Gogerr, Calvary Chapel London, 2025. CC BY-SA 4.0.
1971 to today · The churches · Featured Study
The Independent Churches
Calvary Chapel, the Vineyard and the unaffiliated congregations of America, from the Jesus movement of the 1970s to 2020.
Time's cover story of 21 June 1971 found the young converts of the Jesus movement “afire with a Pentecostal passion for sharing their new vision with others.”
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
- Began
- the Jesus movement, reported in 1971 (probable)
- Bodies
- Non-denominational churches of the United States, The Vineyard, Calvary Chapel
Time's cover story of 21 June 1971 found the young converts of the Jesus movement “afire with a Pentecostal passion for sharing their new vision with others.”
Summary
These congregations answer to no denomination above them. The American census of religious bodies counted 44,319 of them in 2020.
- Two national magazines reported the Jesus movement in 1971 and 1972.
- Calvary Chapel's Chuck Smith wrote of his wish to leave his denomination.
- John Wimber was invited to work for the Fuller Evangelistic Association in 1975.
- The Vineyard parted from its Toronto church in December 1995.
The Texts They Gather On
The texts come from Acts 13, Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Thessalonians 5.
The networks read their own practice in these texts, and their critics answer them from the same chapters.
Texts the networks and their critics read
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” And after they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
The networks read the sending of Barnabas and Saul as a church sending its own, with no body above it.
And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
The apostolic networks read these gifts as offices for today, and their critics dispute that reading.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
The Vineyard and the networks claim for the church today the gifts Paul lists in this chapter.
Do not extinguish the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test all things. Hold fast to what is good.
Both sides of the Toronto parting of 1995 could stand on this charge to keep the Spirit's fire and to test all things.
The Independent Branch of the Family of Churches
From the Jesus movement to the census, each year from its record.
The record dates the independent churches from the press of 1971 to the census of 2020.
1971 to 1972
- The Jesus movement
- The national magazines take notice
1975 to 1982
- Wimber at Fuller
- The experimental class of 1982
1995 to 1996
- The Vineyard and Toronto
- A parting of ways in December 1995
2001 to 2016
- Smith's middle way
- A statement of faith for 2016
2020
- Congregations counted
- Adherents in every state
Each year comes from the paper, the book or the count that tells of it.
The other families of the churches stand together with the dates on which each began.
How the Independent Churches Began
The press of 1971, a pastor's own account and a foreword of 1986.
The outside press of the time saw a movement before it saw churches. Time titled the story “The Alternative Jesus: Psychedelic Christ.”
The churches' own leaders tell the rest as interested witnesses. Chuck Smith, in the 2001 printing of his Calvary Chapel Distinctives, writes that he had wanted to leave his denomination and become independent.
John Wimber's Power Evangelism (1986) opens with a foreword by the director of the Fuller Evangelistic Association. It says the director invited Wimber to work for the association in 1975, and that an experimental course began at Fuller in January 1982.
Who tells this story, and with what interest1 paragraph
Time and Christianity Today wrote from outside the new churches. Smith wrote as Calvary Chapel's pastor, and the foreword's writer had brought Wimber to the association.
The Truth They Pressed: Apostles and Prophets Today
The networks hold the five gifts of Ephesians 4 for today, and the label for them is disputed.
Holly Pivec and R. Douglas Geivett, in Modern Reformation of May 2024, describe a movement led by apostles and prophets. Pivec says “NAR teachings are a radical departure from historical Pentecostal teachings.”
Geivett says “It was C. Peter Wagner who invented the label.”
Michael Brown, in The Christian Post of 3 May 2018, agrees that Wagner coined the term. Of a book by Pivec and Geivett he writes that they “included Charismatic leaders who believe in five-fold ministry today (as I have, for decades) and grouped them together as part of NAR.”
Their Own Statements on the Spirit
Pentecost and the gifts in the Vineyard's words, Calvary Chapel's middle way and a report of 1977.
Vineyard USA printed its Statement of Faith in Core Values and Beliefs (2016). On page 19 it says “the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church at Pentecost in power, baptizing believers into the Body of Christ.”
The same article says the Spirit released his gifts to them, and that the filling of the Spirit is “often a conscious experience, for ministry today.”
Smith wrote that Calvary Chapel takes neither a typical Pentecostal view of the Spirit nor a typical Baptist one.
Christianity Today, reporting the Kansas City conference of 1977, drew the line between the groups: “Generally, classical Pentecostals and independent charismatics believe that speaking in tongues is the initial, necessary sign of Spirit baptism.”
The Independent Churches Today
Two counts, each with the body that made it.
The census counted over 21 million adherents in American non-denominational churches in 2020.
| Who | The count | Year | Who counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-denominational Christian churches, United States | 44,319 congregations and 21,095,641 adherents | 2020 | The Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies |
| The Vineyard, worldwide | 546 member congregations | 1996 | The association's own count, in the press report of its break with Toronto |
Where the Independent Churches Spread
The churches spread from the Pacific Northwest in 1971 to every American state by 2020.
Russell Chandler's review of 1971 for Christianity Today reported that “The ubiquitous Jesus movement picked up steam in the early months of the year in the Pacific Northwest.”
In the census of 2020, non-denominational congregations were reported in every state and in the District of Columbia.
Toronto, 1995: the Vineyard Parts From One of Its Own
Wimber's belief and his conviction, as Christianity Today reported them.
James A. Beverley reported in Christianity Today of 8 January 1996 that Wimber flew to Toronto on 5 December 1995. The Vineyard then set its Toronto Airport church outside the association.
Wimber told the paper he believed there had been “an authentic visitation of the Spirit there.”
Because of his own scriptural and theological convictions, he said, he could not defend how it was “being pastored and/or explained.”
By the letter of its own leaders, the Toronto staff agreed to the formal separation. The Vineyard had withdrawn its endorsement from one of its own churches over how a revival it believed in was pastored.
Books to Read Next
Calvary Chapel Distinctives
Chuck Smith · 2001 printing
Smith sets out Calvary Chapel's way in his own words.
In print: find it wherever books are sold.
Power Evangelism
John Wimber · 1986
Its foreword tells when Wimber came to Fuller.
In print: find it wherever books are sold.
Core Values and Beliefs
Vineyard USA · 2016
It sets out the Vineyard's core values beside its beliefs.
Free at Vineyard USAWhat the Independent Churches Hand On
From the press of 1971 to the Vineyard's statement of 2016, the record ties these churches to an expectation of the Spirit's gifts. Their leaders also showed they would test what they received, even when it cost them one of their own churches.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible (read 2026)
- Time, The Alternative Jesus: Psychedelic Christ, cover story, 21 June 1971, the first of its eleven pages.
- Russell Chandler, Christianity Today, 7 January 1972, the review of 1971.
- Chuck Smith, Calvary Chapel Distinctives (Costa Mesa: Word for Today, 2001 printing)
- John Wimber, Power Evangelism (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986), the foreword.
- Vineyard USA, Core Values and Beliefs (Vineyard Resources, 2016), Statement of Faith.
- Christianity Today, Charismatic Unity in Kansas City, 12 August 1977.
- James A. Beverley, Vineyard Severs Ties with Toronto Blessing Church, Christianity Today, 8 January 1996.
- Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, Non-denominational Christian Churches: Adherents as Percentage of Population, 2020 (map, 2022)
- Michael Brown, Dispelling the Myths About NAR (the New Apostolic Reformation), The Christian Post, 3 May 2018.
- Holly Pivec and R. Douglas Geivett, The Novel Apostolic Reformation, an interview, Modern Reformation, May and June 2024.
Keep Studying
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