Association of Vinyard Churches
Pentecostal, Evangelical
Founded: 1986
Membership: 181,474 Clergy: 2852 Congregations: 554 as of 2010
Headquarters: Vineyard USA, P.O. Box 2089, Stafford, TX 77497
Publications:
Core Values: We see Jesus' teaching on the kingdom of God as the overarching and integrating theme of the Scriptures. The Vineyard movement expresses the historical, biblical, orthodox Christian beliefs with the Bible as our final authority in all matters of faith and practice. For details go to: https://vineyardusa.org/about/core-values-beliefs/
Brief History:
The Jesus People movement of the 1960s was a spiritual awakening within hippie culture in the United States, as thousands of young people found themselves on a desperate search to experience God. Not finding Him through drugs, sex, or rock’n’roll, the hippies were one of the subcultures powerfully impacted by ministries such as Calvary Chapel (Costa Mesa, CA) that arose during this move of God across America.
The First Vineyard: Kenn Gulliksen, a soft-spoken, unassuming leader with a passion to know and walk with God, started a church in West LA in 1974, sent out by Calvary Chapel. This would be known as the first Vineyard church. Average people, as well as actors and musicians whose names would be familiar to us today (Bob Dylan, T-Bone Burnett, Keith Green), were connected with Gulliksen and the Vineyard.
From Gulliksen’s church, the first Vineyards were planted in 1975. Believing that God had instructed him to do so, Kenn officially gave the name “Vineyard” (from Isaiah 27:2-3; John 15:5) to this association of churches, and led them for about five years. By 1982, there were at least seven “Vineyards” in a loose-knit fellowship of churches.
Area Churches:
