THE CHURCH AT WORSHIP is a series of documentary case studies of specific worshiping communities from around the world and throughout Christian history—case studies that can inform and enri
THE CHURCH AT WORSHIP is a series of documentary case studies of specific worshiping communities from around the world and throughout Christian history—case studies that can inform and enrich worship practices today.
This Church at Worship volume tells about the Anaheim Vineyard Christian Fellowship and its remarkable influence on the entire Vineyard movement, which contributed to the renewal of worship in thousands of evangelical churches during the 1970s and 1980s.
In presenting an in-depth look at founding leader John Wimber and the Anaheim Vineyard's early years, Andy Park, Lester Ruth, and Cindy Rethmeier tell an inspiring story of revival and renewal among people desperately hungering for a deeper knowledge of God. Enhanced with interviews, sermon excerpts, sidebars, timelines, and photos, Worshiping with the Anaheim Vineyard addresses core issues for all Christians desiring to know and worship God more intimately.
Caleb J. D. Maskell
— Society of Vineyard Scholars
"Combining astute historical analysis with a treasure trove of primary sources—interviews, images, sermons, songs, and more—this long-awaited volume is exemplary in its portrait of the embodied realities of worship at the Anaheim Vineyard in its formative years. It is also a very pastoral book. Throughout its margins, the authors raise questions explicitly addressed to today's worship leaders to help them think better about their present work in light of the perspective of the past. Anyone interested in the future of 'contemporary worship' should give this book serious attention."
Larry Eskridge
— author of God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America
"Boosters and critics alike know that the Vineyard churches somehow played a crucial role in the rise of contemporary praise music and worship styles, but this remarkable book—with its groundbreaking historical research and thoughtful insider accounts—brings deep insights into the 'hows,' 'whys,' and 'whats' behind that development. Worshiping with the Anaheim Vineyard is essential background for anyone wanting to understand how worship has changed in North American churches during the last half century."
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Andy Park is a songwriter, worship leader, and the author of To Know You More: Cultivating the Heart of the Worship Leader.
Lester Ruth is Research Professor of Christian Worship at Duke Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina. A series editor of The Church at Worship, he is also the author of Longing for Jesus: Worship at a Black Holiness Church in Mississippi, 1895–1913 and a coauthor of Worshiping with the Anaheim Vineyard: The Emergence of Contemporary Worship.
Cindy Rethmeier is music worship leader at Holy Trinity Church, Costa Mesa, California.
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