 |
Monroe Vineyard is a new church, which we hope will connect with people in ways that other churches haven't. We want to be casual, and meaningful for people whose church experience may not have been the best, or for people who are searching for more. Here are some of our foundational principles:
* We want to learn more about how to love God and each other.
* We believe that God wants to speak to us and we want to help each other to hear Him more clearly.
* We know God wants to be part of our life today giving us spiritual power to do what we can't do by ourselves.
* We think God and His people can just have fun together, sharing our lives in hospitality and helping each other.
* We believe that God wants us to experience acceptance rather than guilt.
* We think you should come as you are to seek God. You don't need to dress up to meet with God.
* We want to learn to share our gifts of art and music with God and let Him know how much we appreciate Him.
* We want to help take care of those God sends us who either can't take care of themselves or have hit on some hard times and need a hand.
* We believe that Jesus wants more than to just have us "saved" but wants to show us how to have a truly fulfilling life, doing what we were meant to do.
* We think you can be a good person on your own but it takes a number of friends to really get to where we want to be.
* Families are the heart and soul of our world so we want to do everything we can to support them.
* Even though we might be sick or screwed up, God wants to bring healing and wholeness to each of us through his touch in our lives.
* We need all people of all ages to do what God wants us to do, combining the wisdom and energy of all generations.
At Monroe Vineyard, we want you to discover the fact that knowing God does not have to be dull and boring or superficial. Real Church is a place where God's people come together to connect and strengthen each other, and connect together with Him. Together we strengthen our connection to the vine (Jesus), so his love , which is his life, can better flow through us to this love-starved world. Do you want to be part of this flow? Do you want to be filled with love? With life? To overflowing? Then come and be with us!
Our vision
We seek to join together in cooperation with God for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Not through our own power, nor by our own wisdom do we seek to accomplish God's will, but through His action, the action of the Holy Spirit does the Kingdom advance. Matt 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. We desire to be those forceful men and women who lay hold of this kingdom and its advancement. We see this advancement as coming through signs and wonders by the power of His Spirit, through the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, and through service to the poor.
We seek to make the Word of God the basis of all we are and all we do. Led by the Bible, the Word of God, and inspired by God's revealed and prophetic word, which we seek daily, we seek to follow God in the advancement of His Kingdom.
We seek to allow the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Our response to the Spirit as it leads us to unity is to discover and share our individual gifts with one another and with the world around us. Through signs and wonders we seek for God to use us as instruments of healing and "doers of the Word" in a bruised and sin sick world.
We seek to enter the presence of God the Father, through His Son, by the Holy Spirit through praise and worship. We desire to honor our Lord and King, and all He has done for us. Our worship style will be contemporary and varied to reach all ages.
We seek to believe that God's heart goes out to the weak, helpless, impoverished, oppressed, and needy, and that He has commissioned His church to care for them. This care is not only through material things but also through the relational love we share with poor, the down-trodden, and the lonely. This will include those amongst us who are elderly but of whom God has not yet finished their work here on earth.
We seek to "make disciples of all the world" through the training and teaching of God's Word and His ways. We recognize a special relationship of the more experience amongst us to be used in equipping the saints through word and example. "We believe that all Christians should be trained to "do the works of Christ." We are committed to the "show and tell" model of on-the-job training, in which trainees are introduced to doing ministry functions with trainers and then are taught during and after the training experience. We aim to provide training for all aspects of responsible Christian life and ministry." We wholeheartedly embrace the founder of the Vineyard Movement, John Wimber's saying, "Everyone gets to play!"
We seek to provide to all who God sends us the gift of hospitality, which is to be the heart of our family. We recognize the shattered independent society we live in and its affects on all of us. We seek to love one another with a true affection, to have fun together, and to care for one another. We will make one another a priority in our lives. Through small groups we will share our lives intimately, not just in "ministry" but in truly sharing at a cost, freely giving and receiving. We also seek to reach out to the "widows and orphans" of our society including single parents of both genders, the lost and the lonely, especially the elderly, and the alien, those who have no family nearby.
We seek to share Christ's healing love to all around us. We recognize that healing comes in many forms and that it comes from the redeeming works of Jesus Christ our Lord. We seek physical, emotional and spiritual healing for one another. We also seek healing for relationships in families, society, and in our churches. We seek healing for those hurt by previous church experiences, reconciliation for them with these churches, and support for them in that process.
We seek to support family life in our church. This includes the mutual training and mentoring of the children and teens God has given us responsibility for. It takes a village to raise a child as the old African adage goes, and we seek to be that village, bringing them up in Christ.
We seek to build a real community amongst one another through the sharing of our lives in a smaller context than weekend celebrations. We will gather together throughout the week for mutual encouragement, accountability, service to those in our greater community and the world around us.
Last but not least:
We seek to preach God's Word to "the ends of the earth" through evangelism of the unchurched and those who no longer attend church. This outreach includes preaching and sharing the gospel, servant evangelism, and service to the community. We seek to support the Monroe community and its surrounding areas. We seek to support any church who is advancing the Kingdom of God . We also recognize that one of the most effective ways to advance the Kingdom is through the planting of additional churches. We seek to not only support that process but to become a church planting church.
In all this we seek to come under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. If I already go to church, why should I change and become part of the Monroe Vineyard Church?
If you have a good Christian church that helps you grow as a person and a child of God then you shouldn't leave that church or the people who are your family there. We want to see all churches and groups of Christians grow and flourish.
2. Who is starting this new church, and why the heck did they pick Monroe?
The Ann Arbor Vineyard Church is sending two former interns, Vic & Paula Holtz to Monroe to plant a Vineyard Church in Monroe. They are sharing their vision with anyone who wants to learn more about this 21st century community movement and what God is doing in the Monroe area. Vic is a graduate of Ida High School and lived in Monroe after graduation in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University. Both Vic and Paula are graduates of the Vineyard Leadership Institute, a seminary study program out of the Columbus Vineyard Church. Vic and Paula are also being coached by Bill and Barb Herzog, pastors of the Toledo Vineyard Church.
3. What is a Vinyeard Church?
Check out the Vineyard USA website for more information
4. What does the Vineyard Church movement believe?
Find out more at the Vineyard USA history.
5. What really makes you different from other churches?
Well, what we strive to be is real and relevant. We try not to have a lot of hype, a lot of rules about things like drinking, smoking, what music you can listen to, etc. (The Ten Commandments are still in our rules!) We dress casually in a come-as-you-are atmosphere. We believe God is to be worshipped and we do this in modern and post-modern ways with good music and lots of love of God. We want to have fun, become friends and share the good and the bad. We will serve the poor and those who God brings to us to love. We want to share the wisdom and energy of all age groups.
6. Why does Monroe need a Vineyard church?
There are many good churches in Monroe and we want to encourage them all to grow. More choices for church vision, focus, and style are always better to include more people. We want those who don't believe you have to go to church, those who have been hurt by church, and those who know God is somewhere out there but just don't know how to connect with him. We want to provide a safe place, a fun place, a friendly place where people can be themselves and what God wants them to be.
|
|
|
