Our Purpose   Our Vision   Our Values   Vineyard DNA   Our Story   Our Leaders

Our Purpose

"Our purpose is to demonstrate the Love of Christ through extreme acts of service, radical acceptance and supernatural encounters in order to help people to discover their place in the Kingdom of God. " 

Our Vision

The moment you walk through the doors of South Bay Vineyard Church you will sense the peace and presence of God. You will immediately be aware of the unique blend of cultures and the spirit of community. You may be surprised at the acceptance you find but you will instinctively know that it is a safe place to be yourself.

On a recent Sunday, I was hurrying down the building corridor when I passed an older gentleman and said a brief hello. He stopped and began to earnestly tell me how his very ill four-month-old grandson was in a large children’s hospital, where doctors were unable to diagnose his condition. As he finished sharing, I said simply, “Can I pray for you right now?” It only took a moment to pray, but God’s presence with us was powerful. We parted ways, trusting God to move in this baby’s life.

Can I pray for you right now? These seven words—seven simply supernatural words—capture the essence of the five core values of the Vineyard movement:

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

At the Vineyard of Champaign-Urbana , where I pastor, we encourage everyone to be attentive and ready to speak these seven words wherever the opportunity arises—whether in the church building, on the street, or in our homes or workplaces. And in this practice of praying for others, we express the Vineyard’s five core values.

We offer to pray because we believe the kingdom of God has come, and we trust that at any moment the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit may break in and bring healing to our broken world.

We experience God when we respond to the Holy Spirit’s nudges and ask, “Can I pray for you right now?” As we pray, we sense God’s heart, we share his love, and we receive his guidance. We are actually partnering with God! His empowering presence fills us and flows through us.

We make a regular practice of meeting together in small groups where, as a reconciling community, we not only practice praying for each other, but also share stories, failures, and successes. We humbly bear one another’s burdens. We are reconciled to one another and to God as we confess our sins and receive forgiveness. We part, freshly empowered to continue the work of the kingdom, bringing reconciliation wherever we go.

Because we are equipped and ready to pray, we often find ourselves engaged in compassionate ministry outside the church service. A young man from our congregation was on the campus of the University of Illinois when he stopped to talk to a distraught student and ended up asking, “Can I pray for you right now?” A new mom from our church was pushing her stroller through the neighborhood when she met another new mom. When her neighbor shared some struggles, she asked, “Can I pray for you right now?” And sometimes, miracles happen as the future invades the present. Other times, we don’t see any change but we have still shared the love and mercy of Jesus with another person.

When we pray for someone, we are careful to use language that is familiar and meaningful to the person receiving prayer. We meet people in places and situations in which they are comfortable, not waiting for them to come to prayer meetings or Bible studies or church services. Most often, we take part in culturally relevant mission as we go about our everyday lives, living among our neighbors and engaging in the same culture our they engage in, instead of giving into the urge to hide away in the Christian subculture.

Being ready to speak these seven simply supernatural words—Can I pray for you right now?— will help all of us live out the foundational values of the Vineyard. Five core values, seven simple words.

Vineyard DNA

by Duke Lancaster, 2004

Recently I was talking with a friend from church about our spiritual journey... the process by which we came to find the Lord and how we came to identify ourselves with Vineyard Church. I made the comment that I knew pretty quickly that I was "Vineyard". I was somewhat surprised by the response I received. My friend seemed genuinely confused by my comment... asking how to know if you're Vineyard. This seemed a reasonable question and one which I think would be appropriate to attempt to answer here.

So, how do you know if you're Vineyard? We used to use the phrase "Vineyard DNA" to refer to the core value system that establishes what Vineyard stands for. I think in order to answer the question I will highlight a few of the things that I saw as I came into the Vineyard almost 15 years ago that set Vineyard apart from other denominations or churches. This is not saying Vineyard is superior to these churches or that they have more truth... just that these are some of the values that make Vineyard unique... their DNA.

1. The first thing that comes to mind when I say "Vineyard" is their focus on worship... not just music but a genuine desire to "touch the face of God" through intimate encounters with Him by the Holy Spirit. Although worship is certainly valued at most churches in all denominations there was something unique about the way Vineyard emphasized worship... and their music was more modern and exciting than even the contemporary stuff I was hearing elsewhere. Vineyard calls this being "Culturally Current", doing ministry in a way that is consistent with the culture we're in, and it is primarily evidenced in their music and worship styles. It was the first thing that I noticed about the church and the thing that drew me initially.
    
2. The focus on seeing genuine, powerful moves of God was definitely unique. I had been in many churches that talked about power and a few demonstrated some evidence of the Gifts of the Spirit operating, but I saw more real miracles and healings in my first few weeks at Vineyard than all the rest of my experience combined. Along the same line... Vineyard taught that this was a normal expression of Christian life... that it wasn't for the super-holy but for you and me... "These signs will follow those who believe..." Mark 16. This radical idea was instrumental in changing the course and focus of my life.
    
3. Tied to this demonstration of power was an emphasis on personal evangelism. Now certainly Vineyard is not at all unique here... but they added a new perspective for me. John Wimber's book "Power Evangelism" offered the concept that the Power of God... the gifts of the Spirit were primarily given for the growth of the church through evangelism. Suddenly all of the power had a purpose beyond my own health and wealth.
    
4. "Naturally Supernatural" is probably my favorite spiritual concept I learned through Vineyard. The value of authenticity... I was tired of the contrived, manipulated "moves of God" I had experienced in the past. Vineyard was the most serious movement I had ever seen at trying to avoid a hyped, platform-oriented display of God's power. In fact, it seemed most of the healings, "signs and wonders" were occurring in home groups and individual settings rather than being performed by one person. I found in this an opportunity to allow God to use me without having to draw attention to myself or without having to be terribly weird... as if telling someone God wants to heal them isn't weird enough.
    
5. In Vineyard I found an awareness of the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly the Holy Spirit wasn't an "it" but was a person walking with us. Ministry and prayers were dotted with phrases like "Come, Holy Spirit" and the sense of Him being right beside us, even inside us was tangible. Church wasn't about going and hearing, it became about coming and experiencing... I had an expectation of having an encounter with God whenever we got together.
    
6. The teaching was powerful with a focus on the Kingdom of God that gave me a foundation for all that I was experiencing. The theology of the Kingdom explained many of the questions I had carried for years... why isn't everyone healed?... why doesn't God speak today?. There was a serious emphasis on the Word of God, again, not unique to Vineyard, but the combination of teaching and experiencing made church more like a college lab... learn then do.
    
7. There was an expectation that God would speak. I had never seen "personal prophecy" before. What I thought of as prophecy was somebody in a church service speaking a "thus saith the Lord" message using King James english that was usually fairly generic and generally uplifting. But in Vineyard I found people who would speak to very specific things with amazing insight and accuracy. Although of everything in Vineyard in my early days this single thing made me the most uncomfortable I always marvelled at it and grew to love and appreciate the fact that God speaks through his people.
    
8. And finally, there was an overriding sense of purpose... training to send. Vineyard calls it "Recruit, Train, Deploy". We are all in boot camp learning what we need in order to get fully employed in the battle. The vision for planting churches at home and abroad is derived from this vision. 
   

This is by no means everything and there are places to go read more about the formal doctrinal distinctions, and I recommend doing so, but these are the areas that most impacted me. The things I listed are certainly all still true and relevant in varying degrees and still drive who we are and what we strive to be.

Hopefully you can see the things I highlighted and you'll be able to say of yourself with certainty, "I'm Vineyard!"

Our Story

South Bay Vineyard launched on September 14th, 2008... but it began as a God planted dream in the Fall of 2006. Duke and Marie Lancaster and their close friends Chris and Jan Self began to sense a strong pull toward San Diego and in early 2007 presented the vision for a new church to their pastor in Jackson, Mississippi. Roughly one year later a team of seven people relocated across the country. 

Meetings began very quickly with weekly home groups starting in April of 2008. The vision for a church that impacts its community through radical acts of service, that accepts people wherever they are and allows them to pursue God at their own pace, that expects the living God to demonstrate his compassion and his love through supernatural demonstrations... this vision has driven South Bay Vineyard.