Visiting the Vineyard
Yesterday my fiance and I went to the Belfast City Vineyard Church for the first time. Some friends of ours go there and it’s about a ten minute walk from my flat so a visit there was long overdue. It’s all part of a quest to find a good congregation that we can feel comfortable in and that will help us in our relationship with God individually and together. Since I returned from London I haven’t felt fully part of a meeting or church, I’ve been going to Joy’s church in Moira but it’s quite a commute on a Sunday morning. So everytime I go to a different church I ask myself “Is this somewhere I could go every week?”
My first impressions of Belfast City Vineyard were that I could see myself going there every week. The first thing that struck me was the average age was much lower than any church I’ve been involved in, it’s so encouraging to be with lots of people of a similar age to you who are going through the same issues in life as you and trying to follow God’s calling through issues in the same way you are.
The Senior Pastors and Associate Pastor were all young as well, the Senior Pastors being a married couple. The Pastor had a really good way about him, he presented the Truth as he understood it but not in a way that suggested that it was the only way of looking at it or that his thoughts and research on the topic were somehow exhaustive and final. The worship was great too, I believe it differs from week to week but this week it was a simple guitar/singer, bass and bongo drum that really invited the individual to experience God’s presence and praise him rather than being a show or being distracted by the band.
Joy and I were quite surprised to see that the sermon was about marriage! God really had led us to be there yesterday so we could hear some insight into God’s plan for marriage generally and seek to live more in God’s plan for our own relationship. We even got the opportunity to be prayed for which was so valuable. I recommitted myself to praying for Joy and praying for our relationship more.
So, it was great to be there, and I could see myself going there again. there are a couple of other congregations in Belfast I hope to visit over the summer so I’ll try to blog on those as well. I pray that Joy and I will find the congregation that allows us to live that abundant life that Jesus has for us to the fullest.
