OUR DISTINCTIVES
What's a Service like at Riverstone Vineyard?
Here are the guiding principles by which we plan our services.
BIBLICALLY ROOTED
This simply means that we put the Bible over and above our best, most sophisticated, collective opinion. That doesn't mean we turn our brains off, on the contrary, we believe the Bible deserves rigorous intellectual pursuit and attention- it simply means we give more honor, more respect, more authority to the pages of scripture than we do our own ability rationalize and scrutinize. Therefore, we preach the bible- not our experience. My experience of God is not the standard, only the Bible sets the standard of what it means to know God. This means that you're going to hear biblically rooted teachings whose aim is to bring a crystal clarity to what scripture says and what that means for us today. Our confidence is in His words, not our own.
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Our teaching style is a blend of topical series and expositional, vs by vs teaching. No matter the medium of the message (whether topical or vs by vs) we spend a lot of time in the prayer closet before anything hits the pulpit.
NATURALLY SUPERNATURAL
We believe in the Power of God and His active presence among us. The New Testament isn't simply a record of what happened; It's showing us how the Lord wants to interact with his children here and now. His arm has not been shortened nor strength diminished. We believe God can and does heal people: spiritually, emotionally, physically- God heals every aspect of our brokenness. We get glimpses of the consumation of that complete healing today via the presence and power of the Holy Spirit- it's the 'already and not yet' element of His Kingdom. We routinely ask God for his power and presence to overshadow our services.
That being said, we don't think you have get all weird to believe or function in the power or gifts of the Holy Spirit. We don't have to make things dramatic for effect- let's just be ourselves and give God the elbow room to be Himself as well.
SIMPLICITY
We love technology just as much as the next guy. We just don't think 'bells and whistles' can, or should take the place of the Presence of God and meaningful content. Therefore, our services are simple and we want them that way. We believe a good church service should function like a good shoe. It takes us some where - get's us from A to B. The thing is, a really good shoe is one you don't even realize is there. Our services are not the point. Our talent is not the point. The songs we sing are not the point. Jesus is the goal, the reason and the motivation.
If our services aren't encouraging you towards Him then we are just prolonging a massive exercise in missing the point.
The Vineyard is an association of churches birthed out of the Jesus movement in the 1970's led by John Wimber until his death in 1997. The Vineyard movement has been characterized by it's kingdom theology, it's willingness to believe God uses everyday people in the Power of the Holy Spirit and an overarching drive to plant churches as a means to reach the lost for Christ. You can explore more about the history and theology of the Vineyard by clicking the button below.