"Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken - that is , created things - so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Heb.12:26b-29, NIV)

Introduction

The context with which we look at the kingdom of God begins with God's covenant with Israel and his calling to them to be light to the Gentiles. It further moves on to the mission of Jesus and His commission to the apostles. The historical importance of church missions throughout history is also important, including recent the evangelical surge culminating in the church growth and missionary emphasis of the twentieth century. New Testament theology of the kingdom is foundational to our understanding and appreciation of the message and mission of Jesus. This understanding works itself out in terms of mission and training.

Kingdom Theology, An Overview

Both the Old and New Testaments speak very profoundly of the Kingdom of God both in terms of a future eschatological event an a present kingdom (kingdom now and kingdom not yet). The OT looks forward to both of these occasions, whereas in the NT Jesus declares "The kingdom of God near" (Luke 10:9,11).

To base our theology one either one of the 'kingdom now' or 'kingdom not yet' teachings leads us into an unbalanced understanding of the mystery of the kingdom.

On the one hand, if we focus on the 'kingdom now' doctrine, we tend to be triumphal in all that we preach and do, this leads to inconsistencies as we come across different hardships, it does not explain suffering or those that are not healed when they are prayed for. Those that follow this teaching can be very cruel when this happens, often blaming lack of faith or punishment for sin for un-resolved healings. Even worse is the 'just confess that you're healed and you will be' mentality which invariably causes more pain and hardship. We need to exercise absolute honesty, integrity, grace and mercy in this situation.

On the other hand, if we focus on the 'kingdom not yet' doctrine, we would fast become very negative about the world in which we live, explaining away all of our short comings on the mission field, at work, and in the world at large in favour of a future time when all of 'this rubbish will be done away with'. This leads to an imbalance in the other direction, where 'nothing worthwhile can be achieved in this world, so why bother. Jesus will come back one day and burn it all up anyway!'

The truth is that the Kingdom of God is a mystery, we are living between the coming and the consummation of the kingdom, both, the 'now and not yet' are true. Whenever someone is healed or God intervenes with power, what we are seeing is a preview of the end (Greek: eskatos), an eschatological event. This understanding of the kingdom, should inspire us to pray for the sick and seek God's power in our evangelistic endeavours. Every time the final manifestation of the kingdom is revealed, Satan is reminded of Christ's victory at Calvary.

The following values stem from our theology of the kingdom of God -

1) MISSION: We understand mission to be more than evangelism or proclamation and witness. Mission includes the whole vision of the extension of the kingdom of God. Discipling individuals and nations from conversion through to the social implications of the gospel.

We believe that the mission IS the church, instead of having churches for doing the ministry to Christians, and mission societies for doing the evangelism to non-Christians, we should see us, the Church of Jesus as "Do'in the stuff" and advancing the kingdom of God.

It is fundamental to Vineyard to spread the kingdom through planting churches as the normal method of revealing God's kingdom. The NT church did the same, churches sprung up in homes right throughout the known world during the time of the early church. We not only want to plant Vineyard churches, but all kinds of churches. Our passion for church planting needs to be given away to the whole body of Christ.

Planting churches and giving away the ministry for the renewal of others are the two 'tracks' that Vineyard runs on.

2) TRAINING: Part of the missions value is being trained and equipped to do the work. This means learning and training. Jesus did this with His disciples (the 12 and the 72, Luke 9 and Luke 10). It is basic to us that we should never stop learning and changing. We should continually embrace new models and perspective's in ministry to keep us on the edge in our readiness to spread the gospel.

As we learn, we in turn teach others. Primarily this means having others watch as we do it ourselves, then allowing them to try, without inflicting a fear of failure. This is a cycle of learning and training, sending and imparting.

Priorities

1) The time energy and money of the local church should be geared towards planting and reproducing itself as well as on maintaining it's own life.

2) We are committed to sending out teams to other churches to minister in any and every way.

3) Leaders are supported and released to go out for training and also for ministry.

4) We are to communicate the church planting mission within our own church, in order to release resources and inspire people into kingdom works.

Practices

1) Our training is simply based on a 'show and tell' model.

• I model it.
• I continue to model it with the trainee watching, interacting as I model it.
• I get the trainee to do it, continuing to interact.
• I leave the trainee doing it, asking him/her to check back with me from time to time.
• I instruct him to train someone else.

This is the method used by Jesus with His disciples.

2) The practical substance of this role model ministry includes the basic practices of NT Christianity; praying with others, laying hands on them, operating in the spiritual gifts, witnessing, giving to the poor, intercession. The aim is to bring every person into the ministry so all can minister in some way.