What Is A Vineyard Church?
The Vineyard is a God-initiated global movement of churches with the Kingdom of God as its theological center. The Bible is our rule of faith and practice. Our desire is to know the Bible, do what it says, and experience the way of living it describes.
We embrace a full range of kingdom practices from proclaiming the Good News of Jesus, to healing and deliverance, to ministry with the poor. Vineyard churches embody a praxis that includes intimate worship, actively equipping ordinary people for ministry, responding to the initiative and leading of the Holy Spirit, and joining God’s mission in the world.
The History of
The Vineyard Movement
The Vineyard movement emerged on the scene in the late 1970s, at what has been called a “crossroads” of American Christianity and culture.
Recent Vineyard USA National Conference
The Quest for the Radical Middle
A value within the Vineyard movement is to love the whole Church and to take the best from all the various traditions (that have Biblical foundations) and bring them together in one place. At Christ The King Community Church, we see the three historical streams of the Liturgical, Evangelical and Pentecostal faiths as three legs to a stool that can not stand if one is missing. It is a whole expression of the Christian faith instead of a polarized, "either-or" approach. Learn more <HERE>
"The Vineyard's gift to the larger church will be it stewardship of
the Kingdom of God message and ministry of Jesus in the power of the Spirit for today..."
-- Don Williams, Vineyard Pastor & Theologian
What Makes A Vineyard Church Unique?
Our theology of the "already and not yet" of the kingdom enables us to believe God for miracles, with a theology of the miraculous, and to also trust God when pain is occurring, with a theology of suffering. We believe that both are necessary for healthy Christian spirituality.
In the Vineyard, it is our way of saying "keep it simple." We will always look back to what the Scriptures say, right on the page. What did Jesus actually say? What did Jesus actually do? We base everything we do on the “main and the plain” teaching that Jesus gave.
This is our central prayer liturgy. It has been said, “There should never be a time in our gatherings together that we don’t invite the Holy Spirit.” We all need a constant filling of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God has been sent to walk through this life with us.
We believe that anyone can do the work of the Kingdom. We don’t have any elite or superstar leaders – we are all commissioned – men, women and children, of every background to be fully involved in the worship and ministry of the church -- living on mission with God in our community.
We avoid hype or emotional manipulation. Going about our lives naturally, we pray for healing and listen for God’s voice in all circumstances. We will learn to be aware of what God is doing around us at any given moment. And, in a spirit of kindness and peace, we will follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in ministry to each other.
We lean toward the lost, the poor, the outcast, and the outsider with the compassion of Jesus. We are all in need, in some way. As Jesus said, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me." Matthew 25:31-46
We believe the call to be the Body of Christ involves getting outside of our comfort zones. Adventurous faith is welcome in the Vineyard. "Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. ... Show me you faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds." James 2:14-19
We live in an "either-or" world, but most often the Christian faith is best understood in the "both-and." In our quest for the radical middle, we embrace seemingly contradictory biblical truths together as a whole expression of the Christian faith. (e.g. miracles and suffering, justice and mercy, unity and diversity, the kindness and severity of God.)
But, don't stay as You are. You’ll be loved no matter what state you are in when you come to the Vineyard. We believe that Jesus can love us all to health. It has been said: God loves us just as we are, not as we should be... because none of us are as we should be... but He loves us too much to leave us just as we are.