A brief history of the Vineyard movement

Although he did not start the first Vineyard church, John Wimber was the acknowledged founder and leader of the Vineyard until his death in 1997. He was born in 1934 in Missouri. His father abandoned him on the day he was born and he grew up an only child and as what he described as a 4th generation pagan. He had no experience of God and Jesus was a “cuss” word.

John was a natural musician mastering 20 instruments and became a professional musician as soon as he left college. Over the next 10 years his career went well and at the point that he encountered God in 1961 his professional life was soaring. His band, the Righteous Brothers, had two albums in the top ten - but his marriage was falling apart.

Through a series of encounters with God as he struggled to cope with life, John was radically saved and felt that he had to walk away from his music career. He became a “fool for Christ”. Over the next decade he studied some theology, became a pastor in a Friends Quaker Church and was highly successful in leading hundreds of people to Jesus.

During the 70’s John and Carol struggled with what we call charismatic issues – the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in church. God also called John out of his successful pastorate and he spent the next 10 years as a church consultant, studying and reluctantly becoming highly gifted in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

In 1977 John was persuaded by his wife Carol and by the Lord to stop his travelling consultancy work and pastor a housegroup which Carol had been involved in starting. This group had eventually been sent out of and blessed by the Friends Quaker Church which they had originally been part of. The group grew and started forming housegroups (kinships) and by 1983 was a church of about 2000 people.

The church was called Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda because CC was the closest to what they felt the Lord was calling them. Today much of what makes the Vineyard what it is emanates from a combination of the Friends Quaker and Calvary Chapel influences. The shaking when people wait on the Holy Spirit and the emphasis on worship for example.

Interestingly the Quakers first “Meeting House” is thought by some to be at Sedbergh, not far North of Wharfedale.

At the same time another Calvary Chapel pastor called Kenn Gulliksen had planted a church in Los Angeles which he called the Vineyard. This was a combination of CC housegroups meeting in the homes of people like Larry Norman and Chuck Girard. Many celebrities came to Jesus through those groups – Bob Dylan, Keith Green, Hal Lyndsey, Debbie Boone etc. Eventually the church grew and planted out other Vineyards (some of which are still around today).

So in 1982, John Wimber was leading the large Yorba Linda CC which was beginning to look more and more different from CC for various reasons. Mainly because John introduced the ministry of the Holy Spirit into the full life of the church. And Kenn Gulliksen’s Vineyards had also grown apart from CC to some extent.

Chuck Smith, the leader of CC, invited his senior leaders together one day and after some “discussion” they agreed that John and Kenn should leave CC and merge churches so church John led became the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Anaheim. Before long Kenn handed over leadership of the whole group of Vineyards to John.

So that was how the Vineyard started. Over the next few weeks we will unpack some of the key values and beliefs that emerged out of that birth.

A couple of helpful books if you would like to know more:

• The Quest for the Radical Middle
• Doing Church