We see Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom of God as the overarching and integrating theme of the Scriptures. The Vineyard movement expresses the historical, biblical, orthodox Christian beliefs with the Bible as our final authority in all matters of faith and practice.

OUR CORE VALUES

WE ARE A PEOPLE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD WHO…

Partner With The Holy Spirit

The Vineyard story is driven by the reality that God eagerly desires us to experience His presence, and then to partner with Him in His work of showing His love to the world. We believe that the Holy Spirit distributes gifts among us, enabling us to encounter God’s presence personally and corporately, and then to minister to the world around us in the power of the Spirit.

Because the Holy Spirit is active among us as God’s people, and in the world around us, our job as Christians is to partner with the Spirit, giving God permission to move in our lives and gatherings. Allowing the Spirit to lead in our lives and in our churches is the first step toward experiencing the promised fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).

As communities of the Spirit, we are not simply implementing the best church strategies, trying to accomplish what is humanly possible. Rather, our mission involves praying and finding power from God Himself to accomplish what humans could never accomplish on their own. We pray for the sick, we confront injustice, and we seek to hear the voice of God on behalf of others.

Experience And Worship God

The kingdom of God is not a geo- political territory, nor is it the people of God. Rather, the kingdom of God is a dynamic realm. When one enters the kingdom she/he experiences the dynamic reality which exists within the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This means that the experience of the kingdom of God (and thus, the experience of God’s presence) is central to our faith and Christian life.

God is eager to be known and experienced by all. We believe that God is searching for lost humanity in order to draw us into intimate relationship with Himself. In response to God’s initiative, we value the life-changing power of the experience of His presence.

The primary place where that relationship is nurtured and developed is in the act of worship – both private and corporate. So, experience-based worship is the central activity of all that we do in the Vineyard. It is worship that causes all else that we do to become an act of worship. We experience God’s presence as a palpable reality when we worship. As we worship, we become increasingly sensitive and responsive to the Spirit’s presence so that we can do as Jesus did: “See what the Father is doing,” (John 5:19) and support His work with our lives. The experience of God flowing out of a life of worship affects all aspects of our life, so that all division between the secular and the sacred vanish. We believe that the Spirit distributes His gifts to us, resulting in prophecy, prayer languages, healing, miracles, and many other gifts as we joyfully experience His presence.

We value an approach to God’s presence that is respectful both of God and of those we are with. We eschew hype and other efforts to manipulate either God’s presence or the response of others to His presence. We distinguish between the Holy Spirit and the human response which shares in all the beauty and brokenness of our humanity. We also believe that as we experience His presence through Christ by the Spirit we will be made more fully human and better reflections of the God-image that we were created to be.

Reconcile People With God And All Creation

We seek to be diverse communities of hope that realize the power of the cross to reconcile what has been separated by sin. This requires us to move beyond our personal prefer- ences to engage those who are per- ceived to be unlike us and to actively break down barriers of race, culture, gender, social class, and ethnicity.

We are convinced that the church – locally, nationally, and globally – is meant to be a diverse community precisely because Jesus is Lord over every nation, tribe, and tongue. We are not satisfied with the status quo when it doesn’t reflect this kingdom reality, but are eager to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom here and now and to realize this mark of the kingdom in our midst.

Engage In Compassionate Ministry

We lean toward the lost, the poor, the outcast, and the outsider with the compassion of Jesus as sinners whose only standing before God is ut- terly dependent on the mercy of God. 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 con- crete ways through the local church. The poor are to be served as though serving Jesus Himself. This is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a church expressing the love of Christ in a local community.

In all forms of ministry, compassion is a hallmark of the one who was moved with compassion Himself in the face of human need. This being the age of grace and “the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:19), compassion should constitute the leading edge of our service to God, each other, and a broken world. As such, we seek to avoid unauthorized judgments of others, real- izing that we are all fellow sufferers and strugglers with the rest of humanity.

Pursue Culturally Relevant Mission In The World

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 into language and forms that are relevant to diverse peoples and cultures.

We seek to plant churches that are culturally relevant in a wide variety of settings locally and internationally. Each Vineyard church is encouraged to reach those in its community not already reached by existing churches. To this end, we promote a creative, entrepreneurial, and innovative approach to ministry that is faithful to Jesus and expressive of His heart to reach those who are far away from God.

OUR STATEMENT OF FAITH

God The King And The Holy Trinity

We believe that God is the Eternal King. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power, and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory.

God The King: The Creator And Ruler Of All Things

We believe that God’s kingdom is everlasting. From His throne, through His Son, His eternal Word, God created, upholds and governs all that exists: the heavenly places, the angelic hosts, the universe, the earth, every living thing, and human beings. God created all things very good.

Counterfeit Kingdom: Satan And Demonic Hosts

We believe that Satan, originally a great, good angel, rebelled against God, taking a host of angels with him. He was cast out of God’s presence and, as a usurper of God’s rule, established a counter-kingdom of darkness and evil on the earth.

The Kingdom In Creation, The Fall, And The Doctrine Of Original Sin

We believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness, and God’s judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God’s good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam’s original sin. Human beings are born in sin, subject to God’s judgment of death, and captive to Satan’s kingdom of darkness.

God’s Providence, Kingdom Law, And Covenants

We believe that God did not abandon His rule over the earth, which He continues to uphold by His providence. In order to bring redemption, God established covenants which revealed His grace to sinful people. In the covenant with Abraham, God bound Himself to His people Israel, promising to deliver them from bondage to sin and Satan and to bless all the nations through them.

We believe that as King, God later redeemed His people by His mighty acts from bondage in Egypt and established His covenant through Moses, revealing His perfect will and our obligation to fulfill it. The law’s purpose is to order our fallen race and to make us conscious of our moral responsibility.

By the work of God’s Spirit, it convicts us of our sin and God’s righteous judgment against us and brings us to Christ alone for salvation. We believe that when Israel rejected God’s rule over her as King, God established the monarchy in Israel and made an unconditional covenant with David, promising that his heir would restore God’s kingdom and reign over His people as Messiah forever.

Christ The Mediator And Eternal King

We believe that in the fullness of time, God honored His covenants with Israel and His prophetic promises of salvation by sending His Son, Jesus, into the world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, as fully God and fully human in one person, He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God’s Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, inaugurating God’s kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. Gathering His disciples, He reconstituted God’s people as His Church to be the instrument of His kingdom.

After dying for the sins of the world, Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, fulfilling the covenant of blessing given to Abraham. In His sinless, perfect life Jesus met the demands of the law and in His atoning death on the cross He took God’s judgment for sin, which we deserve as law-breakers. By His death on the cross He also disarmed the demonic powers. The covenant with David was fulfilled in Jesus’ birth from David’s house, His Messianic ministry, His glorious resurrection from the dead, His ascent into heaven, and His present rule at the right hand of the Father. As God’s Son and David’s heir, He is the eternal Messiah-King, advancing God’s reign throughout every generation and throughout the whole earth today.

The Ministry Of The Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church at Pentecost in power, baptizing believers into the Body of Christ and releasing the gifts of the Spirit to them. The Spirit brings the permanent indwelling presence of God to us for spiritual worship, personal sanctification, building up the Church, gifting us for ministry, and driving back the kingdom of Satan by the evangelization of the world through proclaiming the word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus.

We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. We believe in the filling or the empowering of the Holy Spirit, often a conscious experience, for ministry today. We believe in the present ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise of all of the biblical gifts of the Spirit. We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing, and for recognition and empowering of those whom God has ordained to lead and serve the Church.

The Sufficiency Of Scripture

We believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of Holy Scripture so that the Bible is without error in the original manuscripts. We receive the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as our final, absolute authority, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

The Power Of The Gospel Over The Kingdom Of Darkness

We believe that the whole world is under the domination of Satan and that all people are sinners by nature and choice. All people therefore are under God’s just judgment. Through the preaching of the Good News of Jesus and the kingdom of God, and the work of the Holy Spirit, God regenerates, justifies, adopts, and sanctifies, through Jesus by the Spirit, all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. By this they are released from Satan’s domain and enter into God’s kingdom reign.

The Church: Instrument Of The Kingdom

We believe in the one, holy, universal Church. All who repent of their sins and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and form the living Body of Christ, of which He is the head and of which we are all members.

Baptism And The Lord’s Supper

We believe that Jesus Christ committed two ordinances to the Church: water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both are available to all believers.

The Kingdom Of God And The Final Judgment

We believe that God’s kingdom has come in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it continues to come in the ministry of the Spirit through the Church, and that it will be consummated in the glorious, visible, and triumphant appearing of Christ – His return to the earth as King. After Christ returns to reign, He will bring about the final defeat of Satan and all of his minions and works, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment and the eternal blessing of the righteous, and eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. Finally, God will be all in all and His kingdom, His rule and reign, will be fulfilled in the new heavens and the new earth, recreated by His mighty power, in which righteousness dwells and in which He will forever be worshipped.