Our values inspire us, inform our actions and create our culture. They are the central priorities that define what it means to be “Vineyard”. Vineyard core values and theology flows from the teachings of Jesus. We live to see the Kingdom of God breaking into the present day, and orient our values around fostering this. Core values remind us what we are for, and to what we give our time, energy, and resources, as a family of churches.
As we carry out God’s work, we don’t do it by ourselves. Rather, we achieve what would be impossible on our own by working with the Holy Spirit. We seek to do God’s will by operating in God’s own power. The Holy Spirit is the one who enables us to heal the sick, hear the voice of God and act for justice.
With his ministry, Jesus brought God’s kingdom to earth. We are all called to continue his work, experiencing the Kingdom – a dynamic realm – for ourselves and bringing it to those around us. Worship is key to everything we do in the Vineyard, and our relationship with God is the foundation we base our lives upon. The experience of the kingdom of God (and thus the experience of God’s presence) is central to our faith and Christian life.
Jesus is reconciling all people to God, to each other, and to the entire creation, breaking down divisions between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female. Therefore, we are committed to becoming healing communities engaged in the work of reconciliation wherever sin and evil hold sway. We seek to be diverse communities of hope that realise the power of the cross to reconcile what has been separated by sin.
We lean towards the lost, the poor, the outcast, and the outsider with the compassion of Jesus as sinners whose only standing before God is utterly 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 concrete ways through the local church. The poor are to be served as though serving Jesus himself. This is one o f the distinguishing characteristics of a church expressing the love of Christ in a local community.
We are Jesus’s hands and feet in this world. We are called to feed the poor, proclaim freedom for the captives and bring justice to the oppressed. By meeting people along their journey, we can bring Jesus outside the church to all peoples, both near and far. 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 culture and people group. As the Apostle Paul said, we are ready to “become all things” to all mankind to see many come to faith in Christ. (1 Cor 9:19-23)