Spirituality in my 40s

christianity 2.0

New Year's of 2006/7, an AA friend of mine named Jill and I went to the Coast for an AA convention. After that I started a love/hate relationship with a certain Christian church called The Vineyard. The development of my spirituality has been heavily influenced by the experience at this church and Jill's support.


The Vineyard and Vineyard Music

Wikipedia:

"Historically, the Vineyard Movement has been rooted in both renewal and church planting. Instead of the mainstream charismatic label, Vineyard leaders and members over the years have 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 historic 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. Vineyard philosophy has also played a key role in the development of the transformationalism school of Christian thought.

John Wimber is considered a leading founder and evangelist of the movement, although the first Vineyard churches already existed before his Calvary Chapel church in Yorba Linda, CA, joined the movement in 1982. The first Vineyard Church is claimed by many to have started as a bible study in the living room of singer/songwriter Larry Norman's house and have been attended by many popular actors/actresses and musicians including Bob Dylan."