About Us
Our mission...
Inviting people to life in the Kingdom of God.
Our vision...
We will be a bold, generous and compassionate church that produces flourishing followers of Jesus who positively impact our area and the world.
We dream of a bold church full of people empowered by the Holy Spirit who are not ashamed of the Gospel – that Jesus is Lord – and who speak and live the Gospel with humility in every corner of life.
We dream of a generous church where people give passionately and sacrificially of their time, talents and resources to invite people to life in the Kingdom of God.
We dream of a compassionate church where people can come as they are and be understood as they are while also being immersed in loving and honest relationships that promote Christian maturity.
We dream of a church that produces flourishing followers of Jesus; a church where people are becoming whole of mind, heart, relationships, and body in the Kingdom of God so that the beauty of their lives gives witness to the Lordship of Jesus over the Kingdom of God.
We dream of having a positive impact on our area and our world. As the Kingdom of God is manifested by our presence in Jessamine County, throughout central Kentucky and around the world, families, neighborhoods, towns and cities will experience the transformative well-being of God’s Kingdom.
The Vineyard Church
What We Believe
The Vineyard is an association of like-minded churches, joined together by a shared theology of the Kingdom of God, and especially as it relates to evangelism, serving the poor and oppressed, and the presence of the Holy Spirit to minister healing and wholeness. A healthy movement comes from healthy churches, which come from healthy leaders, which come from healthy souls! To learn more, go to www.vineyardusa.org.
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 Saviour. 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.
Some Vineyard distinctives . . .
The Main and the Plain.
We’re going to base everything we do on the Scriptures. You live out who you are, and who you are is based on the Scriptures and how you’ve experienced the Kingdom of God up to this point. So we teach the Bible faithfully, giving people “the main and the plain.”
The Already and the Not Yet.
In the Vineyard, some people are sick, and some people are healed. We pray for people, and some things get better and some don’t. Our theology and practice of the Kingdom of God makes it so we don’t have to make anything up. We’re not pretending or telling stories that didn’t really happen. It’s either the kingdom of God came and did something, or it didn’t. It gives us this beautiful theology and practice: the Kingdom is here, but it hasn’t come fully yet. We pray, “Lord, let your kingdom come.” We are called to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons, and we’ll continue to do that. And we’ll do it with integrity as the Spirit moves.
“Come, Holy Spirit.”
This is our central prayer liturgy. As Carol Wimber used to tell us, “There should never be a time in our gatherings together that we don’t invite the Holy Spirit.” We already have the Holy Spirit through Jesus, but we all still “leak.” So we all need that constant filling of the Holy Spirit.
Loving God and Loving People.
We are worshippers of God and rescuers of souls. We love God and love people. Being worshippers means cultivating intimacy with Jesus. And we provide a safe environment for people to be touched by the Lord’s presence inside and outside of our church buildings.
Everyone Gets to Play.
This is how we do ministry. Whether its speaking prophetic truth or healing people or prayer or other ministry, everybody can do it. You can watch other people and learn from them. We don’t have an elite class or any superstar leaders. We’re all going to do it.
Come as You Are, but Don’t Stay as You Are.
You’ll be loved no matter what state you come to the Vineyard in. But we’re committed to discipling all nations and we believe that Jesus has the power to change and grow people and make them new.
Naturally Supernatural.
We cultivate a relaxed atmosphere in the Vineyard. It’s not about hype or emotional manipulation. It’s about doing what we’re already doing, and then if we stop to prophesy and pray for people for healing, so much the better.