Welcome

We are so glad you have found us here, and we would love to meet you in person. Have a good look around our website, and if you can't find what you're looking for, click the contact page, email us and we will do our best to help. We hope this site explains who are are, what we love to do, and where we are heading together. You are most welcome in our church community.

URBAN'S STORY

Like a lot of our Vineyard churches, Urban Vineyard started with a group of friends meeting in a lounge over a meal and sharing their dreams. From that simple start, the group grew too large for a house and moved to a building in Wellesley St, Auckland CBD.

We launched as a church in April 2001. We continued to grow and moved to an empty warehouse in Newton Rd (a previous location) at the end of 2002. Since that time we shifted to Uptown Auckland and multiplied to four churches - Urban Vineyard (Ruru St, Eden Terrace), Vineyard City Church (St Pauls College, Ponsonby), Link Vineyard (New Lynn) and our newest plant North West Vineyard (Northwest Auckland). In 2021 we relocated to our current location - 65 Great North Road, Grey Lynn.

Our Sunday gatherings are focused around worshipping God passionately, teaching biblical, practical truths and practices, and prayer. We believe the presence of God changes everything for the better, so we pursue and enjoy His presence whenever we meet.

We also really love people from all walks of life, and all ages and stages. We love good coffee and baking, which you can enjoy for free at our Sunday gatherings.

Our desire is to continue to reach people with the great news of Jesus, to build new congregations as well as growing our existing ones.

It has been a great adventure so far, and we can't wait to see what Jesus will do with us next!

OUR VISION

Developing Followers of Jesus through Authentic Kingdom living

At Urban Vineyard we are committed to the mission that Christ left us: 'to make disciples (or followers of Jesus)'. We want to do this by simply living authentically as Kingdom of God people and equipping people to live as Christ would have us live.

We value simplicity and reality, so we try our best to cut through religiosity and pretence, making it as easy as possible for people to fully experience Jesus without cultural barriers.

Committed Christians, curious seekers, the worn-out and burnt-out are warmly welcomed and embraced at Urban. 

The Urban TEAM

Everyone who makes Urban their home is part of the Urban Team. We also have a kaitiaki /leadership team to lead, serve and strengthen the mission of Urban, and a Trust board to oversee the governance and compliance of our operations.

Pastor

the URBAN LEADERSHIP TEAM / KAITIAKI

Jonathan Rankin, Katie Hutching, Peter Huskinson, Lloyd Rankin

For all enquiries: email here.

TRUSTEES

Robert Bycroft (Chairman),  Claire Meiklejohn, Hayden Porter, Nikolai Santamaria, Jonathan Rankin & Lloyd Rankin.

Urban Vineyard is a registered charity (CC21974), with full reporting to the Charities Services. To find our reports and records search for "Urban Vineyard" on charities.govt.nz

FINANCES
Sarah Obata email

VINEYARD HISTORY

International

The Vineyard Movement originated in the United States in 1974, with the first Vineyard Church growing rapidly and attracting a wide range of mostly young people with a desire to know, experience and share their faith in God. Before long several other Vineyard Churches were planted in California, with priorities of fostering worship, evangelism, relationships, healing, training and church planting.

In 1982 John Wimber and several other pastors led their existing churches into the Vineyard Movement as their visions were complimentary and before long John became leader of the movement. Initially Vineyard restricted its church-planting to North America, limiting its operation in other countries to renewal conferences and training. However Vineyard has now recognised a clear call to plant churches throughout the world including New Zealand.

Aotearoa New Zealand history

Vineyard’s first impact in New Zealand came when John Wimber held the ‘Signs, Wonders and Church Growth Conference’ in 1986, which had a significant effect on many denominations in this country. It provided an alternative theology and practice for healing and other Holy Spirit empowered works through emphasis on Kingdom theology and ‘only doing what you see the Father doing’.

Vineyard Churches New Zealand was launched in March 1995 when the 10 New Zealand Harvest Christian Centres became Vineyard Christian Fellowships. Harvest had been styled on the purposes, values and priorities of Vineyard Churches since its inception in 1989, but had not been given permission to use the Vineyard name, nor formally be part of the movement until March 1995.

The first Harvest Christian Centre was planted in Mahurangi in October 1989 by Lloyd and Victoria Rankin. It quickly grew and was instrumental in the planting of the next nine Harvest churches. The growth has continued with more churches being planted, and more people finding a living faith in Jesus Christ. We are committed to taking our place in the body of Christ in NZ and the world. To fulfil the calling that God has given us as a ‘tribe’ within the family of God – to bring our flavour, and in so doing enriching the body of Christ and being enriched by the body of Christ. Vineyard Churches typically emphasise:

• Biblical teaching

• Contemporary music

• The centrality of Jesus Christ

• Mercy, compassion and grace

• Care for the poor

• Prayer for the sick

• Respect for the whole body of Christ

• Connect groups