NEW VINE VINEYARDS STORY

New Vine Vineyards is a church plant of New Vine Lakes, which is part of the New Vine Network.
New Vine Vineyards first met at Potters Brewery, Nulkaba in the Hunter Valley in 2016. A small committed team began to regularly meet, growing slowly as we experienced the grace and love of God.  Over the next few years we moved from St Phillips Christian College to Nulkaba Public School to  Branxton Community Hall at Branxton. It has been a slow and brilliant journey of learning to follow God and love our neighbours. 
 Amanda Francis, our Pastor
​I have always loved an adventure and following God is a great adventure. Ten years ago I joined the New Vine Network and started attending New Vine H2O at Maitland, followed by the New Vine Lakes at Valentine. During this time God began to teach me what it meant to care for his people, to love people with the grace of Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us.
During my time at New Vine Lakes I began to having a growing sense of God calling me to church plant. An insistent voice that continued until I followed his direction and left Newcastle, moving to the City of Cessnock to plant a church. I placed an advertisement in the local paper calling on anyone who might want to join a church planting team and waited with baited breath to find out if anyone would respond. A week later Greg Pankhurst called and said that he and his wife Lisa were keen to explore what it might look like for them to be involved in planting a church. And so our church was birthed, and what a brilliant ride it has been!

Paula Trotter, our Administration Coordinator

Paula joined our team in 2021 after sensing God's call on her life and responding to the needs of the church. She coordinates the day to day finances and administration of the church and has just submitted an application on behalf of the church to become an affiliated Baptist Church.  Paula is also responsible for the oversight our Safe Church policies and ensuring our standards are in line with government regulations and the Baptist Churches of NSW ad ACT recommendations. 
Paula has three daughters, Sally, Hannah and Erin and two dogs. She loves to ride her motor bike and camp out with family.

Michael Collaros, our Children's & Families Coordinator

Michael joined our team in 2022, after sensing over a period of twelve months that God was calling him to ministry.  Michael is keen to serve God, and as a father of two boys, is committed to seeing the church invest into the life of our children, providing them with the best opportunity to experience a personal relationship with God, whilst living life to the full and having fun at church. Michael coordinates Kids Cru - our Sunday morning ministry for children, and assists with Youth Cru, our youth ministry for Year 5's and over. 
Michael is married to Melanie and together they have five children; Tyler, Emmy, Dane, Rosie and Lucy. Michael loves to work on the land, garden, go shooting and hang out around a bon fire with family and fiends.