What is Vineyard?

Helsinki Vineyard

Vineyard is a contemporary church movement. Our purpose is to proclaim the Kingdom of God – the core message of Jesus – and the new world of God brought about at the end of time, which has already started to break through among us.

Vineyard churches are gracious to imperfect people. We welcome all people, even if they do not believe in God.

Mission of Helsinki Vineyard is to equip and empower followers of Jesus to share the gospel lovingly for such a time as this.

Our vision is that we would grow into a gracious community of 300 people where everyone serves with their gifts in the power of the Holy Spirit in order to advance the Kingdom of God in the capital area.

We have three core values:
1) Intimacy with God in public worship and in our personal lives
2) Kingdom expectancy, where our lives and communities are transformed by the power of Jesus
3) Sharing the goodness of God to all people.

Vineyard could be described as “naturally supernatural”. We do not like to play religious roles – you can be what you are and still our supernatural God works through you.

Global Vineyard

The Vineyard is a metaphor for the church in the Bible. The first Vineyard church was born in California (USA) in 1975. There was a large revival among hippies but new hippie believers were not able to adapt to traditional churches. Vineyard churches were founded to reach those people and all other people who do not feel comfortable in traditional churches. The Global Vineyard movement has about 3,000 churches around the world in over 90 countries. Vineyard churches are different in different cultures but are united by a common creed, values and prioritie

Vineyard seek to blend the best of the evangelical traditions like honouring the authority of the Bible and avoiding manipulative religious hype, with the best of the Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions of welcoming the empowering of the Holy Spirit for life, ministry, and acts of service.

The core of the Vineyard theology is the gospel (good news) of Jesus: “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news “(Mark 1:15).

Jesus proclaimed that the Kingdom of God has arrived into this world. He gave a foretaste of the Kingdom by forgiving sins, healing the sick, releasing people from the forces of evil and feeding the hungry. On the other hand, Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God will arrive in fullness when He returns.

It is important for the Vineyard movement to stick to this “now but not yet” tension of Godś Kingdom, so that we do not devalue the problems of life nor the transforming power of God. We want to declare the Kingdom of God as Jesus did by offering salvation, hope, healing and freedom for all people.

Suomen Vineyard -kirkko (Vineyard Churches in Finland)

Cai and Katja Talvio founded Helsinki Vineyard church in 1997, and Ari Puonti is the senior pastor today. Our church is led by a board, which co-operates with our leadership team.

Michael and Virpi Hopkins founded Vineyard Uusimaa in 2015, the second Vineyard in Finland. In addition, Juha and Terhi Ranta-ojala started the process in 2015 to plant a Vineyard church in Tampere.

Suomen Vineyard –kirkko (Vineyard Churches in Finland) was registered as a denomination in 2014 and is led by a Board. Suomen Vineyard – kirkko is a part of Vineyard Nordic, which has more than 30 congregations in Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Vineyard churches in Finland have four cornerstones that define church life: a statement of faith, our values, priorities and DNA.