Our Vision: "Partnering with God to restore lives, because God is in the restoration busines"

Our Mission: "To be and make disciples of Jesus in authentic community for the good of the world"

Our Worship Gathering:Sunday 10:45 am
We are presently meeting at the Cicero family Sports Center, 5575 Meltzer Court, Cicero 13039  their number is 752-9622. The sports center is located behind the Cicero Library and connected to the Twin Ice Rinks. We hold services in the Activity Center (Aerobics room) Just follow the signs. What to expect? Causal dress, contemporary style of worship, relevant Bible teaching, and child care for infants through 6th grade.

Community Groups (These are small groups on energy drinks) The purpose of a CG is to help people connect, study the Scriptures, and reach their community. These are not just Bible Studies, but a place to carry out the mission of Jesus. Jesus sent us into the world, not into some living room to hide from the world. These groups are formed for the good of their neighborhood. If you are interested in connecting with people in you community to carry out Jesus' mission then give me a call: Ken Salisbury, lead pastor 430-2265

Our Youth:Tuesday Night Youth Bible Study: 7 pm to 8:30 at the Ryan's 5854 Redstone Lane Brewerton 676-5686.

Friday Night Youth Group meets at the Cicero Family Sports Center 7-9pm.
High energy games(optional), message from the Bible, discussion groups, snacks, hang out time and just great mad fun. Contact Chad Stoianoff, youth pastor 559-2143.

Our Service Projects: We desire to help those who are truly in need in our church and community.  Things like yard work, raking leaves, giving out toys for hurting children, etc

Our Ministry Teams: Children’s ministry team - serve as a teacher or helper in the children’s classes
Youth Ministry Team - adults working together to minister to our teens and their friends
Prayer team - they meet together regularly to pray for our church and the community
Service Team - serve those in need in our church and community
Worship Team - video, sound, musicians, set-up, greeters, and Bible teacher
Other Teams will form as God raises up people with a passion for specific ministry.

Our Church Gatherings:We try to plan monthly fellowship gatherings for the whole church. This can be a fun activity or a gather to just hang out and get to know one another better.
Please call for dates and locations of all church gatherings.

Our Teaching Times:Sunday mornings
Messages are taught from the Scriptures with a desire to see God transform our lives to be better followers of Jesus.

Our History:Vintage Faith Church started by having worship in the Loscombe home near Brewerton, in August 2005. Then, in December, we began meeting at the Cicero Family Sports Center. Eastern Hills Bible Church, in Manlius, NY adopted us as a sister church in October of that same year and, our Pastor, Ken Salisbury, is currently on staff with them. 

Our Pastor:Ken Salisbury has been married to Lisa for 24 years they have four children. The two older girls, one in graduate school and the other in college. The younger boys are ages 13 and 8. He has been in ministry since 1984. This is their second church plant. "It is so exciting to start a church because in a sense you start with a clean sheet of paper so to speak. And of coarse there are great challenges but it is a wonderful way to trust God more and more as his followers." If you want to contact Ken here is his e-mail address: ksalis@netzero.net or home office: 699-3070. You can request a weekly Vintage Faith News e-mail. The Sunday messages are recorded on CD’s and available in text form as well. 

Our Ministry Approach :What makes this church unique and different?

Vintage faith Church uses a philosophy of ministry that seeks to reflect the ancient roots of Christianity

Christianity is not a modern man-made organized religion, but one that is community-oriented and has historical roots going back to the very beginning of the Bible.  We do not rely completely on modern and contemporary approaches to preaching, worship and ministry methodology to shape what church is suppose to be like.  Rather, we have gone back into the New Testament and  church history to see what the vintage early-church was like, and we are trying to translate that into a vision and design for a church for today’s time and culture.

Vintage Faith Church is a church of “people,” not a place you go to…

This may sound confusing, but nowhere in the New Testament do you read that the followers of Jesus “went to church.”  What you do read is that the church (the people) gathered together. There is a big difference between the two.  The church is the people, not a place or a meeting you attend.  We believe that in the modern world, the “church” has become known as a place that people go to vs. a people on a mission for God.  We cannot under estimate the power of words that shape our view of church and how it is suppose to function.  VFC has weekly worship gathering at a place but foremost we will be defined and function as a community of people on a mission for God. This is a missional church. 

Vintage Faith Church is missional

Unfortunately, the word “mission” has a very negative connotation when it relates to Christianity.  Being “missional” simply means being outward and others-focused, with the goal of expressing and sharing the love of Jesus.  Jesus did not create the church to be inward-focused, but actually created it to spread his love to others. Jesus clearly told the church to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20).
Missional is therefore not a program or project some people in the church do from time to time            (as a “mission trip”, mission budget,” and so on); the church’s very nature is to join God in his mission.
 This kind of church emphasizes an incarnational, servant approach and sees the church not as a once-a- week gathering but as a community to which one belongs that exists for the good of the world. Global missions are extremely important, but it must start where we live in our own communities, families and day to day lives.

Vintage Faith Church has a heart to clear up misconceptions about Christianity

The early church was highly criticized for certain practices and beliefs that were actually misconceptions.  Because of these misconceptions about Christianity, the early church developed a reasonable and intelligent explanation of the faith.  Today we live in an age and culture where many criticisms and misconceptions about Christianity have developed again (understandably so).  VFC seeks to clear up the bad name and impression that Christianity and the church has in the culture.
      We hope to surprise many, many people who have written off Christians as dogmatic, close-minded and judgmental by showing them that vintage Christianity is actually quite the opposite.  We see sharing our faith more as a dialogue than a one way presentation.  No question is too foolish, too challenging or too insignificant to ask.  We encourage exploring truth together (Acts 17:11-12).                   

Vintage Faith Church and children

The children’s ministry at Vintage Faith Church exists to be a support to families in the raising and teaching of their children.  Because parents are the primary teachers of their children, we want to support and reinforce the teaching that already exists in the life of the children through the parents.  We are not here to replace your influence.
     As a community at VFC we are striving to become missional Christians, who are here to carry out God mission in the world. We believe this is God’s desire for children as well.  Therefore, children’s ministry exists to support parents in raising their children to become followers of Jesus who make other followers. 
     We desire to communicate these truths to children in their own language and we desire that parents participate in the children’s ministry. This will not only bless the children as they see their parents involved but also provide a healthy experience for the parents as they minister to their children as well as to others.

Our Core Values :Values are core beliefs that we are passionate about, that we can not ignore, that we must live out or be striving toward. These are deeply held beliefs that drive the ministry. They are different than vision which is what the ministry will look like in the preferable future. Values are core beliefs that propel us to do what we do.

Viewing all people through the lens of God’s Grace (Titus 2:11) We believe that God has extended His grace to all people. Therefore we seek to practice love, forgiveness and acceptance to everyone. We also believe the follower of Christ has great freedom and is not bound by the rules of people (legalism).

Imaginative (Gen.1:27)We desire to be imaginative, innovative, and creative in our approaches in all that we do as a church.  This means that our worship gathers may not always look the same and that we may incorporate different practices –old and new as we seek to be salt and light to those around us.

Need based outreach (James 1:27)   We desire to minister to those with needs both physical and spiritual. Those who are a part of our faith community and those living in our community who have needs beyond their own resources like widows, orphans, refugees, homeless, the poor, and anyone who crosses our path that needs our help.

Transforming lives (Romans 12:2) We believe teaching God’s word by the power of the Holy Spirit is a catalyst for becoming a better follower of Jesus.  This is more than just knowledge but thinking that is in line with Jesus and His mission.  We desire to create a safe environment where lives can be transformed (Eph 4:6). We seek to develop synergistic(working together)ministries. We want to create healthy integrated ministries that build the body so we can be a missional church. We desire to have coordination not competition, effectiveness without duplicating ministries.

Authentic Community (Heb.10:24-25) We believe that gathering together as a church provides times of  love for one another, encouragement, and transparency so we can be better equipped to carry out God’s mission to the world. Our gathering together is not an end in itself but a means to becoming a missional church. We are here to train people for ministry, leadership and as followers of Christ in order to carry out God’s mission. This involves instruction, demonstration and empowering. (Eph.4:11-12)

Generosity (2 Cor. 9:10-11) We believe that God is extremely generous so we seek to be generous with our wealth, time and talents to further His Kingdom. We want to follow Jesus’ example of helping others, serving, giving and doing good (Matthew 20:28).

Exploring (Acts 17:11-12) We desire to search the Scriptures as a community of Christ followers in order to discover and live out the story of God. We believe that God has spoken and the rest is commentary. We don’t have all the answers. We have only an incomplete understanding of what God has revealed to all people.

If you have questions or need directions to our worship gathering please call us at 699-3070
Ken Salisbury, Pastor