STEPS 2010 - Building Bridges

Have you ever been in distress? Perhaps you are in distress now? Lonely, bereaved, in trouble, upset, jobless, broke?

Have you ever been in debt? Perhaps you are in debt now? The bible says that “the borrower is the servant of the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). Many of us have felt the weight of that experience – being a servant to the bank or credit card or loan company. It is often described as being trapped in a room with no doors.

Have you ever been discontented? Perhaps you are discontented now? You don’t like your current situation, you’re unhappy with the people around you. Perhaps you experience or witness violence or poverty and God seems far away.

If you are in distress, indebted, discontented you are welcome here. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). If that’s you, you may find a stronghold here. But it may be a little different from what you expect. All those who join this community become ministers to those in distress, indebted, discontented.

Who are the ministers in this church? We are.
Everyone gets to play.

Recently a story of King David in the Old Testament has been impressed upon me by a friend. In particular one little paragraph has inspired me:

1 Samuel 22:1-2 David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down to him. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him.

The ESV Study Bible comments: “David was gathering the outcasts of Israel but under his leadership they became an effective fighting force.” Later, the places David uses are called strongholds.

And I am not saying that you have to be indebted, distressed or discontented. But if you are, you are welcome to the stronghold, and Alison and I have observed over the years that these are recurring themes in this community.

The key thing is that Alison and I aren’t simply here to minister to the needs of the people but to turn them into ministers, into a fighting force. And this is what we intend to do. Yes we will minister to each other, but we have other work to do, a vision of the kingdom to pursue.

Leeds needs to know the love of Jesus in words and in practical ways and Alison and I want to gather people, including the distressed, the indebted, and the discontent, to Build Bridges and to make a difference in the communities around us.

We do this in a number of ways - and there are some phrases and words flying around which need a bit of explaining before we go on.

REACH OUT

Reach Out is a purpose-driven-priority of the Vineyard. It is expressed in an ongoing programme of compassion activities which reach out to those in need around us, near and far. We call this “Reach Out”.

The purpose of Reach Out is to enable everyone within the Vineyard to serve and bless others, especially the sick, the lost and the poor. Reach Out includes a huge range of activities initiated by housegroups and others. Some take place locally and some go abroad.

It also includes lifestyles – in other words we are people who look for the opportunity to share Jesus’ love with people in practical ways through the normal course of our lives.

STEPS

Much of what we do here to build the kingdom is spiritual and relational. The currency of this ministry is the compassion of Jesus in our hearts for the lost. But for us to be effective in the long term there are practical and financial implications. STEPS is our ongoing programme to raise our faith levels and to provide the opportunity to build resources - money, people and practical - with which to construct the financial and physical aspects of this community. This includes buying buildings as and when needed, investing in projects, giving away substantially and also in ensuring our finances are healthy.

We are called to grow the kingdom and we think that God’s plan to do that is primarily through the growth and establishment of the church, his body. If the Vineyard is going to be ministering effectively in the Leeds and West Yorkshire area in 10 years, 50 years, 100 years’ time (unless the Lord returns) we should invest carefully in buildings, resources and people.

Some 60 years ago a group of intrepid church planters were sent from Harehills Lane Baptist to plant a church in Moortown. They gave sacrificially to build a church and a couple of generations later Moortown has a profound and extensive ministry throughout North East Leeds. Hundreds of people have come to faith, been trained and sent out from there over these years. Amongst them, Alison and me and others in this room.

If we want to leave a legacy of a similar sort then it falls to us, in this generation, to give, to invest, to do whatever it takes to fulfil God’s calling on us.

BUILDING BRIDGES

Our theme for 2010 is Building Bridges. This is where Reach Out, our purpose driven priority of compassion, meets STEPS our programme to put in place finance and infrastructure. Most of our Reach Out is run through housegroups and on a low key basis. It is good quality work and many people give it substantial time and energy.

STEPS is often about buildings but in 2010 it is about Building Bridges.
And Building Bridges is about discovering what God is doing in the communities around us and then inspired by Reach Out and resourced by STEPS we will Build a long-term and substantial Bridge into those communities, the church becoming the Bridge.

northside picture

Three years ago I came to you to start STEPS. Through the Lord’s provision and your generosity we were able to buy 5 Sheepscar Court, now our Vineyard Centre, and also give some £40,000 to youth orientated kingdom ministries in Leeds. That was such an exciting stage in the life of this community.

And now, 3 years later, I almost take the Vineyard Centre for granted. We now have a base, somewhere we point to. It has given us a space where, for example:

the 8 paid staff and several volunteers can train, work and do much of their ministry;
52 mums and children meet for fun and to learn about raising kids – over 20 each week;
32 young people, most of them non-churched, retreat to a safe place on Friday Evening for a youth club - 15-25 each Friday night;
the Gathering takes place every Sunday night;
many evenings there are meetings and training events;
often at weekends there are conferences for the Vineyards in the North;
we can host meetings for other churches and their leaders in Leeds;
we store PA kit, children’s equipment and catering supplies;
we host meals and parties;
we have a base from which to launch out into the surrounding community.

This rather boring, neutral, non-religious, red brick building has already released tons of kingdom ministry through the Vineyard here.

STEPS 2010

The time has come to take another STEP into providing resource and facilities for the future. As we have read through the ideas many of you have submitted in recent weeks some key themes have emerged. STEPS 2010 is about Building Bridges rather than buying a building.

STEPS this time is going to be a 3-STEP process. Although we will start them off one at a time they may well get mixed up along the way. I think the whole thing will take about 12 months and I would like to raise £100,000 to make that happen.

STEP 1 - DEBT ADVICE CENTRE

At the end of January 2010 total personal debt stood at £1,463bn. £22,500 per man, woman and child.
CAB deal with 9,500 new debt problems every day.
Every 11.4 minutes a property is repossessed.
Every 3.69 minutes someone will be declared bankrupt.
CCCS helpline received 335,323 calls in 2009 – an increase of 25%. Expected to go up in 2010.
Yorkshire ranks equal first (with West Midlands) in the number of clients per head of population (5.53 Debt Management Plans per 10,000 of the population).

• An example of a cause of debt, taken from BBC Leeds:
Maureen has been with Tom for five years. During that time she has paid thousands of pounds to people to replace things that he stole to pay for his heroin addiction. At one time it had got so bad she was jobless and homeless. “It's not so much debt, with credit cards and things. Every day, well at least once a week, someone comes to me and says he's stolen this or that. I feel I've got to go out and replace it."

• An example of what it makes people do, also taken from BBC Leeds:
An increasing number of students are finding employment as dancers in the city's pole-dancing and lap-dancing clubs in an effort to make ends meet. A student who works in the clubs claims that she can £500 for two nights dancing, she says: "I earn more in one night than the average person in a week."

When I ask people what is the main need in their area debt usually pops up as one of the top two or three. Most GPs will attest to the need. The demand on existing provision attests to the need. I have long had an interest in this and have waited for many years for the right time to do it. I think now is the time.

Most often a Debt Advice service means coming alongside people who ask for help and offering technical advice to get them out of debt and managing their money better. But also it invariably involves building relationships with people, some of whom are short of friends and support and often are people who don’t know that Jesus loves them and died for them. Debt advice provides a way to help them practically and introduce them to their saviour. Two for one.

We are going to spend some months researching the different options and ways of providing debt advice. We have connections with several Debt Advice organisations. The preferred strategy will probably be to go into partnership with an existing provider and we need to find the one that is right for us. In the summer we will make a decision with the aim of launching this service in the Autumn.

Whatever we do we will do it really well and in a substantial way that will make a real difference in Leeds and which will last for years if not decades. I want to Build a significant and effective Bridge in the form of a Debt Advice service.

So I am asking you for three things:

1. Money – it will cost money to do this. I don’t want to pre-empt the results of the research but my assumption is that we will want to have the wages of at least one debt advisor. We may need license/partnership fees and some ongoing office facilities – telephones, internet, publicity. These may be shared with the existing office – but maybe not.
So I would like to raise £40,000 for Debt Advice, enough to cover two years’ salaries and associated set up costs.
My assumption would be that, if we do it well, after two years it will be mainly self-financing – the Bridge will be built.

2. People – we will probably appoint one or more debt advisors. Either people already trained or willing to be trained and licensed. Most of the models I have seen also require a team of supporters to work alongside the debt advisor. These supporters build appropriate relationships with the people we are helping and constitute the human element of the Bridge building.

3. Prayer – our every step needs to be preceded by and covered by prayer. I would like us all to pray and in particular those for whom prayer is a calling.

STEP 2 – FAMILY SUPPORT SERVICES

The other thing that most often comes up when I ask people what needs they are aware of is one of a variety of services that help families – supporting parents with skills, providing safe places for children, prisoner support, befriending prostitutes (providing care for their children), marriage counselling, home renovation, contact centres (which are safe places where separated parents can visit their children), supporting asylum seeker families.

One of the reasons this resonates with us is because we already have a track record – both through the church and because many of you are involved through your own professional careers or personal interests.

However, before we move too fast, it is a fact that there are many services offered in Leeds. I want us to do careful research work to find out both what specific gaps there are in family support which we could most effectively fill; and where they are, geographically.

So we are going to search out one or two things we could build on and do really well. We have to start somewhere and I would ask you to throw your weight behind whichever one we go for first – whether or not it is your particular favourite.

For example, wouldn’t it be great if we spotted a need for the sort of things that Belly Buttons does – equipping parents of babies & toddlers – in Osmondthorpe?
We pay to rent a suitable space in that community, kit it out with kids’ toys and refreshments. We have a team of people who will go there regularly to lead and a team of people who will offer the equipping talks and stories.
Some parents ask for help with their finances and we have a Debt Advice Centre that can step in and help them.
As they are blessed by Belly Buttons and by getting out of debt they seek to find out more about Jesus and join an Alpha course being run by our Osmondthorpe house group.
Results: saved lives, people released from debt, families equipped and supported.

Whatever it is I want to build a long-term legacy. One that shouts to the people of Leeds that Jesus loves them and his followers will commit themselves to demonstrating his love in practical ways to families.

So I am asking you for four things:

1. Money – it obviously depends upon what we do but I am certain that we will need money to pay for a networker and for some resources such as kids’ toys, renting meeting places and buying training materials.
I would like to raise £20,000 in order to be ready and available when we get the OK to go. Again, my plan is that within a year or two this will be established in such a way that it becomes somewhat self-financing – the Bridge will be Built.

2. People – we will need quite a few people with appropriate skills and a heart for this work. In particular we will probably need a networker who can negotiate and build relationships with other agencies and service providers around Leeds. Otherwise I foresee it being mainly voluntary at the start but increasingly with paid workers.

3. Hard information – if you have access to specific information that will help us understand what is needed and where, please share it. Facts, figures, names, places.

4. Prayer – our every step needs to be preceded by and covered by prayer. In particular I would like some of you to visit and pray in the actual geographical areas where we think we may be able to serve. Let us know your availability and we will tell you where to go!

STEP 3 – VINEYARD CENTRE

Until STEPS 1 and 2 have become clearer we are going to do as much as we can to squeeze value from the current Vineyard Centre rather than buy another building.

There is a queue of Bridge Builders lining up behind these first two STEPS wanting to provide services (or already doing so) for

the immigrant community and asylum seekers,
offering a drop in centre and cafe,
listening services,
food,
furniture and clothing distribution,
prison ministries,
back to work support
and so on.

We will do what we can from the current building starting with STEPS 1 & 2, but we are close to the limit.

Until the time comes to buy another building we can do some things to improve the current use of the Vineyard Centre, keep it in reasonable condition and prepare for the next building we will need to buy one day.

1. The main thing at the moment is to complete the installation of a commercial grade kitchen so that we can cater properly. This will allow us to provide meals for events such as Alpha suppers, training events, dedication parties, meals for the homeless and so on. At the moment we generally have to ship in outside catering – which costs money and is less flexible.

2. And although it is not exciting we do need to spend money to look after the building as we go along. Bits get worn out and need replacing and that costs money – so far we have replaced the alarm systems, put in a new boiler and repainted the entranceway for example.

3. It would also be prudent to pay down the mortgage on the Vineyard Centre as fast as we can. We have an extremely good mortgage deal and are making good progress in repayments. However, I think interest rates will be quite a lot higher in a few years’ time so it would be wise to reduce the loan faster in order to ensure that we aren’t using future funds to service the higher amount of interest.

So I am asking you for three things:

1. Money – £20,000 allows us to finish the kitchen and have enough to maintain the fabric for a few years.. I‘d like to be in a good financial position so that when the Lord prompts us to buy the next building we are able to do so. I’d like to repay a chunk of the mortgage (£20,000+). So STEP 3 needs at least £40,000 and I would love it if the Lord released even more!

2. People – if you have decorating and DIY skills you could make available when we come to work on the VC, that would be great. We may well need the same skills and resource when we buy a new building – depending on its condition!

3. Prayer with eyes on the ground – keep praying and looking and listening. If you hear of a building that may work for us please pass the information through to Nigel Tapp who is acting as our advisor in this.

STEPS 2010 has the theme Building Bridges.

We plan to do this over the next 12 months and would like at least £100,000 to work with:

1. Establishing a Debt Advice Centre - £40,000;
2. Establishing one or more family support services - £20,000;
3. Refurbishing & maintaining the Vineyard Centre and preparing for another building - £40,000.

WHAT CAN I DO?

If you would like to join in with STEPS 2010 you can do so in the ways I have described: by giving money, by offering your own time and energy, by providing hard information and ideas for buildings, by prayer.

When it comes to money (and indeed to other areas of giving) STEPS 2010 is about a separate, probably sacrificial, giving exercise. It is not the same as your normal giving to the Vineyard. This giving, for which we are incredibly grateful, is what funds the day to day activities of this community – our meetings on Sundays, our work with children and young people, missions overseas and on the streets of Leeds, and our giving to other causes (for example). Giving to STEPS 2010 is additional to that and enables us to do something extra-ordinary for the kingdom. It often means using savings which you have been keeping for something else or perhaps selling something of value or re-allocating a recent bonus/inheritance. Ask the Lord to show you and then step out in faith that he will provide for your needs.

If you would like to give to STEPS 2010, please click on the link below which will take you to the following documents:

1. Yellow response – to let us know in what ways you wish to support STEPS 2010 (please read the notes about restricted giving and please use the Gift Aid forms);
2. FAQ;
3. Form 1 – to go with your gift or the standing order – or to let us know if you have transferred funds electronically – and to make a Gift Aid declaration;
4. Form 2 – if you wish to pledge to give in the future;
5. Form 3 – if you wish to make an interest free loan;
6. Form 4 – is the standing order form if you want to give regularly.

We would like to ask you to go home, pray with your friends, spouse or housegroup leader and ask the Lord what he wants you to do. Please respond within 12 days (by Friday 26 March) – even if it is only to pledge support at some future point – so that we can announce the results on 28 March. If you have children, please tell them about this and allow them to be involved.

Leadership School prophecy:

I was standing up, looking around......and saw a row of coat pegs......initially just a few (say 5 or 6)....as you might have on a wall at home.
I realised that I should be taking off my outside clothing.......but remember feeling uncomfortable about it......I hesitated & looked back....
As I looked back I saw that the row of pegs extended back as far as I could see.....and that there were lots of other people behind me.....all following me...beginning to take things off..
I saw people removing Hats, coats, thick jumpers, fleeces.....& hanging up / putting down umbrellas, bags, briefcases.......
Some of the uncertainness I felt.....seemed to change to excitement.

I hope some of your uncertainness will change to excitement. Let’s take off our hats & coats and get to work.

FINALLY – TO CONCLUDE

1 Samuel 22:1-2 David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down to him. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul (discontented) gathered to him.

Alison and I find ourselves, somewhat to our astonishment, surrounded by a bunch of selfless, gifted and compassionate people. Many of us in distress, in debt, discontented. But we are called to fight for the kingdom.

Alison and I have been called to do so this way, we invite you to gather with us as we seek to Build Bridges for the kingdom.

The General Leadership Team have considered and discussed this and are recommending it to you. I presented it to most of the leaders last weekend, including the staff and the trustees, and they are behind it too. So I am now throwing open this STEPS opportunity to everyone.

STEPS
If you feel called to join us in this endeavour we would invite you to pray and seek the Lord’s guidance and then support STEPS as he directs you.

If you would like to make a STEPS 2010 response, please click here to be taken to the response forms and frequently asked questions information.

David Flowers, 17/03/2010