About Us
The best way to really see what we’re all about is to visit with us for a few Sundays or small groups and see how we live out our values and practices. As we often say, this stuff is “better caught than taught”. But if you’re up for it, by all means, read on!
Our Mission
Pursuing God’s presence, practicing His Kingdom.
There’s a lot that this can mean, but in the Vineyard, two of the main ways this plays out are in worship and in making disciples of Jesus.
Worship is the context for so much of God’s work in our lives because it brings us into His presence - so we spend lots of time doing it. Our focus in worship isn’t to have overly polished, concert-like music, because we aren’t meant to consume the praises of Jesus. We are meant to contribute to them. Our desire is to invite you into a time of corporate praise and adoration of our Savior that is intimate, genuine and completely lacking in hype or manipulation.
"Worship has a two-fold aspect...we lift Him up and exalt Him,
and as a result are drawn into His presence where He speaks to us."
- John Wimber
We also want to become and make empowered disciples of Jesus that do the works that He said we would do in our everyday lives. The Holy Spirit is active and speaking all the time and we want to find out what He's doing and get on board, allowing Him to use our gifts, talents, resources, everything, to advance His Kingdom in our community.
Our Leadership
Josh & Leah Pavel with daughters Karis & Ava.
Josh and Leah Pavel are the Senior Co-Pastors of VCHS. Josh and Leah met at The University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!) and married shortly after graduation. They moved to Morrisville, North Carolina in 2001 for Josh's job in IT. Soon after Josh and Leah joined a Vineyard congregation in Raleigh where they became deeply involved in church life and leadership, with Josh becoming senior pastor in 2007. In 2008 they moved to Holly Springs where, over the next several years, God began growing in them a passion and calling for planting a Vineyard Church in their community. In the fall of 2014, Josh handed off his role as pastor of the church in Raleigh, and he and Leah set about making their call to church planting a reality. In January of 2015, The Vineyard Church of Holly Springs had it's very first Sunday worship service.
In the Vineyard, leadership means servanthood. At VCHS a number of other dedicated, servant-hearted individuals and couples offer their gifts and talents as worship leaders, board members, elders and small group leaders, and Sunday School teachers.
"Gifts and abilities, no matter how magnificent, are either limited or enhanced by character."
Our Belief
Our Core Values and Statement of Faith can be found here.
Physical copies of this book are also available on the welcome table during service times.
Our Culture
We want to be an inclusive community where people can come as they are to worship. Our style opposes consumerism and is not program driven. Instead, we prioritize pursuing and actually experiencing the presence of God through worship that is heartfelt, intimate and completely lacking in hype or manipulation.
When you visit a Vineyard church, you’ll usually notice a casual feel. Vineyard folks like to wear jeans or shorts to church, bring coffee into the service, and not be uptight about the logistics. Humor is often sprinkled throughout a message and if there’s a technical glitch, we just roll with it and move on. But this casual atmosphere doesn’t mean that we don’t take God very seriously – because we do! Our laid back atmosphere is the way it is so that we take more of the attention off of ourselves and place it on God and what He is doing through His Spirit.
We LOVE spontaneous moves of the Holy Spirit. But we don’t think that this spontaneity has to be at odds with intentional, careful planning. We give God all of ourselves, and regularly invite the Spirit to be among us and to do the things we could never do ourselves. We expect our lives to be guided by the presence of God. We believe in a God who reveals himself, first through Jesus himself, and also through the words of Scripture.
Alongside the word of God, we value the works of God. We must not just read the Bible, but also do what it says and follow Christ’s example of living out our faith – praying for the sick, loving the poor, showing kindness, pursuing justice, offering forgiveness, giving generously, walking in humility. This is what we mean by the second half of our mission statement “Practicing His Kingdom”. Everyone gets to participate in God’s Kingdom. Ministry isn’t reserved for the leaders - we all get to play.
Our Association
We are a member of the Vineyard Association of Churches (Vineyard USA). Lots of info about our “tribe” can be found at www.VineyardUSA.org