Scriptures, Songs, and Saints – Come, Holy Spirit

Beth lead our church in “Scriptures, Songs, and Saints” this month, on the topic of “Come, Holy Spirit.”

‘Come, Holy Spirit’:  Our Vineyard Legacy in Scripture, Songs and Saints

Introduction

Intimate worship…naturally supernatural ministry…a priority of giving to the poor… devotion to prayer and to the word… and an ever-present hunger for the presence of God. These are some of the hallmarks of the Vineyard movement that we are a part of today. These are the values we embrace. These are the things we love about the Vineyard. And though we do not esteem ourselves as more important than other parts of His body, we want to lift up Jesus by leaning into those strengths He has given us. Today we reminisce over the early history of the Vineyard movement and how we became what we are today. And while we do that, we’ll sing some of the classic worship songs that have come out of the Vineyard.

Song: Come, Now is the Time

Song: Come, and Fill Me Up

In Zechariah 4:10, God said to His people: “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” The Vineyard began as a collection of Bible Studies in Southern California back in the mid-1970s led by Kenn Gulliksen. Kenn was an ordained minister working with Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel. He had been around during the height of the Jesus Movement in the early 70s. Thousands of young people – lots of them hippies, drug addicts and runaways– had been saved and brought into the church. There were mass baptisms in the Pacific Ocean. Many moved into houses where they were given discipleship and a stable place to live. Around 1974, Kenn felt called to plant a church in Los Angeles. By the next year, he and his wife, Joanie, had started several Bible studies, some in the homes of popular Jesus Music musicians, like Chuck Girard from Love Song and Larry Norman. After a while, he decided to bring these studies together and meet on Sunday mornings as a congregation. That’s when he began seeking the Lord about what to name this new church. One day Kenn was reading from Isaiah and the Lord spoke to him, “You’re the Vineyard.” As he prayed, God began to show him that everything the Father wants to do in the life of a church can be seen in a vineyard – ground preparation, sowing, husbandry, pruning, bearing fruit, grafting, beauty, the joy of the wine…. All of these things are present in a Vineyard. In Isaiah 27: 2,3 it says: “A vineyard beloved and lovely; sing a song about it! I, the Lord, am its Keeper; I water it every moment; lest anyone harm it. I guard and keep it safe night and day.”

Song: Hungry

From these earliest Bible study days, the unique personality of the Vineyard began to show. Tender and intimate worship, humble and authentic leadership, the come-as-you-are atmosphere were all evident. Well-known musicians and artists like Bob Dylan attended some of the studies. Keith and Melody Green, Jesus Music artists during the late 70s and early 80s, actually came to salvation under Kenn’s leadership in one of those Vineyard Bible studies. Melody writes about it in her biography, No Compromise. Melody recalls there were about thirty-five people there, seated on couches, chairs and on the floor all around the room. She described Kenn with his “blond hair, a round friendly face and his eyes warm and smiling. Kenn started speaking,” Melody said, “and his gentle manner immediately put me at ease….he led the group in some songs we’d never heard before…” Father, I adore you.…I lay my life before you….How I love you. “The words just flowed over me. People broke into gentle harmonies that all seemed to weave in and out of each other. I felt a strange sense of peace start to wash over me.”

After worship, Kenn got up to teach. Melody said he shared about some of his own struggles with his impatience towards his wife earlier and how the Lord had reminded him of 1 John 1:9. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful…to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” “I’d never heard anybody talk like that before,’ Melody said. “It just sounded so down to earth. He made Jesus sound like his best friend or something. It didn’t seem abstract or mystical at all. I gave Keith a sideways glance. He was totally absorbed.” That night, Keith gave his life to the Lord;  Melody, a week later. It was under Kenn’s pastoring that Keith and Melody went on to found Last Days Ministries, a ministry used mightily of God to inspire a generation to follow Jesus whole-heartedly and with abandon.

Song: Arms of Love

Song: I Love Your Presence

COMMUNION

Song: Show Your Power

Sometime in the late 70s, Kenn met a man named John Wimber. John was also part of Calvary Chapel at the time. God had called John out of a successful career in the music industry years before and called him to ministry. More recently, he and his wife Carol had come out of the Friends church and were on a journey to find out what a modern Holy Spirit-empowered church really looked like. John had been a successful church planter for many years, but he had been taught the gifts of the Spirit were not for today and actually thought they were from the devil! After some powerful encounters with the Lord, He and Carol had finally realized they were actually resisting the move of God in their lives by denouncing the gifts of the Spirit. So, they parted ways with the Friends and started a new church in Yorba Linda, California. In this church, John started exploring the gifts of the Spirit. He taught about healing and prayed for the sick on a regular basis. He took risks. He exercised his faith. Eventually, after many months, they began to see  healings taking place in their midst.

A major turning point for their congregation came on Mother’s Day, 1980. A young man named Lonnie Frisbee had started attending John’s church. Lonnie was known for the way God had used him in evangelizing and teaching at Calvary Chapel during the Jesus Movement of the early 70s….and also for his unorthodox ways of ministering, at times. John was curious when Lonnie started attending their church. So, he and Carol invited Him over. They seemed to hit it off, and not long after, God told John to have Lonnie speak at an evening service. Even though John was earnestly seeking to have a church where miracles occurred and the Holy Spirit moved, he was not ready for what happened next.

It was Mother’s Day, 1980 and John Wimber was nervous about having Lonnie Frisbee speak at his church that evening. Lonnie’s style of ministry had a reputation for being unconventional. But as he gave his testimony that night, it went so well that John wondered why he had worried. Then came “ministry time”. What happened next is almost legendary in the Vineyard. Some say, it was the first “Come, Holy Spirit” style ministry that took place in a Vineyard meeting. Lonnie finished his testimony and then opened to Isaiah 60: 1-3 and read. 1“Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 2For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. 3Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.” He began to prophesy that the young people there would go forth in power and the anointing of the Lord. He asked everyone under 25 to raise their hands and receive God’s blessings. Then he asked everyone else to pray for them. One of the worship leaders came forward to play and sing a worship song as they prayed. Then Lonnie said, “Let the anointing of the Spirit fall,” and it fell. He continued, “I see the Lord moving over here. Receive the power!” People were soon falling on the floor, sobbing and speaking in tongues. Bodies were vibrating as Lonnie walked around the room inviting the Spirit to come in power.

Vineyard pastor and author Bill Jackson said in his book Search for the Radical Middle, “To me, these are the sweet sounds of God visiting His people. These are the sounds that accompanied a John Wimber meeting–at least a John Wimber meeting after 1980.” But for many on that night, what happened seemed chaotic and even bizarre. It was a pivotal moment for John. He wrestled all night long after the service was over, trying to understand what had happened and wondering if it was God. When a pastor friend called early the next morning, John told him all about the night before. His friend said he had seen similar things happening during the Jesus movement and that he really believed it was from God. This was just what John needed to hear. Even if he didn’t understand it, he was willing to be a part of it, as long as he believed it was from the Lord. Remarkably, the best confirmation that it was a move of God came in the following months. The youth of the church, the teens, went back to school after that night with a fire burning in their hearts. They evangelized, prayed for the sick and had mass baptisms in swimming pools. Revival broke out. And the church grew to almost 1800 people in the few months that followed. Joel 2:28,29 says, “It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. 29Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

Song: Sweet Mercies

Of course, there have been many meetings in the Vineyard over the years like that first “Come, Holy Spirit” meeting in the Canyon High School. In the couple of years that followed the Mother’s Day service, though, John’s church and the Vineyard churches under Kenn’s leadership were still part of Calvary Chapel. It wasn’t until the Spring of 1982 that it began to be clear to John and to Kenn that God was taking them in a very different direction from Calvary Chapel. John and his church decided to join with Kenn as a Vineyard church, and eventually became the Anaheim Vineyard. Soon after that, Kenn, recognizing the mantle of leadership that rested on John, handed over the leadership of all the Vineyard churches to him. They began a new chapter as an independent movement. By this time, John had been praying and studying for years, asking God to show him how a church-planting movement could thrive when the gifts of the Holy Spirit, signs and wonders, were present. He was about to find out. In John 15: 1-5, Jesus said: 1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. … 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Song: All Who Are Thirsty

In some ways, the split from Calvary Chapel was painful. But it was evident that God was doing something special through this new movement led by John Wimber. In fact, the thirst for the deeper things of the Holy Spirit was growing in other churches, as well, and thirty more of the Calvary Chapel churches joined the Vineyard movement within a short time. John Wimber soon emerged as a major leader in this new empowered evangelicalism. In time, people all over the body of Christ came to the Vineyard to learn how to move in the gifts of the Spirit and to experience Spiritual renewal. Many remained with their denominations. Some joined the Vineyard. Believers learned to pray for one another and to see the Spirit move and heal. And Vineyard worship, with its intimacy and passion, helped usher believers all over the world into the presence of God in a deeper and more meaningful way. There were times of healing and refreshing that continue today!

Sadly, John Wimber passed away in 1997 after several  health issues. The man who prayed for so many and saw so many miracles and healings through his ministry died at the age of 63. But this also illustrates one of the tenets of Vineyard theology. We believe that the kingdom of God is now, but also not yet. Sometimes we receive the healing we need in this life…and sometimes we only receive it in the life to come.

John’s teachings and writings still inspire others today. Some of his notable quotes are: “The test of spiritual maturity is not the ability to speak in tongues, prophesy, or memorize Scripture. It’s the ability to love God and others. Learning to serve others by loving the unlovely, the less fortunate, the lost, and the broken. This is the highest call, that we would fulfill our purpose on earth.” “The kingdom is about doing just as much as teaching. If you aren’t doing the works of the kingdom the message isn’t complete. I pray the Vineyard never stops taking the risks of the kingdom.” ”The Vineyard is God’s idea. He called us as kingdom people, doing the stuff of proclamation and demonstration. To do only half of what we’ve been called into is not a complete Gospel message and we must do all of what God’s placed upon us.”

Song: You Are Worthy of My Praise

Closing

Since those early days in Southern California, the Vineyard has grown into a global movement, with churches now on six continents. The hallmarks of the Vineyard remain the same– a hunger for the presence of God, a desire to experience intimate worship…singing to Him and not just about Him, a desire to know Him more deeply through His word and prayer, and a commitment to bring His kingdom on Earth, as it is in heaven, by reaching the lost, praying for the sick, serving the poor and loving our neighbors. Thank God for the legacy we have in the Vineyard. May the Lord keep us humble and devoted to Him and His kingdom. And may the Lord always be the One who tends His Vineyard. Come, Holy Spirit!