Becoming a member of Urban Vineyard is simply about becoming involved with us. We want to be a church where anyone can come, feel welcomed and accepted and find their way in at their own pace. But we do want to encourage you to become part of the family here, once you have decided this is your church. Basically, we invite you to find Jesus, find a friend and find a job.
Here are four primary ways in which you can become involved:
We have a morning and evening service, and normally our members opt for one of these two. We meet at 10.15am and 5pm every Sunday,
with great coffee and cake available in our café before each service.
At the 10.15am service we also have 'Urban Kids' and Creche facilities, so most families tend to attend this service. The morning message is usually repeated in the evening service.
Connect Groups meet midweek in various homes and venues across the city. Alongside the Sunday gatherings, these Connect Groups provide an
opportunity to meet new people, make friends and be known. Highly relational and great fun, these Connect Groups will usually include times of
worship and prayer, some teaching from the Bible, sharing and, of course, plenty of good food and drink!
These groups are simply where we get to do life well together.
There is lots going on in the life of the church, with people serving on teams at the Sunday gatherings, at Connect groups, helping run events and community ministries and projects. We are a group of activists, and we know that our combined efforts will achieve far more than if we worked on our own.
There are many ways you can get involved if you’d like to. Rather than just fill a seat, we’d love you to use your unique gifts, skills and passions to serve where you will have the greatest impact, and the most fun!
If you’d like to get involved, maybe once a month, please talk to someone serving in that area, or fill out one of our ‘Getting Involved’ leaflets.
The Bible clearly teaches the principle of giving, and money is just one demonstration of commitment to the work and ministry of the church
to which we belong. We want to be a generous people, providing the church with the resources to do things well, and to demonstrate God’s love
outside this church in what we give away.
Under Old Testament Law, 10% of a person’s gross income was to be given as a ‘tithe’. Now under grace, we believe that we are free from the Law, and are encouraged to use the 10% as a helpful guideline or starting point for our giving to the local church, with other ‘offerings’ beyond that. Rather than following a strict rule of ‘tithing’, we simply believe in being generous. As with any area of involvement, this is entirely up to the individual and for each person to give “what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7).
For more information, please see the ‘Giving Financially to the Church’ form on the Information Desk.
