Bill Jackson: The Quest for the Radical Middle: A History of the Vineyard
Having recognized some parallels there are some obvious differences. The role of women is a particularly interesting one. The Pentecostal/charismatic movement has been marked by such female leaders as Katherine Kuhlman and Marie Burgess Brown. Vineyard does not ordain women to pastoral leadership position. Another is the role and view of prophecy. Vineyard has followed George Ladd’s post-tribulational form of Premillennialism while Pentecostals have historically held to a pre-tribulational position. Early Pentecostals believed that they were the last generation (the “latter days” theme) and thus felt keenly the imperative to evangelize the world. While we may fault their self-focused timing, we must admire their accomplishments that today make the Pentecostal/charismatic movement of hundreds of millions of people. They were a missionary movement rooted in eschatology. Vineyard has had a local church renewal focus with a more slowly organized missionary impulse. The last decade has, however, seen a world-wide growth of Vineyard churches.
The task of reaching the world for Christ is still before the Church today. The harvest is still great and the workers are still too few. But it is good to know that God is still calling new movements like Vineyard to bring in that harvest of souls. I look forward in an updated telling of the Vineyard story.
Reviewed by Malcolm R. Brubaker
Category: Church History, Winter 2007