Love God, Love People, Pass It On
Yes, it really is that simple. We believe that was Jesus’ own commission to his disciples in Matthew 28:18-20. We are called to be a kingdom of God-centered church that equips/forms/disciples/teaches followers of Jesus to live the ordinary Christian life of being a disciple, and making disciples who make disciples.
We believe in Jesus’ commission to his disciples in Matthew 28:18-20. At Vinelife we love God, love people, and pass it on.
All Vineyard churches share five core values that make them part of the Vineyard movement. These core values are central to our identity and define the way we do ministry, and how we understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.
- The Theology and Practice of the Kingdom of God
The primary message of Jesus in his earthly ministry was the kingdom of God (the kingdom of God is upon you, the kingdom of God is near you, you are not far from the kingdom, the kingdom of God is like . . .) and his teachings were accompanied by the works of the kingdom, both natural and supernatural. Because this was the focus of Jesus’ earthly ministry, we also make his teaching and practice of the Kingdom our focus. We believe that the Kingdom is not just the future universal reign of God, or simply the Christian Church. We believe that the Kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God both in its present manifestation of salvation, deliverance, healing, etc. (Mark 12:34, Matthew 9:35, 12:28), and in its final manifestation of the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21).
- Experiencing God
Experiencing God is not just our commitment to know about God, but to know him intimately, encounter him through worship, prayer, salvation and the present manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers, and in divine guidance (dreams, visions, prophecy, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, discernment and much more). It also means to reveal the Father heart of God to those who do not know God, and to come into a full knowledge (heart, mind and soul) of his great love for humanity, and for the individual.
- Reconciling Community
By Jesus’ reconciling us to himself, by taking on our sin and not counting our sins against us as we deserved, he gave to the church the ministry of reconciliation (2Corinthians 5:18-21). We share this gospel of reconciliation by pointing others to this same forgiveness and reconciliation with Christ, by demonstrating this same spirit of forgiveness, not harboring bitterness and resentment in our hearts toward others. Jesus put to death the enmity that exists between male and female, Jew and Greek, slave and free through his body so that we might be one (Ephesians 2:14-21). Therefore, wherever there is division, tribalism, racism, sexism, or any other division among people, we are called to be a people of peace and reconciliation, and not to contribute to the sectarianism of the world.
- Compassionate Ministry
We believe our actions must reflect Compassionate Ministry. The works of the church should be filled with compassion even as the Father heart of God is filled with compassion. Jesus did not come to the earth simply because he was duty bound, or it was the right thing to do. He was not compelled by the law or anything greater than himself, but by the love of the Father for the world, that no one should perish but through faith in Jesus Christ they should have everlasting life (John 3:16).
- Culturally Relevant Mission
Ministry should be contextual, treating every place the gospel is preached as an outpost of the kingdom of God; not as our homeland, translating the good news into the vernacular of the recipients. While cultivating a Culturally Relevant Mission mindset, we recognize that our values are different, our worldview is different, and our priorities are different from those who are of the world. As saved and set-apart people, our thinking is different. Therefore, we must be like missionaries, learning afresh how to speak the language of our city, the next generation, and the people of this world. This never means compromising the truth, lowering the standards of right and wrong, or messing with the message. We simply go afresh to the old, old story, and think through what is culture and what is the Word of God. That which is culture can be rethought, and repackaged. That which is Scripture must be held onto and fought for without change or compromise. We don’t mess with the message, but we do adjust the medium by which we share the message.
- In addition to these we value beauty.
God is beautiful and His creation reflects His beauty: God created man and woman in His image and likeness who also create works of beauty. For this reason we value the arts, expression, and creativity.
Connect
Participating in a small group is one of the best ways to build community and encourage spiritual growth. Through our LifeGroups you can connect with others as you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ.
Grow
This church exists to make disciples of Jesus Christ by extending the invitation to the kingdom of God and to experience God’s forgiveness and mercy through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. As well as pursuing continual spiritual maturity through study and the equipping of the saints..
Serve
God has designed each one of us with unique gifts and callings to serve the body of believers and the world at large. At Vinelife we provide you with opportunities to use those talents to serve God by volunteering in the local church.
Give
We consider it a privilege to give back to God what he has so freely given us. We celebrate generosity and the work God does through our consistent and sacrificial giving.
Live
To love God through a lifestyle of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, and to avoid the works of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like that.
WE BELIEVE that God is the Eternal King. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory.
WE BELIEVE that God’s kingdom is everlasting. From His throne, through His Son, His eternal Word, God created, upholds and governs all that exists: the heavenly places, the angelic hosts, the universe, the earth, every living thing and human beings. God created all things very good.
WE BELIEVE that Satan, originally a great, good angel, rebelled against God, taking a host of angels with him. He was cast out of God’s presence and, as an usurper of God’s rule established a counter-kingdom of darkness and evil on the earth.
WE BELIEVE that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God’s judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God’s good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam’s original sin. Human beings are born in sin, subject to God’s judgment of death and captive to Satan’s kingdom of darkness.
WE BELIEVE that God did not abandon His rule over the earth which He continues to uphold by His providence. In order to bring redemption, God established covenants which revealed His grace to sinful people. In the covenant with Abraham, God bound Himself to His people Israel, promising to deliver them from bondage to sin and Satan and to bless all the nations through them.
WE BELIEVE that as King, God later redeemed His people by His mighty acts from bondage in Egypt and established His covenant through Moses, revealing His perfect will and our obligation to fulfill it. The law’s purpose is to order our fallen race and to make us conscious of our moral responsibility. By the work of God’s Spirit, it convicts us of our sin and God’s righteous judgment against us and brings us to Christ alone for salvation.
WE BELIEVE that when Israel rejected God’s rule over her as King, God established the monarchy in Israel and made an unconditional covenant with David, promising that his heir would restore God’s kingdom reign over His people as Messiah forever.
WE BELIEVE that in the fullness of time, God honored His covenants with Israel and His prophetic promises of salvation by sending His only Son, Jesus, into the world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, as fully God and fully human in one person, He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God’s Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, inaugurating God’s kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Gathering His disciples, He reconstituted God’s people as His Church to be the instrument of His kingdom. After dying for the sins of the world, Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, fulfilling the covenant of blessing given to Abraham. In His sinless, perfect life Jesus met the demands of the law and in His atoning death on the cross He took God’s judgment for sin which we deserve as law-breakers. By His death on the cross He also disarmed the demonic powers. The covenant with David was fulfilled in Jesus’ birth from David’s house, His Messianic ministry, His glorious resurrection from the dead, His ascent into heaven and His present rule at the right hand of the Father. As God’s Son and David’s heir, He is the eternal Messiah-King, advancing God’s reign throughout every generation and throughout the whole earth today.
WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church at Pentecost in power, baptizing believers into the Body of Christ and releasing the gifts of the Spirit to them. The Spirit brings the permanent indwelling presence of God to us for spiritual worship, personal sanctification, building up the Church, gifting us for ministry, and driving back the kingdom of Satan by the evangelization of the world through proclaiming the word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus.
WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. We believe in the filling or empowering of the Holy Spirit, often a conscious experience, for ministry today. We believe in the present ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise of all of the biblical gifts of the Spirit. We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing, and for recognition and empowering of those whom God has ordained to lead and serve the Church
WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of Holy Scripture so that the Bible is without error in the original manuscripts. We receive the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as our final, absolute authority, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
WE BELIEVE that the whole world is under the domination of Satan and that all people are sinners by nature and choice. All people therefore are under God’s just judgment. Through the preaching of the Good News of Jesus and the Kingdom of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, God regenerates, justifies, adopts and sanctifies through Jesus by the Spirit all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. By this they are released from Satan’s domain and enter into God’s kingdom reign.
WE BELIEVE in the one, holy, universal Church. All who repent of their sins and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and form the living Body of Christ, of which He is the head and of which we are all members.
WE BELIEVE that Jesus Christ committed two ordinances to the Church: water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both are available to all believers.
WE BELIEVE that God’s kingdom has come in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it continues to come in the ministry of the Spirit through the Church, and that it will be consummated in the glorious, visible and triumphant appearing of Christ – His return to the earth as King. After Christ returns to reign, He will bring about the final defeat of Satan and all of his minions and works, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment and the eternal blessing of the righteous and eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. Finally, God will be all in all and His kingdom, His rule and reign, will be fulfilled in the new heavens and the new earth, recreated by His mighty power, in which righteousness dwells and in which He will forever be worshipped.
Vinelife isn’t a gathering of religious consumers, it’s a church that emphasizes connecting, growing, serving, giving, and living the kingdom of God lifestyle. So you don’t get connected here by joining but rather by actively participating in what God is doing at Vinelife. You can get involved by inviting your friends and family, by volunteering, by engaging with others through Life Groups, or learning together in a Kingdom U course, and by investing in this work financially.
connecting: from the beginning, the desire of God has been for us to know him. It’s revealed in his relationship with Adam and Eve in the garden, through every prophet, and even through Jesus becoming flesh and blood and dwelling among us. The church is a place of connecting, both God with people, and person to person.
growing: we come just as we are but the ultimate goal for every follower of Christ is to become more like Jesus, and to make sure that others know him, too.
serving: God has designed each of us with unique desires, experiences, spiritual gifts, individual personalities, and natural abilities. We provide you with opportunities to serve according to your God-given design to advance God’s vision within the local church.
giving: God is generous; he gave us not only life, and the enjoyment of his creation, but he also gave us his Son, Jesus Christ and eternal life. Becoming more like God we, too, become generous givers, participating in the work that God is doing through Vinelife.
living: To love God, to love people, and to pass it on, is the mission statement of Vinelife and it encompasses how we have been called to live our lives to fulfill God’s purpose and plans.
If you've decided to make us family, bring in a cross for the wall!
MEET THE TEAM
Pastors and Staff
Hal Hester
Lead Pastor
With over 25 years of ministry experience, our pastor, Dr. Hal Hester, shares the depths of God’s Word in practical and understandable ways. His desire is to help you become a growing disciple of Jesus Christ so you can live the God-life wherever you go and lead others to become growing disciples of Jesus Christ as well. His passion and aim is to develop a church that makes disciples who make disciples and transforms the nature coast with Christ’s love. Learn more...
Bobby Hardwick
Associate Pastor
Bobby is the associate pastor at the Vineyard. He oversees the worship ministry as well as Voyage student ministry. Prior to joining our staff in 2018, Bobby served in pastoral roles in several different churches in Texas and Ohio. He is passionate about leading and discipling people (especially the younger generation) into growing, life-changing relationships with God and his heart to see the church experience God’s presence through worship and the arts has been a steady ingredient of the calling that God has placed on his life. Learn more...
Tara Hendry
Vinelife Kids Director
Jenn Lipidarov
Jenn Lipidarov is the Office Manager at Vinelife. She served our church as a volunteer in many capacities until May 1, 2017 when she took on the role of office manager. In addition to the office, she manages our website, social media pages, newsletter and app as our Communications lead. Also, she continues to serve on our worship team, and can often be found doing various odd jobs around the Vinelife campus. Learn more...
Joe Miller
Congregational Care Pastor
Joseph Miller was raised in Delaware in a small Mennonite community. He grew up in the church and received Christ at the age of 11 but it wasn’t until his early 20’s that he discovered that the call was to be a disciple of Jesus when he received the infilling of the Holy Spirit as he was serving with other followers of Jesus in upstate NY. He served in various areas of leadership and found his passion is caring for the flock. Though he had several years of Bible School, most of his training has been hands-on and in various seminars, spanning 40+ years. Learn more...
The Association of Vineyard Churches in the USA
Vinelife Church is a part of the Association of Vineyard Churches: a community of churches. The Vineyard is not a denomination per se, but we do share a common set of values, a statement of faith and a philosophy of ministry.
The Vineyard movement began in 1977 as a single Vineyard Christian Fellowship within the Calvary Chapel denomination. As more Calvary Chapel churches adopted the Vineyard name a new leader emerged among the churches by the name of John Wimber. John was a musician, and a part of the Righteous Brothers before coming to Christ.
His early Christian experience and ministry as a pastor was among the Friends Churches (Quaker). Later he served as part of the faculty of at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and as the director of the Fuller Church Growth Institute.
That loose network developed into an association of over 600 churches in the USA and over 2,000 Vineyard Churches world wide. The association has continued to maintain its loose affiliation of autonomous churches linked by a shared statement of faith, philosophy of ministry, values, and through cooperation, rather than a system of trans-local government and over-sight.
To learn more, visit http://www.vineyardusa.org/site/
The Vineyard Churches have a distinctive style of music. To learn more about the music, visit http://www.vineyardworship.com/
Why would you have a page for other churches? Aren’t you guys in competition with each other?
The easy answer is NO! But unfortunately that has not always been the perception even though we are all part of the family of God. Check out John 17.20-24…and that is our desire. Style, friendships, doctrine, and the atmosphere of the place all play in to our decisions to participate in a church. We can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to be part of our church, but we know we may not be a good fit for everyone. It is important that everyone be part of a Christian faith community that encourages them to grow closer to God, to love their neighbors, and to serve their world; so we want you to know that there are other churches in our area that may be able to meet your needs.
Brooksville
Anchor Baptist Church
Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church
Hillside Community Baptist Church
Saint Anthony the Abbot Catholic Church
Masaryktown
Holy Trinity Lutheran (LCMS)
Shady Hills
Bible Baptist Church
Spring Hill
Calvary Church of the Nazarene
Covenant Christian Church of God
Forest Oaks Lutheran Church (LCMS)
Holy Cross Lutheran Church (ELCA)
Mariner United Methodist Church
Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini Church
Spring Hill Avenue United Methodist Church
Spring Hill United Church of Christ
Spring Lake
Spring Lake United Methodist Church
Weeki Wachee
Christ Church in the Wildwood
Come And See Faith Baptist Church
Crystal River United Methodist Church
First Assembly of God Crystal River
First Baptist Church of Beverly Hills
First Presbyterian Church of Crystal River
First United Methodist Church of Homosassa
First United Methodist Church of Inverness
Hope Baptist Church of Citrus County, FL
Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church
Pleasant Grove Road Church of Christ