COMMUNITY

God exists in community, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and we as people created in the image of God are also created to exist in community. The church is supposed to function as a family and a community; Jesus instructed His followers to love one another as the primary way others will know we are His disciples. The Christian church should function as a family who encourages, prays, supports and equips one another while on the mission together. The church is not a meeting, nor a place, but a "family."

The primary function of Vintage Faith Church's leadership is to focus on training and building into those serving as leaders in the community, so that its not just the pastors caring for the community, but the community caring for and sustaining itself. We also value family and want to enable families to worship together so that children and teenagers feel part of the church rather than a segment of the church.

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." - John 13:34-35

"Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." - 1 Corinthian 12:27

"It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up."- Ephesians 4:11-13

Because of the complexity of being a larger church, we see "community" as being broken down into smaller settings, since that cannot happen in a large worship gathering once a week.

To grow in COMMUNITY:

  • We have Community Groups (mini-churches) meeting mid-week in homes all over Santa Cruz and the surrounding areas. The heart of these groups is to emulate the Early Church (Acts 2:20, Colossians 4:15) and its practice of meeting in smaller groups to study, pray and do life together. We see the larger weekend worship gathering as a collection of these smaller communities
  • We try to create a sense of community among those who serve on ministry teams
  • We have a few affinity-communities within the larger community (ministry to women, mens, college, youth).
  • Vintage Kids is structured to allow children to worship and learn together with their families in the larger gatherings on a periodic basis.