Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Where this lesson fits

The first nine lessons of this module traced a family line. Lesson 01 followed the German Pietists, the Wesleys and the Holiness movement. Lesson 02 followed Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God and the Charismatic Renewal. Lesson 03 defined evangelicalism. Lesson 04 explained what "non-denominational" means in law and in practice, and who holds an independent pastor to account. Lessons 05, 06 and 07 told the Calvary Chapel story. Lessons 08 and 09 told the Vineyard story.

This capstone does three jobs. It compares the two movements point by point, using what each says about itself today. It draws the whole family tree on one page. And it turns the module's lessons into a set of questions any churchgoer, reporter or new resident can put to a congregation that calls itself non-denominational. The checklist is practical: it is about documents, votes and money, the things a reader can actually verify. It does not rank the two movements or pick a theological winner. Where the record shows something (a date, a vote, a court ruling, a published statement), the lesson says so. Where the question is a matter of faith, the lesson gives each side's case in its own words.

Two notes on sources. First, every quotation from a church body comes from its own current web page or document, opened on Oct. 28, 2026, and the URL is in the notes. Church websites change, and a statement quoted here may be revised later. The date matters. Second, the Calvary Chapel family now speaks through two bodies: the Calvary Chapel Association (calvarycca.org) and the Calvary Global Network, which runs calvarychapel.com.⁴⁵ Where they differ, both are quoted.

What the two share

Jesus People roots: Costa Mesa and Yorba Linda

The Calvary Chapel timeline published at calvarychapel.com begins with a small nondenominational fellowship that first met in the spring of 1961 in a trailer park recreation room on Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa. Its articles of incorporation were filed Dec. 21, 1961. In October 1965 the founding pastor, Floyd Nelson, invited Chuck Smith to speak. On Nov. 18, 1965, the church voted Smith in as assistant and teaching pastor. On Dec. 5, 1965, he gave his first official Sunday sermon, "with 50 people in attendance." On Sept. 14, 1966, he became senior pastor.⁶ That timeline matters because the date usually given for Smith's arrival, 1965, is correct for his first sermon, while his senior pastorate began in 1966. The same page describes the church's growth "from the West Coast to the East Coast and throughout the world" and counts "an international family of over 1700 churches around the world."⁶

The Vineyard's official history begins inside the Calvary Chapel family. Kenn Gulliksen "started a church in West LA in 1974, sent out by Calvary Chapel," and "From Gulliksen's church, the first Vineyards were planted in 1975." In 1977 John Wimber "re-entered pastoral ministry to plant Calvary Chapel of Yorba Linda, which would become Vineyard Anaheim." By 1982 there were "at least seven 'Vineyards' in a loose-knit fellowship of churches," and "The official recognition of this transition took place in 1982."¹ Vineyard USA's Wimber biography says the Yorba Linda church separated in 1982 and became the Anaheim Vineyard.⁷ Vineyard USA's biography of Wimber adds that before his conversion he was "involved in the founding and producing of the Righteous Brothers."⁷ Lesson 05 and lesson 08 tell those stories in full.

The sociologist Donald E. Miller, who studied Calvary Chapel, the Vineyard and Hope Chapel in the 1990s, grouped them as "new paradigm" churches in Reinventing American Protestantism (University of California Press, 1997). Miller's reading, in summary, is that these congregations kept a traditional, Bible-centered faith while dropping the forms (robes, organs, hymnals, denominational bureaucracy) that the baby boom generation associated with institutional religion.⁸ Larry Eskridge's God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America (Oxford University Press, 2013) is a full narrative history of the Jesus People movement from which both came.⁹ Those are scholars' interpretations. The dates above are the movements' own records.

Casual style, contemporary worship, Bible teaching

Walk into a Calvary Chapel or a Vineyard on a Sunday and the first half hour may look nearly the same: a band on a low stage, lyrics on a screen, a pastor in ordinary clothes, coffee in the lobby. The Calvary Chapel Association's philosophy of ministry includes a heading titled "Informal/ Relaxed Style" and describes its teaching method as "teaching the entire Bible chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse."² Vineyard USA's core values page says: "We see Jesus' teaching on the kingdom of God as the overarching and integrating theme of the Scriptures."¹⁰ Both, in other words, put the Bible at the center of the service. They differ in how a sermon is built. Calvary Chapel is known for working through whole books of the Bible in order, which its founder practiced from his first weeks in Costa Mesa, when the congregation read "10 chapters each week" and the Sunday evening study was "a verse-by-verse study of those same chapters."⁶ Vineyard preaching is more often organized around themes in the kingdom of God, though local practice varies.

Both movements also built music businesses that carried their songs far beyond their own churches. That story is told below under worship music.

Independence from the older denominations

Neither movement is a denomination in the old sense, with a national body that owns local buildings, appoints pastors and holds a binding vote on doctrine at a general assembly. Both began as fellowships of independent congregations. Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa itself started as an "informal nondenominational fellowship."⁶ The Vineyard began as "a loose-knit fellowship of churches."¹ Each has since built more structure than the word "fellowship" suggests, and the two have built it in different ways, as the section on church structure explains.

The independence is also theological. A Calvary Chapel magazine piece adapted from Smith's teaching puts it in a single line: "We don't take a typical Pentecostal view, nor do we take a typical Baptist view."¹¹ The Vineyard, for its part, grew out of a Calvary congregation and then went its own way in 1982. Both movements stand somewhere between the classical Pentecostal denominations described in lesson 02 and the non-charismatic evangelical churches described in lesson 03. Where each one stands is the subject of the next section.

Where they split, each side in its own words

The comparisons below quote each body's current published statements, retrieved Oct. 28, 2026, and its founder's own teaching. Quotations are short. The full documents are linked in the notes and listed in the sources for anyone who wants to read them whole.

Spiritual gifts: "The Word. The Spirit." or signs and wonders

Calvary Chapel in its own words. The banner on calvarychapel.com, the Calvary Global Network's site, reads: "The Word. The Spirit. A Move of God."¹² Its "What We Believe" page says: "We are continuationist. We believe that all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in Scripture are available to and active in His church today."⁴ The Calvary Chapel Association's philosophy of ministry makes the same claim in different words: the gifts "are for all believers to experience as the Lord wills and did not cease to be manifest at the end of the apostolic age." It also describes the Baptism with the Holy Spirit as something "to be received by faith as a separate and distinct work of grace to that of salvation," and states the principle that frames Calvary's practice: "We believe that the Spirit of God works through the Word of God in the hearts of the people of God."² The Association's statement of faith affirms "the exercise of all biblical gifts of the Holy Spirit according to the instructions given to us."¹³

What makes Calvary distinct is the brake on that belief. Smith's own teaching, republished by Calvary Chapel Magazine under the title "Striking the Balance," says: "We do believe in the validity of the gifts of the Spirit and that these gifts can be expressed today. But we don't believe in excesses that so often accompany a freedom in the use of the gifts of the Spirit." And: "We don't emphasize tongues as the primary manifestation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit."¹¹ In practice, many Calvary Chapels have held prayer for the gifts in an afterglow meeting or a smaller service, leaving the main Sunday service to Bible teaching. That practice is described in lesson 06. It varies from church to church.

The Vineyard in its own words. Vineyard USA's statement of core values and beliefs says: "We believe in the present ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise of all of the biblical gifts of the Spirit." It names them: "the Spirit distributes His gifts to us, resulting in prophecy, prayer languages, healing, miracles," and it describes a practice: "We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing."³ A Vineyard USA teaching page says simply that "we pray for the sick, and we have seen many healed," and that "the kingdom of God does break through with power to heal those who are sick." The same page names as one of two errors it rejects the view that God "does not do miracles today."¹⁴

The phrase most associated with the Vineyard is "signs and wonders." It came from Wimber's teaching at Fuller Theological Seminary. Vineyard USA's biography says "Wimber taught classes at Fuller Seminary, most notably a course in the early 80s called 'Signs, Wonders, and Church Growth.'"⁷ That course, known by its catalog number MC510, and its controversy at Fuller are the subject of lesson 08. In Vineyard practice the gifts are often exercised in the main service itself, during a time of "ministry" after the sermon, when a team prays for people who come forward.

What the record shows. On paper the two bodies now say nearly the same thing: both are continuationist. The difference is one of emphasis and setting. Calvary's written statements put the Word first and warn against excess. The Vineyard's written statements name specific gifts and specific practices and invite them into ordinary church life. The break with the Toronto Airport Vineyard in December 1995 (below, and lesson 09) shows that the Vineyard, too, drew a line at what its leaders judged excess.

Cessationism and continuationism, explained

Because both movements reject it, a reader needs to know what cessationism is. Cessationism holds that the miraculous gifts listed in the New Testament (tongues, prophecy, healing, miracles) were given to authenticate the apostles and their message, and that those gifts ceased when the apostolic age ended and the New Testament was complete. Cessationists do not deny that God answers prayer or heals today. They deny that individual Christians today hold the miraculous gifts the apostles held.

The classic statement in English is B. B. Warfield's Counterfeit Miracles (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1918), first given as the Thomas Smyth Lectures at Columbia Theological Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina, in October 1917. In its first lecture, "The Cessation of the Charismata," Warfield, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, wrote of the miraculous gifts: "They were part of the credentials of the Apostles." He continued that "Their function thus confined them to distinctively the Apostolic Church," and that they "necessarily passed away with it."¹⁵ Warfield's book is in the public domain and can be read whole at the Internet Archive. Warfield's position remains the standard one in much of the Reformed and Presbyterian world and among many independent Bible churches.

Continuationism holds that all the gifts of the Spirit continue in the church until Christ returns. Within continuationism there is a wide range, from classical Pentecostals (who teach a distinct baptism in the Spirit, with speaking in tongues as its evidence; see lesson 02) to "Third Wave" evangelicals (who expect healing and prophecy but do not require tongues). Calvary Chapel calls itself continuationist on its own site. The Vineyard, through Wimber, is usually counted as the leading church of the Third Wave.

The best-known academic continuationist is Wayne Grudem, a New Testament scholar whose Systematic Theology (1994) argues that the miraculous gifts continue, and who has written that New Testament prophecy today is a human report of something God brings to mind, which can be mistaken and must be tested. Grudem was once a member of a Vineyard church; Russell Moore, writing in May 2006, described him as "a former member of the Vineyard movement."¹⁶ Grudem also edited the book that set the debate out side by side, Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996). Its four contributors, with the labels a review in Themelios gives their positions, are Richard B. Gaffin Jr., the "cessationist" case; Robert L. Saucy, "open but cautious"; C. Samuel Storms, the "Third Wave"; and Douglas A. Oss, who "presents the traditional Pentecostal viewpoint."¹⁷ Readers who want the strongest case on each side in a single volume can start there.

Each side's best case, briefly. The cessationist case: the New Testament ties miracles to the apostles (2 Corinthians 12:12 in the King James Version speaks of "the signs of an apostle"), the canon is closed, and claims of new prophecy compete with Scripture's authority. The continuationist case: no New Testament text says the gifts will stop before Christ returns (1 Corinthians 13:10 in the KJV says "when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away," which continuationists read as the Second Coming), Paul tells the church to "covet earnestly the best gifts" (1 Corinthians 12:31, KJV), and the book of Acts presents the gifts as normal church life. Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard both take the continuationist side of that argument. Neither is cessationist.

Church structure: the "Moses model" and the Vineyard's handbook

Calvary Chapel in its own words. Smith taught a form of church government his followers came to call the "Moses model." A Calvary Chapel Magazine article condensed from Smith's book Calvary Chapel Distinctives says: "Pastors need to be like Moses, in touch with Jesus and receiving His direction and guidance." It describes "a board of elders who pray with us and support us in seeking the Lord's leading for the church," and says the board's job "is to interface with the congregation and deal with any problems that the people may bring to them." It adds: "Real elders aren't a bunch of 'yes' men, but men yielded to the Holy Spirit," and "A good board is one of the greatest assets you can have in your ministry." In this model "the pastor is ruled over by the Lord and recognized by the congregation as God's anointed instrument."¹⁸ In a 2007 interview with Christianity Today, Smith explained where the model came from: "We take the model from the work that God established in the nation of Israel." He also said: "I'm responsible to the Lord. We have a board of elders."¹⁹ The Association's philosophy of ministry pairs this authority with a call to "Servant Leadership," stating that "the churches we pastor do not exist to serve us, but that we are called to serve and lay our lives down for them."²

Above the local church, the Calvary Chapel Association is led by a council of senior pastors. Its leadership page says Smith's leadership passed to "a team of men that had been working with him for many years," and on Oct. 28, 2026 it listed 15 members, each pastor of an Association church.²⁰ Christianity Today reported at Smith's death in 2013 that in 2012 he had set up a leadership council to oversee the Association, which it then counted at about 1,600 congregations.²¹ The Association affiliates churches and can drop them. It does not own them. The Calvary Global Network, formed after Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa left the Association in the fall of 2016, is a second, overlapping network (see succession below).⁵

The Vineyard in its own words. Vineyard USA's structure is written down in more detail and has changed more recently. Its national leadership team "serves under the leadership of the National Director and with the oversight of the Vineyard USA Board of Trustees."²² Its core values document lists among the national body's roles to "Approve pastors for local Vineyard churches" and to "Exercise discipline over local church pastors in case of misconduct or heresy."³ For most of its history the Vineyard's legal tie to a local church was a trademark license for the Vineyard name. Vineyard USA says it has now moved beyond that: "Rather than relying only on a Trademark License, our connection is now supported by the Handbook, a shared framework that articulates the relationship between local churches, Vineyard USA, and Vineyard pastors." The National Leadership Handbook was first created after a 2021 reorganization. Version 2.0 was ratified in March 2024. Churches were asked to amend their own bylaws to acknowledge the handbook by May 1, 2025. Version 3.0, ratified by the Vineyard USA Leadership Council, took effect Aug. 29, 2026.²³²⁴ The choice of a national director goes to the churches: in March 2021 Vineyard USA reported that a majority of Vineyard churches voted within 48 hours to ratify Jay Pathak as national director-elect, to take office in January 2022.²⁵

What the record shows. Both are associations of local churches. In a Calvary Chapel the senior pastor leads and the board supports. The Association's main tool is affiliation. In the Vineyard the local church has its own board and bylaws, but it has agreed in writing, in those bylaws, to a national handbook that lets Vineyard USA approve and discipline pastors. Neither national body owns local church property, and when Vineyard Anaheim left in 2022, Vineyard USA made no legal claim to its building (below).

Eschatology: the rapture, or the kingdom "already and not yet"

Calvary Chapel in its own words. The Association's philosophy of ministry is explicit: "Calvary Chapel Association holds to the Pretribulational Premillennial interpretation of Biblical Eschatology." It explains that "Jesus Christ will first remove His church, the bride of Christ, from earth" "prior to the advent of the Antichrist and the tribulation period of the end times," and it distinguishes "the sudden and joyous rapture of the church" from "the global and predictable Second Coming of Christ with the church in judgment." The view "espouses the Doctrine of Imminency," meaning the rapture could happen at any moment.² The statement of faith names "the Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church where all believers will meet the Lord in the air," followed by Christ's visible return and "the establishment of His millennial kingdom."¹³ The Calvary Global Network's site says the same in two short lines: "We are pre-millennial" and "We are pre-tribulational," citing 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17 for the church being "caught up" to "meet the Lord in the air."⁴

In plain terms: premillennialism teaches that Christ returns before (pre-) a literal thousand-year reign on earth (the millennium, from Revelation 20). Pretribulationism adds that the church is taken up (the rapture) before a seven-year period of tribulation that comes before that return. This system, often called dispensationalism, was spread in America by the Scofield Reference Bible (1909) and by Bible conferences and Bible institutes such as Moody (see lesson 03). Prophecy teaching was a large part of Smith's ministry, and Christianity Today reported in 2017 that a post on Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa's website summarized the Association council's main concerns about Brodersen's new network, one of which was that he "doesn't prioritize the movement's emphasis on eschatology."⁵

The Vineyard in its own words. The Vineyard's statement of faith does not mention a rapture or a millennium. It speaks of "the future reign of God breaking into the present through the life and ministry of Jesus," of "bearing witness to the already and not yet of the kingdom in words and deeds," and of a kingdom that "will be consummated in the glorious, visible, and triumphant appearing of Christ." "After Christ returns to reign, He will bring about the final defeat of Satan."³ Vineyard USA's biography of Wimber names the source: "Theologically, Wimber is best known for applying George Ladd's theology of the kingdom of God to healing ministry." It summarizes Ladd's idea: "the kingdom of God is a reality that is both present in our midst, but not completely present."⁷ A former Vineyard USA national director, Bert Waggoner, wrote in 2017 that this is "the view set forth by Evangelical theologians G. E. Ladd, Oscar Cullman, Herman Ridderbos, and many others," and argued that "the already/not yet theology of the kingdom should be the central motif in all theologies."²⁶

George Eldon Ladd (1911 to 1982) taught New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary. His major statement of the "already and not yet" kingdom is The Presence of the Future (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), a revision of his 1964 Jesus and the Kingdom.²⁷ For Wimber the practical point was simple: if the kingdom has already broken in, then healings and deliverances are signs of its presence now. If it has not yet fully come, then not everyone is healed, and Christians live with that tension. The Vineyard teaching page puts it this way: "a necessary tension will always exist between the now and the not yet of the kingdom."¹⁴ Ladd himself was a premillennialist who rejected a pretribulational rapture, so the distance between the two movements on the end times is real but narrower than it looks: both expect a literal, visible return of Christ.

What the record shows. Calvary Chapel's written statements commit every Association church to a specific timetable of future events. The Vineyard's do not. They commit churches to an "already and not yet" frame and leave the order of end-time events open.

Worship music and its industries

Both movements changed what American Protestants sing on Sunday, and both did it through record labels.

Maranatha! Music. The company's own history says: "Maranatha! Music was founded in 1971 by Chuck Smith Sr. of Calvary Chapel, to promote the 'Jesus Music' his young hippie followers were writing and singing up and down the California coast." It names "Pastor Chuck Smith, Chuck Fromm and Tommy Coomes" among its early leaders, and it calls worship music "sung prayer to God."²⁸ Christianity Today's 2013 obituary of Smith also dates the label's start to 1971.²¹ Maranatha's early albums featured Jesus Music bands such as Love Song (see lesson 05). Its later "Praise" series moved into congregational worship songs.

Vineyard Music and Vineyard Worship. The Vineyard's songwriting grew out of Wimber's own background in the music business and the intimate, slow worship sets of the Anaheim church. Its recordings were issued through labels that the movement ran, first known as Mercy Records and later as Vineyard Music, and today as Vineyard Worship, which describes its work this way: "We DOCUMENT the best songs that God births in our family of churches and share it broadly."²⁹

What the record shows. The music business gave both movements an income stream, a way to train worship leaders, and an influence far beyond their own congregations. Churches of many denominations sing songs first recorded by Maranatha! or the Vineyard. It also tied church music to copyright licensing and the commercial Christian music industry, a subject this module does not cover in detail.

Women in ministry

Calvary Chapel in its own words (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). The Association's philosophy of ministry lists four qualifications for elders and pastors from 1 Timothy: "moral character, giftedness to teach, divine calling, and male gender." Under the heading "Male Leadership in the Pulpit" it says "God uses women in strategic ways," and also that "pastoral authority and the teaching of doctrine in the church is reserved for qualified men."² The statement of faith "limits the roles of pastoral leadership and doctrinal authority to qualified men."¹³ The Calvary Global Network's page says: "We are complementarian," meaning that men and women are "equal in value, dignity and worth" but created "to fulfill distinct but complementary roles in the contexts of marriage, family and the local church."⁴ Both Calvary bodies, then, reserve the senior pastor's office for men.

The Vineyard in its own words (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). The booklet One in Christ: Men and Women Together in Ministry, published by the Vineyard Women in Leadership Network around 2013 and reprinting the Vineyard USA board's 2006 statement, says: "There are no areas of ministry or levels of leadership closed to women in the Vineyard." It describes a "commitment to gift-based leadership" and reports that women serve as senior pastors, staff pastors, elders and members of the national board's executive team.³⁰ The decision dates to 2006. Russell Moore reported on May 17, 2006, that the Vineyard's national board had adopted guidelines asking pastors who disagreed to "bless" the ministry of women senior pastors.¹⁶ An October 2006 excerpt of the board's letter, published by the writer Alex Chediak, reads in part: "the leadership of the Vineyard movement will encourage, train, and empower women at all levels of leadership," while "Each local church retains the right to make its own decisions regarding ordination and appointment of senior pastors."³¹ Whether that local-option sentence still governs under the 2026 handbook was not confirmed for this lesson.

Each side's best case. The complementarian case rests on 1 Timothy 2:12 ("I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man," KJV) and on the elder qualifications in 1 Timothy 3, which assume a male elder ("the husband of one wife," 3:2). The egalitarian case rests on Galatians 3:28 ("there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus," KJV), on women who prophesied and led in the New Testament church (Acts 2:17 and 21:9; Romans 16:1 and 7), and on the argument that gifts, not gender, decide who leads. Wayne Grudem, a complementarian as well as a continuationist, objected to the 2006 Vineyard decision, according to Moore's report.¹⁶ That is a reminder that the gifts question and the women question do not line up neatly.

Succession and scandal

A founder-led movement is tested twice: when someone in it does wrong, and when the founder dies. Both movements have faced both tests in public. The full accounts are in lesson 07 (Calvary Chapel) and lesson 09 (the Vineyard). The summary here sets them side by side.

Calvary Chapel: succession. Chuck Smith died Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013, at 86, after a lung cancer diagnosis in 2011, according to Christianity Today.²¹ He had arranged two kinds of succession. For the movement, he set up a leadership council in 2012.²¹ For his own church, his son-in-law Brian Brodersen was affirmed by the Costa Mesa congregation as senior pastor in November 2013; The Christian Post reported the vote on Nov. 15, 2013.³² Within three years the two lines of succession pulled apart. Christianity Today reported in 2017 that Brodersen left the Association in the fall of 2016 and launched the Calvary Chapel Global Network, which counted the Association's roughly 1,700 churches as included unless they opted out. Brodersen described the split as a difference in method, saying the network was "necessary for God's work to be expanded" and that he wanted the movement to "engage more with the larger evangelical body." The Association's council said the network "will cause confusion" and would "de-emphasize our Calvary Chapel distinctives."⁵ Both bodies still use the Calvary Chapel name and Smith's teaching.

Calvary Chapel: misconduct and accountability. In February 2007 Christianity Today associate editor Rob Moll published "Day of Reckoning," a report on complaints from pastors and former members that Calvary Chapel leadership restored pastors to ministry too quickly after sexual or financial misconduct, and that the movement's loose structure left accountability voluntary. Smith's response in the same article was that restoration follows Scripture: "If they repent, we do seek to restore in a spirit of meekness, considering ourselves lest we be tempted."¹⁹ The article noted that the facts of at least one episode "remain in dispute," that some leaders "denied the existence of significant problems," and that the incidents it described were "limited to a few churches and ministries" in "an affiliation of independent churches." Lesson 07 covers the specific cases, the court records and the reforms that followed. They are not repeated here.

Vineyard: succession. John Wimber died Nov. 17, 1997, at 63, after a fall caused a brain hemorrhage, according to Christianity Today, which reported that the movement then had nearly 500 churches in the United States and another 250 abroad. Todd Hunter, then acting national director of the Association of Vineyard Churches, was widely expected to succeed him.³³ Hunter served as national director until 2000, when he resigned and Berten (Bert) Waggoner was named acting national director. Phil Strout served through the end of 2021. Jay Pathak was ratified by a vote of the churches in March 2021 to take office in January 2022.²⁵ The Vineyard's succession, unlike Calvary's, ran through an office the churches voted on, and the movement did not split over it.

Vineyard: the Toronto break. The revival at the Toronto Airport Vineyard began in January 1994. In December 1995 the American Vineyard board voted to cut ties with the church. On Dec. 5 Wimber flew to Toronto to tell its pastor, John Arnott, in person. Christianity Today reported that Wimber "cited his earlier teachings that Vineyard churches must focus on the main and plain things in Scripture," objected to manifestations such as barking, and said he could no longer defend how the revival was "being pastored and/or explained." Arnott wrote within hours that the Toronto staff accepted the separation.³⁴ The church renamed itself Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship; lesson 09 has the details.

Vineyard: the Guidepost assessment. Guidepost's report says Vineyard USA's national team engaged the firm on Sept. 12, 2022, and on Nov. 3, 2022, Vineyard USA announced it had hired Guidepost Solutions "to conduct an independent third-party assessment" of how its churches had handled misconduct. In March 2023 it asked Guidepost to set up a confidential reporting line, stating that "Any concern reported to this email will go directly to Guidepost Solutions and not to Vineyard USA." The report itself is dated June 20, 2023. Vineyard USA's page says Guidepost provided the final report on June 26, 2023, with nineteen recommendations, and posts it under a "2023 Q2 Update" dated June 30, 2023 (another passage on the same page says the report "was made public" on June 26). The Aug. 1, 2026 update was described as the last recurring update under that framework, with the work moving into the National Leadership Handbook.³⁵ The FAQ says the assessment drew on "several current and historic case studies" that "typified challenges to our governance model and structural limitations."³⁶

Vineyard: the Anaheim departure. Vineyard Anaheim, Wimber's own church, left Vineyard USA in March 2022 and became Dwelling Place. On Nov. 10, 2022, Carol Wimber-Wong and eight other former members and leaders sued the senior pastors, Alan and Kathryn Scott, in Orange County Superior Court, alleging fraud, negligent misrepresentation and breach of fiduciary duty tied to the church's building and funds. The Scotts said in a written statement: "The accusations in the complaint couldn't be further from the truth." In late July 2025 a California appeals court held that the nine plaintiffs lacked standing because, under the church's bylaws, they were associate members, not voting members, and that the decision to leave the Vineyard was protected by the First Amendment. Vineyard USA was not a party and made no legal claim to the building or bank account, according to Christianity Today's report of Nov. 22, 2022, kept on the same page as its Aug. 6, 2025, update on the ruling.³⁷ Those are allegations and a ruling on standing. No court found that the allegations were true or false. For a reader of this lesson the point is the bylaws: who was a voting member decided who could go to court at all.

The two side by side

The table gathers the comparison in one place. Each cell paraphrases or quotes the body's own current statement. The notes above give the sources and dates.

Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard compared (statements retrieved Oct. 28, 2026)

Question	Calvary Chapel (Association and Global Network)	Vineyard (Vineyard USA)
Origin	Chuck Smith's first sermon at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, Dec. 5, 1965; senior pastor Sept. 14, 1966	Kenn Gulliksen's West Los Angeles church, 1974, sent out by Calvary Chapel; first Vineyards 1975; Wimber's Calvary Chapel of Yorba Linda, 1977; Vineyard recognized 1982
Founder	Chuck Smith (1927 to 2013)	John Wimber (1934 to 1997), after Kenn Gulliksen
Size claimed by the body itself	"over 1700 churches around the world" (calvarychapel.com)	"over 2400+ churches worldwide" (vineyardusa.org)
Spiritual gifts	"We are continuationist"; gifts "did not cease"; warns against "excesses"; tongues not "the primary manifestation"	"the exercise of all of the biblical gifts"; names prophecy, prayer languages, healing, miracles; laying on of hands
Spirit baptism	"a separate and distinct work of grace to that of salvation"	Laying on of hands "for the empowering of the Spirit"
Local government	Senior pastor leads ("like Moses"); board of elders supports	Local board and bylaws; bylaws acknowledge the national handbook
National body	Calvary Chapel Association, led by a council of senior pastors (15 listed); Calvary Global Network since 2016	Vineyard USA: national director, Board of Trustees, Leadership Council; approves and can discipline pastors
How national leaders are chosen	Leadership council set up by Smith in 2012	National director ratified by a majority vote of Vineyard churches (2021)
End times	"Pretribulational Premillennial"; rapture before the tribulation	Kingdom "already and not yet" (Ladd); visible return of Christ; no rapture timetable stated
Women as senior pastors	No: pastoral authority "reserved for qualified men"; "We are complementarian"	Yes: "no areas of ministry or levels of leadership closed to women" (position since 2006)
Teaching style	Through the Bible "chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse"	Kingdom of God as "the overarching and integrating theme of the Scriptures"
Music	Maranatha! Music, founded 1971	Vineyard Music, now Vineyard Worship
Founder's death	Oct. 3, 2013	Nov. 17, 1997
Biggest split	Costa Mesa leaves the Association; Global Network formed, 2016	Toronto Airport Vineyard removed, December 1995; Vineyard Anaheim leaves, March 2022
Misconduct response on record	Restoration of repentant pastors, defended by Smith (CT, 2007); see lesson 07	Guidepost Solutions assessment, report released late June 2023; 19 recommendations; confidential reporting line

The family tree, from Pietism to Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard

The whole module can be drawn as one line of descent with two branches at the end. Each generation inherited something from the one before and added an emphasis of its own. The Pietists added the small group and the warm heart. The Methodists added the organized society and the circuit rider. The Holiness movement added the expectation of a second, sanctifying experience. The Pentecostals renamed that second experience the baptism in the Spirit and tied it to tongues. The Charismatic Renewal carried it into the older churches. The Jesus People carried it into the counterculture. Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard turned the result into two networks of churches. The dates are documented in lessons 01 to 09. A few are noted here.³⁸³⁹

A reader's checklist for any non-denominational church

The two movements in this module show what an independent church gains (freedom, speed, a strong teaching voice) and what it gives up (the outside oversight a denomination provides). Lesson 04 explained the general problem: in an independent church, the question "who holds the pastor to account?" has whatever answer the church's own documents give it, and sometimes no answer at all. The checklist below turns that into eight things a member, a visitor, a donor or a reporter can check. None of it requires a theology degree. Most of it requires asking for documents and reading them.

1. The statement of faith

Every church that belongs to an association publishes, or can hand over, a statement of faith. Read it whole. Then compare it with the statements of the body it claims to belong to. The Calvary Chapel Association, the Calvary Global Network and Vineyard USA all publish theirs, and they are quoted in this lesson. Look for the questions this lesson compared: the gifts of the Spirit, the end times, women in leadership, baptism, and what the church says about the Bible's authority. Look also for what the statement leaves out. A two-paragraph statement that names only God, Jesus and the Bible tells a reader less than a two-page one, and a reader is entitled to ask the pastor where the church stands on what is missing.

2. Who governs

Ask three questions: Who chooses the senior pastor? Who sits on the board, and who chooses them? Does the congregation vote on anything? In a church on the "Moses model," the honest answer may be that the pastor appoints the board and the board supports the pastor; Smith's own teaching describes the elders' role as praying with the pastor and supporting him "in seeking the Lord's leading for the church."¹⁸ In a Vineyard church, the answer should include the local bylaws and the Vineyard USA handbook those bylaws now acknowledge.²⁴ In any church, the answer should be written down. If no one can show a reader the bylaws, that is itself an answer.

3. How the pastor can be removed

This is the question most members never ask until it is too late. Read the bylaws for four things: who may bring a complaint against the pastor; who decides it (the board, the members, an outside body); what vote is required; and whether the pastor sits on, chairs or appoints the body that would decide. If the pastor appoints every board member and can remove any of them, the bylaws give the board no independent power, whatever its members intend. Ask also whether an outside body (an association, a network, a regional overseer) can step in, and what it can actually do. An association that can only drop a church from its list cannot remove that church's pastor.

The Vineyard Anaheim case shows why the details matter. A California appeals court held in 2025 that nine former members and leaders could not sue the church's pastors at all, because under the church's bylaws they were associate members rather than voting members.³⁷ Whatever the merits of their claims, the bylaws decided the case before the claims were heard. A member who wants a voice should know which kind of member he or she is.

In Idaho, a church that incorporates as a nonprofit corporation does so under the Idaho Nonprofit Corporation Act. That law gives a member of a membership corporation a right to inspect and copy certain records, on written notice "at least fifteen (15) business days" ahead, and for some records only for "a proper purpose reasonably related to the member's interest." But it also says: "The articles or bylaws of a religious corporation may limit or abolish the right of a member" to inspect and copy corporate records.⁴⁰ A church's own documents, in other words, decide how much of this right its members have. Ask for the articles of incorporation and the bylaws, and read the section on members' rights. The Idaho nonprofit lessons in the Issues family explain incorporation and state exemption in more detail: choosing 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) and state tax exemption, 990s and public inspection.

4. Money: churches do not file Form 990

Most charities must file an annual information return, Form 990, with the IRS, and the public can read it. Churches do not have to. IRS Publication 1828, the agency's tax guide for churches and religious organizations, lists "Churches (as opposed to 'religious organizations,' defined earlier)" among the organizations not required to file, and says churches that meet the requirements of section 501(c)(3) "are automatically considered tax exempt and are not required to apply for and obtain recognition" from the IRS.⁴¹ So there is usually no public filing to look up. The information exists only if the church chooses to share it.

That makes the questions to ask the church direct ones. Does it prepare an annual budget, and do members see it? Are its financial statements audited by an independent certified public accountant, reviewed, or neither, and can a member or donor see the most recent ones? Who sets the senior pastor's salary and housing allowance, and does the pastor or a relative take part in that vote? Who signs checks, and do two people count the offering? Does the church own its building, or does the pastor or a related company? Does it belong to an outside accountability group such as the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, whose standards page describes its work as "based on seven standards of responsible stewardship drawn from scripture"?⁴² A church that answers these questions in writing is easier to trust than one that does not, whatever its theology. The Issues lesson on churches and religious organizations covers the separate rules on churches and political campaigns.

5. Affiliation, and what it means

"Calvary Chapel" or "Vineyard" on a sign tells a reader something, but less than it seems. An association is not a denomination. In a denomination a national or regional body may own the property, ordain and assign the clergy and try a pastor for misconduct. In an association the local church usually owns its property and hires its own pastor, and the association's main power is to grant or withdraw the right to be listed and, in the Vineyard's case, to use the name. Vineyard USA has written its powers down: it can "Approve pastors for local Vineyard churches" and "Exercise discipline over local church pastors in case of misconduct or heresy," and it says that in 2024 and 2025 its churches acknowledged the national handbook in their local bylaws.³²³ The Calvary Chapel Association lists its affiliated churches and the Calvary Global Network keeps its own church finder. A church may appear in one, both or neither. Ask the church which list it is on, check the list, and ask what the association could do if a complaint reached it.

Also ask whether the name is current. Churches change affiliation, and the sign or the website may lag. Vineyard Anaheim, the movement's mother church, left Vineyard USA in March 2022 and renamed itself.³⁷

6. Safeguarding children

Ask for the church's written child protection policy, and ask who has read it. Good policies usually cover background checks for every adult who works with children, a rule that no adult is alone with a child out of sight of others, check-in and check-out procedures, training for volunteers, and a written duty to report suspected abuse to the authorities, not only to the pastor. Ask when the policy was last updated and whether anyone outside the church reviewed it. Vineyard USA, for example, now publishes a "Policy Pack for Churches" among the safeguarding resources on its website.²⁴

Idaho law matters here. Idaho Code section 16-1605 requires any "other person having reason to believe" a child has been abused, along with listed professionals such as teachers and nurses, to report within twenty-four hours to "the proper law enforcement agency or the department" (the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare). The statute exempts "a duly ordained minister of religion" only for a confession or confidential communication made to the minister directly, in his ecclesiastical capacity "in the course of discipline enjoined by the church to which he belongs," in a church exempt under section 501(c)(3), and in a setting where the confidentiality is "inviolate" under the church's canon law or doctrine. Communications made in other circumstances are not exempt, and failure to report "shall be a misdemeanor."⁴³ A church's policy should say plainly that its staff and volunteers report to the authorities, and that the church does not investigate abuse itself in place of law enforcement.

7. How complaints are handled

Ask what a member does if he or she has a complaint about the pastor, a staff member or a volunteer. Is there a written process? Does it go to someone other than the person complained about? Is there an outside body that will hear it? Vineyard USA, after its Guidepost assessment, set up a confidential reporting line run by the outside firm and published the firm's report.³⁵ Not every church can do that, but every church can write down who receives complaints, who decides them, and how the person who complained will be told the outcome.

8. Red flags

None of these proves wrongdoing. Each is a reason to ask more questions.

• No written bylaws, or bylaws the church will not show to members.
• A board made up only of the pastor, the pastor's relatives, or people the pastor can remove at will.
• No independent review of the books, no budget shown to members, and no answer to who sets the pastor's pay.
• The church property titled to the pastor or a company the pastor controls.
• A claim of affiliation that the association's own list does not confirm.
• No written child protection policy, or a policy that sends abuse reports to the pastor instead of the authorities.
• Teaching that questioning the pastor is the same as questioning God. (Smith's own teaching, quoted above, says elders "aren't a bunch of 'yes' men."¹⁸)
• Pastors removed elsewhere for misconduct who are quickly hired again without a public explanation.
• Members who leave being told not to speak to those who stay.

Finding an Idaho or Magic Valley church's affiliation from its own website

A newcomer to Twin Falls, Burley, Rupert, Gooding, Boise or anywhere else in Idaho can usually learn a church's affiliation in ten minutes from the church's own public pages. The steps below describe where to look. They say nothing about any particular congregation.

1. Start with the name and the footer. Older denominations usually put the denomination in the name (Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal) or in the website footer. A non-denominational church may use a network's name (Calvary Chapel, Vineyard) or no network name at all.
2. Find the "About," "Who We Are" or "What We Believe" page. Most churches put their statement of faith and any affiliation there. For example, the Vineyard Boise "Who We Are" page links to a "Statement of Faith" and states: "Vineyard Boise is a member of the Association of Vineyard Churches, a network of over 1,500 churches worldwide!"⁴⁴ That is the kind of sentence to look for. (The example is cited only to show where such a statement appears; this lesson makes no comment on the congregation.)
3. Compare the church's statement with the network's. Put the local statement of faith next to the Calvary Chapel Association's, the Calvary Global Network's or Vineyard USA's. A local church that uses the network's wording is signaling agreement. One that departs from it may have its own reasons, which a reader can ask about.
4. Check the network's own list. The Calvary Chapel Association keeps a church list at calvarycca.org, the Calvary Global Network keeps a church finder at calvarychapel.com, and Vineyard USA keeps a church finder at vineyardusa.org. A church that names an affiliation should appear on that body's list.
5. Look for the leadership page. It should name the senior pastor, the staff and, ideally, the board or elders. If the board is not named, ask who serves on it.
6. Look for the corporate name. Idaho churches that incorporate are on file with the Idaho Secretary of State, whose business search shows the legal name, the registered agent and the filing history. The legal name sometimes differs from the name on the sign, and the filing history shows when the corporation was formed.
7. Ask for what is not online. Bylaws, budgets, audited statements and the child protection policy are rarely posted. Asking for them politely, in writing, is reasonable for anyone thinking of joining or giving.

Related lessons and modules

• Lesson 04, Non-Denominational Churches: independence, house churches, megachurches and who holds the pastor to account. Read it with the checklist above.
• Lesson 06 and lesson 07: Calvary Chapel's doctrine, the network, the succession after 2013, and its controversies and reforms.
• Lesson 08 and lesson 09: Wimber, MC510, Kansas City, Toronto and Vineyard USA today.
• Liberty 56, Culture and the Republic: Francis Schaeffer and L'Abri, the evangelical thinker whose influence on the 1970s generation ran alongside the Jesus People, and A Christian Manifesto.
• Liberty 58, Ideas and Values: the 1970s and life-and-death questions.
• Issues 61, Starting a Nonprofit or Advocacy Group: choosing 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) and state tax exemption, 990s and public inspection.
• Issues 46, Idaho PACs and Electioneering: schools, churches and religious organizations.

Claims checked

"Calvary Chapel is cessationist; it rejects the gifts." Refuted.

The Calvary Global Network's own site says "We are continuationist," and the Calvary Chapel Association says the gifts "did not cease to be manifest at the end of the apostolic age."⁴² The claim usually comes from comparing a quiet Calvary Sunday service with a Pentecostal or Vineyard one. Calvary limits how the gifts are expressed in its services.

"The Vineyard began as a split from Calvary Chapel." Partly supported.

The first Vineyards came from a church "sent out by Calvary Chapel" in 1974, and Wimber's church was a Calvary Chapel from 1977 until it separated in 1982.¹⁷ Vineyard USA's own history describes the 1982 change as a "transition" that received "official recognition," language that does not describe a quarrel. The word "split" suggests a quarrel. The full story of the 1982 meeting and the differences over the gifts is in lesson 08, and accounts differ on how friendly the parting was.

"Chuck Smith became pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in December 1965." Partly supported.

The church's timeline shows Smith voted in as assistant and teaching pastor on Nov. 18, 1965, preaching his first official Sunday sermon on Dec. 5, 1965, and becoming senior pastor on Sept. 14, 1966.⁶ "December 1965" is right for his first sermon, and "1965" is right for the start of his ministry there. He was not senior pastor until 1966.

"The Vineyard allows women senior pastors; Calvary Chapel does not." Supported.

Vineyard USA: "There are no areas of ministry or levels of leadership closed to women in the Vineyard." Calvary Chapel Association: "pastoral authority and the teaching of doctrine in the church is reserved for qualified men." Both retrieved Oct. 28, 2026.³⁰² The Vineyard's position dates to 2006. Its 2006 letter also let each local church decide for itself, and whether that rule continues under the 2026 handbook was not confirmed.³¹

"The Vineyard endorsed the Toronto Blessing to the end." Refuted.

The Toronto revival began in a Vineyard church in 1994, but the American Vineyard board voted to cut ties in December 1995, and Wimber delivered the decision in person on Dec. 5, citing manifestations he could not defend and the need to focus on "the main and plain things in Scripture."³⁴

"Churches have to file public financial reports like other charities." Refuted.

IRS Publication 1828 lists churches among the organizations not required to file Form 990, and says churches are "automatically considered tax exempt."⁴¹ Any financial transparency is voluntary unless a church's own bylaws require it.

"In Idaho, pastors never have to report child abuse." Refuted.

Idaho Code section 16-1605 exempts a duly ordained minister only for a confession or confidential communication that meets each of the statute's conditions, and states that communications made under other circumstances are not exempt.⁴³

"The Calvary Global Network replaced the Calvary Chapel Association." Unsupported.

Both bodies exist in 2026. The Association still publishes its council, its statement of faith and its church list at calvarycca.org. The Global Network runs calvarychapel.com.²⁰⁴ Christianity Today reported in 2017 that the network counted Association churches as included unless they opted out, which is why a single church may appear on both lists.⁵

Hard questions and answers

If both movements believe in the gifts, why did they part at all?

On paper the difference is small. In a Sunday service it is large. Calvary's founder taught that the gifts are real but that "excesses" often follow "a freedom in the use of the gifts," and that tongues are not "the primary manifestation" of the Spirit's baptism.¹¹ Wimber's teaching at Fuller made signs and wonders a regular, expected part of evangelism and church life.⁷ The two men's churches agreed on the doctrine and disagreed about what should happen in the main meeting. That disagreement, plus differences in eschatology and, later, in governance and the role of women, was enough to make two movements.

Does the "Moses model" mean the pastor answers to no one?

Calvary's own teaching says the pastor "is ruled over by the Lord," that he has a board of elders who are not "yes" men, and that pastors serve the church rather than the reverse.¹⁸² Smith told Christianity Today in 2007, "I'm responsible to the Lord. We have a board of elders."¹⁹ Whether a given Calvary Chapel's board can actually remove its pastor depends on that church's bylaws, which the Association does not write. A reader should read them. The model describes an ideal, and the bylaws describe the law of that church.

Is an association better or worse than a denomination?

The record does not settle it. Denominations have outside oversight and also have well-documented failures in using it. Associations have local freedom and also have cases where no one outside could act. The useful question is narrower: in this particular church, what outside body can receive a complaint and what can it do? For a Vineyard church in 2026 the written answer is the National Leadership Handbook and Vineyard USA's power to approve and discipline pastors.²³³ For a Calvary Chapel it is the Association's or the Network's power to affiliate, and the church's own bylaws.

Did the Vineyard's Guidepost assessment fix the problem?

The record shows what Vineyard USA did: it hired an outside firm in 2022, set up a confidential reporting line in 2023, published the final report with 19 recommendations in late June 2023, and folded the follow-up into the handbook by 2026.³⁵ Whether those steps work is a question only future cases will answer. The assessment's own FAQ names "challenges to our governance model and structural limitations," which is an admission that an association's powers are limited.³⁶

How should a newcomer to Idaho choose between a Calvary Chapel and a Vineyard?

This course does not recommend a church. It can say what a newcomer will find in each body's written statements: a pretribulational rapture and male pastors in a Calvary Chapel; an "already and not yet" kingdom and women eligible for every office in a Vineyard; continuationism in both. Beyond that, the local church matters more than the label. The checklist in this lesson applies to both, and to every independent church in the Magic Valley and beyond.

Can a reporter get a church's financial records?

Usually not from the government, because churches do not file Form 990.⁴¹ A reporter can read the church's own public pages, its corporate filings with the Idaho Secretary of State, any property records at the county, and court records if there has been litigation, as in the Vineyard Anaheim case.³⁷ Beyond that, a reporter can ask the church, and report accurately what it says and whether it answered.

Learn more

• Calvary Chapel Association, Philosophy of Ministry: The Association's own explanation of exposition, the gifts, eschatology and male leadership, in one page.
• Vineyard USA, Core Values and Beliefs (PDF): The Vineyard's statement of faith and the roles it gives the national body.
• Vineyard USA, The National Leadership Handbook: The 2026 framework that now ties Vineyard churches, pastors and Vineyard USA together.
• B. B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles (1918): The classic cessationist argument, free to read in full.
• Guidepost Solutions report for Vineyard USA (2023): An outside firm's assessment of how an association of churches handled misconduct, with 19 recommendations.
• IRS Publication 1828: The IRS guide that explains why churches do not file Form 990.

Still being checked (14 items)

These points could not be confirmed against a primary source when this lesson was written and fact checked in October 2026. The text above states each one as uncertain.

• The founding year of the Calvary Chapel Association as a legal body was not found. Christianity Today (2013) dates Smith's leadership council to 2012; the brief's suggestion of the 1990s was not confirmed. The lesson uses only the 2012 council date.
• The full text of the 2006 Vineyard USA board letter on women in leadership was not opened; it is quoted only from excerpts published by Alex Chediak (Oct. 26, 2006) and described by Russell Moore (May 17, 2006). Whether its local-option sentence still applies under Handbook 3.0 (2026) was not confirmed.
• The names and dates of the Vineyard's music labels (Mercy Records, Vineyard Music, commonly dated to the mid-1980s) were not confirmed from a primary source; the lesson gives no founding date. The mention of Maranatha!'s later "Praise" series was not verified for this lesson.
• The description of Calvary Chapel "afterglow" meetings and of Vineyard "ministry time" after the sermon is general and was not verified against a primary source for this lesson (see lessons 06 and 08).
• Family tree dates for Spener's Pia Desideria (1675), Phoebe Palmer (1830s), the National Camp Meeting Association (1867), Topeka (Jan. 1, 1901), Azusa Street (April 1906), Dennis Bennett (1960), the NAE (1942) and Fuller Seminary (1947) were not re-verified here and rely on lessons 01 to 03.
• Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology (1994) and his view of fallible New Testament prophecy are summarized from general knowledge; the books were not opened. Ladd's book dates and his rejection of a pretribulational rapture were also not opened for this lesson.
• Donald E. Miller's "new paradigm" reading and Larry Eskridge's book are summarized, not quoted; the books were not opened.
• The statement that most Idaho churches that incorporate do so under the Idaho Nonprofit Corporation Act, and the description of the Secretary of State's business search, were not verified against a source.
• MC510 as the catalog number of Wimber's Fuller course follows the brief and lesson 08; Vineyard USA's page names the course but not the number.
• Church counts (over 1,700 Calvary Chapels; over 2,400 Vineyards worldwide; Vineyard Boise's "over 1,500") are the bodies' own figures and disagree with one another; no independent count was checked.
• Image captions rely on Wikimedia Commons descriptions for building dates and architects; image alt text was written without viewing the image files.
• Bill Ritchie is identified in the 2007 Moll article (BishopAccountability reprint) as pastor of a church in Vancouver, Washington, who oversaw Calvary Chapel pastors in the Pacific Northwest; this detail is not stated in the lesson.
• The book Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views was not opened; the position labels are those of a Themelios review.
• Vineyard USA's Guidepost page gives two dates for public release of the final report (June 26 and June 30, 2023); the lesson says late June 2023.

Notes

1. Vineyard USA, "History," vineyardusa.org (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
2. Calvary Chapel Association, "Philosophy of Ministry," calvarycca.org, sections on Biblical Exposition, Eschatology, Male Leadership in the Pulpit, Baptism of the Holy Spirit/Gifts, Servant Leadership and Informal/Relaxed Style (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
3. Vineyard USA, Core Values and Beliefs (Vineyard Resources, 2016), PDF, statement of faith and statements on the role of Vineyard USA (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
4. Calvary Chapel, "What We Believe," calvarychapel.com ("Brought to you by the team at Calvary Global Network") (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
5. Kate Shellnutt, "A Tale of Two Calvary Chapels: Behind the Movement's Split," Christianity Today, March 2017 issue (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
6. Calvary Chapel, "History," calvarychapel.com, timeline entries for spring 1961, Dec. 21, 1961, October 1965, Nov. 18, 1965, Dec. 5, 1965 and Sept. 14, 1966 (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
7. Vineyard USA, "John Wimber," vineyardusa.org (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
8. Donald E. Miller, Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). Summarized here, not quoted beyond the term "new paradigm." ↩
9. Larry Eskridge, God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013). ↩
10. Vineyard USA, "Core Values and Beliefs" web page, introduction (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
11. Chuck Smith, "Striking the Balance: Part 1," Calvary Chapel Magazine online, originally published in issue 24 (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
12. Calvary Chapel (Calvary Global Network), home page banner, calvarychapel.com (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
13. Calvary Chapel Association, "Statement of Faith," calvarycca.org (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
14. Vineyard USA, "What Is the Kingdom? The Now and the Not Yet of the Kingdom," vineyardusa.org, published March 26, 2016, modified Dec. 2, 2020 (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
15. Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1918), lecture 1, "The Cessation of the Charismata"; the preface identifies the lectures as the Thomas Smyth Lectures for 1917 to 1918, delivered at Columbia Theological Seminary, Columbia, S.C., Oct. 4 to 10, 1917. Public domain; full text at the Internet Archive (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
16. Russell D. Moore, "Vineyard Churches Open Door to Women Pastors," russellmoore.com, May 17, 2006, reporting an account by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
17. Wayne A. Grudem, ed., Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996); contributors' positions as described in Chris Sinkinson's review, Themelios 24, no. 2 (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). The book's own chapter titles were not checked. Read it online. ↩
18. "Calvary Chapel Distinctives, Part 3," Calvary Chapel Magazine online, "edited by permission and condensed from Calvary Chapel Distinctives by the late Pastor Chuck Smith," originally released in issue 73 (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
19. Rob Moll, "Day of Reckoning: Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel Face an Uncertain Future," Christianity Today, Feb. 16, 2007, as reprinted by BishopAccountability.org (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
20. Calvary Chapel Association, "Leadership Council," calvarycca.org, listing 15 members (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
21. Christianity Today, "Chuck Smith, 86, Dies After Cancer Battle," Oct. 3, 2013 (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
22. Vineyard USA, "National Leadership Team," vineyardusa.org (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
23. Vineyard USA, "The National Leadership Handbook," vineyardusa.org, background section and dates (Version 2.0 ratified March 2024; Version 3.0 in effect Aug. 29, 2026) (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
24. Vineyard USA, "Ordination Attestation and Church Bylaws," vineyardusa.org, including the Vineyard Policy Pack link and the May 1, 2025 due date (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
25. Vineyard USA, "National Director-Elect Ratification and a Conversation with Phil and Jay," March 5, 2021, modified March 11, 2021 (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). For the earlier directors: "Briefs: North America," Christianity Today, Aug. 7, 2000 (Todd Hunter resigned as national director and board president; Berten Waggoner named acting national director), https://www.christianitytoday.com/2000/08/briefs-north-america-5/; and the Vineyard Women in Leadership Network booklet cited in note 30 (Hunter "National Director from 1998-2000"; Waggoner "became National Director in 2001"). Read it online. ↩
26. Bert Waggoner, "The Theology and Practice of the Kingdom of God," Vineyard USA, March 1, 2017, modified April 10, 2017 (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
27. George Eldon Ladd, The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), a revised edition of Jesus and the Kingdom (1964). ↩
28. Maranatha! Music, "About" page, "Our History" (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
29. Vineyard Worship, home and "About Us" pages, vineyardworship.com (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
30. Vineyard Women in Leadership Network (history by Adey Wassink, content by Michelle Wilson), One in Christ: Men and Women Together in Ministry (c. 2013), reprinting the Vineyard USA Board of Directors' 2006 statement (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). The earlier Vineyard USA web address for this paper (vineyardusa.org/one-in-christ-men-women-together-in-ministry/) returned "not found" on Oct. 28, 2026. Read it online. ↩
31. Alex Chediak, blog post, Oct. 26, 2006, excerpting two paragraphs of a 2006 letter from Vineyard USA's leadership and citing Jeff Robinson of CBMW; the full letter was not opened for this lesson (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
32. Alex Murashko, "Brian Brodersen Officially Takes Senior Pastor Role at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa; Position Held by Chuck Smith," The Christian Post, Nov. 15, 2013 (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
33. Christianity Today, "Vineyard Founder Wimber Dies," January 1998 (reporting the Nov. 21, 1997 memorial service) (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
34. Christianity Today, "Vineyard Severs Ties with 'Toronto Blessing' Church," Jan. 8, 1996 issue (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
35. Vineyard USA, "Guidepost Assessment," vineyardusa.org, updates from Nov. 3, 2022, through the update effective Aug. 1, 2026; the final report is Guidepost Solutions, Organizational Assessment, Vineyard USA, dated June 20, 2023, which gives the Sept. 12, 2022, engagement date (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
36. Vineyard USA, "Guidepost Assessment: Frequently Asked Questions" (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
37. Daniel Silliman, "Court Rules California Church Members Can't Sue" (Aug. 6, 2025), with the earlier report "Lawsuit: Vineyard Anaheim Exit Was About Money, Not Holy Spirit" (Nov. 22, 2022) on the same page, Christianity Today (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
38. John Wesley, The Journal of John Wesley, entry headed "I Felt My Heart Strangely Warmed" (the Wednesday entry before "Thursday, 25" May 1738), Christian Classics Ethereal Library (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Public domain. Read it online. ↩
39. General Council of the Assemblies of God, photograph of visitors and delegates to the First General Council, Hot Springs, Arkansas, April 2 to 12, 1914, Wikimedia Commons file record (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
40. Idaho Code section 30-30-1102, "Inspection of records by members," subsections (1) to (3) and the religious corporation provision (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
41. Internal Revenue Service, Publication 1828, Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations (Rev. 8-2015) (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
42. Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, "Seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship" page, ecfa.org (page description retrieved Oct. 28, 2026; the standards' full text was not readable in the retrieval). Read it online. ↩
43. Idaho Code section 16-1605, subsections (1), (3) and (4) (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Read it online. ↩
44. Vineyard Boise, "Who We Are," vineyardboise.org (retrieved Oct. 28, 2026). Cited only as an example of where a church's statement of faith and affiliation appear. Read it online. ↩