Vision & Values
Our Vision
Pursuing Jesus and the fullness of His Kingdom, through…
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” Luke 4:18-19
This passage taken from Isaiah 61 is the vision Jesus had in his heart for the Kingdom of God, as he began his ministry. This picture of the Kingdom forms our vision as a church.
We want to see all of God’s Kingdom breaking in and filling every part of our world.
Restoring Identity
We want to be a church that helps people encounter the Father’s love, embrace their new identity in Jesus, and equip them to walk out their God-given destiny, empowered by the Holy Spirit. We aim to be a church that walks alongside those who carry pain and hurt, restoring their God-given dignity and bringing God’s healing.
Reconciling Relationships
We want to be a church family that has a culture of authentic relationships, where we love each other and seek to be reconciled in a healthy way. As a church, we are seeking to increase our reach and impact healthily, developing deep relationships with each other and with other churches. We aim to be a church that reflects the diversity of our local community.
Reaching the World
We believe that the message of Jesus and His Kingdom is good news, and we aim to be people who go to those who don’t know Jesus yet, inviting them into a lifelong relationship with him. Our heart’s desire is to be light-bearers, peace-makers, joy-bringers, and city-shapers. We seek to be a church who partners with the Holy Spirit to see the life, beauty, justice and freedom of God’s Kingdom breaking in and filling every part of our world.
Join us on the journey.
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Our Values
Northridge is part of the family of churches known as Vineyard Churches of Australia. Find out more about the Vineyard movement here.
Our church’s values or DNA are shared by many other Vineyard churches across the world and stem from our understanding of what the Bible teaches about life in the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God
In the Bible the phrase, the Kingdom of God describes what God has done, is doing, and will do in the world, through Jesus, his promised King.
We believe in a future “age to come” where God’s Kingdom – his beautiful rule and reign – will be experienced here on earth. We also believe that because of Jesus’ life, ministry, death & resurrection, this future reality has now broken into this “present evil age”. Today, the Kingdom continues to break in bringing salvation, restoration, healing from sickness, and freedom from demonic powers.
As people who follow Jesus, we expect to see evidence of his Kingdom breaking in whenever we pray, gather, worship and step out in faith in our everyday lives. We also know that we live in a time when the Kingdom has come, but is also coming, and will come fully when Christ returns in glory.
Faith is a calling to risk
John Wimber once said faith is spelled
“R-I-S-K”. We believe the call to be the ‘Body of Christ’ involves getting outside of our comfort zones. Adventurous faith is welcome in the Vineyard!
Remember the Poor
Core to Jesus’ ministry was caring for the poor, the lost, the outcast and the outsider – those who were needy in both the physical and spiritual. We want to continue this and serve the poor around us and around our world.
Worship
As a Vineyard church, worship is a significant part of our heritage, and as we worship together we expect to see the activity of the Kingdom breaking out. We value worship that is led with integrity and authenticity, and is focused on intimacy with Jesus. We seek to make our worship times and spaces accessible to everyone.
Word and Spirit
We are committed to embracing the fullness of both the Word and the Spirit without compromising either. We derive all we believe, teach and do from the Bible as the written word of God. We are also learning to hear and obey the voice of the Spirit speaking to us individually and collectively.
Equipping the Saints
We believe that every believer can ‘minister’ the work of the Kingdom and is given gifts, skills and calling to serve God. We are a place where people are empowered and equipped to use the God given gifts and that the ministry of the Kingdom does not rely on one or two highly anointed leaders. We believe ”Everyone gets to play”.
Healing
We see healing as a core part of Jesus’ ministry today and seek to pray for healing wherever we are. As we minister, we avoid all hype or emotional manipulation. Going about our lives naturally, we pray for healing and listen to God’s voice in every circumstance.
When we pray for people, we know that sometimes they are healed and sometimes they are not. We do not claim a lack of faith for people not being healed, or that it is God’s will that they are not healed. Our understanding of the Kingdom of God means we acknowledge both the reality of miracles and suffering in this life.
Encountering the Holy Spirit
In every context that we gather, we invite the Holy Spirit. We will need to be regularly filled with the spirit, and we believe that we are changed and transformed when we encounter him. We are always seeking to be led by the spirit as we worship, making space to listen and respond to his prompting and presence.
Come as you are, but don’t stay as your are…
You are loved no matter what state you are in when you come to the Vineyard. We believe that Jesus invites us all into a journey of finding healing and restoration in Him. He calls us all to health. We believe that Jesus can change us, so we say “Yes”.
