"I am the Vine, ye are the branches.  He who abideth in me and I in him will bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me, ye can do nothing."

(John 15:5)

"A vineyard of wine, sing of it! I the Lord, am its keeper, I water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I guard it night and day."

(Isaiah 27:2-3)

Structure at Vineyard Church of Slidell

"Structure serves us; we don't serve the structure."

Everybody needs a skeleton. A church body is no different. We need a structure to function effectively. In the Vineyard, we have an approach to structure and organization. We believe that organization should always follow organism. In other words, we need enough organization to hold God's activity, but the structure should never take precedence over God's movement or be a substitute for God's activity. Thus, we seek to maintain as little structure as possible to get the job done. We seek structures that enhance rather than stifle ministry and relationships.

Daily decisions on running the church are made by the Pastoral Staff. The Senior Leadership Council under our bylaws governs Vineyard Church of Slidell. A Board of Directors oversees the legal and financial decisions of the church. Our Senior Pastor leads the Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors must approve major financial decisions.

Vineyard Church complies with all national and local laws. We are legally considered a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization and are chartered under the laws of the State of Louisiana with 501-C3 status by the IRS. All contributions made to Vineyard Church of Slidell are tax deductible. We have complied with all State laws regarding our articles of incorporation and our bylaws.

1. Worship

Worship is an expression of our hearts toward God as shown through song and praise. One of the Hebrew words for worship means, "to turn toward to kiss." God created man to worship Him, and He wants us to intimately give ourselves over to Him in our worship. As we do that, we are drawn into His presence and experience His touch in our lives.

Most of the songs that we sing are written by people in the Vineyard and the emphasis of them are to sing to God and not about God. As we do that, we are drawn into an ever-increasing intimacy with God our Father.

2. The Bible

We believe that the Bible is the written Word of God Himself and that it is absolutely reliable for all matters pertaining to life. We view the Bible as the "plumb-line" by which we gauge our lives and believe that God, through His Word, has given us the tools necessary to deal with any situation that may arise. We do not choose to analyze/worship the Bible, or to focus on questions concerning one translation over another. Instead, we choose to obey the simple understanding He has given us in a variety of translations.

3. Training (Equipping, Teaching, Discipleship)

Our desire is to not only know the Word of God but to also do the Word of God. The Greek word for "disciple" is "matheteuo," which means, "to learn to do" not "to learn to know." James 1:22 says, "but prove yourselves doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves." (NASB) Our overall vision for the Vineyard Church of Slidell comes from Ephesians 4:11-13 and is to equip the saints for works of service. Therefore, teaching the bible in a simple and practical way is important to us. Very often our teachings will be followed up with the exhortation, "Now let's go do it!"

4. Ministry

Ministering to others is another priority for us. Jesus Christ commanded us as the church to do the very works He did (John 14:12). We seek to do that by reaching out to those who are in need or are hurting.

The "ministry" was not meant for a few professionals. Jesus meant for every Christian, from the first day he is born again, to be involved with ministering to others. Therefore, we encourage all those who are committed to VCS to begin participating in the different ministry opportunities we have. That includes everything, from serving the poor and underprivileged in our community, to praying for the sick, to feeding the hungry, and everything in between.

We seek to serve people and not institutions. Therefore, we choose to direct the majority of our financial resources into the lives of people.

In order for people to become effective in ministering to others, they need to be trained. We offer various training classes, conferences, and seminars throughout the year for training in different areas of service. This training includes: praying for the sick, ministering to the demonized, ministering to hurting marriages, ministering to the children, ministering to the homeless, and many others.

5. Sending (Evangelism and Missions)

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (I Timothy 1:15). He accomplishes that salvation through the witness of His people accompanied by signs and wonders (Mark 16:20). There are about 179 million pre-Christian people in the United States right now. That means that an enormous mission field exists for churches like the Vineyard here in the United States. We believe that God has called us to be a large church in the Slidell area with the ability to impact this city for Christ. In addition, we aim to renew, refresh, and enable existing churches by sending trained personnel out on short-term ministry trips; and we aim to build the Church of Jesus Christ by sending trained personnel to plant churches around the world.

We value the pursuit of God. We are hungry to know God's presence, hear His voice, and follow hard after Him. (Psalm 63:1-3)

We value Christlikeness. We desire that through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus' love, mercy, grace, truth, purity, power, and integrity would shine through all that we are and do. (Ephesians 5:2)

We value being Spirit led. We honor Jesus as our Head and the Holy Spirit as our Counselor. We seek to be responsive to the Holy Spirit in life and ministry. (Ephesians 5:25)

We value prayer. We believe that prayer is essential because it is our primary means of communication with God and because it is one of God's primary means of accomplishing His purposes in the world.

We value discipleship. Our goal is first to grow as disciples of Christ ourselves and then to make disciples of others. (Matthew 28:18-20)

We value the Kingdom of God. Our desire is to move in the signs of the present fulfillment of the kingdom invoking the Spirit's powerful presence, ministering through the Spirit's gifts, and seeing God heal and work wonders. (Mark 1: 14,15)

We value the mercy of God. We believe that mercy is fundamental to all that God does in salvation. We, therefore, desire to extend mercy to one another and to all whom we minister. (Colossians 3:12-13)

We value integrity. It is important to us to speak the truth, deal honestly, and live uprightly. (Ephesians 4:15)

We value servant leadership. We believe that Christ has put significant leadership authority in the hands of the Pastor and associates. Our goal is to exercise that authority with humility, selflessness, grace, and care for the sheep and sincere desire to build up the Body of Christ. (Mark 10:37,24-45)

We value the individual, single or married; and we want to enable and support mature relationships and family growth.

We value unity. We are convinced that all who belong to Christ are one in His Body, the Church. Our goal is to maintain unity by honoring all who call on Jesus' name and by seeking reconciliation with all parts of the Church. (John 17:21-23, Acts 4:12)

We value collegiate relationship. We are honored by every person whom God adds to the Vineyard. We desire to work together to build the church through maintaining mutual respect, open communication, determined cooperation, and believing and speaking the best about each other. (I Corinthians 13:4-7)

We value reality. We desire to walk in the Spirit and see real supernatural works of God. We also desire to function on the natural plane based on God's leading in conjunction with excellent, rational thinking. (James 1:5)

We value simplicity. We wish to do nothing "for religious effect" but rather to operate in natural, low-key, "non-hype" patterns. We desire to do the ministry of Christ with joy. (Philippians 4:4)

We value being culture current. Our goal is to develop an atmosphere of ease and to speak, act, and dress in ways to which our culture can respond positively. For example, we reflect this value through worship music that is of a contemporary style. (I Corinthians 9:12-23)

We value the family. When God calls people, He calls them as parts of families-as children, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, husbands and wives. We believe that Vineyard should build up and not compete with family life. We also believe that families should be vehicles for the spread of God's kingdom. (Colossians 3:18-25)