Tuesday 9 February 2016

7th February 2016

Pilgrims on the journey. Genesis 16: Hagar and Ishmael Family matters - an unhappy story of human will versus God’s will. The talk by Geoff unpicks some of the implications and consequences of this unfolding story of Hagar and Ishmael. It looks at the part that God’s mercy had to play over the mistakes of Abram and Sarai. Their attempts at completing God’s will by their own intuition and cunning that had bitter fruit., then and now. God overrules where we have gone wrong. His kind intervention and blessing extends over our errors of judgement and wilful mistakes. Yet beyond this in Jesus we are not doomed to remake the mistakes of the past which we have learned and been shaped by but are destined to a better future based on freedom and hope in God’s promises and friendship.
Notes will usually be available in the downloads section of the VPBC website

Thursday 4 February 2016

31st January 2016 

Pilgrims on the journey. Genesis 15. Covenant relationship on the pilgrimage. Pilgrimage is more than a metaphor – it is a way of life. After rescuing Lot Abram had a vision and heard the LORD speaking. Pilgrimage is all to do with hearing the LORD. As a result of this we are told that Abram put his trust in the LORD and was accepted by God. This first Abrahamic Covenant is made before even the sign of circumcision or the giving of the Law to Moses. It is about trust/ faith and acceptance. We are told that Abram was afraid and that following the vision he sought reassurance about the promise that had been given. Learning to trust God is also part of our pilgrimage together. The faith of Abram took hundreds of years to be fulfilled. A Covenant between the LORD and Abram is being developed and is vividly and symbolically demonstrated as well as spoken so that Abram remembers. We too take part in Covenant making in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Notes will usually be available in the downloads section of the VPBC website

Pilgrims on the journey. Genesis 13. Pilgrimage and Separation. This journey is all about tents and altars: journeying and encountering God in discovery and a growing intimacy. The call and the promise Abram received required him to leave behind certain things and also various relationships. Pilgrimage requires separation for certain things in exchange for a growing intimacy with God. This separation may be physical but also psychological. The account of why and how Abram and Lot separated is examined. Lot made his choices on the basis of what he saw and wanted and Abram on the basis of looking and listening to God’s promise and walking in obedience. Jesus redefined his family as those who hear the will of God and obey it. Luke 8: 19 – 21.
Notes will usually be available in the downloads section of the VPBC website

17th January 2016

Pilgrims on the journey. Genesis 11: 31 – 12: 9. The call to journey. The journey back to finding home with God. God calls the legendary Abram and Sarai out of their country and family to seek a land that he would show and to make of them a new pilgrim people. How fare did Abram travel physically and theologically in his understanding of God and himself? The call was from a life dominated by idol worship – moon gods to a discovery of calling upon the name of the LORD. It is a story of leaving behind all that Abram knew and is accustomed to. It is a story of disentangling himself from all that bound him. The call to forsake all at the call of God and move in obedience to a place of God’s choosing is paralleled in the Gospel accounts of Jesus. 
Notes will usually be available in the downloads section of the VPBC website.

10th January 2016 

Pilgrims on the journey. Genesis 1: 26 31, 2:8, 2:15 – 3:24. Banished. The Genesis account like John’s Gospel begins with the claim: In the beginning... The Genesis account probably written about 1400 BC explained not as scientific text but as in the genre of myth – much more than an allegory but also a philosophical and symbolic explanation of human banishment from the presence of God. This estrangement is also the beginning of God calling people on a journey home. A purely scientific explanation of the universe is unable to answer all the questions we have. That doesn’t rule out its usefulness but it is not enough.
Notes will usually be available in the downloads section of the VPBC website

3rd January 2016

Pilgrims on the journey. The 3 gifts: resourcing the Jesus mission.
This is the first session in a New Year long series. Matthew 2: 1 – 11. The Magi journey “from the east” seeking the one born as King of the Jews. They brought themselves and not just their gifts to Jesus. Does this same willingness to offer my wealth to Jesus prevail in my life? Will we offer the things we value to the Jesus mission?
Notes will usually be available on the downloads section of the VPBC website.

27th December 2015 

Last service of 2015. Loving the World. Speaker is GTH

25th December 2015

Christmas Day Service

20th December 2015

Advent: Week 4

13th December 2015

Carols by Candlelight

13th December 2015


Advent: Week 3

6th December 2015


Advent: Week 2

29th November 2015


Advent: Week 1

22nd November 2015

15th November 2015

8th November 2015

1 John 5: 19 – 21. Loving the world. Followers of Jesus: beware idolatry. We continue to think about our experience of living in the world and John’s warning against idolatry. John’s world view is clear: we know that we belong to God even though the whole world lies passively in the thrall of evil. (v19) John felt it necessary to warn his spiritual children to guard against idols. We examined the reality of Jesus verses the phantom nature of idols. Their power often being only the fear of those who believe in them. We discussed the power of the idols of the secular world. All God substitutes are idols. We are to seek to live in the reality of God and eternal life.

1st November 2015

1 John 4: 7 – 21. Jesus Saviour of the world. We continue with the experience that John outlines: in a sense the “life” Jesus enables the pull-push tension of living in the world and following Jesus. Using the illustration of Jesus meeting the woman at the well in Sychar (John 4: 1 -42) we see her personal and then her community’s discovery of the global significance of Jesus: as Saviour. We considered the necessity of a Saviour for the whole world: people and planet.

25th October 2015

1 John 4: 1 – 6. Listen to God or the world? Are the voices true or false: discerning. John sees it as a sign of maturity that followers of Jesus are able to live with the tensions that being in the world bring. John is partly speaking in his context about the false teachers of his day. Using the story of Zacchaeus we saw what happened to him when he started to listen to the voice of Jesus. The voice of Jesus, the voice of the Spirit will lead us into truth. John argues that we can defeat the world only if we believe in the true identity of Jesus as God the Son.
No recording due to technical problems

18th October 2015

Count Me In. This Sunday was a half day participatory experience with the Engage Worship team. No talk was recorded.

11th October 2015

1 John 3: 11 – 24. Inner pull-push: my battle with the world within. How do the true children of God experience living in the world? John used the well-known story of Cain and Able to illustrate how brothers and sisters can hate one another and so bring offerings which are unacceptable to God. We began to examine therefore our own attitudes to one another.
Notes will usually be available in the downloads section of the VPBC website

4th October 2015

1 John 3: 1 – 10. John shows the pull and push tension that the world and loving it exerts on followers of Jesus is real. We both feel at home and also in tension in the world. We are “earthlings” who can experience God’s peace in the midst of tension. Jane the speaker suggested that God chooses to let us live in tension and she began to suggest why. Our relationship with the world is that of both love and hate.
Notes will usually be available in the downloads section of the VPBC website

27th September 2015

Romans 12: 13 plus stories and sharing. This is a Harvest all-age service. Loving the world means SHARING.
Notes will usually be available in the downloads section of the VPBC website