Our Vision and Values

Our vision statement is short and sweet.  For a fuller picture of the kind of church we believe God is inviting us to be, check out “OUR DREAM”:  

We dream of being an INSPIRATIONAL church that impacts thousands of people each year.  We will be a community on a mission to share the love of Jesus wherever we go and we will leave people and places better than we found them.  We will inspire and encourage other churches in our community and we will be a catalyst in the Vineyard movement with global outreach and impact. 

We dream of being an INCLUSIVE church that has a culture of invitation and warm hospitality.   We will be able to connect with anyone who walks through our doors regardless of their ethnicity, age, politics, marital status, income or ability.  Our church will be so diverse that our guests will recognize that it is a miracle to have so many different people united together as a family.  We will be a church that has become a home for the left out, the left behind, the affluent and the average.  We will be a model of being and becoming a reconciling community… we won’t just share the same space on Sunday mornings, we will share our lives throughout the week.

We dream of being an EXPERIENTIAL church that embraces the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit.  When people engage in our worship services, they will sense the presence of God.  We will be a church where the skeptical can become convinced.  When we gather together, the sick will be healed and the apathetic will become passionate.  Our church will be on fire with love for God and love for others.   We will take risks to pray for strangers and share encouraging messages from God with people who cross our paths.  We will pray for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Our staff, leaders, and congregation will be able to flow with what the Spirit is doing and there will be a sense of anticipation that the Kingdom of God might break in at any time.  We will experience God not only in our worship services, but wherever we go in our daily lives.

We dream of being a CONNECTING church that is contagious with joy.  We will enthusiastically welcome guests and help everyone connect to a meaningful community where they can make real friendships. We will laugh together, cry together and enjoy doing life together.   We will be a spiritual family that embraces everyone and we will be there for each other through the highs and lows of life.  We dream of a place where nobody will slip through the cracks and nobody will feel left out.  We dream of a church where everyone is in a small group.  The people in our groups will be encouraging and authentic.  Our groups will be fun, missional and effective in making disciples.    We will offer a diverse range of groups to meet the diverse needs of people in our community.  We will have a network of specialized groups that is able to offer support for people who need help with addictions, finances, marriage, grieving, and any other needs that emerge as we do life together. 

We dream of being a TRANSFORMATIONAL church full of people who have had their entire lives radically changed by following Jesus.  We will be a people who are filled with the Spirit, who bear the fruits of the Spirit & who give away the gifts of the Spirit.  We will be nourished and sustained by regular personal times with God in prayer, worship & reading the Bible.  We will be aware of God’s presence in all things and all situations, even in the midst of suffering.  Single and married people will have strong and healthy relationships.  Kids will grow up in loving and supportive homes.  The people in our church will be living balanced lives, taking adequate time to rest, spending quality time with families & enjoying hobbies.  The good news of Jesus will transform every part of our lives: spiritual, emotional, relational, physical & financial.  When people see us, we will remind them of Jesus.   We will be thriving inside and out. 

We dream of being a GROWING church where Jesus is at the center of who we are and what we do.  God will be adding to our numbers daily and we will be reaching the people in our cities who have no church background or who have wandered away from the church.  We will have developed a culture of learning and discovery, where people are teachable and hungry to learn and put into practice who God is inviting us to be and do what God is inviting us to do.  Someone could attend our church for 100 years, all the way from the nursery to the nursing home, and never stop growing.  Our children and teenagers will be actively involved in the mission and ministry of the church and they will be equipped for a life-long pilgrimage of following Jesus.  We will be a church that not only makes disciples, but also makes disciple makers… we won’t just teach people, we will equip people to disciple others.  We will be effective in raising up leaders and will train people who have no church background to become effective servant leaders in God’s kingdom.  We will multiply the unique vision and values of the Vineyard by planting new churches in communities where there is not already a thriving Vineyard church. 

We dream of being a MISSIONAL church full of people who are living intentionally to share God’s love with their friends, family, neighbors and strangers in a culturally relevant way.  We will be a people who are always looking to partner with what God is doing and will join Him in His mission.  We will be a generous church that meets the practical needs of the people we encounter with the compassion and the mercy of Jesus.  We will be a church where people understand their purpose and they wake up each morning and go about their day with an awareness that they are contributing to something greater than themselves.  We will be a church where everyone gets to play and where people are sacrificially investing their time and energy into a ministry and a mission that fits their gifts and experiences.  The businesses, non-profit organizations, government agencies, schools and hospitals in the Quad Cities will be enriched because they have people who attend the Vineyard in their midst.  When our communities cry out for help, we will respond with overwhelming love.  We will have a strong partnership with a ministry in Haiti and will see lives transformed as we invest our money and send teams to join God in what He is doing there.  We will pray for the gospel to be spread to all nations and will be a church that sends out people who are called to carry the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth. 

Our values drive the way that we do church at the Vineyard. The Vineyard has 5 core values:

-The Theology and Practice of the Kingdom of God
-Experiencing God
-Reconciling Community
-Compassionate Ministry
-Culturally Relevant Mission

These values are described in more detail below:

Theology and Practice of the Kingdom of God

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.

From the beginning, the Vineyard has been committed to proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God and to bearing witness to the “already and not yet” of the kingdom in our words and deeds—through healing (physical, emotional, and social), doing justice, and delivering those held captive by evil. Since the kingdom of God is the future reign of God breaking into the present through the life and ministry of Jesus, we are a forward-leaning movement that emphasizes the ever-reforming nature of the church and engages the world in love.

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.

The Vineyard seeks to plant churches that are culturally relevant in a wide variety of settings, both 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 desire to reach those who are far away from God.

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.

We also seek to be diverse communities of hope that realize the power of the cross to reconcile what has been separated by sin. This requires that we move beyond our personal preferences and engage those whom we perceive to be unlike us. We must actively work to 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. Instead, we pray eagerly for the coming of God’s kingdom here and now and hope to see the reconciliation that is evidence that kingdom in our midst.

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.

We value an approach to God’s presence that is respectful both of God and others. 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 to the Holy Spirit, which shares in all the beauty and brokenness of our humanity.

These, then, are the core values that draw us together as a movement. They are different aspects of the treasure buried in the field that is the Vineyard. The treasure, of course, is the kingdom of God embodied and brought forth by Jesus of Nazareth.

For a comprehensive statement of faith which summarizes our doctrine and philosophy of ministry along with detailed Biblical references for why we believe what we do, please download our Statement of Faith. If you have questions after reading all of this stuff, feel free to contact a pastor.