Rate the message Hemant and Jim heard at Evanston Vineyard Church
Posted by Helen in category Evanston Vineyard Church, Hemant's Church Rating, Online Messages on June 7, 2006
An audio copy of the message Jim and Hemant heard at Evanston Vineyard Church is now online:
You can read Hemant’s comments about the message here. Also, the Weekend America interview with Hemant and Jim was taped right after the service and makes reference to it.
On the day Hemant and Jim visited, the church had a guest speaker, Pastor Debby Wright.
Debby co-founded and now co-pastors Trent Vineyard Church in England with her husband. In the message she shares about her own life and how she came to be a Vineyard church pastor. She also talks about her church’s special focus on ministering to poor and homeless people in Nottingham.
We’d like to hear what you think of the speaker Pastor Debby Wright and the content of her message.
- Is she friendly? Easy to listen to?
- Is her message well-organized?
- Is it relevant to your life?
- What did you most like/dislike about the message?
Comment by: Helen M.
1 06/7/06 8:26 AM | Comment Link |I listened to the message before I posted the link so I guess I have a headstart over the rest of you :)
I really liked this message.
I found Debby very easy to listen to. She’s friendly and personable and she’s an excellent speaker.
I liked how she uses simple language without being simplistic - particularly because the fact that she does so implies that she wants to keep her messages comprehensible to people who aren’t experts in Christianese. That’s very consistent with her church’s focus on bringing unchurched people into their church. What’s the point of inviting them in if when they get there they can’t understand the language being spoken? :)
I’ve heard many messages which I know are attempting to manipulate me emotionally (perhaps this is well-intentioned). I loved that I didn’t feel at all emotionally manipulated by Debby; rather, her natural enthusiasm and excitement about what she was sharing drew me in and effectively got my attention.
It worked for me that this message was mostly Debby sharing her own experiences. I wasn’t having ‘truth declared to me’ so I wasn’t put in the situation of having to think whether I agreed with each ‘truth’ or not. How can I argue against someone else’s experience? It is what it is. I might disagree with Debby’s interpretation but nevertheless, her interpretation is not a direct assault on my own point of view the way truth declarations would be.
The one exhortation I remember her making, I agreed with anyway. It was that followers of Jesus get involved in the lives of people with complicated lives and problems, even though that makes church ‘messy’. She illustrated this by mentioning how a homeless man tried to ‘hit on her’ during a service when she was sitting next to him.
I certainly could apply that reminder not to avoid people just because they’ll complicate my life, to myself.
I love how Debby and her church are so passionately involved in helping poor and homeless people. I think that’s awesome.
I can’t think of anything I disliked about this message. There were one or times I felt uncomfortable but it wasn’t the message - it was other things it reminded me of. So there’s no reason to mention them here.
Comment by: jim
2 06/7/06 11:14 AM | Comment Link |I agree with Helens take - Debby was a very warm communicator and unusually transparent.
She told a story of how she was (at least partially) responsible for a car accident that killed the child of a friend of hers
She told story about her pre Christian sexual explorations which I rarely hear a pastors wife or a christian leader speak about so frankly.
When people are this open I try and imagine doing that and then when I realize that I probably would avoid that level of honesty in public - I tell myself to “shut up” and quit thinking I am so damn smart and such a great follower of Jesus.
She challenged me for sure.
Hemants issues were not about her message it was about her leadership of the “ministry time” about which he could make no informed opinion just an emotional one (imo) since this was his very first healing meeting (and my 1000)
I also had issues about the ministry time but I understood in relative terms if you are going to try and pray for sick people at all - then Debby did as good a job as I have seen of managing that very messy and uneven process.
Comment by: Debby Wright
3 06/13/06 5:09 AM | Comment Link |Hi this is Debby.
I did read Hermant’s review and thought it was very fair. I was delighted he was there on that morning.
He came across as somenone concerned for the best reasons for the well being of the folk present, questioning in particular some of what went on in the ministry time.
We have many friends visiting our own chuch who are not accustomed to miniatry times, - sometimes we are better at explaining and instructing, and pastoring people through what may or may not happen in response to what God seems to initiate.
I really did not want the focus to be on me on that morning, and felt led to involve as many as possible, to get them ‘doing the stuff’ of the kingdom.
Apparently there were manny backs healed or at least symptoms abaited. I think 13 was what I heard in a later E-mail from the staff at the Evanston vineyard. Isn’t God good?
I did want to respond to Hermant but felt there were so many questions he raised and I am not very comfortable responding in writing. I much prefer to chat face to face with folk who have questions. So I’m sorry for those who would have liked to see a writen response.
Anyway a lovely couple of reviews and I did enjoy my visit to Chicago, it was fab!!!
Comment by: Helen M.
4 06/13/06 6:18 AM | Comment Link |Thanks for your comments, Debby. We appreciate you taking time to respond to Hemant’s review.
I’ve posted Debby’s response as a new blog entry.