Aylesbury Vineyard Church talks: Recent Episodes
Aylesbury Vineyard
In her final talk as Senior Pastor at Aylesbury Vineyard, Lyn Burnhope envisions us for the future by exploring Moses in the Bible, encouraging us to stay a strong community by supporting each other and centring ourselves around the person and values of Jesus.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/452924425
Through the lens of Psalm 23, Nicola Neal explores how the reality of ‘God with us’ during the challenges and pain of this last season will help us to both define and fuel the way we now move forward as we interact with a hurting, disorientated and fearful world.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/446453149
In his final talk as Senior Pastor at Aylesbury Vineyard, Steve Burnhope explains what the word “Gospel” actually means and how Jesus, through the ways he lived, loved and challenged others, was the same good news to people 2000 years ago as he is to us today.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/443859381
“Has God gone ‘AWOL’ during the past four months? Does he care about this pandemic? Does he hear our prayers?” Luke Martin looks at the experiences of various biblical characters who sought God, even when he felt far away and shares his own experiences of connecting with God, even when he feels absent.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/443330097
The Government and its advisors are telling us how to stay physically healthy, but how do we stay spiritually healthy? Steve Burnhope suggests five things — five questions we can ask ourselves every day — to “track and trace” how well we’re doing, both as individuals and as part of Christ’s Body, his Church.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/440067489
‘The invitation to be with God is for everybody.’ In this week’s talk, Guest Speaker and comedian Andy Kind confronts the theme ‘Heaven and Hell’ and a person’s eternal destiny. He explains that God does not place orders, but instead invites us to choose to be part of his family.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/437988448
Lyn Burnhope tells an amazing story from the Bible of how Jesus restores the sight of a blind man, overcoming the barriers of discrimination and showing how someone excluded, on the ‘outside’ deserves to be included. Through physical and social restoration, Jesus challenges an entire community to change the way they see!
Watch at https://vimeo.com/437192463
What are your dreams and does God care about them? Assistant Pastor James Tweats explores what the Bible has to say about dreaming and how God can play a big role in helping us to fulfil our dreams today. He encourages us to dream courageously and partner with God in the dreams he has for us too!
Watch at https://vimeo.com/434875297
During these unprecedented times of global turmoil we look at how we can take our place as followers of Jesus. What is his unique plan for our individual lives and for the church as a whole during this season, and how can we step into the roles he has prepared for us?
Watch at https://vimeo.com/430812767
Steve Burnhope looks at how God created us in his image — one of the ‘big themes’ that we see running through the Bible — and three major implications for what that means for us.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/428881543
Aylesbury Vineyard will have new leadership when Steve and Lyn Burnhope retire as Senior Pastors this September. Steve and Lyn share what will be happening and explain the background and the timing. The video ends with a few words from Assistant Pastor James Tweats, who will be succeeding them.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/426968584
Assistant Pastor James Tweats shares how God’s love, leading & faithfulness will never fail us as we prepare to step out into the new normal.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/426210650
Senior Pastor Lyn Burnhope takes up Augustine’s idea that hope has two daughters: anger at the way things are, and courage not to leave them that way.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/423263013
Young Adults Pastor, Luke Martin, shares some thoughts about the Church's need for reflection at this time. The Covid-19 ‘lockdown’ has given us a great opportunity to assess the ways that we are called to be counter-cultural in our world. God may well be bringing a move of his Spirit to our nation, but it may not look the way we think …
Watch at https://vimeo.com/manage/419268175
Becky Stevens from the Church staff team shares about her experiences of mental ill health and some thoughts about how we can best engage with God and one another in those times.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/416643824
Steve Burnhope shares some thoughts from (Second) Isaiah’s prophetic words to Israel while they are in exile in Babylon, in Isaiah 40 through 55, to encourage us in our present situation. He then turns to the “invisible enemy” that the whole world is fighting, with some thoughts about how to handle another invisible enemy that many of us are facing at this time. NB The slightly cryptic title is explained at the start of the talk!
Watch at https://vimeo.com/415861165
A timely reminder from Assistant Pastor James Tweats that we have a God who loves us and wants the best for us. We discover the importance of perseverance in God’s perfect timing and trusting in Him for blessing and breakthrough.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/411823863
In 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul says “these three remain: faith, hope and love,” but we don’t talk so much about the middle one. In the third and final talk in this mini-series, Steve Burnhope focuses on the meaning of “hope” in the Bible — that it’s not just “hoping for the best” — and how we want all three to be “remaining” in our lives during these challenging times.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/408334637
Senior Pastor, Steve Burnhope, explains why he doesn’t think it’s his job to get people to believe in God …
The talk was preceded by an edited version of this video: https://youtu.be/1Eh5BpSnBBw
Watch the talk at https://vimeo.com/407949671
Lyn Burnhope looks at Psalm 8 as a helpful source for answering the basic questions: Who is God? Who are we? What does He want us to do? How are we going to do it?
Sunday 5 April 2020
“If there’s a God, why do bad things happen? Why does God make them happen, or allow them to happen? Why doesn’t he stop them happening?” In the second talk of our current mini-series, Steve Burnhope offers some personal thoughts on these really difficult questions.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/401960845
In the first of a three-part series, Steve Burnhope starts with a ‘one-point’ sermon instead of the traditional three: “Do not fear.” Why does God say that over and over again, throughout the Bible? 365 times, according to Rick Warren — one for every day of the year. Steve shares his thoughts on that big question, in these difficult times.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/400026116
In our Kids’ Takeover Service, Liz Machell talks about Joshua leading the people of Israel through the Jordan into the Promised Land and building a memorial of stones for future generations to remember (Joshua 3 & 4). She encourages us that sharing our stories with one another can encourage us that God is always faithful and able to do amazing things.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/398672807
In our most recent Baptism Services, Steve Burnhope explains six key features of baptism in the Bible — why we do it and what it’s all about.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/396964970
Assistant Pastor James Tweats encourages us to think about what it means for Jesus to be the light of the world (John 8:12) and what that means for us — how we can move from darkness into light in our own lives through the presence and power of Jesus.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/395448802
Following on from last week’s talk about Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17, Senior Pastor Lyn Burnhope thinks about what it means to be centred around Jesus, as a ‘Love Comm-unity,’ living for each other and for the world.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/393980843
Shortly before his death, resurrection and return to the Father, Jesus' prayer in John 17 is his ‘second most-famous’ prayer (after The Lord’s Prayer) and his longest. Two millennia on, Steve Burnhope invites us to think about why Jesus was so concerned for the future unity and oneness of his Body, and how — by being wise about the spiritual battle that unity involves — we can help that prayer to come about, if we’re willing to bear the cost.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/392220183
On the Sunday that we’re looking at fostering and adoption — and hearing from the team who are involved in fostering and adopting at Aylesbury Vineyard — Steve Burnhope does a quick whistle-stop tour of what the Bible has to say about that and, in particular, why fostering and adoption is so close to God’s heart.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/390299192
Guest Speaker Ben Lindsay talks about Gideon’s call in Judges chapter 6, relating it to God’s present-day call to each of us. As we see with Gideon, he encourages us to embrace our environment, our true identity and our present circumstances.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/389059208
Assistant Pastor James Tweats invites us to think about what it means to ‘honour God’ — a word we don’t use very often day-to-day. What does honouring God look like in our lives?
Watch at https://vimeo.com/manage/387283425
Charles Ekong invites us to consider afresh who God is — the awesome creator of the cosmos — a God who, although we are so insignificant in comparison, sees us as his prized possessions, wanting to win our love and for us to spend eternity together. This is where we fit, in his story. But where does God fit in our story? Where is he, in your story, right now?
Watch at https://vimeo.com/386297941
Steve Burnhope takes inspiration from Philip Yancey’s best-selling book of the same title to look at God’s amazing grace which, when we really understand it, is ‘scandalous’, ‘outrageous’ and even, ‘dangerous’. He explains why it’s so important for us to ‘take the risk’ of ‘the scandal of grace’ being misunderstood — just as it was in New Testament times — and to avoid diluting it, rationing it, limiting it, or setting pre-conditions for it, however tempting that might be.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/384569717
In our first Services of 2020, Steve Burnhope thinks about New Year resolutions and how throughout the Bible it seems that God is a God who delights in making things new — in his Church, in his world, and in our lives. He looks at the story of the Exodus, with the Israelites standing on the border of the Promised Land, and asks whether that’s a picture of where we ourselves may be at, as we stand on the brink of coming into all that God has for us in 2020.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/383148958
‘How Not to Found a New Religion’ — Steve Burnhope takes a light-hearted look at the original Christmas Story and how correcting a few simple ‘errors’ would arguably have made the Christmas Story far more successful …
Watch at https://vimeo.com/381061153
Steve Burnhope’s 10-minute talk in this year’s Carol Services, where he talks about the central message of Christmas — that God himself became part of our story so that we could become part of his story.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/379597185
In the week leading up to the election, and one week into advent, we think about Jesus as the perfect leader, as King over his Kingdom. We look at how He wants to include us in carrying out His justice and bringing peace to the world.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/378110157
Speaking at our most recent Baptisms Sunday, Lyn Burnhope reflects on how the baptismal pool represents a bath, a grave and a womb.
Sunday 24 November 2019
Watch at https://vimeo.com/375444423
At our once-a-year Thanksgiving Services, where we take up a special offering to invest in the work of the Kingdom, Steve Burnhope shares some thoughts as to how we should (and shouldn’t) think about financial giving, from Jesus’ famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (Matthew chapters 5 through 7).
Vision is being able to see in our imagination what the future can be like. Vision is being able to picture something in our hearts and minds that can happen and will happen if we play our part to make it happen. Vision is the bridge between the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet.’ God has a vision for us, vision for his Church and vision for his world — that he wants to share with us and invites us to join him in. Steve Burnhope offers a ‘checklist’ of six key features of what it means for each of us to be a person of vision.
In the lead-up to our annual Thanksgiving Services gift day on 17 November, Steve Burnhope shares some statistics of how the Church has grown over the past five years. He explains how, to accommodate our ‘growing family,’ we’ll be devoting this year’s offering to expanding the main Auditorium and creating three new rooms for Vineyard Kids, including a permanent Soft Play room. The talk includes a short video (starting at 17:05 minutes in) picturing what the main new areas will look like.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/370931703
Guest Speaker Peter Tate invites us to think more deeply about what it means to ‘love one another’ in a multi-cultural Church where we welcome and honour different cultures within God's people. He challenges us to think about the difference between what’s ‘theological’ and what’s ‘cultural’ in our assumptions about our faith practices.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/369270601
Continuing our Birthday Month, Steve Burnhope talks about some of the things he personally loves about the Vineyard. He starts with some ‘Vineyard theology’ and ‘Vineyard values’ that are shared throughout the movement — wherever one goes in the world — and finishes with some of the things he loves about Aylesbury Vineyard in particular.
Watch at vimeo.com/367572533
As we continue our Birthday Month Services, Assistant Pastor and Head of Compassion Ministries, James Tweats, talks about the central importance of helping those who are disadvantaged and in need, both in the heart of God and the heart of the Vineyard movement. He explains the scope and the scale of what Aylesbury Vineyard is currently doing and invites us to ask ourselves how God is calling us personally to become involved, for Jesus and His Kingdom.
Watch at: https://vimeo.com/aylesburyvineyard/compassion-and-aylesbury-vineyard
Guest speaker Nicola Neal (CEO of Every Life, https://everylife.org.uk/) talks about the unexpected and generous welcome that Jesus offers Zaccheus in Luke 19. She parallels that with the welcome she and her family received when they moved back to the UK from Uganda and encourages us to imitate Jesus by being unexpectedly generous welcomers, just as he was.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/364727383
Following on from his recent talk, ‘What Does It Mean to ‘Have Faith’?’ (Sunday 15 September 2019, https://soundcloud.com/aylesburyvineyard/what-does-it-mean-to-have-faith), Steve Burnhope goes on to ask, if ‘faith’ isn’t about having unshakeable mental certainty that something we want is going to happen, then ... what does it mean? How can we be people who pray confidently and expectantly?
Watch at https://vimeo.com/363256767
Head of Youth Ministry, Amelia Godden, interviews Vineyard UK&I youth leader Zeke Rink about the Summer 2020 DTI Festival that succeeds Soul Survivor. It includes a video about the event, featuring Mike Pilavachi (leader of Soul Survivor), and Senior Pastors Steve and Lyn Burnhope explaining how Aylesbury Vineyard wants to support DTI with a financial offering, prayer and volunteering.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/362315279
The interview includes a film by Vineyard Churches about DTI 2020 which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/Y8zgMcB4SN8
Clearly, ‘faith’ is vital to being a Christian, but what is ‘faith,’ and how do we ‘live by’ faith? Does faith get prayers answered? Does too-little faith stop them being answered? Steve Burnhope runs through the problems with the standard way that many Christians think about faith — as striving for mental certainty, with no doubts allowed — before then explaining what biblical faith does in fact look like.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/360135722
Wreaking havoc with the traditional church calendar, Steve Burnhope looks at Pentecost in September as we start this new term. Rather than Acts 2 inaugurating ‘speaking in tongues,’ as generally assumed, its significance is the inclusion of people of every nation, tribe, and language on equal terms ‘in Christ’ in the Kingdom of God, reversing what happened at Babel in Genesis 11, and foreshadowing heaven. He encourages us to be a church that commits to modelling Pentecost, not one that models Babel.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/359365484
Lyn Burnhope reflects on the significance of the meeting together in the Temple with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. As we meet together, all of those same ingredients are with us as we pray and long for His Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven.
Sunday 1 September 2019
What does God want? What does he want from us, as people? Steve Burnhope runs through some of the options and then suggests three simple, easy-to-remember themes — repeated throughout the Bible — which sum up God’s perspective on that question. [Editor’s note: Steve was wrong about his new shirt; the style is Cuban, not Hawaiian, but try not to let that put you off …]
Life is a true story. Guest Speaker Andy Kind asks which of the major world-views makes the most sense of what you know to be true about yourself.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/353409965
Fear comes in all shapes and sizes, including anxieties and phobias, with broad, deep and wide-ranging effects. As Christians, we should be both medically-informed and spiritually-aware. Steve Burnhope suggests how a biblical perspective can help us in handling fears in our own life, centred on five key biblical truths.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/352108375
Assistant Pastor James Tweats invites us on a journey to look at the health of our relationships — with ourselves, with others, and with God — and suggests four ‘Kingdom principles’ that will help us get them (and keep them) on track.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/351007858
Jamie Eyre shares about the work of Christians he’s visited in the Middle East and stories from the people they serve.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/349743220
Senior Pastor Lyn Burnhope takes on the thorny question of “sin” — an old-fashioned, negative-sounding word that’s often misused and misunderstood. She explores what it is and what it isn’t, how it impacts human life in so many ways, and how we’re called to join in Jesus’ mission against sin in its personal, corporate and global dimensions.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/348401106
Guest Speaker Dr. Jason Clark, Senior Pastor of Sutton Vineyard, takes his cue from the famous message “Do You Know Him?” by the late Dr. S. M. Lockridge. He asks whether our life matches an encounter with the incredible God of whom Lockridge speaks in this video (which is shown during the talk, but can also be found separately here: https://youtu.be/ZKsN-AeqJP0).
Watch at https://vimeo.com/348208903
As part of our Kids Takeover service, our Head Children’s Ministry, Liz Machell, spoke to our whole church family about being bringers of God’s now-and-not yet Kingdom whilst living in a beautiful but broken world between the times of the Garden of Eden and the New Heavens and New Earth.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/345967968
Steve Burnhope completes our short series of talks thinking about the Bible with a simple way of telling the story like a Box Set — Season One: the Old Testament, Season Two: the New Testament and Season Three: the on-going episodes in which we are invited to join the cast!
Watch at https://vimeo.com/344079049
In this week’s episode, Steve Burnhope explains some of the “rules of the game” of biblical interpretation (how to make sense of what we’re reading, in the best possible way), which begins by respecting the original authors and audiences and understanding the way they thought and wrote. Starting with ‘how communication works’ (in every era, and culture) helps us see the difference between the ‘timeless truths’ God intended to give us and the ‘time-bound wrapper’ in which they are unavoidably packaged.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/342850040
Steve Burnhope kicks off our latest three-week series of ‘Big Questions’ about Christianity and faith with another look at the Bible as the story of people and the story of God, intertwined. During these talks, he’ll be explaining how we can understand it the way that the original authors and audience would have understood it, and how it all hangs together as one big story from cover to cover.
Sunday 9 June 2019
Lyn starts by looking at the call of Abraham to leave his home, and how this Biblical theme is a challenge to us. She then goes on to reflect on wider themes of ‘home’ and ‘homelessness’ in the Bible, and encourages us that whatever situation we are in, we do faithfully and well, whilst at the same time extending God’s hospitality to others in todays world in many and various ways.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/339976102
Steve Burnhope continues from last week’s talk (“What does it mean to ‘love Jesus’?”) and explores what it means to be ‘in a relationship’ with Jesus. He offers some practical suggestions for how we might go about that and the importance of creating space in the busy-ness of modern life.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/339065668
The dictionary tells us that love is “An intense feeling of deep affection.” But as Christians, is that what God is wanting from us, or is it something more? Steve Burnhope suggests five key things to have on our personal checklist for what a biblical perspective on ‘loving Jesus’ looks like.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/337261715
Steve Burnhope speaks from Ezekiel 47, where the prophet experiences a dramatic vision of a river of blessing flowing from the presence of God in the temple, a river that pictures an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in which Ezekiel is invited to go deeper and deeper. Steve asks us the question that no doubt God was asking Ezekiel: “How far do you want to go? Just watching from the sidelines? Ankle-deep? Knee-deep? Waist-deep? Or plunging in, out of your depth?”
Sunday 12 May 2019
When all the titles and labels that define us are stripped away, do we still feel valued and significant? Georgia Gasson unpacks what it means to know who we are in Christ.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/334837588
What does a church look like when it is filled with Jesus? Luke Martin reflects on Acts 4, looking at some of the key features that made the early church healthy and influential, and how we might apply that to today.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/333145277
Steve Burnhope talks about the significance of Jesus’ resurrection, why we can trust the authenticity of the accounts of what happened on that first Easter Sunday, and the connection with being baptised.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/332058278
Assistant Pastor, James Tweats, begins with the story of Jacob in Genesis 32 and then shares some of his own experiences of how life so often scars us — physically and emotionally. Our scars are an unavoidable part of our history, but how are they going to affect our future? Will they defeat us, or empower us? As with Jesus’ scars, will we allow them to become a place of blessing and victory and healing?
Watch at https://vimeo.com/330491663
Lyn Burnhope continues on from Steve’s recent talk (3 March 2019, ‘Pictures of the Church — the Body of Christ’) to explain what that looks like in practice in Aylesbury Vineyard, and particularly as it relates to our joining to one another and how we all give and receive pastoral care.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/329660744
Guest Speaker David Graham, Lead Pastor at Southcourt Baptist Church in Aylesbury, talks from John chapter 4 about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, where we see Jesus as the great ‘Influencer.’ David encourages us to become imitators of Jesus in four ways: his ‘personal’ influence, his ‘present’ influence, his ‘boundary pushing’ influence and his ‘place changing’ influence.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/328304636
Becoming a Christian is often thought of as a one-off ‘event’ — where everything is about crossing a boundary — moving from being ‘out’ to being ‘in.’ Steve Burnhope suggests that the reality is more complex and that for each of us, the ‘before’ and ‘after’ that pivotal moment is like a journey with waypoints — which in turn needs to impact how we think about the journey to faith of our friends.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/326407314
Nicola Neal speaks from the story of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 in John chapter 6 and encourages us to see ourselves, believe about ourselves and say of ourselves not what the world around us sees, believes and says, but what Jesus sees, believes and says. Whose opinion are we going to come into alignment with?
Watch at https://vimeo.com/322827631
The Bible never talks about Church as a building, or something we “go to.” But it has a lot to say about what it means for us to “be” Church, mostly through metaphors (or, ‘picture language’). Steve Burnhope looks at one of the New Testament’s favourite metaphors, ‘the body,’ and what it looks like for us to be putting that into practice in “being Church” together today.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/321429324
In the third and final talk in our latest ‘Big Questions’ series, Steve Burnhope looks at how Jesus made us right with God. He starts with what the New Testament and Early Creeds tell us about that question and what the Bible means when it talks about Jesus ‘redeeming’ us, ‘ransoming’ us, ‘paying the price’ and becoming ‘a sacrifice’ for us. Finally, he addresses the widespread but mistaken assumption that the good news of the Gospel is — and ‘has to be’ — all about an angry God of wrath being placated and enabled to forgive only by punishing and killing his innocent Son instead.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/319531070
In the second talk of our latest ‘Big Questions’ series, Steve Burnhope looks at the Old Testament passages that seem to command what we would now call the ‘genocide’ (or ‘ethnic cleansing’) of the Canaanites. Can these passages be reconciled with the Jesus of the New Testament who taught ‘love your enemies’ and if so, how?
Watch at https://vimeo.com/317989717
Surveys showing declining church attendance have led to the media projecting the death of the Church in this country within the next 50 years, if not well before that. In the first talk of our latest ‘Big Questions’ series, Steve Burnhope explores whether the surveys are right. And if so, what the Church can do about it.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/316434077
Guest Speaker Matt Hyam, the Senior Pastor of Southampton Vineyard, looks more deeply into what Jesus said in that famous verse John 3:16, and explains how what Christians typically assume it to be saying may actually be missing the point ...
Watch at https://vimeo.com/315284924
Lyn Burnhope continues from last week’s passage, Jeremiah 29, and explores what it looks like to live faithfully to God’s design for human life in the key areas of money, sex and power.
Many Christians assume that God does indeed have a detailed, individual plan for their lives — the only problem is, finding out what it is! Steve Burnhope looks at the famous verse of Jeremiah 29:11 together with some of the other things the Bible has to say about this important question!
Watch at https://vimeo.com/312906729
Assistant Pastor and Head of Storehouse James Tweats encourages us in ‘pursuing God’ in this New Year of 2019 — starting with how the conversation went, when they discussed his pursuing of God in 2018 …
Steve Burnhope talks about what it means to be the ekklesia (the New Testament Greek word for ‘the Church’) — a group of people who are both ‘called out’ and ‘gathered together.’
Watch at https://vimeo.com/309931643
At our Christmas Guest Services 2018, Steve Burnhope borrows from a Paris Hilton tweet earlier in this year and challenges our over-familiarity with the Christmas story. What we expect in the story, now, is very different to what the original first-century audience would have expected, then.
Steve Burnhope’s 10-minute talk from this year’s Christmas Carol Services: ‘Christmas Essentials’ …
Sunday 16 December 2018
At our all-age Thanksgiving Services, Lyn Burnhope encourages us to be thankful for the things God has already given us.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/303067491
In this season of Remembrance and Thanksgiving, Young Adults Pastor Rachel Martin looks at the story in Joshua 6 of how by listening to God, obeying what he says, and having faith that he can make the impossible possible, the Israelites overcame the city of Jericho that was standing in the way of what God had promised them.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/301668919
Guest speaker, Sus March, from St Luke’s Church in Kentish Town, London (https://www.slkt.org.uk), reflects on Psalm 139 and what it reveals about the God who knows us intimately.
Watch at https://vimeo.com/300271477
In the lead-up to our annual Thanksgiving Services, Steve Burnhope talks about money and giving. He starts with why it’s his ‘least-favourite talk of the year’ and then answers three questions: Why, as Christians, should we give at all? What does everyone’s giving go on, at Aylesbury Vineyard? And last but not least, what exciting things can we achieve in the coming months if everyone who is able to give does give?
Watch at https://vimeo.com/299044054
Steve Burnhope talks about the Kingdom of God and explains the puzzle of how Jesus could say that the Kingdom had come already in his life and ministry, but, that it was still to come as well!
Watch at https://vimeo.com/297697599
Continuing our series of updates during Aylesbury Vineyard’s Birthday Month (21 year anniversary of the church, 5 years since Steve and Lyn Burnhope became the Senior Pastors), Steve interviews Mim and Margaret about ‘Make Lunch,’ ‘Tuesday Teas’ and ‘Link Lunch.’
On the day we welcomed our friend Marc James as guest worship leader, Steve Burnhope spoke about … worship! Including, answering a question he’d been asked earlier that same week: “Does God have a bit of an ego problem? Why does he demand people worship him? Does he have some kind of deep-rooted insecurity, looking for praise and affirmation all the time?”
Jesus’ famous ‘Great Commission’ in the closing words of Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 28) challenges us to ‘go and make disciples.’ Aylesbury Vineyard’s Head of Youth Ministry, Amelia Godden, looks at what Jesus meant and how he himself went about it — focusing on the four invitations he gave his first disciples on their own relational journey.
During the Church’s Birthday Month (21 year anniversary of the church, 5 years since Steve and Lyn Burnhope took over as Senior Pastors), Steve shows some statistics about the Church’s average weekly Sunday attendance, James Tweats (head of compassion ministries) shares about the growth of Storehouse, and Liz Machell (head of children’s ministries) talks about the growth in Vineyard Kids.
Guest Speaker at our Birthday Services, Chris Lane (founding Senior Pastor of St Albans Vineyard, https://www.thevineyardchurch.co.uk/), talks about Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed and how it speaks to us about the nature of our calling to be his Church.
Going into the Church’s 21st birthday month (and the 5th anniversary of Steve and Lyn becoming the Senior Pastors), Lyn Burnhope offers some reflections on the past five years, on what ‘success’ looks like, and some encouragements for the next five years.
In the last of our current series on ‘Big Questions,’ Steve Burnhope looks at why — if God loves us and wants the best for us — we still face hardships in life. If ‘having faith’ is the key to health and prosperity (as some would say) then where are we going wrong? Steve looks at the life of the Apostle Paul for some clues ...
In the second of our latest Big Questions series, Steve Burnhope looks at the Bible. What’s it for? What’s the point of us having it? People sometimes say that it’s ‘God’s Instruction Manual’, but if so, which instructions? What makes a 2,000-plus year-old text relevant to today?
In the first of our latest series of ‘Big Questions’ about Christianity, faith and the Bible, Steve Burnhope looks at the Church. Jesus said, “I will build my Church” — but what sort of Church did he have in mind? How closely does that resemble what we see today? Is there a kind of Church that’s worth believing in…?
We welcome guest speaker and comedian Andy Kind to Aylesbury Vineyard.
Sunday 2 September 2018
It’s interesting that neither Jesus nor the Apostle Paul used the term ‘Christian’ (or, ‘Christianity’) — and it only appears in three New Testament verses. By far the most common word is not ‘believer’ or ‘follower’ — rather, it’s ‘disciple’. But that’s an unfamiliar word today — so what does it mean? Steve Burnhope suggests five characteristics that are the difference between being a ‘disciple’ versus just a ‘believer’ or a ‘follower.’
Steve Burnhope interviews Tanya Malpass about her experience of being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour (with a prognosis of a twelve-month life-expectancy), how she found God in what happened, and how four years later she is alive and well and flourishing.
Leading up to our summer Baptisms Service, Steve Burnhope explains the reasons why we do this strange and embarrassing thing called ‘baptism’, in front of all these people!
Lyn Burnhope shares some thoughts about Aylesbury Vineyard’s ‘mission statement’ based around Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 – with an important added dimension, of “being known by him” as well.
Guest Speaker Emily Smith, Senior Pastor of the new Gloucester Vineyard (https://gloucestervineyard.org/), shares some thoughts about what ‘obedience’ to Jesus looks like. It’s not the opposite of what we want, it’s the very best for us — enabling us to live life to the full and know him more intimately.
Young Adults’ Pastor, Luke Martin, explores some thoughts on what God’s kind of leadership looks like — whether it’s at work, school, family, home, community, or church — encouraging us to lead with patience, love, transparency, confidence and a willingness to step up, step out and not be afraid of making mistakes, to learn from along the way.
James Tweats shares about the times in his life where he's asked himself that same question (as many of us have) and looks at two Bible characters who also felt disqualified because of who they were and what they’d done: Moses, in the Old Testament, and Jesus’ disciple Peter, in the New.
Both Paul and Peter talk about the church being ‘the Temple’ (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Peter 2:4–5) — Steve Burnhope looks at how the Temple features and functions in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, and the exciting implications for what that means for us as the church today.
At our ‘Kids Takeover’ Service, children’s leader Laura Michel talks about how we can honour each other, across the generations, as part of the church family
Guest speaker from St Albans Vineyard (https://www.thevineyardchurch.co.uk), Mark Helvadjian, looks at what success in life looks like, and the kind of ‘works’ and ‘working’ that God does and doesn’t intend for us.
Liz Machell explores how we can be ‘sold out’ for Jesus and serve him without becoming ‘burnt out’.
Sunday 17 June 2018
In the third and last of our most-recent series on some 'Big Questions' about the Bible and Christianity, Steve Burnhope looks at the options for how we think about the place of other religions in our multi-cultural postmodern society.
In the second of our latest ‘Big Questions’ series, Steve Burnhope talks about how we can understand the Bible as one overarching story from cover to cover — the story of God and us — and the big questions about life and God that that ‘big story’ is asking and answering.
On the second Sunday of his visit, Guest Speaker Luke Geraty explains why we need a ‘both-and’ (not ‘either-or’) understanding of what it means to be and do ‘church’. He encourages us not just to think about receiving, to be blessed ourselves on Sundays, but also to serve on teams to bless others, so that they too can be welcomed in and encounter the transforming presence and power of Jesus.
Luke Geraty, our Guest Speaker from Red Bluff Vineyard in California (http://www.redbluffvineyard.church/), explores how the Holy Spirit brings unity to a Church community and how, surprisingly, he works in and through ‘conflict’ in achieving his goals.
Georgia Gasson looks at the exciting challenge of loving and serving others in the way we live our lives. Jesus modelled that for us — “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28) — but it’s still such an alien way of thinking!
Lyn Burnhope looks at the meaning of Jesus having “learned obedience through the things that He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8), and what maturing in our own faith looks like, asking the questions ‘Who am I, who do I want to become, how am I going to get there?’
Steve Burnhope looks at the biblical accounts of the Israelites about to enter the Promised Land, and of David’s encounter with Goliath, and asks whether we too have a ‘giant’ in our life that’s standing in the way of all that God has for us — the abundance, the fruitfulness and the joy and peace of our own ‘promised land’ in him. Just as David experienced, in Jesus we too are chosen, anointed and empowered to slay our giant and be free.
Was Jesus religious? Do you have to become religious to be a follower of Jesus? And if so, what does he want the religion that bears his name to look like? In a postmodern world where increasing numbers of people would call themselves ‘spiritual, but not religious’, Steve Burnhope looks to answer those questions from Jesus’ encounter with the woman accused of adultery in John 8.
Lyn Burnhope explains why we prioritize giving time to engage with God in intimate worship, seeking his presence. She talks about the ‘Why?’ and the ‘How?’ of worship and encourages us to become intentional and passionate worshippers, in mind, body and spirit.
The biggest question that Jesus asked his disciples was “Who do you say I am…?” He’s still asking each of us the same question today — so how will we go about answering it? Steve Burnhope shares some of his own journey of discovering Jesus and what it means to ‘become’ a Christian.
It’s relatively easy to picture in our minds God the Father, and Jesus the Son, but what does the Holy Spirit look like? He seems to be the mysterious one of the Trinity, especially since the Bible often speaks of him in impersonal terms like wind and breath. Steve Burnhope puts a biblical ‘face’ on the Holy Spirit and explains that actually, we do know quite a lot about him — and all the different aspects of who he is — in which he’d love us to get to know him!
Becky Stevens explores our spiritual hunger and thirst for God, looking at John’s Gospel.
Lyn Burnhope talks about the significance of prayer in our Christian lives — as ‘individual’ prayer, prayer ‘triplets’ and ‘corporate’ prayer (praying together) — in the lead up to our 24/7 Prayer Week which will be happening in the final week of Lent.
Steve Burnhope continues our series on the ‘Big Questions’ by explaining more about the contemporary worldview and how we can be most effective in introducing postmodern people to Jesus.
Steve Burnhope explores some of the reasons why, in our postmodern world, increasing numbers of Christians are separating the idea of relationship with Jesus from relationship with his Church.
Guest Speaker Kiera Phyo asks how, in a fractured and divided world, we can be saved from a life that’s all about me, surrounded by people like me — listening to the stories of others, seen through their eyes … addressing broken relationships that we’ve ignored … and being hospitable, inviting others to share meals with us, making unlikely friendships, just like Jesus.
In our recent All-Age Service, children’s leader Andy Stevens talks about what we can learn from Joshua, Jesus, and Martin Luther King Jr about being brave and trusting God in the fight for good.
It’s easy to assume that living a ‘dedicated’ life is just for special people, like Mother Theresa, but Steve Burnhope argues that actually, we’re all dedicated — the only question is, to who or what. Everything in life is in competition for our devotion — not just the space we have left over, after the things we ‘have to’ do — and we may be surprised to see what’s winning!
In last week’s talk, Jesus is the Question, Steve Burnhope talked about the two questions Jesus asked his disciples: ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Who am I to you?’ This week, he challenges us to switch them around and for us to ask Jesus those questions: ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Who am I to you?’
It’s remarkable how, in the Gospels, rather than just delivering answers Jesus spent so much time asking questions — up to 300 or more, by some counts. And apparently, he directly answered only three! Steve Burnhope suggests why this may have been, and invites us to think about the questions Jesus might be asking each of us, at the start of this New Year, 2018.
That was the angel’s message to the shepherds in the Nativity — but what does it mean? Lyn Burnhope explores the questions: What is ‘God’s glory’ and how is that meaningful to us?