Find out more about us. Scroll down or use the Who we are links on the left.
Our Values 
Three elements of church life:
1. Our Worship “The Gathering” - our worship is an expression of our love for Jesus. How we do that together is an expression of our love for each other. Our worship is characterised by being biblically founded, authentic, intimate, informal, flexible, natural and simple. We use the arts, music, song, prayer, liturgy, film and whatever else that will help us to communicate our love to God.
2. Our Action - “The Going” - our mission takes place in the suburbs, workplaces and wherever our daily lives take us. We use the term "naturally supernatural" to describe how we engage with people we are in community with. We want to live out the gospel of Jesus in the relationships we have and to always be serving the poor and marginalised people within our community.
3. Our Discipleship - “The Growing” - our discipleship is what defines why we do what we do. By being disciples of Jesus, we want to do what He did and love as he loved. We learn biblical foundations through studying it together informally as well as through corporate times of teaching and bible study. Our discipleship then takes shape as we live it out together.
All three aspects of our church life support and influence each other. Without one the others lack. We recognise that WORSHIP, MISSION and DISCIPLESHIP will happen apart from this community of Christians. And we encourage that ! What we do as a community should bless and encourage us in our faith apart from this community, just as what we do outside of community life should be a blessing and gift to our corporate expression of faith in Jesus.
Our Activity
Worship Gatherings: Every fortnight on a Sunday we meet at Mitcham Community House at 3.30pm for a worship gathering. We allow time for musical and creative worship, thoughts, discussion, sermons, and prayer ministry. While not all of this will occur on a given Sunday, we try and incorporate all of these across the month. Kids are involved in portions of our worship gatherings and also have their own time together in another room where they play, sing and have an interactive bible -based lesson. One Sunday per month we have a family meal and communion. Kids and grown-ups join together for a time of worship followed by communion. We then all share in dinner together.
Sunday Community Activities: On the other Sundays, we either 1. are free to be church informally, whether that is getting together with people to share time or engage in our own missional/relational activity 2. or we meet to engage in a community activity together. This can involve service, worship, prayer, social interaction or greater community interaction. So far we have met for bowling and at a kid’s play centre and we have met to cook batches of meals to store in a food bank. Wednesday Nights : Semi-regularly we have in-depth bible studies, prayer and worship nights and once a quarter we have a vision night where we discuss the direction and organisation of our church community.
Girls/Guys Nights: Once a month, the girls get together for a girls night or day out. This has often been social/relational or prayer based. Similarly the guys also get together once a month, sometomes consisting of playing poker and having deep and meaningful conversation, or a prayer night. We also have an indoor soccer team.
Organic Church: Happens whenever people in our community love, serve, worship, pray, minister, encourage, relate, share, meet and discuss with each other and people in the greater community. Basically it is where we are building the Kingdom of God together.
Our History
SCVC has been together as a church plant since July 2006. We were released from Yarra Valley Vineyard Christian Fellowship to be an automonous community in July. Previous to this, we were all together as a small group of YVVCF. Lead by Mike and Rochelle Hamilton, this small group sought to build community and exist as a discipleship group within the context of YVVCF. At the end of 2005, Mike and Rochelle were called by God to move this group forward to becoming their own church. After a period of prayer and visioning as a group, most decided to continue this journey. We met a few times in houses/backyards/parks but soon started to meet for worship at Mitcham Community House. We started with 13 adults and 9 children under 5 with two on the way. Together, we have seen God form our community to be a worshipping family who are seeking to live out a kingdom life in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne.
Our Name
Suburban Community Vineyard Church
SUBURBAN: Putting aside all of the possible negative stigma that has been attached to this term, we believe that we, as suburban people are being called to a Kingdom life that can only be extraordinary. Yes we have homes and many of us have kids, and we have two cars, middle-class incomes and live in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne, but it is in this context that we seek to live out the Kingdom life of loving, serving and ministering to the poor and disenfranchised of our community. Our suburban life doesn’t have to conform, we are making a choice to be examples of Christ where we live in the ‘burbs’.
COMMUNITY: We are an inclusive community of people who love and support each other and let that love go out to the wider community.
VINEYARD: We are part of a world-wide movement called VINEYARD CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. Which started in the U.S.A.in the 1970’s, founded by John Wimber. Even though the Vineyard isn’t really a denomination, it is founded on biblical values as can be found at the above site. We consider ourselves to be evangelical, charismatic Christians.
CHURCH: We are Church by name and hopefully by nature and activity. We don’t do church but we are a church.
Our Dreams
Who we want to be: A generous, inclusive and kingdom oriented community of people who seek to compassionately and genuinely love each other and the greater community around us. We want our “collective personality” to be fun, active, honest, humble and real.We want to be biblically founded, accessible, flexible and informal in our approach to our mission.
What we want to do: Engage with God, each other and the wider community by using our gifts, giving of ourselves in worship, learning, prayer and service. We want to love and serve the marginalised of our community, include children and families in all that we do and pursue global and local social justice.
