John Wimber

Early life and education

Wimber was born on February 25, 1934, as John Richard Wimber, to Basil and Genevieve Estelynn (Martin) Wimber. His place of birth was either in Peoria, Illinois or in Kirksville, Missouri, and he was reportedly raised in Kirksville. His upbringing was not a notably religious one.

Wimber would become recognised as a talented musician, and he first played as a professional at the age of 15 at an Orange, California spot called Dixie Castle. Four years later, in 1953, Wimber won a first prize at the Lighthouse International Jazz Festival.

Musical endeavours

After a stint in the Army, Wimber, in his late 20's and known as Johnny, became involved in the Los Angeles and Orange County music scene. Wimber is described as having been a talented keyboardist and vocalist, and earned his way for a time as a professional, full-time musician, including as pianist for the duo, The Righteous Brothers (which he also managed for a time).

Conversion and Fuller work

Around this time, Wimber began attending a Quaker church in Yorba Linda, California and he became a Christian in May 1963. In subsequent years his evangelical work grew, and by 1970, he was leading 11 different Bible study groups that involved more than 500 people. In 1974 he became the Founding Director of the Department of Church Growth at the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth, which was founded by the Fuller Theological Seminary and the Fuller Evangelistic Association. He directed the department until 1978.

House church and Calvary Chapel

In the early mid- to late-1970s, a house church began to form in his home. This group began to embrace some of the beliefs of the charismatic movement. This resulted in a split with the Quaker church that this group had belonged to.

From 1977 to 1994, Wimber pastored this new church, which would later become known as the Anaheim Vineyard Christian Fellowship. Eventually, it outgrew his home and began to meet elsewhere. After initially joining Calvary Chapel, the church had some differences with the Calvary Chapel leadership, relating mainly to the practice of spiritual gifts, Wimber's rejection of traditional Dispensationalism, and his embrace of Kingdom theology.

Wimber and Vineyard

As a result, the differences over spiritual gifts, Wimber and his followers left Calvary Chapel, and joined a small group of churches started by Kenn Gulliksen, known as Vineyard Christian Fellowships, which became an international Vineyard Movement.

The Vineyard Movement is rooted in both historic evangelicalism and the charismatic renewal. Due to this duality, the movement uses 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 classical 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. Wimber taught and preached about spiritual gifts and healings, which allegedly began to occur in May 1980 when evangelist Lonnie Frisbee ministered.

A particular emphasis of the Vineyard Movement was church planting. One of Wimber's many catchphrases—intended to capture theological and practical ideas in easy to remember sound bites – was that "church planting is the best form of evangelism". Both during his lifetime and since his death the Vineyard Movement has established thousands of churches across the USA and internationally.

Wimber became a well-known speaker at international charismatic conferences with a focus on what he called "Power Evangelism" and healing through the power of the Holy Spirit. However, while popularly considered to be a charismatic teacher, Wimber himself (along with the leaders of the Vineyard Movement) repeatedly rejected the charismatic label as applying to their teachings.

Religious Views and Theology

Wimber strongly espoused Kingdom theology, and this approach to the charismatic differed from many of his peers and predecessors. Wimber's embrace of this new approach led a friend, C. Peter Wagner, to coin the phrase, "The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit" to describe the concept he taught (and to avoid some current labels with their negative connotations). The Third Wave differed from classic Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement, foremost, in their approach to speaking in tongues. Whereas the previous groups had emphasized the gift of tongues as the only evidence for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Wimber and those he influenced emphasized that this was just one of the many spiritual gifts taught in the Bible. This teaching revolutionized what was a major theological stumbling block to some mainstream Evangelicals, the demonstration of "signs and wonders" expressed in the present-day world in a form alleged to be alike to those of the days of the First Century Apostles. Wimber held influence with a number of them, most famously Jack Deere, C. Peter Wagner, and Wayne Grudem. Gordon-Conwell missiologist J. Christy Wilson also mentions Wimber in his book More to be Desired than Gold.

Wimber also differed from contemporaries in his rejection of the Word of Faith movement, and the associated doctrines and showiness. The pursuit of authenticity was at the core of Wimber's idea of church, and this was reflected in the worship as well.

Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Wimber tentatively held to a modified evangelical view on baptism of the Holy Spirit that says it happens at conversion but that there is an experiential aspect (e.g. speaking in tongues) that may not be manifested or released until a later date. Wimber says:

...I want you to keep in mind that I'm still in the process of changing, I'm going to share with you my viewpoint today, I may change it in 2 weeks or in 2 years, I don't know... I'm just not sure I've yet fully worked out a scenario that I can live with long term. But here are my best thoughts on the subject... From time to time we will have a valid experience with an invalid label. At this time my perception is that that is what has occurred with the issue of the baptism of the Holy Spirit... At this point in time I have come full circle from an evangelical theology of filling of the Spirit, through an experience and a theology that embraced what we would call classic Pentecostal... now I've come back to a place where I think I started theologically, but I've added a dimension of experience. / My perception is that every born-again Christian can manifest any gift that he wants to, because with the coming of the Holy Spirit you have the Source of all gifts.

Gender roles

Wimber held a complementarian view of gender roles. This view believes the Bible to teach that a husband is called to lovingly lead, protect and provide for his wife and family, and that the wife should joyfully and intelligently affirm and submit to her husband's leadership. Complementarians also believe the Bible to teach that men are to bear primary responsibility to lead the church and that therefore only men should be elders.

Wimber said:

I believe God has established a gender-based eldership of the church... I endorse the traditional (and what I consider the scriptural) view of a unique leadership role for men in marriage, family, and in the church... this [view] ultimately reflects the hierarchy of the Trinity. … I personally do not favor ordaining women as elders in the local church… I encourage our women to participate in any ministry, except church governance.

Sam Storms comments, "Others would point out that in spite of his complementarian convictions, Wimber permitted at least two notable exceptions: both Jackie Pullinger (Hong Kong) and Ann Watson (England) served as the senior leaders of their respective congregations (although I should mention that Watson viewed her role as exceptional, given the premature death of her husband, and not a position to which women in ordinary circumstances should aspire)."

Authenticity

Wimber is known for a strong emphasis on "authenticity" and doing nothing for "religious effect". Here are some of his comments in this regard:

I also visited several healing meetings... and became angry with what appeared to be the manipulation of people for the material gains of the faith healer... Dressing like sideshow barkers. Pushing people over and calling it the power of God. And money—they were always asking for more, leading people to believe that if they gave they would be healed… / I have made it a matter of policy never to accept gifts for healing. Greed and materialism are perhaps the most common cause of the undoing of many men and women with a healing ministry... When I pray over people for God to release the healing ministry, I always instruct them never to accept money for healing. / During the time of prayer for healing I encourage people to 'dial down', that is, to relax and resist becoming emotionally worked up. Stirred up emotions rarely aid the healing process, and usually impede learning about how to pray for the sick. So I try to create an atmosphere that is clinical and rational... while at the same time it is powerful and spiritually sensitive. Of course, emotional expression is a natural by-product of divine healing and not a bad response. My point is that artificially creating an emotionally charged atmosphere militates against divine healing and especially undermines training others to pray for the sick. / I have also seen groups where the expected behaviour of the ones being prayed for was that they fall over. This was nothing more than learnt behaviour, religion at its worst.

Wimber was known for his transparency. In a 1996 Christianity Today article he told a healing success story but also of some examples of people not being healed in his ministry. He also had cancer at the time and said:

Some Christians believe we should never struggle with doubt, fear, anxiety, disillusionment, depression, sorrow, or agony. And when Christians do, it is because they're not exercising the quality of faith they ought to; periods of disillusionment and despair are sin. / If those ideas are true, then I'm not a good Christian. Not only have I suffered physically with health problems, but I also spent a great deal of time struggling with depression during my battle with cancer.

A sociologist who conducted an analysis at one of Wimber's conferences observed that hype was also opposed by Wimber's team, commenting, "A few seemed to attempt to mimic phenomena like hand shaking but their attempts were obviously artificial and they were told to stop it by the more experienced team members."

Wider impact and other teachings

Wimber's teaching influenced many Christians, both inside and out of the Vineyard movement. One of the key foundations of his teaching was intimacy with God, rather than religious habit and discipline. Another characteristic is in the area of teaching, which emphasized preaching extensively from the gospels and using Jesus as the model for Christian believers. Wimber also had a deep desire to be active in helping the poor.

He strongly emphasized signs and wonders, which he referred to as "Doin' the Stuff", the priesthood of every believer and that every Christian has the ability to prophesy and heal the sick. While this is not a new concept, Wimber was a key figure in the introduction of the concept that praying for the sick (or anything else) shouldn't be saved for special healing services, but should take place at every Church service, and out on the streets (by every believer). As a result, many churches have prayer time after the sermon. The Vineyard worship style has also had a wide influence on the church.

Wimber's teaching has had a significant influence on other Charismatic leaders, such as Mike Bickle, Terry Virgo, Randy Clark, John Arnott, Bill Johnson, John Paul Jackson, Sandy Millar, David Pytches and Sam Storms. In 2007 Sam Storms wrote an article commemorating Wimber 10 years after his death.

Wimber's theology and methods have been challenged by cessationist Christians. Their criticism is mainly concerned with his embrace of Kingdom theology. Critics also argue that Wimber's emphasis on dramatic proofs of spiritual power show a lack of reliance on the Bible, and instead rely on practices derived from New Age philosophy and humanistic psychology.

Personal life

Wimber died of a brain hemorrhage on November 17, 1997, at age 63, during recovery from a recent triple-bypass heart surgery.

Books

Wimber wrote several books, including: