth will bow down before Him. And every tongue will say Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:9-11)

Standing before the risen Jesus, there was no more hesitation or doubt in Thomas’ mind as to what the resurrection meant… “My Lord and my God!” His life was under new management.

Good news for some, not so good for others

And even though this is great news, like those disgruntled employees, not everyone’s happy about it. In fact most people find this too much to take. “Who does Jesus think he is anyway? My boss?” Well yes, that’s his point exactly… and more. He’s king of the world! With a boss you can quit. But there’s no such wiggle room with a king. This kind of absolute power can be unsettling, disruptive and frankly threatening to people who pride themselves in their autonomy…like most of us in the self-sufficient, consumerist Western world.

So as we come to Easter with the empty tomb and think of its implications of absolute power we need to honestly ask ourselves, do we want a religious leader to fix us and save our souls so we can go on living our version of the good life or do we want a king to rule the world… and our lives?

He has risen, indeed!
Mike T

It’s not like there’s a whole bunch of people living here that have never heard the gospel. They used to be churchgoers but are no longer interested in church, period. They come here and just stop going to church. They’ve heard all the arguments and reasons to believe and have rejected them. “Been there, done that and it didn’t work.” So they’re staying away in increasing numbers.

Soul-sickness

The problem is that this isn’t working well for many “nons” either.Society can buy practically anything it wants except happiness. It’s gone for the American Dream but made itself soul sick, unable to enjoy life. Getting more miserable even as it piles up more stuff. It’s gained the world at the price of losing its soul.

Sick souls are not cleansed healed by arguments, reasons or religious self-improvement schemes. Sick souls become whole by simply encountering God’s bona fide presence and by experiencing faith that works in their daily lives. What they need is for someone to show them how this sort of faith works so they can try it and see if it in fact does work.

Jesus had faith

Jesus showed us how faith actually works by walking it out in his own life in plain sight for all to see through a very simple, child-like relationship with his heavenly Father. “…the one who sent me is with me – he has not deserted me. For I always do what pleases him.” (John 5:19-20; 8:29)

He proved to us that even though faith can be hard and even scary at times, it worked because for him it wasn’t a blind leap into presumption or into his own wish dreams. It was a leap into the arms of a God he carried on a warm, intimate relationship with. A God who spoke to him, guided him and was a strong, steadying, satisfying, healing presence for his soul in the midst of his hectic and often difficult daily life.

The aim of this experiment

This is at the heart of Leap of Faith. Discovering a faith that works in a world that has rejected reasons and arguments and in need of the real love and cleansing God’s presence offers. Leap of Faith a way we can experience that presence in our everyday lives by doing some simple concrete things that put us in a position to exercise faith in God’s goodness like praying big specific prayers, prayers for our six, tracking with these prayers in our small groups, letting our faith be guided by daily readings from God’s Word, doing this as a community with the goal of experiencing a better sort of life together.

We’ve just started our second week of this 40-day prayer experiment. Why not join us. Even if you’re not here in Brooklyn with us you can participate by going to our website and getting the low down on what this year’s Leap Of Faith is about and sign-up for our daily devotional readings.

The World Awaits…
Mike T

And so, during the 40 days of Lent, our entire church asks God for really big things – things that we can’t pull-off on our own. We put ourselves out-there to see what God might, and can do for us. 

So we ask God for:

• Big things for us, individually
• Big things for our friends and family who aren’t really  experiencing much from God
• Big things for our church and larger community

We do this by doing certain activities together as a church.  Those things include:

• A special Sunday sermon series
• Daily Bible readings, God and the Nations
• Daily prayer
• Weekly Small Group Discussions
• Some sort of activity that stretches us and our experience of God over the 6 weeks

This year’s theme for Leap of Faith is called “The World Awaits”. This theme centers around understanding, appreciating and experiencing the bigger story of God and the things that God is doing in the lives of all people. We, at the NBV, believe that God isn’t just working to benefit our lives, but the lives of our non-religious and secular neighbors, family, friends and strangers as well.

This year we’ll be going through the entire Bible and seeing how God’s plan, from the beginning, has never been to be a special possession of a limited group, but to rather share Himself, His love and blessing withall people – regardless of location, background or circumstance. We’ll also try to experience what the Bible seems to pitch, in that we get the most out of life by sharing and pursuing God together.

So, we’ll try to learn about faith alongside our non-churchgoing friends by asking them to share their experiences with faith and learn from them in a give-and-take sort of way.

If you find this aspect to be intimidating, as many people do, I’d encourage you to attend the “Conversations” discussion group on Monday February 27^th. It will be a great discussion centered around why and how these conversations can be educational and helpful to all parties in the discussion, rather than uncomfortable, unhelpful and off-putting for everyone. You can sign-up on your bulletin or email ryanwobbrock@gmail.com

This coming Sunday we’ll make available a Leap of Faith User’s manual that explains everything in-depth and will help prepare you for what we’re about to embark upon, here at the North Brooklyn Vineyard.  We’ll kick everything off on Sunday the 27^th with our daily Bible readings starting on Monday the 28^th.  By the way, if you are receiving this update and your not a part of the NBV you can still participate along with us. Just go to our website and sign–up for the daily readings and listen in on our sermon series.

I believe if you’ll buy-in all the way to this year’s Leap Of Faith, these next six weeks will be a challenging and exciting season of spiritual growth for you.

The world Is awaiting us…
Mike T

Everyone agrees this is a new beginning and that there’s something exciting pending that God has in store for us. I suspect it has something to do with him continuing to shape us into that community we’ve been dreaming of becoming since we began… that connects well with God, one another and with the world so that the most unlikely, non-religious people will themselves connect with God.

This is who we already are but we have more to go and our faith needs further stretching if we’re going to be a socially attractive and spiritually engaging community. We’ll need even greater confidence in God’s love and dependability as we move forward.

40 day adventure

This is where Leap Of Faith comes in. Our third annual Lentin prayer experiment is coming up at the end of this month, beginning February 26th. Forty days, approximately six weeks, of targeted prayer, daily Bible readings, and small group participation, all geared to broaden our faith and deepen our experience of God’s active presence in our daily lives and in the life of our church community.

In the past these forty-day experiments have been a mixed bag of blessing, stretching and grappling with the mystery of prayer and faith. But in the end everyone that has stuck to it reported a deepening of their relationship with God, even those whose prayers went unanswered.

The world awaits

In the spirit of this sense that there’s something God has pending for our community the theme of this year’s Leap Of Faith is, “The World Awaits”. The idea is this: As human beings created in God’s image we’re at our best when we’re connecting with this God. Moving with him. Loving him. Loving like him. Loving what he loves. God loves the world… not just the church-world, the whole world. He has a good plan for our world. This plan includes God revealing himself and expressing his love to a waiting world that’s aching for it, through people like us in many cases simply by having friendly conversations and learning from each other.

For our part, we have to be willing to move with this loving God. For most of us this will take big trust – a leap of faith if you will – and that’s what these six weeks will be about.

If you’re a part of our church we’ll be filling you in on the details over the next couple of weeks. If your just a friend receiving this mailing and want to participate anyway you an by going to our website for a LOF Users Manual, sign up for the daily Bible readings and to listen to our six part World Awaits sermon series. Join us in this adventure. There’s a world of exciting kingdom opportunity awaiting us all.

I want to thank the Greater Boston Vineyard for inventing Leap Of Faith and being so generous by sharing it. The World Awaits is their baby. Our church is borrowing it from them. Thanks so much.

Sincerely,
Pastor Mike

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I immediately called our Advisory Team to fast and pray, each member covering a day of the week, until he found a new home for our church. Well great news, St. John’s Lutheran, a beautiful old, neo-Gothic-style church located in neighboring Greenpoint, has graciously agreed to allow us to become their tenant congregation!

A God-thing

This is definitely a God-thing. In November, before we ever received notice that we were being kicked out of the school we had a prayer meeting in the basement of the St. John’s. Afterwards I went upstairs and stood in the front of the sanctuary. As I looked out over the pews in the dark something came over me and I got this strong sense that God wanted us to be there. A new home and a new beginning.

A couple of nights later I mentioned this to our leaders at our monthly team meeting and you know how when God speaks the room gets all energized? Well that’s what happened. Suddenly we were full of hope and new possibilities that frankly had been missing for a while. We allowed ourselves to dream a bit about what a new home and a new beginning might mean for our church… The ability to catch public attention; to meet in a space conducive to worship; new possibilities for neighborhood ministry; being in a community more open to what we were offering… Visibility, growth, and stability.

I hadn’t seen the team that pumped in a long time. But I quickly reminded everyone not to get carried away. After all there was no door open to us. St. Johns hadn’t given any indication that they’d be open to such an arrangement. Oh well, it was nice to dream…

A little help from a friend

But what I didn’t mention to you was that I had made friends with a guy who’s on St. John’s board and he just so happens to be in charge of their building. He was the one who arranged for us to have the prayer meeting there. Sowhen three weeks later we received the bad news of our impending homelessness I went to him and asked if he would act as our advocate. He caught the vision and went right to work, petitioning the other board members while our team prayed. A week or later he called and told me  that he had gotten permission for us to rent the church! In the short span of little over a month God changed the situation, opened the door and got us a new home.

The next step

So as of February 5^th we’ll be meeting Sundays at 12 noon at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 155 Milton St.,right off of Manhattan Ave in Greenpoint (Google Map). This move does not affect our Trash Bar service in any way. This may seem like the case of a new home and a new beginning, but I believe it’s more. I believe it’s the next step of an adventure God has had planned for our church all along and I’m excited to see what’s in store for us.q

On Thursday evening, January 19th we’re holding a prayer meeting at the church from7:00 – 8:30pm in order to seek God’s continued help in this time of transition. Come and join us.

God bless,
Pastor Mike

This will affect some 160 religious groups in the city. What this means is that as of Feb 12th, we’ll no longer be permitted to rent P.S. 132 for our Sunday morning services.

Now what? Well after getting over the initial shock I got in touch with our Advisory Team to put together a plan. This is what we’ve come up with so far: We’ve initiated a facility search in the Williamsburg and Greenpoint areas.

Several members have been assigned to put together a list of prospective locations. We’re looking at churches, synagogues, community centers, private schools, colleges, and any other family-friendly we can think of. Once we get the list we will begin the cold calling to see what opportunities we have open to us. A location has to be fairly easy to get to. It must be able to fit around 100 adults. It must have space for children’s ministry as well as a bit of storage. And most important, it must be cheap! If you have any ideas or have a contact who might be helpful please let me know.

In addition I have called on the members of the Advisory Team to fast and pray one day a week until we find a new home for our morning service. I invite the rest of you to join us if you’re so inclined.

This is serious but it’s not the end of the world. The church is a community of people committed to Jesus and to each other, not a building. Yes this will be probably be a season of inconvenience and sacrifice but it could be the very conditions that brings the best out of us and causes us to experience the Lord’s presence and power in ways we’ve haven’t up to now.

So take heart. The Advisory Team and myself are committed to maintaining a healthy community life that will include meeting together on Sundays. We do have a temporary fall-back space in case nothing comes up by mid-February, but it doesn’t offer separate space for children or nursery so we’d have to all meet together in some creative way until we found an adequate home. Other churches have gone through similar crisis and gone on to thrive. So all hands on deck. If you’ve been away now’s a great time to show up and offer your support. Let’s close ranks and pray. I will keep you in the loop as things progress.

Sincerely,
Pastor Mike

Well, the holidays are now here!

We have a few things happening this month you should know about… our Annual Christmas Party on Saturday, Dec 10 6 – 10pm, a workshop on praying for the sick Saturday, Dec 17 10am – 3:30pm & most notably our Christmas schedule:

December 18
AM service: Breakfast & Christmas celebration
PM service: Christmas service at Trash

December 25/Christmas Day
No Services! If you do want to connect with NBV folks who might be getting together for Christmas, post a note on our Facebook wall or ask around on a Sunday.

January 1/New Years Day
Trash Bar service only

*Our normal service schedule resumes Jan. 8th

Muldoons on 3rd Ave & E 43 St.

Our story begins in Manhattan. At the time we had an alternative church gathering in a midtown office building for twenty-somethings who liked Jesus but didn’t particularly like church. A trend began to develop. Afterwards a bunch of us would go to an Irish pub across the street to hangout and socialize.

It was during this time that we began to build stronger connections not only among ourselves but also with bar staff and patrons. Some of the most impactful movements to God’s kingdom would happen as we hung out and socialized. We began to see God at work right there among people who were not “part of our church” but who nonetheless felt like they belonged to our community because they were becoming our friends. They felt included without question and loved. That’s because they actually were! That’s because everyone – churchgoing or not- was actually on the same page and were simply enjoying the sweet community of God’s Spirit.

A God-given knack

That’s when we caught our sense of mission. We began to realize that God had been using us as a bridge between himself and people who would otherwise view God (if they believed in God), as irrelevant and impractical, unfair and unkind, part of an offensive and judgmental culture, or uninterested or incapable of helping them. However, to their surprise they began to experience quite the opposite: That God was accessible and active and that he was loving and actually made their lives better. What we found was that everyone, regardless of how close they were, or felt they were to God (church people or secular people), were finding greater connection with Jesus who actually did have “good news” for their lives.

The Trash Bar

We started to wonder, could this knack be a gift? Could it be our mission? Thus the Trash Bar service was born. We put an ad out on Craig’s list. The owner of Trash responded and met with us. He invited us to meet on Sunday evenings. We accepted the invitation following Christ’s example of accepting invitations to anyone’s house. Thus Trash Bar became an advancement of what God had begun in Manhattan, bringing together what God was doing at Submerge and what he was doing at Muldoon’s under one roof.

The bar was a natural gathering place for all sorts of people. We simply did what Jesus did and met the people where they were at. The church service would serve as a call to worship and provide an opportunity for exploring Jesus in a non-threatening way, with many of the confusing and often off-putting religious trappings of Christianity stripped away. What’s more, the after-service socializing again became more of an opportunity for community to develop for anyone and everyone – church affiliated or not. Over the years faith conversations, sharing of life stories and friendships have become the hallmark of the Trash Bar experience.

Connecting

We’ve experienced: Bar staff becoming like family. People from all walks of life, from all over the world becoming part of our community. We’ve connected with the most unlikely people often alienated from traditional Christian religion – Atheist scientists, cynical journalists, New Age spiritualists, members of the LGBT community, agnostic intellectuals, skeptical hipsters, Buddhist mystics, even Hasidic Jews

Morning Service @ the School

Not long after we started meeting we realized there was a larger community of people in the neighborhood that were spiritually curious but lacking a life-giving connection that Jesus provides who would not fit at Trash. So we began a morning service to provide the exact same opportunity for families and children. Both services are now integral to our mission; neither is more or less important than the other.

This knack or gifting is who we are at the NBV. You can say it’s our church family identity or mission. This why we exist in the first place and why we do what we do. This is what makes us unique and why so often people who have moved on say they’ve never quite been able to find anything exactly like the NBV.

We hear over and over that what people find attractive and helpful about us is that… We’re inclusive… We allow them to belong before they believe… We don’t use confusing God-talk and we keep things practical…They like our honest, no-hype style… They like it that we let them go at their own speed… They say God’s made accessible and they were able to experience him without being forced to… We’re prescriptive rather than directive and not preachy or talk down to people… They like that we’re relational rather than programmatic.

Measuring success

You might say we’re a church for the “rest of us” not just for the religiously informed and that makes us a safe place for anyone of any faith or non-faith background to explore what it means to follow Jesus. There aren’t many communities around like us that I know of. So we shouldn’t compare ourselves with other churches. So how do we know when we’re succeeding then?

Numbers shouldn’t be ignored but they can be confusing and not tell the true story of our success or lack of it. Our most important indicator is the level and frequency to which lives are being impacted by Jesus. It’s the number of tiny steps people, who previously considered themselves non-faith-types make towards a meaningful relationship with Christ. And because of this progress is slow.

How might success look around here? A person who’s been hurt by the church finds God, peace and healing in our community. A person who’s never put the pursuit of God high on their ‘to do’ list begins to take steps toward a relationship with Jesus. A long-time churchgoer who can quote 100’s of Bible verses experiences the power of forgiveness for the first time. A drug addict finds support and freedom in Jesus and through our community. Someone who’s been a church attendee for years begins leading a small group for the first time. Someone who has financial difficulties begins trusting God’s provision enough to be generous with the little money they have. Someone who has experienced a major moral failure doesn’t have to leave the church or God but walks humbly back towards both. People of diverse racial, gender, age, socio-economic and religious backgrounds worship Jesus together and become friends. A person senses God speaking to them for the first time. Someone learns to pray for the sick. The Bible becomes more important and a regular resource in a person’s life. Someone who is typically self-focused starts taking an hour to visit day laborers or help someone in need.

If these things are happening then we are succeeding in our mission and calling from God… and they are! We need to be thankful for the many, many blessings that God has given us and the way he’s used our community. Caring for what he’s entrusted us with is our only responsibility so let’s do that with enthusiasm and grateful hearts.

If you currently attend our church or are an alumni we’d love to hear how your story connects with or has been impacted by the bigger NBV story, so drop us a line at info@northbrooklynvineyard.org

There is no shortage of noise today. City life is full of noise – car horns, sirens, children at play, phones ringing, TV, radio, music, you name it. Even in our prayer time the tendency is to do all the talking.

It’s almost impossible to get away from noise at all. And when we do, often the awkward silence makes us uncomfortable because we’ve grown so used to noise we want to fill every moment with it.

Sure we hear a lot of things but all the bustle and noise of modern living severely undermines our ability to listen to each other and most of all to God. Yet Jesus said the ability to listen what he has to say to us was the key requisite for everyone who wants to follow him.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27)

The point is that our ability to listen and respond to his voice is crucial to experiencing the abundant life Jesus came to bring us.

Listening vs. hearing

Listening is not the same as hearing it’s more.It’s actively taking in, processing and being attentive. True listening involves a level of recognition, understanding, of getting to know the other. Someone said that,“Hearing without understanding is like snipping an electrical cord in two, then plugging it in anyway, hoping somehow that something will light up.”  This is not something we do intentionally. But when we pray to God we’re often baffled and frustrated by our sense of disconnection   - a feeling of being left sitting in the dark.

A lost art

It can be said in general that most of us don’t how to listen. Though most of us have ears that can hear very well, we don’t actually know how to use them to listen especially to God. You can say hearing God’s voice has become a lost art.

Failure to recognize God’s voice and listen isn’t necessarily because you don’t care or you’re insensitive. All the believers I know earnestly want to hear God’s voice. However anxiety, preoccupation, busyness and pressure can undermine the skills of even a good listener and we’re all prone to these things. So listening for God’s voice requires effort. It takes work. I don’t pretend to be an expert at it, but I am trying to learn to get better at it. And like every skill, the more you do it, the better you’ll get.

A new series

In order to help us recover this ability to listen to God’s voice we’ve started a sermon series called, “Hearing What God Has To Say”. We’ll take a look at the common ways God speaksalong with some practical ways you can tell the difference between your own thoughts and imaginations, the voices of others, voices from our past and God’s voice. We’ll also talk about what to do when God speaks to us. I believe this is going to be one of the most interesting and helpful series we’ve offered.

I hope you’ll join us as we begin this adventure of learning listen and respond to God’s voice.

God bless
Pastor Mike

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