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A
SHORT HISTORY OF VINEYARD CHURCH OF CHARLESTON
In
1973 a Bible study group was formed in the home of Ron and Nancy
Thaxton with the purposes of allowing a free flow of worship and
to encourage an expression of the Holy Spirit. In 1976 the
ministry of Jesus Christ Unlimited was formed in Charleston to
sponsor a bi-centennial celebration on the steps of the West
Virginia State Capitol Building - "Spirit in
'76". Subsequent to this event the Thaxton's were
involved in street evangelism while continuing the home
fellowship group.
Early
in 1983, through a series of sovereign acts of God, Jesus Christ
Unlimited became a church fellowship with Ron and Nancy Thaxton
serving as pastors of the fellowship. God's grace working
through faith became a reality in people's lives as the message
of healing for the spiritually and emotionally wounded was
proclaimed.
In
the fall of 1985, as a result of seeking relationships with like
minded Christians, JCU began the process of becoming
a Vineyard church with the Association of Vineyard
Churches. On September 28, 1986 the church fellowship took
the name Vineyard in the Hills Christian Fellowship. Ron
and Nancy Thaxton pastored the church until September
1998.
At that time they resigned as pastors of the church to become
'City Reachers' for the Charleston area. At that time
Dennis Chasteen became senior pastor. He served as the
pastor until January 2003. In January 2003 Chuck Reber
became the senior pastor. He had been serving as the
associate pastor of this church since 1996. In
January 2004 the church's name was changed to Vineyard Church of
Charleston. Vineyard
Church Charleston is part of the Association
of Vineyard Churches and is a member of The
Apostolic Network of Global Awakening.
What
is the
Vineyard
Church
of Charleston
all
about?
The
Vineyard Church – Our Mission, Values and Priorities
OUR
MISSION:
To raise-up a community of praying believers who
passionately love God, sacrificially love one another, and are
equipped to do the works of Jesus with compassion and power.
In
order to fulfill this mission we organize this community of
faith around seven core values (being) and seven
core priorities (doing).
Seven
Core Values
– These
values reflect our relationship with both God and men.
We
believe that being and
becoming precedes our doing,
or ministry. These values reflect a commitment to a journey of
life-long growth.
1.
Knowing God.
The Ultimate Quest
of the Christian life.
·
Keeping the first
commandment first (Mark
12:30)
·
Developing
intimacy with God (Ps
25:14; John 15:15)
· We desire to know
Him, love Him, and enjoy Him forever.
·
John
17:3; Col 1:28-29; Phil 3:7-14; Gal 4:19
2. Development of Godly Character.
The Quest for
Christ-likeness.
· Christ-likeness
is the “fruit” of knowing God
· We
value humility and teachability as we embrace process.
· We
believe in honesty, integrity and accountability in all of life.
·
Rom 8:29; Gal 5:22-23; 2 Peter 1:6-8; I Tim 4:7
3. Covenant
Relationships/Community.
The “horizontal” expression of God’s love.
·
Keeping
the second commandment of Jesus (Mark 12:31)
·
A
barometer of our relationship with God
(I John 4:19-21)
·
We
believe this is the necessary starting point for shared
ministry.
·
John
13:34-35; Rom 12:4-5; Proverbs 18:1, 24
4.
Stewardship of
Our Lives. Responsible
management of our resources.
·
Ordering
our lives under the rule of God
·
Self-government
is the goal (1
Corinthians 9:24-27; 1 Tim 4:7)
·
We
believe Faithfulness
indicates trustworthiness (I Corinthians 4:1-2)
·
Giving
our resources to the work of Christ:
§
Time
(Eph 5:16; Psalm 90:12)
§
Talents,
spiritual gifts, abilities (Matt
25:14-30)
§
Treasure
- Finances, possessions and resources
(2 Corinthians 8; Mal 3:10)
·
We are
challenging the idols of comfort, security, & safety.
5.
Kingdom Values
and World View. The “God-glasses” through which we view the world.
·
God’s
rule has broken into this present evil age; therefore we
view the Christian life as a clash between kingdoms.
·
We
value kingdom principles as a foundation and integral part
of everything we do. (Col 1:13; Heb 12:28; Acts 17:3,7)
·
The
Sermon on the Mount is our manifesto (Matthew 5-7)
6.
Servant Leadership.
The path to helping
others attain greatness.
·
Jesus
Christ is the
ultimate leadership model (Luke 22:24-27)
·
We
lead by serving. Servanthood is the New Testament model of
true leadership (Matt
20:26)
·
In
the kingdom, the simple, the humble and broken, the nobodies
become the world-changers, the leaders, and the
greatest. (1
Cor 1:26-29; 9:19)
7.
Our Corporate
Calling.
Our
spiritual “genetic code”
·
We
are VINEYARD –
And carry the “family” likeness. We adhere to the Values
of the Vineyard movement
·
Six
Distinctions define our corporate calling: Compassion & Worship; Intercession & the Prophetic; Revival
& Missions.
·
We
embrace our corporate distinctiveness while remaining a
flexible wineskin for the Holy Spirit.
·
Realizing
that we are only one part of the global story God is
writing, we desire to contribute and receive from others in
the
larger Body of Christ.
(2 Cor. 8:1; 1 Thes 1:8,9; 2 The 2:4; Rev 2)
“What I am, is the fruit of what I believe, which motivates
what I do.”
Seven
Core Priorities
– A priority is basically how we spend our time, energy, and
money. These
priorities represent what
we do—our core
ministries, from which all other ministry flows.
We highly value doing all ministries in a
multi-generational context.
1.
Word.
The
Bible is our standard for the Christian life. It is the final
authority for all we believe and how we are to live.
·
Our
goal is to teach the Word of God in a practical, inspiring way,
in conjunction with the Lord’s current prophetic word.
(Matt 5:18; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 1 Corinthians 14:26; 2 Peter
2:20-21)
·
Our
aim is to hear, study, and obey God’s Word to us, being
transformed into the likeness of Christ.
(Matthew 7:24-27; James 1:22)
2.
Worship.
Worship is agreement with who God said He is. We desire to
worship God with our whole being – all our heart, all
our soul, all our mind, and all
our strength. (Mark 12:30; Rom12:1)
·
We
hunger for the fullness of the Spirit... His glory resting upon
us! (Psalms 42:1, 2;
John 4:24; Ps 63:1-5;)
·
We
desire Spirit-enabled worship in a style that is intimate,
dynamic, and life changing. (John 4:23; 1 Cor 14:26)
3.
Prayer. We
believe that God invites every believer to seek Him through
prayer. (Matt 6:7-13) Prayer is agreement with what
God has promised to do.
·
We believe that intimacy with the Lord is vitally
connected to prayer.
·
God runs the world through prayer. Jesus lives forever
to make intercession. We desire to participate with God in
seeing
Him release His power in answer to believing prayer.
(John 15:5-7; I Tim 2:1-6; Col 4:2-3)
·
We believe that persistent, sustained prayer as
God’s way to release justice in the earth. (Luke 18:6-8)
4.
Fellowship of
Believers. We are the family of God, one
Body in Jesus Christ, joined together
as brothers and sisters
forever.
·
We are a community of people
called to love and serve each other, as well as the city around
us.
·
We value authentic community and are a place where all
are welcome. We are
pursing interdependence and a shared
vision.
·
We seek to develop real, intimate, enabling
friendships together, built on covenant love, mutual
responsibility and
faithfulness. (Heb. 3:12-14; Phil 2:3-5; Eph. 4:11-16;
Col. 3:12-15)
5. Ministry of Jesus. We believe that
all Christians are called to do the ministry of Jesus and serve
Christ in the power of His
Spirit.
(Luke 4:18,19; 1 Peter 4:10,11; 1 Corinthians 12:4-7; Acts 1:8)
We
see the ministry of Jesus summed up in the following mandates:
·
To preach the
Gospel of the Kingdom, persuading men to repent and believe in
Jesus (Mark 1:15)
·
Healing the
sick (Matthew
10:1,7,8)
·
Minister
deliverance to the oppressed (Luke 10:17-19)
·
Care
for the poor and those in need (James 1:27; Gal 2:10)
6.
Training &
Equipping. We
are committed to a journey of life-long growth in Christ.
We believe that all Christians are to
be trained and equipped to do the works of Christ.
(Matthew 28:18-20) Our
goal is to make disciples who love and follow
Jesus and equip others to
do the same (2 Timothy 2:2).
·
We
are committed to the “show and tell” model of discipleship,
were teaching occurs in a relational context, both during
and after the training experience, because truth is
“caught” as well as taught.
(Luke 11:1-4)
·
We
believe in the Priesthood of all believers, where ‘everyone
gets to play’ (1 Peter 2:5,9).
We aim to provide training for
all aspects of
Christian life and ministry. (Ephesians 4:11-16)
7.
Outreach. We
pursue outreach through evangelism, missions and church
planting.
·
Evangelism.
We believe the Christian message of God’s love for the
world is best communicated in a relational context.
It
must be proclaimed not only through words, but also demonstrated
through acts of kindness, compassion, and
power.
(Luke 10:8; Acts 1:8; Mark 16:16-18)
·
Missions.
As
a local church, we want to join God where He is already at work
among the peoples, places and issues of
our world. We
believe that the heart of missions is the expanding of the
kingdom of God through the words and works of
Jesus to every people group.
(Acts 13:1-3) We
value partnership in achieving our mission.
Our goal is to express these priorities in an
atmosphere of love, acceptance and forgiveness.
The Practices We Aim To Instill
Prayer
Skills
·
Prayer
of praise and adulation (Psalm 34:1)
·
Prayer
of petition (Philippians 4:6)
·
Prayer
of intercession (Romans 8:26 ,27, 1 Timothy 2:1)
·
Prayer
of tongues (1 Corinthians 14:14 ,15)
·
Prayer
of faith, in healing and expulsion of demons (James 5:15 , Mark 1:25
)
Marriage
and Family Skills
· Intimacy
·
Communication
·
Child-rearing
·
Financial planning
·
Life
management (Ephesians 4:22 -33, 1 Peter 3:1-7)
General Ministry Skills
Communication
skills—the ability to speak
· The ability to witness—sharing
your experience with others (Matthew 28:18-20)
·
The ability to counsel—sharing
God’s Word with others (Ephesians
4:15
)
·
The ability to teach—sharing
God’s Word with others (2 Timothy
2:24
-26)
Community
skills—the ability to relate
·
Ministry to the Lord in
§
Worship (John
4:24
)
§
Fellowship (John 15:4)
§
Obedient service of all kinds (Mark
10:45
)
§
Giving (John
4:34
)
§
Personal Bible study (2 Timothy
2:15
)
·
Ministry
to the Body
§
Giving and receiving forgiveness (Matthew
18:21-35, Matthew 6:14)
§
Laying on hands (1 Timothy
4:14
)
§
Exercise of gifts (1 Corinthians
14:26
)
§
Fellowship—sharing and relating to one another
(Hebrews
3:12
-14)
§
Healing the sick—spiritually, emotionally,
bodily (James
5:13
-16)
·
Ministry to the world
§
Care for the poor
§
Care of the lost
§
Care of the sick and broken-hearted (Luke
4:18
,19)
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