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JOHN WIMBER PASSES AWAY

  Vineyard Leader Helped Found 700 Churches Around The World With
  His Special Brand Of "Power Evangelism" And "Doing The Stuff"

By Dan Wooding in Los Angeles (Monday, November 17, 1997)

John Wimber, one of the most colorful and controversial leaders of
the charismatic movement in the United States, suffered a massive
brain haemorrhage the evening of November 16 in Western Medical
Centre, Santa Ana, California, and passed away peacefully at
8:00 AM (PST) the following morning in the presence of his family.
He was sixty-three years old.

John Wimber had been a pastor with the Calvary Chapel movement
(started by Chuck Smith) and had left in 1977 over a theological
disagreement and founded what has become the Association of Vineyard
Churches, which now has 450 congregations in the United States and
250 congregations abroad.

Wimber took the name from another Calvary Chapel affiliate founded by
Ken Gulliksen whose church was then called Vineyard Christian
Fellowship.  When Gulliksen left the Calvary Chapels to join Wimber,
he allowed the name to go with him.  (Gulliksen, who was for a
while, Bob Dylan's pastor, has since left the Vineyard Movement and
now pastors an independent church in Los Angeles.)

John Wimber, who had been a keyboardist with The Righteous Brothers,
went on to become an International conference speaker, worship
songwriter, best-selling author and spiritual leader to the
world-wide Vineyard movement.  He was also the senior pastor of the
Anaheim Vineyard Christian Fellowship for seventeen years (1977 to
1994).

As Wimber had parted from the Calvary Chapels, he then "cut free" the
Toronto Airport Vineyard after a disagreement with them.  Wimber was
hardly ever out of the headlines, with his "Signs and
Wonders" classes at the School of World Missions at Fuller
Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, to his Vineyard rallies
around the world.

Southern California broadcaster, Rich Buhler, who was a close friend
of John Wimber and also helped to produce his radio show, "Equipping
the Saints" for nearly a year, said, "I'm going to miss him.
He was an inspiration to me as a very real and down to earth yet
powerful and intelligent Christian.  He inspired multitudes of people
to serve Christ and to seek the Kingdom and I will remember him also
as a person who inspired those same multitudes to get very serious in
ministry to the poor."

Buhler, who runs Branches Communications in Orange, California,
added, "He was known for his 'Power Evangelism,' but the Vineyards
had multiplied millions of dollars for the poor as he talked about
doing the stuff.'  This was one of his favorite phrases and he would
say that this was what Jesus would do.  He meant, of course, things
like evangelism, casting out demons and feeding the poor.  That
was the Kingdom 'stuff' to John.  Just a week or two before he
died, the Anaheim Vineyard took an offering of $750,000 for the poor.
That was something for which he didn't get as much publicity.

"The other thing I liked about John was he was very candid and down
to earth.  He didn't like being an over powerful person.  He liked
just being John.  He was disarmingly honest in both private
conversation and public discourse.  He would talk about what was
going on in his personal life.  I can't tell you how many times we in
the church sat in the congregation and learned about the struggle
in his own life.  He never held himself up as a standard for people
to focus on.  John Wimber just did 'the stuff!'"

A memorial service will be held on Friday, November 21, at 6:00 PM
at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim, California.
_____________________
-- 

Shalom!  Rowland Croucher                           (rowlandc@mira.net)

   Director, John Mark Ministries - resources for pastors/leaders 
     (Bookroom, library, and worldwide F.W.Boreham Trading Post)
       Website (850 articles)- http://www.pastornet.net.au/jmm
        CLERGY/LEADERS' LIST: clergy-request@pastornet.net.au
                       ('SUBSCRIBE' on subject-line)

'In the modern world there is no center; every place is peripheral'
(Wendell Berry).