✝️ Bible and History
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Church history · Module 77

⛪ Church History, Part C: American Movements, Calvary Chapel and Vineyard

How the movements that shaped American Protestant life formed after the Reformation, told from their own documents and the historical record: Pietism, Wesley and the Methodists, the Holiness movement and Keswick, Topeka and Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave, the new evangelicals, Billy Graham and the Southern Baptist resurgence, and the rise of the non-denominational church. Then a full study of Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard: the Jesus People and Costa Mesa, Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee, Calvary's teaching and structure, its growth, succession and controversies, John Wimber and signs and wonders, the Toronto Blessing and the Vineyard today, and a side-by-side comparison with a reader's checklist for any independent church.

10 lessons · about 9 hours · about 105,000 words · Updated October 28, 2026 ·

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How to read this module

This is a study, not a promotion and not an attack. Each movement is described first in its own words, from its founders' writings and its current official statements (quoted briefly, with the date each page was read), then by the historical record (dates, numbers and documents), then by how named scholars read that record. Where a claim is disputed, both sides are given and the lesson says which one the evidence supports, or that it is still open.

Controversies are reported only from court records, the organization's own statements and named major news reports, with the organization's response and the date. An allegation is called an allegation. Living pastors are described by their public ministry only. Local churches in Idaho and the Magic Valley are named only from their own public pages, as examples of where a statement of faith or an affiliation appears, and are never characterized.

Theological disputes (spiritual gifts, church government, the end times, women in ministry) are set out with each side's best case. The site does not pick a theological winner; it reports what each body says and what the record shows.

Status: built and fact checked October 28, 2026. Every lesson was checked by an independent checker against primary sources; quotations were matched word for word. Each lesson ends with a short "Still being checked" list of points not yet confirmed. Parts A and B of church history (beginnings to the Reformation, and the denominations) are separate modules.

  1. 1Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and KeswickBefore there was a Pentecostal movement there was a 230-year search for a second, definite experience of God after conversion. This lesson traces it from Spener's Pia Desideria (1675), Halle and the Moravians of Herrnhut, through John Wesley's Aldersgate experience (May 24, 1738) and his doctrine of Christian perfection, the rise of American Methodism, Phoebe Palmer's "altar" teaching, the national holiness camp meetings (Vineland, 1867), the Holiness churches formed outside Methodism and the Keswick "higher life," to the "baptism of the Holy Ghost" language that the first Pentecostals inherited. Each movement is quoted in its own words, then checked against the dated record, with disagreements between sources marked.65 min
  2. 2Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third WaveHow a Kansas Bible school in 1901 and a Los Angeles mission in 1906 started the Pentecostal movement, how it divided over sanctification, the Trinity and race, and how it organized into the Church of God in Christ, the Church of God, the Assemblies of God and the Foursquare Church. Then the healing revival, the Full Gospel Business Men, the Charismatic Renewal in Episcopal and Catholic churches, and C. Peter Wagner's "third wave," the bridge to the Vineyard. Global counts are given with their sources, years and definitions.55 min
  3. 3Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist ResurgenceWhat "evangelical" has meant from Luther's followers and the 18th-century revivals to the new evangelicals of the 1940s: the NAE (1942 to 1943), Carl Henry's Uneasy Conscience, Fuller Seminary, Christianity Today, Wheaton and Billy Graham from Los Angeles in 1949 to New York in 1957 and Lausanne in 1974. The lesson compares Bebbington's four marks, the 2015 NAE and Lifeway belief test, and Gallup and Pew survey counts, then tells the Southern Baptist conservative resurgence and the founding of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship from both sides, with membership figures from the Annual Church Profile.45 min
  4. 4Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to AccountIndependent churches answer to no denomination, and the 2020 U.S. Religion Census counted 44,319 of them with about 21.1 million adherents, more than the Southern Baptist Convention. This lesson traces their roots (Congregational independence, the Restoration Movement, Bible churches, independent Baptists), weighs the census, the National Congregations Study, Pew and the Hartford megachurch studies, explains the seeker model, house churches and the main governance models, and uses the documented Willow Creek, Mars Hill and Harvest Bible Chapel cases to show what members can ask to see and ask the board.55 min
  5. 5The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth RevivalHow hippies and runaways became evangelical Christians between 1967 and the late 1970s, from the Living Room and the House of Acts in San Francisco to Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa. The lesson checks the dates of Chuck Smith's arrival (first sermon Dec. 5, 1965), Lonnie Frisbee's ministry, departures and death, the House of Miracles, the Pirate's Cove baptisms, the tent, Time's June 21, 1971 cover and Explo '72, keeps the Children of God separate, and compares the 2023 film Jesus Revolution with the record.55 min
  6. 6Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! MusicWhat Calvary Chapel teaches and how it is run, in its own words first: Chuck Smith's verse-by-verse method and his "distinctives," the pastor-led "Moses model" with the named critics and defenders of it, and the statements of faith of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, the Calvary Chapel Association and the Calvary Global Network compared line by line. It then traces the radio ministry, Maranatha! Music and Calvary Chapel Bible College with their dates, notes where Calvary's own sources disagree, and closes with how Donald E. Miller and other scholars describe the movement.55 min
  7. 7Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and ReformsHow one Costa Mesa congregation became a network of well over a thousand churches, which pastors came out of it, and what happened after Chuck Smith died on Oct. 3, 2013. The lesson sets out the 2016 split between the Calvary Chapel Association and Brian Brodersen's Calvary Global Network in each side's own words, the controversies documented in court filings and named news reports, the debate over the Moses model, and the 2025 handoff at Costa Mesa to Char Brodersen.55 min
  8. 8The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510How a Calvary Chapel church plant in Los Angeles (1974) became the Vineyard, and how John Wimber, a former musician and Fuller church growth consultant, led it after his Yorba Linda church left Calvary Chapel in 1982. Covers the Mother's Day meeting with Lonnie Frisbee, Fuller Seminary's MC510 course and its 1986 cancellation, the 1987 report Ministry and the Miraculous , Wimber's books and kingdom theology, Vineyard worship songs, and the critics of the 1980s and 1990s with Wimber's answers.55 min
  9. 9The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USAFrom 1990 to 1997 the Vineyard took in, and then parted from, the Kansas City prophets and the Toronto Airport Vineyard, whose "Toronto Blessing" began on Jan. 20, 1994, and spread to Holy Trinity Brompton in London. After John Wimber's death on Nov. 17, 1997, Vineyard USA passed through four national directors, left women's ordination to local churches in 2006, kept a traditional position on marriage, and rebuilt its accountability structures after a 2023 outside assessment. This lesson tells the story from the movement's own documents, the participants' words, the press record and named critics.55 min
  10. 10Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational ChurchCalvary Chapel and the Vineyard share Jesus People roots, a casual style, contemporary worship and independence from the older denominations, and both say the gifts of the Spirit continue today. This capstone compares their current official statements on the gifts, church government, the end times, music, women in ministry, succession and scandal, draws the family tree from Pietism to both movements, and ends with a reader's checklist for evaluating any non-denominational church in Idaho or anywhere else.55 min

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