Who are the Quakers in Yorba Linda?
I recently stumbled upon the website of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Yorba Linda, California. John Wimber, who was the father figure of the Vineyard movement, was a pastor at the Yorba Linda Friends Church (Quaker) for several years before experiencing charismata and leaving in the late 70's to plant a new church that eventually became the Anaheim Vineyard. The Yorba Linda Vineyard church is only a couple of years old. Interestingly, it is co-pastored by Wimber's son and daughter-in-law, Sean and Christy Wimber.
The Yorba Linda Vineyard seems (judging by the activities listed on their website) to be extremely missional in it's orientation. They are very involved in practical outreach to the community. Way cool.
But I was particularly struck by the following statement in the "Who We Are" section of their website. It resonated with me because of my own journey from Vineyard to Quaker:
I have often contemplated what a Vineyard/Quaker hybrid worship meeting might look like. It would be interesting if more Vineyards got in touch with their Quaker roots, and if more Quakers got in touch with the "Doin' the stuff" ethos of the Vineyard (which harkens back not only to John Wimber but to the dynamism of George Fox and the original Quakers).
From what I can gather, the Yorba Linda Friends church is extremely Protestant/Evangelical in form and in most ways no longer resembles or a Quaker meeting. In fact, it is virtually impossible to tell from their website or sermons (viewable online) that they are Quakers. One gets the distinct sense that they are trying to distance themselves from Quakerism and that troublesome George Fox fellow.
Wouldn't it be ironic if the Vineyard in Yorba Linda is more Quaker-like than the Quaker church?
I hope someday I can visit both the Vineyard and the Friends Church in Yorba Linda and find out for myself.
The Yorba Linda Vineyard seems (judging by the activities listed on their website) to be extremely missional in it's orientation. They are very involved in practical outreach to the community. Way cool.
But I was particularly struck by the following statement in the "Who We Are" section of their website. It resonated with me because of my own journey from Vineyard to Quaker:
"Sean and Christy have been in the Vineyard Movement since the beginning, back in 1977. Both of them came out of the Friends Church, a Quaker church here in Yorba Linda. People often think the Vineyard Movement came from a Calvary Chapel, when in fact, we are Quakers at the root of who we are, and Vineyard roots are Quaker roots."
I have often contemplated what a Vineyard/Quaker hybrid worship meeting might look like. It would be interesting if more Vineyards got in touch with their Quaker roots, and if more Quakers got in touch with the "Doin' the stuff" ethos of the Vineyard (which harkens back not only to John Wimber but to the dynamism of George Fox and the original Quakers).
From what I can gather, the Yorba Linda Friends church is extremely Protestant/Evangelical in form and in most ways no longer resembles or a Quaker meeting. In fact, it is virtually impossible to tell from their website or sermons (viewable online) that they are Quakers. One gets the distinct sense that they are trying to distance themselves from Quakerism and that troublesome George Fox fellow.
Wouldn't it be ironic if the Vineyard in Yorba Linda is more Quaker-like than the Quaker church?
I hope someday I can visit both the Vineyard and the Friends Church in Yorba Linda and find out for myself.
3 Comments:
The Vineyard historians paint the picture that the Quaker church that Wimber was part of, was more like a bog standard conservative evangelical church rather than a Quaker church in touch with its quietist roots. I wonder how accurate that is, certainly John's descriptions of liturgies from the Quaker church seem pretty similar to Baptist celebrations that I've experienced.
But as a Vineyard pastor I see that there are at least some values that transferred into the Vineyard from the Quaker roots. An emphasis on social justice being a big one and one that drew me. I really don't know enough about Quakers though, hopefully some of you guys can help fill in the blanks for me.
Today I am a liberal Quaker. I was raised Pentecostal, then spent 10 years with a Charismatic Mennonite church-community, that had a close relationship with the local VCF. I experienced some significant spiritual moments during ministry from that VCF.
As a pacifist, Wimber's background helped me appreciate his willingness to incorporate a concern for the poor into his ministry model.
Carol Wimber has published some of her letters from the period of the Vineyard's founding and the Wimbers did come from Evangelical Friends. The first VCF also spent some time connected to Calvary Chapel. I suspect that Chuck Smith's book "Charismania" was partially directed at VCF, as the Wimbers left CC over issues relating to spiritual gifts.
Thank you for this very interesting post.
I talked a bit about Vineyard's Quaker roots in this blog post. I was interested to find out recently that there continued to be more contacts between Friends and Wimber, especially at Vineyard conferences, than I was aware of when I wrote that post.
During my sabbatical year at Woodbrooke in Birmingham, England (2003-04), I was invited to organize a programmed meeting for worship at Northfield Friends meetinghouse. I was delighted to be able to enlist musicians from the then-named South Birmingham Vineyard (who were in those days meeting, interestingly, at the Elizabeth Cadbury school near Woodbrooke) to be collaborators for the worship.
More recently, I wrote about attending the Vineyard church in Portland, Maine.
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