The Grassroots Ecumenist| | Wednesdays w/ Wimber
John Wimber loved the whole church and his ministry was marked by laboring to encourage Christians from all over the denominational landscape to "do the stuff."
There are a lot of ways to define what the Church is and leaders throughout history have been shaped by a lot of passages of Scripture in order to help define it as well as to understand what characteristics the Church should have.
Personally, I love how Howard Snyder has described the Church as the “community of God’s kingdom.” The Church is comprised of those who are united to Christ and spans across denominational boundaries and includes a lot of Christian traditions. Unfortunately, some Christians have drawn a very narrow circle around a very narrow set of Christians… often dismissing people from being included in the Church simply because they use musical instruments, have different baptismal practices, or understand the process of discipleship differently.
Enter John Wimber… who Don Williams described as a “grassroots ecumenist… [who] was eager to was eager to bless the whole church whoever he found it.”
I think this is a really cool facet of Wimber’s legacy. Though Wimber led the growing Vineyard movement and was instrumental in multiplying Vineyard’s across the world, he was also very focused on equipping and encouraging Christians and churches from a variety of Christian traditions.
Perhaps Wimber’s greatest contribution to the global Body of Christ was his interaction with Anglicans, which came from his friendship first with David Watson and then through David Pytches.
So in 1981, John Wimber travelled to England with over thirty people to participate in training Anglicans on what was referred to as “power evangelism.” What’s cool about this trip is that it was both focused on equipping the Church to participate in God’s mission and to encourage Anglicans to pray for people as well as to flesh out the implications of cross-cultural evangelism.
Now a few years before Don Williams wrote that Wimber was a “grassroots ecumenist,” Gerald Coates had contributed a chapter to John Wimber: His Influence & Legacy, which was written to honor Wimber after he had passed. The title of his chapter was “The Ecumenist.” It’s a really great chapter.
Something that Coates wrote about Wimber is really interesting… and I think it’s a good reminder to all of us. He states that
“[John Wimber] spoke as though all of his listeners were personal fans and friends… He knew that if you treat people like the enemy, they become the enemy.”
Coates goes on to suggest that Wimber had love for all denominations, valued new beginnings as movements and networks were popping up here and there… he just wanted to equip and bless the whole church. Coates goes on to write:
“Whilst valuing certain things in most Christian traditions, God never sees us or values us by denominational or non-denominational labels. Perhaps that is why John was able to network and unite so many believers through his leadership conferences, public events, books and teaching tapes. While ecumenism is not a word family to the lips of the Vineyard constituency, John’s broad appeal was just that and did much to create understanding and fellowship amongst various groups. Fellowship softens judgements of one another and its absence sharpens criticism. And John sought no status for himself. He simply set out to serve and empower the whole body of Christ and not just a few important, or self-important, titled platform speakers.”
I think this is a pretty good summary of Wimber the ecumenist. While it’s true that back in the 80’s and 90’s, the average Vineyard person may not have been familiar with the word ecumenism, we were very aware that the Church belongs to Jesus and that Jesus loves the Church and that we weren’t in a competition with other churches. Rather, we were sisters and brothers in Christ.
About the Author
Luke Geraty is a pastor-theologian in northern California. With a few theology degrees and nearly twenty years of pastoral leadership, Luke loves the Bible, theology, fly fishing, coffee, and books. All opinions are his own and not the views of any other organizations he’s affiliated with. You can follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe to his YouTube.