Values
Our five core values comprise the vision of our church. They signify who we want to be as a community and our affiliation with the Vineyard Movement. The following quotes are from Ken Wilson’s article at Vineyard USA.
Kingdom Theology & Practice
The Vineyard is committed to the theology and practice of the kingdom of God—rooted in the vision of the Hebrew prophets and fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. The movement is distinctively rooted in a renewed understanding of the centrality of the kingdom in biblical thought. We view the kingdom of God as the overarching and integrating theme of the Bible.
As a church, we are following Jesus into God’s reality. The kingdom of God is God’s reign and rule on the earth; it is God’s reality breaking into our reality. When that happens, salvation, healing, deliverance, reconciliation, peace, and justice are experienced. Our desire is for frequent encounters of God’s reality to transform each of us, our church, our city, and the world.
Culturally Relevant Mission
The church exists for the sake of those who are exiled from God. We are called to bring the gospel of the kingdom to every nook and cranny of creation, faithfully translating the message of Jesus in language and forms that are relevant to diverse peoples and cultures.
We believe all of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is working everywhere all the time. He has called us to participate fully in the lives of our families, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Jesus commands us to love them and witness to how God is at work in their lives.
Compassionate Ministry
We lean toward the lost, the poor, the outcast, and the outsider with the compassion of Jesus, knowing we are sinners whose standing before God is utterly dependent on his mercy. This mercy can only be truly received inasmuch as we are willing to give it away.
We believe that ministry in Jesus’ name should be expressed in concrete ways through the local church. The poor are to be served as though we serve Jesus himself. This is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a church expressing the love of Christ in a local community.
In fact, in all forms of ministry, compassion is a hallmark of the One who was “moved with compassion” in the face of human need. This being the age of grace—and “the year of the Lord’s favor”—compassion should constitute the leading edge of our service to God, each other, and our broken world. With humility, we seek to avoid unauthorized judgments of others, realizing that we suffer and struggle along with the rest of humanity.
Reconciling Community
Jesus is reconciling people to God, to each other, and to the entire creation. He breaks down divisions between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female. Therefore, Vineyard churches are committed to being communities of healing, engaged in the work of reconciliation wherever sin and evil hold sway.
Jesus is uniting us together into a loving, peace-filled community where we are safe to be vulnerable and real. We are free to ask our questions, relate our struggles, and reveal our hurts. In doing so, we receive comfort, strength, and healing as God works through the prayers and compassion of others.
Experiencing God
The triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is eager to be known and experienced by all. We believe that God is searching for the lost and longs to draw us into loving, intimate relationship with him. In Vineyard churches, we welcome God’s personal presence, we seek to be attentive to his presence, and we value the passionate pursuit of his presence in order to respond in obedience to his initiatives.
We understand God’s presence as a palpable reality. As we become increasingly sensitive and responsive to the Spirit’s presence, we too can learn to “see what the Father is doing” and support his work with our lives.
