Association of Vineyard Churches

The Association of Vineyard Churches, also known as the Vineyard Movement, is an international neocharismatic evangelical Christian association of churches.
The Vineyard Movement is rooted in the charismatic renewal and historic evangelicalism. Instead of the mainstream charismatic label, however, the movement has preferred the term Empowered Evangelicals (a term coined by Rich Nathan and Ken Wilson in their book of the same name) to reflect their roots in traditional evangelicalism as opposed to classical Pentecostalism. Members also sometimes describe themselves as the "radical middle" between evangelicals and Pentecostals, which is a reference to the book The Quest for the Radical Middle, a historical survey of the Vineyard by Bill Jackson.
It has been associated with the "Signs and Wonders" movement, the Toronto blessing, the Kansas City Prophets and a particular style of Christian worship music.
The Vineyard operates a publishing house, Vineyard International Publishing.
The Vineyard has its origins in the founding of a Calvary Chapel church by Kenn Gulliksen and his wife Joanie, members of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, in 1974, in Los Angeles in the United States. In early 1975, thirteen groups met at the Beverly Hills Women's club. These Bible studies, and others like them, were attended by many popular actors/actresses and musicians including Bob Dylan. Gulliksen's Vineyard had spun off sister churches.
In 1977, John Wimber, an evangelical pastor and teacher on church growth, founded a Calvary Chapel in Yorba Linda, California. Wimber's teaching on healing and the ministry of the Holy Spirit led to conflict. In a meeting with Calvary Chapel leaders, it was suggested that Wimber's church stop using the Calvary name and affiliate with Gulliksen's Vineyard movement. In 1982, Wimber's church changed its name to the Anaheim Vineyard Christian Fellowship. Gulliksen turned over the churches under his oversight to Wimber, beginning his leadership of the Vineyard movement. Evangelist Lonnie Frisbee credits Gulliksen as founder of the Vineyard movement. In 1982, 8 churches founded the Association of Vineyard Churches.
Beginning in 1988, Wimber established relationships with leaders known for their prophetic ministry, such as Paul Cain, Bob Jones, and Mike Bickle who pastored Kansas City Fellowship, an independent church which would come under the Vineyard banner as Metro Vineyard (see Kansas City Prophets). For a time, these men had considerable influence on Wimber and the Vineyard—according to Jackson, Wimber's son was delivered from drug addiction through a prophetic word from Jones. However, there were those in the Vineyard who were skeptical, and Wimber himself became disillusioned over the restorationist teaching and failed prophecies of these men. Around 1991, Wimber began to distance himself from the prophetic movement, leading the Vineyard back to a church-planting direction, while Bickle's church withdrew and dropped the Vineyard label.
The Vineyard Movement suffered a visible leadership vacuum after Wimber's death on November 16, 1997. However, Todd Hunter, who served as National Coordinator since February 1994 and as acting Director of the Vineyard at the time of Wimber's death, became the National Director in January 1998 and served in that capacity until he resigned in May 2000. After Hunter's resignation, the National Board of Directors named Bert Waggoner of Sugar Land, Texas, as the new National Director. As of 2007, the Association of Vineyard Churches includes over 2400 churches around the world, and this number continues to grow due to a strong priority placed on church-planting within the Vineyard mission. In October, 2011, Phil Strout was selected by the National Board of Directors to succeed Waggoner as National Director in January 2013. He served until October, 2021 when Jay Pathak was installed as the National Director.
According to a census published by the association in 2022, it had 2,400 churches in 95 countries. The 2010 US Religious Census showed over 200,000 members in the United States.
For most of the early life of the Vineyard Movement, Vineyard churches had no official statement of faith. This is not to be interpreted as an absence of a common belief structure; rather, the primary reasons for the absence of such a declaration were:
According to text in the official Vineyard Statement of Faith released in 1994, an effort to create a common Statement of Faith had been underway since 1983, but took 10+ years to complete because: "On one hand, we felt obliged to set forth our biblical and historically orthodox beliefs; on the other hand, we wanted to describe the values and priorities that make the Vineyard unique within the context of Evangelicalism."
In a 2020 letter to local church leaders, Vineyard Canada expressed its position that having a non-heterosexual orientation is not itself sinful, however the church does not allow the officiating of same sex marriages or licensing people in same sex marriages for pastoral ministry. This letter also distinguished gender identity from sexual orientation as its own theology and policy matter that requires further consideration.
The national headquarters of Vineyard USA is currently located in Stafford, Texas. Vineyard USA is divided into eight regions, and each region has clusters of churches grouped together by location, facilitated by an Area Pastoral Care Leader (APCL). The APCL's work together with the Regional Overseer (RO) to provide leadership and encouragement to the region. The central governing body of the Vineyard in the U.S. is known as the Executive Team, and includes the National Director. Currently, the President and National Director is Jay Pathak. All major strategic decisions, including theological and doctrinal statements, are made by the National Board. In 2018, Vineyard USA is estimated to have approximately 200,000 members in 600 churches.
In the United States, Vineyard is nondenominational and evangelical.
As of December 2022, there are seven Vineyard churches in Denmark. Those are located in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, Roskilde, Aalborg, Rønne (Bornholm), and Helsingør.[1]
Vineyard Worship is a record label created and used by the Association of Vineyard Churches. The organization uses it to release worship albums. A UK branch of the record label exists, called Vineyard Records. Its musicians include Samuel Lane, Brenton Brown, Brian Doerksen, David Ruis, Cindy Rethmeier, Scott Underwood, Andy Park, Kevin Prosch, Anabeth Morgan, Tim Brown, Joshua Miller, Tina Colón Williams, Kyle Howard, Casey Corum, Ryan Delmore, Darren and Jessie Clarke, Nigel Briggs, Nigel Hemming, Jeremy Riddle, Kathryn Scott, and many others.
Vineyard Music was developed by the Vineyard church in 1985. The church began to write its own worship songs, so John Wimber founded Mercy Records. This later became Vineyard Worship.
A leader within the Causeway Coast Vineyard, in Northern Ireland, Mark Marx, started a branch of the church called 'Healing on the Streets'. This organisation made promises to cure medical conditions through faith healing, first on the streets of Coleraine and then training other churches. These claims - including the claim they could heal cancer - have been challenged by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) who concluded that the claims were 'misleading'. This led to media stories around the Bath group, and the Nottingham group.
The Evangelical Alliance policy arm is led by Peter Lynas, who is also Chair of the Causeway Coast Vineyard board. Evangelical Alliance supported Mark Marx organisations and believes the regulations should not apply to the Healing on the Streets activities.
Mark Marx and Causeway Coast Vineyard founder Alan Scott have now moved together to Dwelling Place, California.
The founder and trustees of the Causeway Coast Vineyard in Northern Ireland have been the subject of a number of internal and external investigations. Founder Alan Scott has been accused of having a messiah complex, and in 2023 several of his family members had to resign from leadership positions in the church following historic allegations of spiritual abuse.
The church's founders, Alan and Kathryn Scott, had left and moved to Anaheim Vineyard, California, in 2018. Before Alan and Kathryn left, Kathryn's sister, Janet Young, along with her husband, Neil Young, were made joint senior pastors.
A prominent Theologian, Dr. Luke Martin, attended the church as a teenager. He has criticised Alan publicly and pointed out that there was no open recruitment between Alan and Kathryn Scott leaving Northern Ireland, and the appointment of their family members Neil and Janet Young. Dr. Martin also noted that neither Neil and Janet had any theological qualifications.
After Alan and Kathryn's departure, reports started to emerge that Alan had been an abusive leader in Northern Ireland. The trustees of the church eventually commissioned an independent report. In this, respondents alleged that Alan Scott had appeared ‘all knowing’ and that he had told them God would tell him if anybody spoke about him, even in their own homes, and that he knew people's sin by looking at them.
Neil and Janet Young resigned in 2023 as they could not support the findings of the trustee's independent report against their family members.
At the same time, in California, Anaheim Vineyard took Alan to court for fraud due to his decision to take the Anaheim church and its $62 million worth of assets out of the Vineyard movement. The Vineyard movement alleged that Alan had promised not to do this during the recruitment process, and they alleged he had been fraudulent in this promise.
Alan renamed the now independent Anaheim church 'Dwelling Place', where he remains as pastor. Similar concerns have continued at Dwelling Place under Scott, and in 2024 their worship leader was prohibited from attending a Christian conference following allegations of spiritual abuse while under Alan Scott's leadership at Dwelling Place.
In September 2024, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland stepped in and have decided to run another investigation into the Causeway Coast Vineyard. The focus of this new probe is around the church's governance arrangements and its response to the allegations made against Alan and Kathryn Scott.
Like the senior leadership of the church, the trustee board is dominated by one family - the Lynas family - and their spouses. The Lynas family are one the wealthiest in the area, who own a major food distribution operation. The Chairperson, Peter Lynas, is also works for Evangelical Alliance, a controversial lobby group who have been criticised for their conservative stance on a range of issues.
In January 1994, the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church, a member of the association, experienced an outbreak of physical manifestations (such as laughter, weeping, and shaking) that it claimed were the work of the Holy Spirit. These events continued for many months and became known as the Toronto Blessing. Large numbers of Christians from numerous countries visited the church to experience the phenomena and take them back to their home congregations. The "blessing" received considerable publicity and proved highly controversial. Some Christian leaders disputed the church's assertion that the manifestations were divine in origin. A leading critic was Hank Hanegraaff who wrote a book, Counterfeit Revival, which charged the church with promoting heresy. However, other Christian leaders endorsed the "blessing" as a genuine work of God. In December 1995, the Toronto church was removed from membership in the Association of Vineyard Churches for placing excessive emphasis on the manifestations and losing focus on the Bible. The church then changed its name to Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, and later to Catch The Fire Toronto.
The Network is an international group of churches founded by Steve Morgan which broke away from the Vineyard Association in 2006. The Network's methods and practices have been criticized for being spiritually abusive, controlling, manipulative, and misogynistic. Steve Morgan's qualifications as a pastor have also been questioned because of his arrest in 1987 for allegedly committing aggravated criminal sodomy against a teenager in November, 1986. Former Vineyard officials who had contact with Steve Morgan during the time of his ordination have denied knowledge of Steve Morgan's arrest.
Steve Morgan had originally planted Vineyard Community Church of Carbondale, Illinois in 1995 after hearing John Wimber speak at a conference. Vineyard Community Church of Carbondale, Illinois, changed its name to Vine Church and left the Vineyard denomination in 2006, taking several midwest Vineyard churches with it to form an independent church planting network, which they called a "No Name, No Account Network." Eventually, this name became shortened to "The Network."