Toowoomba Vineyard Church

On Sunday, we spoke about vision—or perhaps, more accurately, our mission. It was our second ‘who are we and where are we going’ talk for the year. The first (back in February) was all about who we want to be—culture. This time, it was about where we’re going. In other words, what does TVC look like in 3-5 years?

In this talk we introduced a framework we use to think about what we’re supposed to be busy with as a church. It turns out putting on services isn’t the primary business. Rather, we see it as four things: worshipping God, making disciples, engaging in mission, and doing it all in community. We used this as a springboard to talk about the kind of things we feel God has on his heart for our future.

If you want to have a listen, you can find the podcast wherever you listen to them. You can also check out our blog (link in bio), which we’ll be updating each week in September with a discussion around those four parts of our framework.

First Sunday at Gold Park! Mandy preached a cracker on the second part of Exodus 2, the kids had a great time at the first ever kids church, and much worship was worshipped 🙌🏻

Friends, from this Sunday (August 4) we’ll be meeting at Gold Park Sporting Club, 341 Hume St Centenary Heights! We’re so excited about this new chapter and how God is going to use this new space. All the details (including parking) are on our website (link in bio).

Let’s be honest. The church, broadly, has not done a good job of embracing, loving, and nurturing our singles.

There are a lot of reasons for this. For one, ‘singleness’ can mean many different things. For another, the church has somewhat idolised marriage and the ‘perfect Christian life’ in a way that just doesn’t match up to the bible.

The answer is not platitudes: “It’s OK, the right person will come along in God’s timing.” We need a better vision of singleness that fully embraces the diversity of experiences that it entails.

On Sunday, Mandy spoke on singleness as a part of our ‘We don’t talk about that’ series. It’s an important message — if you have a moment, listen to the podcast. You’ll find it on your preferred platform, or on our website.

Let’s do better 💪

If the above statement makes you uncomfortable, it’s probably for one of two reasons: (1) you’re in the ‘yes but institutions matter too’ camp, or (2) you’ve felt the pain of the church institution being prioritized over your wellbeing.

On Sunday we shared an important message about church leadership failure (yes, it did fit loosely into our tensions series). In a season when it feels like leadership scandals are coming thick and fast, we felt this was timely.

As a new church we have the chance to try and do things differently. To give away the ending of the talk, accountability alone is not enough — we have to build an emotionally healthy culture from day one. And yes, part of that is that people must be more important than the institution of church.

You can listen on our website or anywhere you find podcasts, just search ‘Toowoomba Vineyard’.

It was such a gift to have our friend Greg Trainor join us this weekend. Greg has been a part of the Vineyard in Australia since day one and is committed to seeing the supernatural part of our DNA carry into our movement’s second generation. The podcast is well worth a listen if you didn’t make it. Thanks Greg for investing in our little community ❤️❤️

preached a cracker today. Go listen on the podcast — that’s a wrap for our series on the parables. Bring on Easter Sunday next week 🙌🏻

Hey friends 👋 we’re coming up to one of the most important times in the Christian calendar, which is the weekend of Good Friday/Easter Sunday!

This year we’re doing a bit of a different spin on Good Friday… instead of holding a service, we’ll be breaking bread together in homes around the city on Friday night. If you want in, slip us a DM and we’ll let you know where to rego.

And then on Easter Sunday, we’ll be meeting same time, same place for a celebration of our king who is alive 🙌

Hey friends, we’ve missed you! Sunday gatherings are BACK this week! Same time, same lovely air-conditioned place. We’re going to kick off the year with a little bit of a look ahead to what’s in store for 2024 — what we’re doing, and who we are becoming as a church family. A ‘vision’ talk if you’re in to that kind of language 😉

See you there, or on the podcast for those of you joining from afar!

Folks, it’s that time of the year when people head away for holidays, trek down to the coast, and generally disappear for a bit. We love rest at TVC so church is on break for four weeks, with our next service on January 28.

We pray this is a time of refreshing, connection, peace, and restoration. And we’re excited to see what 2024 has in store!

Christmas is nearly upon us! We would love you to join us for our very first Christmas Eve service, on Sunday December 24 at 9:30am. There will be coffee.

We’ve been chatting in December through Isaiah 9:6 — the famous prophecy about Jesus that describes him as ‘Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace’. None of these are really titles that the average person on the street would give to Jesus today. Especially as a child. Yet as we’ve discovered, they reveal profound truth about the kind of God we discover in him.

This Sunday we look at Jesus as Prince of Peace. We’d love to see you ☺️

Just in case you’ve been lurking on the socials for a little while and haven’t had a chance to come visit, we wanted to introduce you to our pastors, Chris and Jen (and their 3-year old, Davey).

The Gresham-Britts had the pleasure of leading .vineyard’s Evening Community for six and a bit years before moving up to Toowoomba in May ‘22, with the vision of planting a brand new church.

Chris and Jen are both bivocational. Jen helps keep the office ticking along at (i.e. the warehouse where we meet), and Chris is self employed as a web/graphic designer.

When not parenting, leading a church, and running a business, Chris indulges in too many hobbies, including mountain biking, making/roasting coffee, making pizza, and taking up other hobbies. Jen is far more reasonable, enjoying time with friends and caring for her plant babies.

They’re not usually too weird, so if you’re able to pop by on a Sunday be sure to say hi to Chris, Jen, and Davey!

“Who is this handsome fellow?” We hear you ask. “And why does he look so conflicted?”

This is Philemon (pronounced ‘fy-lee-mon’, we are pretty sure). His slave Onesimus (pronounced oh-nee-si-mus, again, we think) ran away, probably took a lot of cash with him, but has just returned with a letter from the Apostle Paul. The letter is asking him (Philemon) to take Onesimus back… not just as a slave, but as a brother.

No wonder Philemon is feeling conflicted.

On Sunday we began a series looking at the book of Colossians, naturally, starting with the book of Philemon. It turns out they were likely sent together… one addressed to the church in Colossae, and the other, to one of its key leaders. Together, they paint a radical picture of the kind of reconciled community that is formed in response to the good news about Jesus.

If you want to find out what happened to Onesimus (spoiler alert: no one knows), and what that has to teach us about being a Jesus community today, have a listen to the latest podcast ( #30). You’ll find it on Spotify, Apple and Google podcasts.

Thanks everyone for a fun Sunday, and to all our new friends, it was great to meet you 👋

In Matthew 7, Jesus talks says that those who hear his words AND put them into action are like a person who built their house on a rock. They have firm foundations and can weather any storm. Those who hear his words and DON’T put them into action are like someone who built their house on sand… it all falls apart pretty quickly.

But how exactly does that work?

Well, one way to look at it is to think about the relationship between our actions and our beliefs. It’s pretty easy to see that our beliefs shape the way we act. But did you realise it’s the same the other way around? The way we act can actually shape what we believe.

When we act in a way that’s incongruent with what we believe, we expense what psychologists call ‘cognitive dissonance’. It’s that feeling you get when you do something you know isn’t right, but you can’t stop yourself. In these situations, we’ll often compromise our beliefs when it’s easier than changing our actions.

So what do we do about it?

Well, we’ll just say the latest podcast episode is up. Link in bio.

If you’ve been wondering what to listen to while reading your latest Tom Wright commentary, or chugging water from an over engineered water bottle, we have you sorted.

More seriously, we realise many of our crew come from different backgrounds and traditions, so here’s a playlist of the songs we sing at church.

Or if you are following along from afar, here's what church sounds like (sort of).

Search it out on Spotify or head to https://tvc.org.au/links

Happy listening!

Probably one of the most famous biblical passages to churchgoers and non-churchgoers alike comes from Matthew 7, where Jesus says 'do not judge'. But what exactly is Jesus prohibiting here?

Judging can mean anything from choosing which flavour of pie you want, to deciding on someone's future.

This morning Chris unpacked Matthew 7:1-5, and an unexpected passage from the Old Testament unlocked what this passage means for Jesus’ followers today.

Podcast on Spotify, Apple, and Google podcasts, or check the link in our stories.

Church picnic is this Sunday!

It’s a super chill, byo picnic kind of ordeal. We’ll head down to Queens Park after the service finishes. Slide on in to our DMs if you want to know where we’ll be ☺️

Hey friends 👋 just breaking our social media drought (it turns out when you never post, people assume you’ve closed down, which is fair) to let you know these delightful humans will be joining us this Sunday! Helen and Jonathan Gould pastor our church cousin down the hill, Brisbane West Vineyard. Aside from being wonderful people and good friends, they’re also members of the mighty Vineyard Churches Australia board. We’re thrilled to get to have them so come say g’day ☺️

Yep! What it says up there ⬆️ if you want to catch up on a Sunday you missed or follow along from afar, here’s your cue ☺️ you’ll find it on Apple, Spotify, and Google Podcasts (Google might take a few days).

If you feel like being extra kind, why not give us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️?

Jesus once said…

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest… rest for your souls.”

We’re a brand new Vineyard church plant, discovering the joy of following Jesus in Toowoomba and surrounds. Right now we’re gathering informally as we build towards a public service. If you’re interested in joining us, or just curious, we’d love to connect.