Vineyard Apologetics
Vineyard Theology
The Vineyard has often been criticised. Official
responses to some of these criticisms are given in the Vineyard
Position Papers.Although it's a lot of reading, these papers
clear up a lot of misunderstandings and inaccurate information.
The Vineyard Bible Institute
also offers courses dealing with Vineyard controversies as a part
of its Diploma in Kingdom Theology.
In Position Paper 2:
The Vineyard's Response to the Briefing by Jack Deere,
some very damaging false accusations are answered. Jack Deere, who used to be a
Vineyard pastor, repudiates claims that he was unclear about the
gospel message. He also states the gospel very clearly in an
unrelated article refuting cessationism:
Anatomy of a Deception by Jack Deere.
The Kansas City Prophets
Much controversy surrounded the so-called Kansas City Prophets, a term associated
with a group of people with remarkable prophetic gifts, who belonged to
the Kansas City Fellowship pastored by Mike Bickle. There was a lot of criticism
of the "prophets", some of which was valid but there was also a lot of unbalanced,
false or exaggerated criticism. At one stage the "prophets" had
a significant impact on the Vineyard, and John Wimber gave them
a platform and gave increased emphasis to the prophetic. The Kansas City
Fellowship became the Metro Vineyard Fellowship of Kansas City,
but ultimately this association did not last and the KC Metro left the Vineyard.
Years before they left, John Wimber and the Vineyard leadership had started moving
away from the strong prophetic and eschatological emphasis and refocussed
on the Vineyard's original priorities.
Here are links to two editions of
Equipping the Saints dealing with the prophetic:
Introducing the Prophetic from Fall 1989, and
Prophecy Today from the Fall 1990 edition.
It should be noted that John Wimber's view of the "Kansas City Prophets" changed
over time and he was ultimately to apologise for bringing them into the Vineyard.
See the
Christianity Today interview of 14 July 1997. Much more information about
the "Kansas City Prophets" can be found in Bill Jackson's history of the Vineyard,
The Quest for the Radical Middle.
Toronto Blessing
The
Toronto Blessing was another source of great
controversy and criticism. There's a very good article, lengthy
but well documented, in which Pastor Larry Siekawitch gives his Reply
to Hank Hanegraaff's Attack on the Association of Vineyard
Churches in his book "Counterfeit Revival".
Some AVC documents relating to renewal
AVC Board Report Sept/Oct 1994
: Summary Report on the Current Renewal and the Phenomena
Surrounding It
Association of Vineyard Churches
Copyright/Distribution Statement, as it appeared on the original
AVC web site
Vineyard's relationship with the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship
Association of Vineyard Churches and the Toronto Blessing
(Documents by John Wimber and Todd Hunter.)
Perspective
of AVC Canada
Back
to the Vineyard Movement
Back to the index (Vineyard, Toronto
Blessing and Renewal)