by Marty Boller
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John Wimber for Sainthood?
by Marty Boller
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Here @ Father's House Vineyard Church, we occasionally receive emails from well-intentioned (and sometimes not-so-well-intentioned) well-wishers asking why we spend so much time, energy & effort in bringing John Wimber's ministry to the public eye. One email writer states:
"I just happened upon your site
about the "Wimber Weekend" and was reminded of John's
response to others when they introduced him as a great servant of
God. He opened his mouth and went to put his finger in his mouth
as if to barf. When I read the post ... frankly, I felt like
barfing. I know John would have too. I am sure that if you speak
to Bob Fulton or some of the "early guys" you would find
they would too. John's desire was to raise up those who would
excel past what he experienced, not put him on a
pedestal as the premier example. John was a "pilot
project" for what God wants to do through our generation.... My
encouragement would be to set the bar higher... not on a man...
but rather on Jesus."
We realize that there is always the danger of elevating a man to a position of sainthood, and knowing John's heart, he would never stand for that. We are really sorry if our Wimber site comes off to some as a 'Wimber monument' because indeed, that has certainly never been our intent. We've discussed our site with Christy Wimber and she feels quite comfortable with what we're doing (see quote below), so hopefully she is a good barometer for us in keeping it balanced & on-track in honoring John yet never promoting him.
The problem we're seeing is that we have a generation of new
folks in the Vineyard (and outside the Vineyard) who have not been
exposed to the basic Kingdom teachings that bring vibrant life
& healthy understanding to the
Christian walk. It's not our desire to elevate John Wimber to
sainthood but simply to give people a taste of John's basic
teachings & hopefully keep the messages alive in a new
generation. As far as Wimber Weekend goes, we'll see if it has
life or not. If it ends up being a 'saint-producing-event' we will
be the first to pull the plug, but our hope is to simply give the
Vineyard a rallying point where we can keep our eyes on 'the main
& the plain' teachings that are our DNA.
Much thanks to Sean & Christy Wimber & the Wimber family for their kind permission to reprint these numerous John Wimber articles found on our site... "Got your note about (your) site and we do see all you guys are doing. It's so great. It's so important to keep the values and foundations of who we are. Thank you for contributing to that. You are welcome to use the article(s). I'm also in the middle of a new book with a lot of John's writings. It should be really great and going to be published soon...its so important to Sean & I that we get this stuff together and available for the movement as well as the church. I love the weekend idea you are doing. Bless you guys -keep it up." Christy Wimber
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