VISION + VALUES
We are Kingdom people that have embraced the new identity Jesus paid for us to have on the cross. We are no longer sinners but saints. We still make mistakes, but those mistakes don’t define us or dictate our future. Our call is to help people encounter the Father, embrace new identity in Jesus, and equip them to walk out their God-given destiny, naturally supernatural, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
OUR CHURCH FAMILY
“For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.” Matthew 18:20
Healthy churches have healthy people. Men, women, and children who have a vital + life giving relationship with Jesus!
We want to have presence centered gatherings as God’s Kingdom and presence are a vital part of the church, whether that is a weekend service, small group, or serving our community together.
His presence is a source of guidance, mentorship, and input to believers. It is a vehicle of empowerment and opportunity towards our collective destiny.
OUR COMMUNITY
We want to engage with people and show mercy to those in need. We engage partners who are already in place to serve our community. By partnering with Kingdom leaders in our cities (government, education, business, social services, and church leaders), we catalyze change and bring Jesus into that transformation.
OUR WORLD
Exporting what God has given us to other churches and individuals via conference, mission partnerships and other events. We focus on running the School of Kingdom Ministry and helping other churches export what they have been given.
VALUES
SUPERNATURAL BREAKTHROUGH • FAMILY • MISSIONAL LEADERSHIP • EXCELLENCE
These values are woven into our messages, meetings and methods. Balancing one another, these values keep us on mission. We expect the kingdom of God to break into our midst in power, but we value doing things with the most care and planning as possible. We are always asking the Spirit, “Where next?” while ensuring we take people on the journey with us. These values guide us in our calling to change the world with Jesus.
SUPERNATURAL BREAKTHROUGH
We love and expect to see God intersect and change people’s lives.
We have an ongoing dynamic relationship with a God who speaks and acts. With Him, nothing is impossible. The supernatural is an integrated part of our normal lives and one mark of Christian maturity.
We expect the supernatural leading of the Holy Spirit corporately. We develop + plan with excellence while retaining an expectation that God will direct and change our plans. We will be flexible to do so as He leads and follow His Spirit.
FAMILY
Our hearts are connected as we do life together.
We are all on a journey together. Our mission flows from the family relationship we have with each other. We put the family first - above any one of us. We all have responsibility to the family. Our hearts are open towards each other. We do conflict with an understanding that we are brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers to each other.
We aren’t just members of a team, we work together as a team. We collaborate, specialize, and understand where we are gifted. Together, we seek to make the best contribution while leaning on others where they are better. We are for each other, sharing wins and losses together as a team.
MISSIONAL LEADERSHIP
Leadership begins with God depositing vision and purpose in the leader’s heart.
We don’t lead out of our own vision or build our own kingdom. True leadership starts with God’s call + vision to future the Kingdom of God. Leaders take the God given deposits and run with them.
We lead out of who God has made us; we don’t try to be someone else. We lead with integrity by staying true to ourselves, even when the road is challenging.
Leadership results in true change; leadership isn’t management. We are pioneers who take initiative to go boldly forward to the destiny God has called us. The results of this leadership are lives being transformed and in creative action.
EXCELLENCE
We see ourselves as the first opportunity to live out the excellence found in the Kingdom of God.
We take ownership and responsibility over our own lives, personally and professionally.
We value ourselves and take measures with God for self-care and personal improvement. Our goal is to be the best we can in a way that we can proudly show to our heavenly Father.
We bring the same intentionality and creativity to our work that we have for ourselves. What we do is thoughtful and structured. We are relevant, and create an appealing atmosphere in all aspects of what we do.
BELIEFS
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The very first story we read in the gospels about Jesus' ministry is His baptism. The very last thing He said to His disciples before ascending into heaven was that they should go throughout the world making disciples and baptizing them.
The inspired record of the early church in Acts and the story of church history through the ages indicate that water baptism is a very important activity in the New Testament and the church.
Mark 1:9-11, Mark 16:15-16, Matthew 28:19, Ephesians 2:8-10
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Our desire is to know the Bible, do what it says, and experience the way of living it describes. 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.
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Communion is an ordinance Jesus gave to His followers. He instituted this ordinance during His last Passover meal with His disciples. The two elements (the bread and wine / juice) are a symbolic representation of the body and blood of Jesus which He gave for us at the Cross of Calvary.
We participate in communion as a visible reminder of the fact that we are united with Him as covenant partners and share in His life. Taking communion enables the church to look back - we proclaim, in thanksgiving, the Lord’s death through the elements. It also enables the church to look forward - to the Lord’s soon return when we will no longer need the elements because our faith will be sight.
2 Peter 1:3-5, Isaiah 53:3-5, Psalm 103
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Money and related issues touch every aspect of our lives. We believe it is imperative that we discover God's will regarding finances, which is found in the Bible. Clearly our Father wants us to live in abundance (John 10:10). He has given us great grace that we might live free of all external requirements.
This grace leads us into love, in which we become more and more like Jesus Christ. As we do that, we look through the Bible to find wisdom on how He lived, and we model our lives the same way.
It is our conviction that God's financial plan is simple—abundance + grace + applying wisdom to walk in the promises of God.
2 Cor 8:7-9, Jn 3:16, 2 Cor 9:8, Mt 6:31-33, Pro 3:5-6, 9-10
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We believe the Kingdom of God was the central mission and message of Jesus. To miss the significance of the Kingdom in the gospels is to fail to understand the life, work, and teaching of Christ. His ministry was the ministry of the Kingdom; His teaching showed men and women how to enter it; his works proved it had come; His parables taught its mysteries; and His prayers taught the disciples to desire its full expression.
Amos 9:14, Zechariah 8:4-8, Isaiah 1, Daniel 2:44-45, Isaiah 35:3-6, Luke 17:20-21
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What Jesus did for us on the cross gave us a whole new life. We actually died with Him on the cross, and when He raised to new life, so did we! We have been born again. We are new creations. The old has passed away, the new has come. As we embrace this Kingdom reality, our new birth will change the way we live our everyday lives.
John 10:10, Romans 8:15‑16, Romans 5:12, Romans 6:23
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The Vineyard Movement believes that every area of leadership is open to both men and women who have the desire for humble service to the community of believers, and whose God-given gifting and calling for leadership has been recognized and affirmed by the church community.
Genesis 1:27-28, Genesis 3:1-13, Galatians 3:13-14, 26-29, Matthew 28:18-20
OUR STORY
It all began with a baby. Every church has a story to tell. Our story begins back in the early seventies. While students at the University of Illinois, Happy and Dianne Leman became Christians through the ministry of the Apostolic Christian Church where they had both been raised as preachers' children.
OUR MISSION
Every church has a unique DNA. We are all built on the person of Jesus, but each local church is gifted with a grace to fulfill the unique mission of that local body of believers. It doesn’t make one church more important than another - each is living out a vital part of the tapestry God is weaving in their community and the world. We like to say God loves the whole church! We are called to live out the unique values and mission gifted to The Vineyard Church of Central IL.