History

A Brief History

 "Sing about a fruitful vineyard: I the Lord watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no-one may harm it." Isaiah 27:2-3

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5

We are part of an exciting world wide movement of Vineyard churches, each church freely self-governing but linked and overseen by pastors who serve as Regional and Area Co-ordinators. John Wimber, whose passion was to see God's Kingdom grow and for it's church to be built, gave overall leadership to the Vineyard movement until shortly before his death in 1997. Now each emerging nation is led by an appointed National Leader, this being John and Eleanor Mumford for the UK and Ireland.

God however has shown that rather than just building the Vineyard, we are to seek His Kingdom and to build His Church. As a result, the people called the Vineyard have reached out to bless, encourage and learn from churches all over the world, as well as planting many new churches.

The Glasgow Westend Vineyard was established in the Westend of Glasgow in May 2000. Historically it was an adoption into the Vineyard of a small group of Christians who had an outreach into the council schemes on the Southside of the city called Street Mission. The Heart of the Church has always been to see our society once again come to know Jesus in a personal way, to see culture -current churches where people can grow in relationship with God and each other, and thus help change our communities and society with the message of HOPE that Jesus brought to mankind. We recognise however, that mankind has made a real mess of things. A glance at the news depicts how cruelly we treat each other, and how hard it is to understand the world we live in. But God has called the church to be His representatives, to heal some of that pain, and to speak the truth to help make sense of life.

John Wimber

John Wimber was a founding leader of the Vineyard. His influence profoundly shaped the theology and practice of Vineyard churches from their earliest days until his death in November 1997. When John was conscripted by God he was, in the words of Christianity Today, a "beer-guzzling, drug-abusing pop musician, who was converted at the age of 29 while chain-smoking his way through a Quaker-led Bible study" (Christianity Today, editorial, Feb. 9 1998).

In John's first decade as a Christian he led hundreds of people to Christ. By 1970 he was leading 11 Bible studies that involved more than 500 people. Under God's grace, John became so fruitful as an evangelical pastor he was asked to lead the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth. He also later became an adjunct instructor at Fuller Theological Seminary where his classes set attendance records. In 1977, John re-entered pastoral ministry to plant Calvary Chapel of Yorba. Throughout this time, John's conservative evangelical paradigm for understanding the ministry of the church began to grow. George Eldon Ladd's theological writings on the kingdom of God convinced John intellectually that all the biblical gifts of the Holy Spirit should be active in the church. Encounters with Fuller missiologists Donald McGavaran and C. Peter Wagner and seasoned missionaries and international students gave him credible evidence for combining evangelism with healing and prophecy. As he became more convinced of God's desire to be active in the world through all the biblical gifts of the Spirit, John began to teach and train his church to imitate Jesus' full-orbed kingdom ministry. He began to 'do the stuff' of the Bible that he had formerly only read about. As John and his congregation sought God in intimate worship they experienced empowerment by the Holy Spirit, significant renewal in the gifts and conversion growth.

Past

It became clear that the church's emphasis on the experience of the Holy Spirit was not shared by some leaders in the Calvary Chapel movement. In 1982, John's church left Calvary Chapel and joined a small group of Vineyard churches. Vineyard was a name chosen by Kenn Gulliksen, a prolific church planter affiliated with Calvary Chapel, for a church he planted in Los Angeles in 1974. Pastors and leaders from the handful of Vineyard churches began looking to John for direction and the Vineyard movement was born.

The Vineyard is simply one thread in the rich tapestry of the historic and global Church of Jesus Christ. But it is a thread of God's weaving. From the beginning, Vineyard pastors and leaders have sought to hold in tension the biblical doctrines of the Christian faith with an ardent pursuit of the present day work of the Spirit of God. Maintaining that balance is never easy in the midst of rapid growth and renewal. The Association of Vineyard Churches is one of the fastest growing church-planting movements in the world and its story is about ordinary people who worship and serve an extraordinary God.

Present

Twenty five years later, there are around 2000 Vineyard churches worldwide, an international church planting movement, a publishing house and a music production company. Vineyard worship songs have helped thousands of churches experience intimacy with God. Many churches have been equipped to continue Jesus' ministry of proclaiming the kingdom, healing the sick, casting out demons and training disciples. The Vineyard continues to grow.

There are a steadily increasing number of Vineyard churches in the UK and a growing number in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, including churches in:

SCOTLAND

Edinburgh

web - www.almondvineyard.co.uk

St Andrews

web - www.thekingdomvineyard.com

Aberdeen

web - www.aberdeenvineyard.org.uk

Paisley

web - www.PaisleyVineyard.org.uk

NORTHERN IRELAND

Coleraine

web - www.causewaycoastvineyard.com

Belfast

web - www.belfastcityvineyard.org

Dungannon

web - www.vineyarddungannon.co.uk

Upper Bann

web - www.UpperBannVineyard.com

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Dublin

web - www.dublinvineyard.ie

Galway

web - www.galwayvineyard.com

Future

The Vineyard continues to be a church planting movement and is always seeking to reach out into communities with the great news of the Kingdom of God. As well as the churches above, there are plans for a growing number of new church plants over the coming months and years.