Introduction
The Vineyard is a church planting movement that was founded largely on non- traditional forms of church. John Wimber’s early successes in church planting were due in large part to his emphasis on small groups - so much so that this eventually led to his being hired as a church growth consultant at Fuller Seminary! Another thing that the Vineyard is well known for outside of the movement (in the larger evangelical community) is its contemporary (i.e. non-traditional) style of worship. And for the most part, Vineyard church planting has taken the approach of planting lots of (small to medium sized) churches rather than a fewer number of large churches. Indeed only a handful of Vineyard churches have grown to the size of the so-called mega church. The Vineyard has always been a movement that has encouraged church planters and other leaders to try “doing church” in different ways. As the old Wimber-ism goes: “We spell faith – R-I-S-K!” But as the movement has matured, have we lost our way - forgotten our roots? Have we become institutionalized?
The full paper is attached to this post as a PDF.
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