John Wimber

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 Christy Wimber and Sam Storms. In 2007 Storms wrote an article commemorating Wimber ten years after his death.

Wimber held a complementarian view of gender roles, however his theology on various issues changed throughout the years. He believed firmly in who God was calling and anointing. In 2006, his daughter-in-law, Christy Wimber planted and led a Vineyard Church in Yorba Linda for eleven years. It was Carol Wimber who did the installation. 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 stated, "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, when discussing this issue, stated "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)."

Christy Wimber handled all of John Wimber's teachings and writings from his passing in 1997 up until 2018. She worked with Regent University in Virginia for twelve years and opened the library in 2018.https://www.regent.edu/lib/special-collections/wimber-collection.cfm

In 1993 Wimber was diagnosed with sinus cancer. He had successful radiation treatment which lasted a year, but said "at the time I weighed 280 pounds." In 1995 he had a stroke. In 1997 he had triple-bypass heart surgery. His mental faculties were declining and later that same year Wimber fell in his home and hit his head. This caused a massive brain hemorrhage, from which he died on November 17, 1997, at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, California. He was 63 years old.

In a 1996 Christianity Today article, Wimber told the story of someone he claimed was supernaturally healed, but he also shared stories of other people who were not healed. He had cancer at that time. A sociologist who conducted an analysis at one of Wimber's conferences observed that falsity and empty display were 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."

Wimber pastored the VCF until 1994. Wimber continued in the Quaker Church and did not start attending the house group until later. It all began at a home in Yorba Linda, then moved to the Masonic Lodge off of Main Street, met in various local schools, eventually moving to Canyon High School gym in Anaheim. After many years the Anaheim Vineyard moved to its own building off of Cerritos in Anaheim, California. Eventually it moved back to Anaheim Hills in the early 90's. The Vineyard initially joined 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 was only associated with Calvary Chapel for three months. John considered himself a Quaker and deeply loved the Quaker Church.

Services led by Wimber often included activities, described as Holy Spirit manifestations, where congregants appeared to be drunk, dazed, or uncoordinated. But in the mid-1990s he led the Vineyard movement to split from the Toronto Blessing church primarily on the issue of bizarre manifestations and the church's extreme latitude for them.

In 1983 and 1984, Wimber said, "I had suffered minor chest pains every four or five months. I suspected they had something to do with my heart but did nothing about them. Nobody, not even Carol, my wife, knew about my condition." In October 1985 while in England he was very tired and had chest pains. His wife insisted he get tested. "I had what doctors later suspected were a series of coronary attacks." The next month his cardiologist confirmed he had a damaged heart and told him that his weight and schedule put him at risk of imminent death. "In 1985 I was away from home for over forty weeks." "All my life," Wimber confessed, "I have been a compulsive person, always working and eating more than I should." In 1986 he had a heart attack.

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 was given a copy of the book Quest for the Radical Middle prior to his passing, but would not endorse the book. It was published following his death. Wimber taught and preached about spiritual gifts and healings, which began long before May 1980 when evangelist Lonnie Frisbee ministered.

Wimber eventually left the Quaker denomination after being discouraged from operating in the gifts of the Spirit. He formed a house church that would eventually grow into the Vineyard Christian Fellowship (VCF) of Anaheim in 1977.

By 1970, Wimber was leading 11 different Bible study groups that involved more than 500 people. He was the Founding Director of the Department of Church Growth at the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth from 1974 to 1978, which was founded by the Fuller Theological Seminary and the Fuller Evangelistic Association. He was also on staff at Yorba Linda Friends Church.

He converted to Christianity in 1963, immediately enrolled in Azusa Pacific College, and majored in Biblical Studies. Upon graduating he was ordained as a Quaker minister. He then took a pastoral position with the Yorba Linda Friends Church.

Wimber was a talented keyboardist and vocalist. He was a pianist and singer in The Paramours group, later known as The Righteous Brothers, from 1962 to 1963, as well as a manager for The Righteous Brothers during this period. This five-member band preceded Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley's eventual induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

John Richard Wimber (February 25, 1934 – November 17, 1997) was an American pastor, Christian author and musician. Initially ordained as a Quaker minister, he became an early, pioneering pastor of charismatic congregations, and a popular thought leader in modern Christian publications on the third person of the Christian Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit's action in modern churches through miraculous phenomena referred to as miracles, or signs and wonders. Wimber was a founding leader of the Vineyard Movement, a Christian movement that Ken Gulliksen began in the United States and that later became a wider denomination.

John Richard Wimber was born on February 25, 1934, in Kirksville, Missouri, to Basil and Genevieve Estelynn (Martin) Wimber. He grew up outside of a religious or faith-based belief system until he became a Christian at the age of 29. Wimber was recognised as a talented musician, and he first played as a professional at the age of 15 at the Dixie Castle in Orange, California. Four years later, in 1953, Wimber won a first prize at the Lighthouse International Jazz Festival.