Stephen's Sutton Vineyard Story: Extending the Table

How does God call us to serve?

The answer can come in so many different places, and at Sutton Vineyard we are blessed to have so many amazing people giving their time to serve our community and to bring Jesus’ message to the least, the lost, the near and the far off.

Senior Pastor Julian Arnold spoke to Stephen, who as well as being an active member of the Sutton Vineyard Church family also serves at Warm Welcome. They talked about hearing from God, extending the table and what it means for us:

Julian: Steve, you've been around church for a number of years serving in a variety of ways.

What are some of the things that emerged for you in 2023 around what the Lord was doing and what really surprised you? 

Stephen: Well, some of you might know that I'm a Vineyard coach and that involves coaching pastors and leaders.

I was coaching one person and she was talking about her compassionate ministries and the challenge of the warm space that she was setting up. Suddenly I sense, because you're coaching online, that the Holy Spirit just jumped out of the screen and said “tell your leaders about this” you know? So I spoke to Hannah Miles, and I said “have you heard about this warm space?” And she says “yeah, we have actually”. I was telling her about it and she said, “Well, we're happy to support you if you're willing to lead.” And that's that. That's the way it goes in the church here, you know. That was not on my radar. I'm retired. I'm supposed to be taking things a bit easier, doing different things. 

Julian: There's no retirement in the kingdom of God!

Stephen: No! It was completely left field because it's something that I wouldn't have thought about, dreamt about doing. I thought “Oh, I'll pray about this” as you should do. And then I spoke to my wife, actually she rephrased this, that after seeing Seeking God reluctantly on the matter and with the prompting of the Holy Spirit, actually it was her nagging you know! 

Julian: You were doing so well when you said I've got the prophecy from my wife!

Stephen: So I actually said, you know, I couldn't take it any longer. I said yes, and I had no idea what I was committing myself for. 

Originally we launched as a warm space, and now we've evolved into a Warm Welcome. Warm Welcome is simply a community coffee bar offering ball games and a place to connect on Monday mornings to the community.

From September to December 2023 we had over 200 visitors. That was quite amazing. 

God has surprised me also in many different ways because there's interest in this. Sutton Council's community engagement team has been talking to us. The local councillors have dropped in to find out. Age UK have dropped in and given us some advice. It's been absolutely amazing that God has brought the people through the doors. it's amazing.

Stephen: It is incredible. And one of the things that we discovered last year was this phrase extending the table to the least, the lost, the near and the far off. And the more we spoke, the more we preach, the more we prayed together, the more we sought God, we realised that really sums up the mission of what we're here to do. That's the reason we exist. And so Community projects like Warm Welcome is an excellent way of achieving that.

Julian: Tell us about a time with Warm Welcome where you've seen someone come to the table and how it's been able to demonstrate God's love to them.

Stephen: So throughout last year, God has shown us that is meant by extending the table.

It's simply offering God's hospitality and his perfect presence to those who visit us on a monday morning.

It could be a simple smile, an act of kindness, a chat, just making connection, signposting. If they need some support somewhere or offering prayer.

It may seem a small thing, but one of our regulars hardly spoke or engaged with anyone during the previous sessions. On this day he brought along a chess set to play with and as I was out I noticed he was engaging freely in conversation. A small thing, but a mighty step for that person.

A member of the team shared another lovely story about a Portuguese lady who dropped in. She worked at a local hospital, she was struggling with the cost of living, was lonely and planning to go back to Portugal. Our team member listened, prayed with her and the lady was blessed by the word that she was given. Incredible, isn't it?

Julian: And just as you look out on this room, think about the variety of people in our church. Some are able to serve midweek, some are all working all sorts of hours, and we're sharing these different stories. What are some of the ways that you can encourage others to extend the table?

Stephen: I remember walking into a Warm Welcome on a cold, damp Monday morning, not knowing what the day would bring. I have to be quite honest, I had little to give and felt depleted of energy. And I remember praying to God and saying “how do you want me to serve today?” I sensed him saying just be present and I'll do the rest.

And sometimes it's your presence that God wants, His Holy Spirit will give you the strength you need to guide you through the day. Extending the table is to be present at it. Being with Jesus is the beginning of offering hospitality and his perfect presence to the least, the lost, the near and the far off.

Julian: What I love about that Steve as well, is that whether you look at some of the stuff that we do formally as a church or just in your own everyday lives, actually the key there really is allowing people into your world, isn't it? I think so often we think of sharing our faith as like big old school evangelistic crusades. But actually it's you being Jesus just in your everyday lives and saying, actually, I'm going to share that with others.

Thank you so much for sharing.

Tom's Sutton Vineyard Story: Focus, Youth and Community

At Sutton Vineyard we have so many amazing stories of God moving in people’s lives to serve our community and develop as individuals.

One of those people is Tom, who serves as a leader in our Youth ministry.

Our Senior Pastor Julian spoke to Tom about focus, the joy of serving and how his faith has developed in his everyday life:

Julian: Good morning! How are you doing? 

Tom: Good. Yeah. Good. 

Julian: So tell us your name and where you come from? 

Tom: My name's Tom. I come from Croydon.

Members of the congregation cheer 

Okay, good. Yeah, we like that

Julian: Did someone just boo?

Tom: It's not that bad! 

Julian: We can pray for him afterwards. It's okay. But you love the Lord though, so it's all good.

So Tom, what are some of the things that the Lord has stirred in you recently? 

Tom: So I had quite a tricky 2023 for a few different reasons. My faith was tested in lots of different ways that I hadn't been tested before and perhaps I hadn't expected to be.

There was something that we did as a small group at the start of last year, which was to find a word for our year. And for me that word was focus. It wasn't immediately obvious at the start how that was going to be relevant, but over the course of the year I came to realise that having the focus on God with all the other stuff that was going on around me was really important.

So yeah it was really hard at times, hard to be proactive in that.

Julian: I love that you start with a word. We did a straw poll just after New Year's on resolutions, and only two people raised their hands. And so this word of the year that's carrying you through is something that God's kind of unsettled in you, that you need to actually draw down your attention to Focus.

Tom: Yeah. Well, the thing I realised was that I wasn't always particularly focused, and it's quite hard to be proactive in that. Simple things, prayer, reading the Bible, even coming to church and being in spaces like this, having that as a focal point of your life is not always easy.

Julian: No, Absolutely. 

One of the ways you serve is by leading our young people on our youth team. What inspires you most about serving our young people? How is the Lord growing you through serving them? 

Tom: So when I was youth age, I had some brilliant youth leaders and was really blessed in that.

So that gives me a lot of the motivation to serve in youth. But having been around the church for a while, I'm sure some people might be able to empathise, you can get bad habits creeping in. You can maybe get a bit weary. The energy levels can drop. But being around the youth is amazing. The energy, the optimism, the positivity that some of them have and their desire to sort of act out their faith is is really amazing.

It's a real privilege. I'd really encourage it.

Julian: Can I ask you, do you understand all of the phrases they use? Because I was a youth pastor for many years and I thought it would never happen. And it's happened. 

Tom: Haha, no!

Julian: Right, so we're in the same boat. We don't feel left out! And yet you can still serve our young people. 

Tom: Embrace it, embrace it.

Julian: In what ways have you experienced spiritual growth through your working with our young people? 

Tom: It's a great team to serve on. There are some phenomenal youth leaders. When you serve on Youth, you spend a lot of time around the leaders on the camps like DTI (Dreaming the Impossible), on Friday Nights, at Youth Small Group. And so I learn a lot from the leaders as well and how they approach things. When you have a responsibility to teach people about faith, Church, God, Jesus, all of those things, the challenge that I find is being in a place where I can communicate that clearly and understand that. It makes me realise the simplicity of a lot of the things we do at Church. We sit there and we really overcomplicate the foundations that we all know we should have enough faith that we sometimes neglect. 

Julian: So as we as we look at the way we serve, one of the things we do as a church is we come in, we get built up in the faith and then we also give out of what gifts and talents the Lord has given us. But obviously committing to serve and going the way that you are is a bit of a time commitment in a variety of ways, because, for instance, you know, it's not just on Sundays, is it? How do you balance that commitment to growing in your faith, serving our young people and maintaining a positive presence as you go about your daily work as well? 

Tom: Yeah. that's a huge thing for me. I think it's really important to have spaces in the Church that you give to that maybe draw on your energy levels and youth is that. It's great, but it can be tiring.

But also having spaces that you can learn from and grow in. And so small groups are great and I really appreciate the community that you have in that and the learning that you can get from that.

And I think that's really important in a work setting. I work in the civil service, so it's not always easy to share about your personal life, faith or otherwise. I have the odd conversation. I had a conversation with a guy last summer after DTI, and found out that he also serves as a youth leader in a church, I didn't even know he went to church! So it was really nice to have that community with someone to sort of support me.

But what I do try to do in the work setting, if I can't talk about my faith because it just doesn't come up so much as, is think of what I can control. I can control how I act and try to apply the sort of principles that Jesus taught us to have in work. 

That's honesty, integrity, kindness, how you treat people.

I try to bring that in where I can. 

Julian: And what I love about that is this if you call it, there's three aspects here where Tom is a part of our church. You're serving our young people, but also that's a catalyst for conversation in your everyday life. All of these things play together in helping extend the table in different ways because you're serving here in what you’re familiar with on a Sunday. But actually it has an impact on all areas of your life.

Thank you for sharing!

If you’re looking to find out more about serving on any of our Church teams, visit our Join a Team page or email hannah.miles@suttonvineyard.org for more information!