Thank you for your interest in Garden City Vineyard. The vision for this new church has been forming in our hearts for a while, and we appreciate you investing your time to find out more about us. We've been part of the Vineyard Movement for over 25 years, and in that time we've been involved in starting four other Vineyard churches, before moving to Milton Keynes in September 2022 with our three teenage daughters to plant the Garden City Vineyard.
The name Garden City is rooted in the story of the Bible, a story that starts in a Garden and ends in a Garden City. It’s the story of God rescuing and redeeming broken people and renewing broken cities, and we believe we're being called to plant a church that will embody this story in every corner of the city.
We've also discovered it's a name that is synonymous with Milton Keynes' history and how, when this new city was first conceived, it was heavily influenced by the Garden City Movement of urban design. Today Milton Keynes really has become a 'city in a forest' and our sense is this name will be something of a prophetic statement, one that speaks about the kind of church we're called to be and the kind of role we are to play in the city.
Thank you for your interest in our journey, and we hope that this website gives you a glimpse of who we are and where we are heading. If this is something that excites you or if you sense God might be stirring your heart to be involved, then please do reach out to us and say hello!
Steve & Tammy Gee
Lead Pastors / Church Planters
Our aim is to be apprentices of Jesus where we are ordering our lives around three goals, to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus and to do what Jesus did. As we live this way we believe our lives, our communities and our city will be transformed.
We want to look beyond Sunday gatherings, and look towards building a community where we intentionally connect people and families and businesses and institutions to the life-changing presence of God. Where together we can encounter Jesus and the life He has to offer.
We’re not just called to build a great church, we are called to play our part in building a great city, that we believe can shape and affect a whole region. A city where everyone is playing their part in extending God’s Kingdom, everywhere and in every way.
We want to be a people who live in the reality of God’s presence, becoming like Jesus. Seeing His Kingdom come in and through our lives becomes possible as we learn to live in His presence, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The way of presence leads us away from striving to abiding. When we abide in Christ our lives bear much fruit showing ourselves to be His apprentices.
We want to cultivate interior lives that engage in habits and practices that sustain and support the kind of radical life Jesus invites us into. Our apprenticeship to Jesus is about learning to take intentional steps to follow Him and live lives that are being transformed as we practice His way in the context of community.
We want to develop lives of selfless love where we make room for one another - regardless of race, religion, education or socio-economic background. We want to create a culture that is characterised by welcome, warmth and hospitality, where church isn’t seen as a place we go to, but as a family to which we belong.
We live in a culture where spirituality cannot be separated from generosity. The teachings of Jesus implore us to give to those in need, committing ourselves to an ethic of generosity. The scriptures say that God loves a cheerful giver, not because the church’s needs are met, but because God's heart is made glad when we depend on Him to provide all that we need.
We have a conviction that God is at work to heal and remake the whole earth. Our own lives are a part of that renewal project and God invites us to join with Him in the ongoing work of making all things new. To follow Jesus and join Him in His mission is to become agents of renewal in our neighbourhoods, industries and our city as a whole.
We are not called to focus our energy and resources on our church alone, instead we want to see all that can be achieved in one person or one place multiplied, ultimately through the planting of new churches. We are convinced church planting is the most effective way to reach new people and it's our desire to plant churches across our region and beyond.
We need to practice Jesus’ teachings, to get his ideas from our minds into the muscle memory of our bodies. We do this by adopting practices from Jesus’ own life, time-tested disciplines for the spiritual life that open up our entire being to God and allow him to transform us into people of love. Our nine core Practices work together to form a Rule of Life for the modern era.
Locally we have a close working relationship with our friends at Grand Union Vineyard, and we are also part of a family of churches, that was birthed out of the legacy and DNA of our sending church, Central Vineyard in Northampton. Finally we are also supported by the Multiply Vineyard team, who provide training and mentoring for those called to plant churches.
