The Pentecostal movement as we know it today began at the turn of the 20th century.  Those who participated in the movement were not welcome in their denominations and as a result new denominations were birthed from these experiences.  The Charismatic movement on the other hand began in the early 1960′s among the historical churches (such as Episcopalians and Lutherans) but rather than leaving their churches the Charismatics stayed within their respective denominations.  This was the original differentiator between Pentecostals and Charismatics.

Shortly after the Charismatics began appearing in the historic churches there were those who had been part of the counter-culture movement known as “hippies” who were being saved and having experiences similar to the Pentecostals and the Charismatics.  The Pentecostals for the most part did not want them in their churches.  The Charismatics did not really have fellowships of their own so to speak and the hippies did not fit in to their denominations. Because of this a new kind of fellowship was birthed in churches such as Calvary Chapel and other non-denominational groups that were friendly to these new converts. While the original differentiator between Pentecostals and Charismatics had centered on the choice to stay in their denominations, this quickly changed and soon the ‘Charismatic’ label was given to anything that involved the moving of the Holy Spirit that was not Pentecostal.

Calvary Chapel had developed its own culture within the acceptable realm of Evangelical Orthodox belief.  The worship music was more akin to the contemporary folk singers of the day rather than the hymnody of the traditional churches or southern gospel stylings of the Pentecostals. Maranatha! Music was birthed at this time and was the embryonic start of what would later become the modern worship movement of the ’80′s and ’90′s.  While Calvary Chapel played a major role during the Jesus Movement, it was not the only game in town.  Other young artists/leaders such as Larry Norman and Chuck Girard were having their own Bible studies in their houses.  These two groups were brought together by another artist/leader Kenn Gulliksen to form the first Vineyard Church in 1975.

Enter John Wimber.  John came from a Quaker church (arguably a group with some historic similarities to Pentecostals and Charismatics) but eventually found himself as part of Calvary Chapel.  However due to restrictions within the Calvary Chapel domain Wimber left and became part of Gulliksen’s Vineyard group in the early ’80′s.  John quickly rose to prominence thanks in part to his leadership abilities, his time spent working at Fuller Theological Seminary, and his book Power Evangelism in which he postulated that evangelism accompanied by signs and wonders from the Holy Spirit was more effective than traditional methods which were mostly cerebral in nature (i.e. “Four spiritual laws”, “Roman road”, etc.)

It was at this point that C Peter Wagner describes the beginning of the “third wave” of the Holy Spirit, due to the fact that Evangelicals, who did not consider themselves Pentecostal or Charismatic were nevertheless coming into an experience of the Holy Spirit with the Vineyard “on the crest of the wave” thanks in large part to John’s book.

Thus while the “third wave” movement was identified due to happenings around the Vineyard in the early ‘80’s, the Vineyard itself was birthed among the Charismatics in the Jesus Movement of the mid ’70’s.  While members of Vineyard leadership would not deny these historical facts, they also do not appear eager to include them in their discussions on the birth of their movement, preferring instead to focus more on the entrance of Wimber.  However for the sake of these ongoing discussions we will find it important to acknowledge the role that Gulliksen and others in the Jesus Movement had to play.

At first I stayed within the SBC hoping that a subdued presence of a non-cessationist might convince them to look into the matter closer. However there were others less subdued that caused us all to be branded as troublemakers and so I left for greener pastures.

When I reviewed my options I wasn’t thrilled.  While Pentecostal and Charismatic churches each had their unique charms, both of them had been stereotyped in such a way that went against my Evangelical sensibilities.  A co-worker invited me to go with her to Vineyard Christian Fellowship. It was a unique experience for me.  The worship time was like nothing I had ever experienced with contemporary music instead of the organ/piano hymnody I was used to with the SBC.  But there were also things I questioned such as:

• Prophecies of questionable intent which were delivered in Tudor English
• Deliverance of Christians from “demonization” (a term they used to replace the more common translation “demon possession”)
• Healing by prayer teams made up of the more experienced people in their group

The leader of the movement at that time was John Wimber who had written a book “Power Evangelism” in which he proposed the idea that evangelism with demonstrations of the Holy Spirit’s power was more effective than traditional methods being used (such as the 4 Spiritual Laws, etc.)  I left the Vineyard for about a year to work through some of the problems I had with the theology and came back in 1989…just in time to experience the arrival of the Kansas City “Prophets”.  My experience there just got even more crazy after that and eventually I just wrote off the whole movement as an egotistic mass delusion.

Now it is 2009, twenty two years later and I am being forced to revisit my experiences and the initial premise of the Vineyard Movement.  While I still have serious misgivings about much of what was being taught, much of what the movement originally stood for has merit that needs to be explored, which is why I created this blog.  Through it I will be discussing my thoughts on where the movement went wrong and more importantly what was right.  Although the blog will have a particular focus on John Wimber and the Vineyard Movement we will be traveling all over Church History to come to our conclusions.