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Who we are:
History | Values
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Creativity | Reality | Spirit |
Relevance | The Basics | Community
For a theological statement of faith, visit the Vineyard USA site.
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Creativity | Top
God was, before anything else, a Creator. And when he described his artistry
as "Good," he was either the God of understatement, or he was
giving mystery and depth to a word that today we trivialize. When David
noticed what God simply called Good, he said,
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the
stars, which you have set in place,
What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for
him?
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Paul took God's art exhibit a step further, writing, "Since the creation
of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine
nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been
made." The beauty in "what has been made" is God himself,
"the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." His
creation, infused with his life, captures and displays the core truths of his
being. Plato wrote, "Truth is beauty, beauty is truth." As we revel
in God's beauty, we are exposed to his truth, and his truth is surpassingly
beautiful.
The connection with us? He has made us in his image, in his likeness. He has
put it in us, his children, to emulate his creativity. He pours his spirit
and passion into us, "a spring of water welling up to eternal
life," and out of this, through the creative arts, we both express what
God has put in us and pursue truth. Thus, at the Vineyard, we actively
encourage and support whoever has interest in the arts, stirring up and
freeing deeper creativity. We speak, write, sing, play, paint,
sculpt--whatever the form--seeking to craft something beautiful and true.
Through it all, we hope to produce something that reflects back to God, that
displays his nature distilled through us, or, if all else fails, something
that is simply Good.
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Reality | Top
One night my son (this is Tom speaking) came down into the kitchen, turned on
the light, and caught me. It was 11:30, and I was alone. With my ice cream.
"How often do you do this, Dad?" he asked me.
I licked my spoon. "Do what?"
We all have things we like to hide. Embarrassing behaviors and unsightly
blemishes--we recoil from our own brokenness, just as we expect others to.
Shame, our primal negative emotion, lurks in the dark shadows of our souls,
waiting to pounce on us when we are the least bit exposed. And the urge to
hide, to act, to "prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet,"
1 seems to intensify as we approach God. Adam and Eve hid. And Peter, when he
first understood, really understood, who Jesus was, said, "Go away from
me Lord! I am an unclean man." The pressure in all of life, but
especially in the church, is to pretend--to pretend that we're better,
happier, healthier--that we are someone other than who we really are.
But Jesus did not come for Someone Other. He came for You--the Real You (the
one who needs help). When scorned by religious leaders for the disreputable
company he kept, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor,
but the sick. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Pretense shuts him out, but truth is beautiful, a superhighway for him
straight to your heart. He exists 100% in reality, and in reality there is no
shame. In reality there is brokenness, sin, blemishes, and too much ice cream.
And in reality there is hope, healing, friendship, and a scoop for my son.
The Apostle John wrote, "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son,
purifies us from all sin." We hope you find this a place of light, where
we are truthful about who we are and where you can feel free to be the same.
1 T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
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Spirit | Top
If God is a rock, his Spirit is the wind. If God is immovable, his Spirit is
irresistible. If God is predictable and ordered, so that his invisible
qualities can be clearly seen and understood from what he has made, his
Spirit is inherently unconstrained and infinitely unpredictable. And if God,
for whom a thousand years seems only a day, is slow to move, his Spirit is
quick and burns with passion.
God's Spirit, his "Ghost," is fire, wind, and rain. He is a dove
descending from heaven. Yet he is also a person, one of the three persons of
God, distinct from and unified with God the Father and Jesus his son. He is
that person of God whom Jesus, when he returned to heaven, sent to be with us
so that we would not be alone as we build God's kingdom and await the
consummation of all things. He communicates God's deepest thoughts and
releases his limitless power to us here and now. He is a Teacher, a
Counselor, a Friend, and a Protector.
We believe that God's Holy Spirit is very alive today and interacts with us
in tangible ways. It is the Presence of this Spirit that distinguishes us,
that fills us with life, and that takes our ideas, values, and philosophies
and makes them something transcendent. We believe that his Spirit can inform
our thinking, giving us divine insight into ourselves and the world around
us. We believe that his Spirit can illuminate the Bible, making it relevant
to ourselves and the world around us. And we believe that he can touch and
heal our physical infirmities and our broken hearts, and that he can speak to
us to encourage us and direct our lives. It is, ultimately, the presence of
his Spirit that distinguishes his church from all other people on the face of
the earth.
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Relevance | Top
Dylan sang, "The times, they are a' changin. '" David Byrne, riding
the same wave, said, "You may ask yourself, How did I get here? '"
We all surf it, the wave of cultural change, rushing ahead faster and faster,
its pace and intensity surging exponentially with each generation,
threatening to wash us out and leave us behind. In the blink of an eye, or of
a decade, the prevailing sensibilities, values and vocabulary can so diverge
that those looking forward at the ones looking back (and vice versa) become
unrecognizable to each other. And so each generation must revisit the puzzle:
Who am I? How did I get here? Where do I start?
Isaiah, anticipating Dylan and David, wrote, "The grass withers and the
flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." God himself is
the only thing in this perpetual motion machine of a universe that never
changes. He is a touchstone and a starting place. In his permanence,
immutability, steadfastness, and infinity, he is eternally relevant. His truth
always applies to every sensibility, value, and vocabulary. The challenge,
then, is to have the church speak for God to the world around it using the
indigenous dialect, with language, music, symbols, and ideas that are current
and understandable.
Fortunately, while long ago the best efforts of men produced only Babel, God is a master
of lucidity and translation. When he rained down the Holy Spirit on that
group of disciples worshiping and praying, what caught everyone's attention,
more than the wind and fire, was relevance:
A crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them (the
disciples) speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they (the people)
asked: Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that
each of us hears them in his own native language?
God wants to speak to you in your native language. He knows the words,
symbols, music, and ideas that you will understand. Jesus, in all his
interactions, related to people as individuals, avoiding stereotypes, generalizations,
and formulas. We want this church to reflect that value, to communicate God's
timeless message of love with a relevance rooted firmly in the here and now.
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The Basics | Top
What do quarks, chocolate, primer, and the swarming Chicago Bulls defense of
the 90's all have in common? And no, it's not, "What were last year's
Championship Jeopardy categories?" Rather, they are all bedrock, the
foundation for whatever else may come. Dessert is NOT unless it begins and
ends with chocolate. Michael Jordan said that whatever else went wrong, if
they played tough D they'd be in the game and have a chance at the end.
Quarks are really tiny, like microscopic Legos, and in my old apartment, it
sometimes took three coats of primer (we used Kilz because of its name) to
cover over whatever unnameable stuff had come to life to discolor our walls
so that we could start with a clean slate and then return them to their
lovely off-brown.
Our faith, too, has its bedrock. It begins and ends with Jesus--his life,
death, and resurrection to a new life that will never end. It's rooted in the
grace he extends to us so that we can have that life and be friends with God
again. And its unshakable foundation is his inspired and authoritative book,
the Bible. Likewise, the life he calls us to is built on the basics--prayer,
generosity, integrity; peace, patience, kindness; faith, hope, love, service,
and so much more.
We believe in the basics. All else--our values, philosophies, and
ideas--arise from these. Our passion for Jesus determines and drives our
passion for whatever else may come. We trust the Bible, we glorify God, we
believe in Jesus, and we hope to serve our city by making a place where people
can meet and know Him.
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Community | Top
"Good! Good! Good! Good! Good! Good! Very Good!!!" Six Goods and a
Very Good--not bad for your first week on the job. Of course, God was his own
critic, and even though he'd never made a universe before (that we know of),
he was, after all, God. So everything is perfect--light and dark; water and
land; trees, birds, animals, fish; a garden and a human. But then, just as
the universe starts to relax and enjoy itself, comes an impossible statement
provoking a cosmic shudder, shaking creation to its core: "The LORD God
said, 'It is not good . . . (think Jim Lovell--"Houston, we have a
problem") . . . for man to be alone. '"
Well, I think, that's obvious--how could God have missed it? I am a man who
was once alone, and I clearly needed help. What man doesn't? And Adam had it
rough--be fruitful and multiply (alone?), subdue the animals, tend the
garden, work it and take care of it, all without modern farming implements.
Of course he needed help! But God, I think, was on to something deeper. The
core trait that most profoundly characterizes him and from which he derives
joy and pleasure is community: the triune God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--three
distinct identities perfected in their unity and harmony with each other. So
from the original human he creates two novel humans so that as they come
together they might experience a micro-cosmic version of community.
The church expands that community infinitely. Jesus, before leaving earth,
prayed that his followers would be one just as he and his Father were one,
because he knew that unity more than anything else--power, goodness,
piety--would convince us that the church was divine and not just another
human social institution. We are committed here to pursuing such community.
We provide as many structures and contexts as we can to foster real
relational connections--Bible studies, mom's groups, college groups, singles
groups, family groups, recovery groups--and we'll use any excuse to throw a
party, have a picnic, or just hang out longer together after church. And in
those contexts, we relate. We talk, laugh, cry, grieve, celebrate, repent,
forgive, and in growing to love each other, we are drawn into God's community
and find something that is Very Good.
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