Well, the holidays are now here! Read more ›

Mike shares a little about who we are, a couple cool stories & how people can help support the North Brooklyn Vineyard.

If you do feel so inclined as to give to our Foundation Fund, you can do so at www.northbrooklynvineyard.org/giving.

The Greenpoint Gazette featured a story about us: The Vineyard Church Toasts Jesus at Trash Bar. Read it here!

If you find this interesting, check out other articles written about us over the years:

- Finding God in a Watering Hole from The Brooklyn Rail (Sept 2010)

- Punch-Drunk Church from The Village Voice (June 2007)

- N.Y. Church Goes Into the Bar and Finds a Flock distributed by AP/Religion News Service (2007)

A transcript taken from a recent talk Pastor Mike gave at our Family Meeting on October 21, 2011.

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. Read more ›

Here are the groups that will be meeting from October through December 2011. You’re welcome to check out any of these groups.

Most groups are a combination of building friendships, some Bible or book study & prayer, although different groups might focus on different things. Contact the group leader for more information about a specific group.

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. Read more ›

This past Sunday we started a new series that looks at what it means to follow Jesus. We began by trying to clear up some of the misunderstanding surrounding this thing the church calls discipleship by removing some of the religious baggage.

First we revised some of the language and decided to use the term apprenticeship instead. It’s easier to visualize us becoming students rather than religious zealots, which is the image the old language conjured up for most of us. An apprentice is a student that learns to do what his or her master is good at. In Jesus case, he was good at living the life of the kingdom here on earth. So as his students we’re with him, learning from him, how to get good at living the kingdom life. Read more ›

I know this sounds almost sacrilegious but the Jesus I read about in the gospels was a happy person who really enjoyed life. He was fun to be around. You get the impression he was a life of the party-type.

That’s probably why he got so many dinner invitations and why kids climbed all over him. This Jesus is no sober sourpuss like the one portrayed in medieval paintings. No, he’s worry-free and full of joy. It seems that where he was joy was and his joy stood out. It apparently characterized and energized him, setting him apart from all other human beings.

His foundation

His joy wasn’t simply a strong feeling of happiness. It was a state of mind. A deep abiding sense of well being that comes from being safe, secure, and at home. It was this at-home-ness that formed the foundation of Jesus’ life and was the source of his joy.

Read more ›

The Apprentices: What it means to follow Jesus is running through September!

For my morning devotions I’ve been reading through the Psalms using the Message, a version of the Bible that reads like the morning newspaper.

This has helped me read what are essentially poems that were put to music and sung in worship services, with fresh eyes. And in doing so I’ve been shocked by how much complaining and gripping is going on. The psalmists were real grousers!

This raises a couple of questions: Can complaining ever be good and how can gripping be worship? Read more ›