Croydon Vineyard is an evangelical Christian church trying to play its part in seeing Croydon Come to Life. We are a registered charity, are part of the Evangelical Alliance, Croydon Churches Together and are affiliated to Vineyard Churches UK and Ireland.
We were planted in 2013 when a small group of friends were sent to Croydon by South-West London Vineyard. This initial team, including Phil and Caroline Greaves and Tom and Lesley Thompson, spent the first few weeks eating bacon butties in Tom and Lesley's kitchen, dreaming dreams and asking Jesus to do something wonderful. Eight venues later Croydon Vineyard has grown into a large, bustling church of several hundred with thriving kids and youth work, deep engagement in the City and a growing number of community leaders.
Croydon Vineyard is regarded as one of the most diverse churches in Vineyard Churches and has a passion to see many tribes and tongues fusing their culture into awe-filled, intimate worship of Jesus.
We love Jesus and want to do the stuff he did, while having a bit of fun along the way. We believe God has given a biblical mandate for his church which we describe as follows:
a culture of worship
We want our gatherings to be defined by a culture of worship, where people have life-changing encounters with Jesus every single week. We want our worship to be creative and engaging, leading people into awe, joy and surrender; we want preaching that is fun, biblical and applicable; we want ministry done by everyone in a way that is naturally supernatural and lasting; and we want to express such a radical welcome that all kinds of people instantly feel like they have come “home”. We want to acquire a multipurpose Sun-Sat venue in the West Croydon area to enable a step-change in all of this.
raising sons and daughters
Going the extra mile to reach the whole generation of 0-18s in Croydon, we want to meet them where they are at and show them Jesus in ways that make sense to them, training them to do the stuff of the Kingdom with their friends right now and investing in them long-term, lovingly raising sons and daughters who meet all their potential in Jesus, joyfully sending them out to creatively and dynamically extend the kingdom of Jesus all across the globe.
love Croydon
We want all of Croydon to encounter the love of Jesus by all the church proclaiming and demonstrating the Kingdom all through the week. And we want to be great at building friendships with new people and inviting them into mid-week gatherings and Sunday services, helping them encounter Jesus and come to life in him. We want to expand Vineyard English School so that it provides life-changing training and vibrant community to many more people. Most of all, we want to be a church that enables many people to come to life in Jesus, that we might see the culture of our town infused with the presence of God.
life changing small groups
We want to bring diverse people together into loving, healing spaces where Jesus transforms their lives. These spaces will focus on one of the following:
1) on mission;
2) on restoration;
3) on mutual nurture
4) on training
multiplying leaders
We want to multiply leadership, investing in catalytic women and men who give their lives to identifying, raising up and nurturing other leaders to manifest Kingdom Culture all over the world. In particular we want to raise up influential leaders in the public and private sectors, people of integrity and courage who catalyse a gospel transformation of Croydon. And we want to send out great leaders for 100 churches across Croydon, London and beyond, playing our part in rewriting the spiritual narrative of our land.