Our Purpose

It’s about a relationship with Father God

We began with a vision of restoring Wagin to its God given role. The word ‘Wagin’ means ‘The Emu’s watering hole’ which when taken to the Lord in prayer, He revealed to us that the true meaning is ‘the meeting place’, where people can come together to worship; to fellowship; to learn; and to experience the presence of God.

We see ourselves as being a God driven church devoted to outreach to the unchurched, renewal in areas of worship, the ministry of all believers and the person and work of the Holy Spirit through bringing intimacy with God and the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

We believe God has given us a vision to reach into the community with God’s healing to people: physically, emotionally and spiritually: God setting people free from fear, anger, rejection, all things that bind us and separate us from God; in their body, soul and spirit. (Luke 4: 18 – 19).

We also help and assist any in need spiritually and/or materially.

We desire to see people touched by the love, presence and mercy of Father God.

We are a people who have a passion for Jesus and a compassion for people.

We worship with contemporary music and enjoy a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

 

Our Story

We began as a Home group in 1995 after attending Vineyard conferences in Perth, Western Australia from 1989 – 1995 (every time there was one in Perth!) and putting into practise the things that we were taught and encouraged to do, empowered and prompted by the Holy Spirit and had been meeting at Ian and Wendy McDougall’s home at Lalla Rhook, Wagin.

We also had the privilege of being part of the Perth Vineyard conference ministry team after training and equipping.

Where our home is located is the original site for the town of Wedgecarrup.

As Wagin (Wait-gen) is the meeting place, the meaning for Wedgecarrup is ‘the feeding ground’ where the emus came to eat the native peaches – quondongs – that grew in this area.

We have changed from being a church with Sunday services in Wagin, to Friday night fortnightly meal and fellowship. We also present ‘Set Free weekends’ on our property at this stage 3 times a year and continuing to be available to people and encouraging people to pass on all that we have been taught and learnt.

It was brought to our attention around 2015 about a curse on the Scottish – English border that was decreed in 1525 and re-invoked in 2000 in Carlisle, England. Our story about the “Mother of all curses” can be read in “Father of all Blessings” and the journey we had going to Scotland in 2018.

 

The Global Vineyard Family

The Association of Vineyard Churches, also known as the Vineyard Movement, is a charismatic evangelical Christian denomination with over 1,500 affiliated churches worldwide.

The Vineyard Movement began chiefly through the ministry of John Wimber who in 1977 began pastoring a church in Yorba Linda, California called Calvary Chapel, which then in 1982 became the Vineyard Christian Fellowship.

John Wimber had previously been a pastor in the Quakers church, and then worked as a church growth consultant at Fuller Seminary, Pasadena. Alexander Venter describes a key moment in 1980, when John invited Lonnie Frisbee to speak at an evening service.

“After Lonnie spoke, he asked the Holy Spirit for forgiveness for the way the Church had grieved Him, and then he said, ‘Come Holy Spirit.’ And He came! There was an outpouring of power that none of them had ever witnessed or experienced before… About 1,700 people were converted and 700 of them were baptized in water over a period of about a year.” (Doing Church: Building from the Bottom Up, Alexander Venter).

Since those early days, the Vineyard Movement has continued to grow as we raise up disciples and plant churches across the world. Our influence on the wider Church has been most notable through our heartfelt stripped-back worship music and our determination to witness to the coming Kingdom by empowering all believers to use both natural and spiritual gifts. In short, we want to be like Jesus and do the things He promised we’d do.

 

Vineyard Churches in Australia

Prior to 1995, there had been a number of very successful Vineyard conferences run in Australia. However it was not until 1995 that the first Vineyard churches were commenced in Australia. These were in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane. On the 13th March, 2003 the Vineyard churches of Australia were released and recognised as our own national movement and so the Association of Vineyard Churches, Australia was born. Wagin Vineyard was founded by Ian and Wendy McDougall in 1995 and is a member of Vineyard Churches Australia (VCA).

For more details about Vineyard in Australia, go to http://www.vineyard.org.au/

 

Our Statement of Faith

WE BELIEVE that God is the Eternal King. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory.

WE BELIEVE that God’s kingdom is everlasting. From His throne, through His Son, His eternal Word, God created, upholds and governs all that exists: the heavenly places, the angelic hosts, the universe, the earth, every living thing and human beings. God created all things very good.

WE BELIEVE that Satan, originally a great, good angel, rebelled against God, taking a host of angels with him. He was cast out of God’s presence and, as a usurper of God’s rule established a counter-kingdom of darkness and evil on the earth.

WE BELIEVE that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God’s judgement of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God’s good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam’s original sin. Human beings are born in sin, subject to God’s judgement of death and captive to Satan’s kingdom of darkness.

WE BELIEVE that God did not abandon His rule over the earth which He continues to uphold by His providence. In order to bring redemption, God established covenants which revealed His grace to sinful people. In the covenant with Abraham, God bound Himself to His people Israel, promising to deliver them from bondage to sin and Satan and to bless all the nations through them

WE BELIEVE that as King, God later redeemed his people by His mighty acts from bondage in Egypt and established his covenant through Moses, revealing His perfect will and our obligation to fulfill it. The law’s purpose is to order our fallen race and to make us conscious of our moral responsibility. By the work of God’s Spirit, it convicts us of our sin and God’s righteous judgement against us and brings us to Christ alone for salvation.

WE BELIEVE that when Israel rejected God’s rule over her as King, God established the monarchy in Israel and made an unconditional covenant with David promising that his heir would restore God’s kingdom over His people as Messiah forever.

WE BELIEVE that in the fullness of time, God honoured His covenants with Israel and His prophetic promises of salvation by sending His only Son, Jesus, into the world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, as fully God and fully human in one person, He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God’s Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, inaugurating God’s kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Gathering His disciples, He reconstituted God’s people as His church to be the instrument of His kingdom. After dying for the sins of the world, Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, fulfilling the convent of blessing given to Abraham. In His sinless perfect life Jesus met the demands of the law and in His atoning death on the cross He took God’s judgement for sin which we deserve as law breakers. By his death on the cross He also disarmed the demonic powers The covenant with David was fulfilled in Jesus’ birth from David’s house, His Messianic ministry, His glorious resurrection from the dead, His ascent into heaven and His present rule at the right hand of the Father. As God’s Son and David’s heir, He is the eternal Messiah-King advancing God’s reign throughout every generation and throughout the whole earth today.

WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church at Pentecost in power, baptizing believers into the Body of Christ and releasing the gifts of the Spirit to them. The Spirit brings the permanent indwelling presence of God to us for spiritual worship, building up the church, gifting us for ministry, and driving back the kingdom of Satan by the evangelization of the world through proclaiming the word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus.

WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding Helper, Teacher and Guide. WE BELIEVE in the filling or empowering of the Holy Spirit, often a conscious experience, for ministry today. WE BELIEVE in the present ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise of all the biblical gifts of the Spirit. We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing, and for recognition and empowering of those whom God has ordained to lead and serve the Church.

WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of Holy Scripture so that the Bible is written without error in the original manuscripts. We receive the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as our final, absolute authority, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

WE BELIEVE that the whole world is under the domination of Satan and that all people are sinners by nature and choice. All people therefore are under God’s just judgement. Through the preaching of the Good news of Jesus and the Kingdom of God and the works of the Holy Spirit, God regenerates, justifies, adopts and sanctifies through Jesus by the Spirit all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. By this they are released from Satan’s domain and enter into God’s Kingdom reign.

WE BELIEVE in the one, holy, universal Church. All who repent of their sins and confess Jesus as Lord and Saviour are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and form the living Body of Christ, of which He is the head and of which we are all members.

WE BELIEVE that Jesus Christ committed two ordinances to the Church: water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both are available to all believers.

WE BELIEVE that God’s Kingdom has come in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it continues to come in the ministry of the Spirit through the Church and that it will be consummated in the glorious, visible and triumphant appearing of Christ- His return to the earth as King. After Christ returns to reign, He will bring about the final defeat of Satan and all of his minions and works, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgement and the eternal blessing of the righteous and eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. Finally, God will be all in all and His Kingdom, His rule and reign, will be fulfilled in the new heavens and the new earth, recreated by His mighty power, in which righteousness dwells and in which He will forever be worshipped.