Elm City Vineyard Church Talks

This Easter, Josh shares that through the power of resurrection, we can now walk with Christ instead of walking alone.

After the Palm Sunday pageant, Kyanna shares how shouting unto the Lord to be rescued in times of trouble can help us bend towards the Lord’s will and way. We’ve all got things that hold us down and prevent us from living a life of freedom. But the Lord’s faithfulness leads us to freedom as He calls us and we respond.

This week, Josh continues our series on Postures of Humility with, Look Up. When we are tired, exhausted, and in need of rescue, God exhorts us: look up. God's word to us is not to work harder, numb ourselves, or indulge our worst instincts in a time of trouble. Instead, God invites us to look up and see where our help comes from.

On Sunday, Tina will be sharing with us about laying down. Especially the face of chaos and turmoil, laying can seem irresponsible and even dangerous. But Jesus invites us to enter this radical posture of total trust and vulnerability, to lay down our defenses and our striving, and to receive total peace in Him.

When we bow down in worship, we communicate with our bodies that God is God (and we are not)—and that we are prepared to be obedient to God’s will for us. But there’s also a natural next step when we bow down: God lifts us up, following the pattern of Jesus who humbled himself and was then exalted by his--and our-- Heavenly Father. In our bowing, we enter into the humility—and exaltation—of Jesus.

Lent is a season in the life of the church where we remember Jesus’ sacrificial living and re-commit to live like Him. This Lent, we’ll be doing that by exploring Postures of Humility. We will choose to humble ourselves through remembering that God is our Maker and that our bodies can be positioned to tell a story of humility. As we bow, lay, look up, stand, shout, bend, and walk, we can ask the Lord to gift us this Lenten season with an embodied obedience that will renew our bodies and our Body.

When we fail to bless across generations, God still blesses. It’s part of the scandalous generosity of God. This week, Matt closes out our series by asking how can we live with the God whose blessings overflow the boundaries we try to set up?

In the third week of our Blessing Generations series, Tina walks us through the Biblical story of Esther and what it teaches about holy script-breaking and being agents of healing across generational lines.

This week Moriah shares how God invites us to commit to one another across generations, which is not only a blessing but can be truly healing. What new things might God do with our commitment to bless one another this way?

As we think about how to do church together, it is vitally important that our generations in ECV bless one another. That's what a healthy family does. This week, we'll see how God calls us to trust that we can find family and support in the Church even when - maybe especially when - life is challenging.

This Sunday, Josh closes our series with a talk about holding on to a picture of God's future Kingdom even if it only begins with a dream. When we are too weak to act -- to go, to build, to start-- all of us can receive a picture from the Lord that at least gives us hope.

It takes faith to build with God. Sometimes we don’t know how to get the resources to construct what’s needed. Other times, people around us don’t know why we’re building what we are. What might God be asking you to build? What is God desiring to build at ECV? This week, Josh talks about the faith to (re)build.

This month, Josh leads us as we look at heroes from the Hebrew Bible, modern-day heroes from the Civil Rights movement led by the Spirit, and…us as we seek to live with a radical faith that will impact the world around us. This week, we explore the story of Abraham and his faith to follow God.

Over Advent, we spent time learning about God's heart for us revealed in the incarnation of Jesus at Christmas. This Sunday, Patrick finishes the series with some practical suggestions about what it means to live with the significance of the incarnation.

This week Moriah offers a short talk on the messiness of the Incarnation following the annual No-Stress Christmas Pageant.

This week Matt leads us into a consideration of the power of the incarnation. In God’s Son drawing near to us in Jesus, we are given the opportunity to become God’s children. What would it look like to take up this new identity? What would we learn about God? What would we learn about ourselves?

God becoming human in the form of a baby, God drawing near to a people who have rejected Him many times before. This is strikingly vulnerable, but it can also be instructive for us as we ask the question: where are we becoming vulnerable for the sake of relationship? Josh kicks off our Advent series, The Vulnerability of the Incarnation.

This Sunday, Shirley Kuang shares about a life lived in light of the already and not yet kingdom of God-- in which we lament that which is broken even as we celebrate God's intervention, healing, and good gifts.

This week we ask what can be a great diagnostic question for how closely we're following Jesus: where is our love costing us? Is our love simply for our own gain -- love that flows to friends and family? Or does our love flow outward in a way where we lose something for a greater gain? This Sunday, Josh shares more about how Jesus models this costly love by staying close to God, providing a way for us to go and do likewise.

This Sunday, Moriah shares how God invites us into rest--and how living into God’s Sabbath rest is a part of our Kingdom work.