VISION & VALUES

Why Church?

We believe that church is God’s idea. However because church is a co-operation between God and people, with all their weaknesses and insecurities, we also believe there’s no such thing as a perfect church this side of eternity. For some people who’ve experienced church done badly, the whole idea of church is a turn off. We don’t claim to have a perfect church, but we are trying our best.

The Bible talks about the Church in two very interesting ways.  The Bride of Jesus and the Body of Jesus.

The Church as the Bride of Jesus reminds us that church, first and foremost, is about relationship.  God passionately loves us (all of us!) and by being part of the Church we can corporately be part of this intimate relationship.

This is why at Exeter Vineyard we place so much emphasis on our relationship with God.  Knowing him, spending time with him, listening to him, thanking him, talking to him…  In our musical worship we will often sing to God and in our prayers we feel able to just be ourselves, not having to put on any airs and graces.

The Church as the Body of Jesus reminds us that we have a job to do.  We are now Jesus’ body; able to continue the work he began all those years ago when he walked the earth… feeding the hungry, befriending the lonely, accepting the rejected, comforting the brokenhearted.

We believe it’s not enough for us to just have a nice time in our services and go home feeling all holy and self-righteous.  The church has a responsibility to get beyond religious activity and help out.  Among other things we arrange community events, we give practical help to struggling families and we’ve adopted a rehabilitation and elderly day-care centre.

Sometimes it’s hard work, but it’s part of being church and it can be really satisfying to brighten up someone’s day – something God has done for us countless times!

Of course both these concepts are about unity.  One bride… one body…  Church involves a whole host of different people coming together and getting on.  It’s not always easy, but we have found that what we have in common far outweighs our differences.  That is why we often talk of the church being a family because we are different but we have a very strong common bond.

Our Vision

We want to be a church that makes a difference in people’s lives and in the community. We especially want to help people and families that are struggling with real life issues of relationships, parenting, debt and so on. Our deepest desire is to not be a church that could shut down and no one notice we’d gone.

Our Values

We value people and we value God.

We believe people are at their best when they’re treated as God intended. We believe people should have free choice to make their own decisions and the acceptance to be able to be themselves, without having to pretend to be something they’re not.

We value God and we want to take him seriously (instead of taking ourselves seriously!) We want to trust God to build the church and to change our lives, not do it in our own striving. We believe God is good, all the time and to everyone. We believe he is present and involved in the everyday. We believe that he cares desperately for each of us and he breaks in supernaturally to our lives.

True values are characteristics you can feel without anyone having to tell you what they are. We hope that if you visited any of activities our values would be obvious to you.