Our Story
The Lord captured our hearts within the Vineyard movement around several key distinctives including: following Jesus in real ways, “doing the stuff” that we had read about in the Gospels but never seen in a real everyday life way; serving our neighbors in real ways; ministering to the poor through relational outreach offering food and prayer; engaging worship singing songs that are intimate, expressing our hearts to Jesus and embracing His presence into our gatherings; and facilitating time in our gatherings for prayer ministry to each other and for anyone in need.
Originally from the metro Atlanta area, lead pastors Chad and Allison Mackey met in the Marietta Vineyard Church in Marietta, Georgia in 1993, married in 1995, and served as worship and youth pastors for sixteen years. Working from home in Woodstock with our growing family, we then moved from Georgia to Northwest Alabama in 2009. We fell in love with the people, the college-town, the music scene, and the Tennessee River in the Shoals, and we began asking God what His plan was for us. We served at several different types of churches in the area beginning in 2010, but we missed the Vineyard tribe. In 2013, God turned our hearts toward planting a Vineyard church in Florence. We began to work it out practically, taking next steps by attending conferences, meeting with regional leaders, and serving at the Franklin Vineyard in Franklin, Tennessee (the closest Vineyard to our home at the time), selling our house of six years in Iron City and relocating our family. We moved into the city of Florence at God's clear leading in August 2016, and in February 2019 we began making our home in the heart of downtown Florence. There are so many God-stories throughout our lives and especially in the six years living and serving downtown. No doubt, the great commission Jesus has called us and his followers to is life changing.
Our Mission
The True North Vineyard Church is an outward-focused diverse community of faith following Jesus and doing what He called us to do. We exist to love Jesus, to know Him and to make Him known. We choose to live in an authentic community loving Jesus and loving the city of Florence, Alabama and the surrounding Shoals area.
Some ways we’ve had to the privilege of loving our community so far…
One-on-one personal prayer ministry for healing/deliverance/spiritual growth
Donating and facilitating rehearsal space over three years for 17 bands/groups (75+ musicians)
Room in the Inn Shoals / Home-Free Haven: serving at our local homeless in-take center for winter evening shelter November through March annually.
Room at the Table Shoals (a community mission targeting food insecurities): serving food/clean-up
UNA International Students outreach: food donation in response to the pandemic/COVID impact
UNA Office of International Affairs: Friends of Internationals program
Annual 1 TABLE Florence Community Thanksgiving Meal: serving/clean-up
Hosted Rebuilding the Ruins ministries for healing ministry and training sessions
Facilitated worship: Hops & Hymns @ Singin' River Brewery
Inner City Summer Feeding & Enrichment Program (Handy Rec Youth Center): music instruction
Hosted Metron Ministries: night of worship and kingdom ministry teaching
Annual Community Christmas Meal @ Handy Rec (by Councilwoman Kaytrina Simmons)
Christmas Stuff the Bus Toy Drive benefiting Lauderdale and Colbert school students
Annual Florence City-Wide Clean-up and West Florence Clean-up projects
Our Core Values
Experience & Worship God
Partner with the Holy Spirit
Reconcile People with God & creation
Engage in Compassionate Ministry
Pursue Culturally Relevant Mission
Some of Our Distinctives explained…
Doing the Stuff
We are focused on "doing the stuff" that Jesus did in the Bible. We are commissioned by him to "go and do likewise," so we seek to train and equip every follower of Jesus to be like Him, to serve others well, and “do the stuff“ that He did.
The Already and the Not Yet
In the Vineyard we pray for people; sometimes they are healed and sometimes they are not. Our theology and practice of the Kingdom of God acknowledges both miracles and suffering.
The Main and the Plain
“The plain” means that we strive to present the Gospel in a clear and understandable way. “The main” aspect means we focus on the core teachings of Jesus, the central Gospel message
as presented in the Bible.“Come, Holy Spirit.”
This is our central prayer liturgy. We regularly ask the Holy Spirit to come and be with us, and when He does we often see people healed emotionally and physically. Our challenge and our joy is to love the Holy Spirit and partner with Him for the purposes of the Kingdom of God.
Everyone Gets to Play
We believe that anyone can do the work of the Kingdom. We don’t rely on elite, degreed, superstar leaders. We are all commissioned to do the stuff of Jesus: men, women, and children of every background, age, race, education, and socio-economic status.
Come as You Are – But Don’t Stay as You Are
Jesus invites, welcomes, gathers, accepts, and embraces people irrespective of where we’re from or what we’ve done. A hospital receives patients with all types of ailments, and it desires for people to be healed and made better. The Church is no different. When we say, “Come as you are, but don’t stay as you are,” we’re provoking people to step out in faith to become the best of who God wants them to be.
Naturally Supernatural
We avoid all hype or emotional manipulation. Going about our lives naturally, we pray for healing and listen for God’s voice in all circumstances, everywhere we go.