This fall, Vineyard Church of Gadsden will turn 21. Usually, age 21 signals adulthood, but we aren't there yet. We are still growing and learning and changing, and who knows where we will be and what we will see in the next few years? How exciting!

Sharing the history and the basic structure of our fellowship has been on my heart for months now. Sometimes, understanding something's beginning and inner workings is important. Sometimes, this knowledge is encouraging for it reveals the handiwork of God. I've been here since the beginning, and it has truly been a marvelous, mysterious tale.

On a Wednesday evening recently, Michael and Jim shared about who we are and how we came to be. The following are excerpts from that evening.

Who We Are . . .
By Michael Bynum

Just who are we as a fellowship? What does it mean to be part of "Vineyard"? Our fellowship is not the only Vineyard. We belong to an association of churches that adhere to a common set of values and beliefs. Now, all vineyards don't look alike. Neither do they function alike, but they all have the same core values and beliefs.

We believe that the community we call Vineyard Church of Gadsden belongs to God. It is not ours, so He alone should be the source of direction for us. Jesus said in Matthew 16: 18, "I will build my church." We seek to not usurp God's power and plans through our own plans and agendas but to seek His will for our community of believers.

God's directions are carried out through the church government and leadership whose main responsibility is to serve the people who are committed to the fellowship. We also believe that leaders should have a servant's heart. The people aren't there to serve the leadership; the leadership is there to serve them.

The leadership's authority does not exist so that it can be heavy-handed and rule over the fellowship. Authority's main goal is to create a safe place where people can meet with God.

Jim Bentley is our senior pastor. Michael Bynum and Kris Catoe are our associate pastors. Our elders are Todd Bagley, Wayne Wimpee, Brook Finlayson, and Clay Rowe. They meet on the first Monday of the month to pray and to hear the needs and concerns of the fellowship.

The board oversees the facilities and the operations thereof. Jim Bentley is the president of the board. Debbie Handy serves as the secretary and treasurer. The other board members are Michael Bynum, Kris Catoe, Todd Bagley, Brook Finlayson, Clay Rowe, Robby Elrod, and Walt Muller. Board meetings occur approximately four times a year. (The dates are posted on the calendar in the kitchen.)

We're not here to flavor the church but to flavor the world taking out into a broken, hurting world the good news that has made a difference in our lives.

Through commitment to God's call and the purposes ordained for our church, we encourage our fellowship to be good stewards with their lives, talents, and finances, freely giving away what has been freely given to us. We've had some incredible things happen over the last few months which have driven home the fact that we cannot outgive God. So, we are constantly striving to become an outwardly focused church. We're not there yet, but we are working on it and getting better at it.

Matthew 5:13 states that we are the salt of the earth, not the salt of the church. We're not here to flavor the church but to flavor the world taking out into a broken, hurting world the good news that has made a difference in our lives. We seek to do this through a life of loving people.

The gospel message is more than just a formula; the message is us and the changes God has made in our lives through Jesus. It's not just about memorizing scripture and going to church. When we minister to that broken, hurting world, we need to let God speak to us about the people to whom we are ministering, let Him give us a word for them. We should never assume that everyone is in the same place. So, our fellowship is learning how to hear God more and better than ever before. We are learning how to be equipped so that we can serve others. Thus, the motto of our fellowship is, "Equipping to Serve."

Our highest priority as a fellowship is the pursuit of God through a lifestyle of worship unto Him, both individually and corporately. Sunday should not be the only time we worship God or read our Bible; we should be worshipping and studying His word throughout the week. We are called to be students of the word and not have just a head full of knowledge and factoids.�We value studying the word not for knowledge's sake but as a practical guide for our daily lives. The Bible tells us how to live life, and the Holy Spirit shows us when and where we're supposed to do it.

These are a few of our priorities. No, we are not a well-oiled machine yet, and sometimes we feel like we are flying by the seat of our pants which is very scary. But, we are seeking God and asking Him what to do next. Over the past 21 years He has never forsaken or forgotten us, and we believe that He will faithfully continue to remember us. He is always faithful to come and meet with hungry hearts who are desperate for Him.

When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting the sheep to his right and goats to his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, "Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why:

I was hungry and you fed me.
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink.
I was homeless and you gave me a room.
I was shivering and you gave me clothes.
I was sick and you stopped to visit.
I was in prison and you came to me.

Then those sheep are going to say, "Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?" Then the King will say, "I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me - you did it to me."

Matthew 25: 31-40 (The Message Remix Bible)

How We Began. . .
By Jim Bentley

With Vineyard Church of Gadsden, there was literally not a people, and God made a people.

In 1980, I was a high school art teacher at Glencoe and Hokes Bluff High Schools. I had been following Keith Green and Last Days' Ministry when Keith was alive, and I had also been reading a lot of books.

Looking back, I now know that I was being driven by God. It wasn't something of my own initiative. It's not like I decided one day, "Hey, I'll just become crazy and change my whole life and make my whole family and friends at work upset and wonder what's wrong with me. I think I'll just get so crazy that all my friends at church will distance themselves from me and that the Sunday school teachers will just stop and want to know why I'm putting cartoons up on the wall. You know, I'm just going to be crazy. I'll try that."

I was somewhat a normal Southern Baptist person, and then God started this whole thing about being serious. "Why don't you just quit being part time with your Christianity? Why don't you just go for broke and be a Christian all the time and see where that takes you?"

Wayne Findley, one of the guys I taught with, found a Christian Life magazine in 1982. This whole issue was about a course, taught in the basement of Fuller Seminary by some guy named John Wimber, called Mission Course 510 - Signs and Wonders. Approximately 200 seminary students and missionaries who were on furlough signed up for this class. Wimber taught that God still healed and performed supernatural acts�in third world countries and even in this country and possibly even in that very room. Afterwards, Wimber would have a clinic. At the end of each class, he would take a few minutes and say something like, "Let's see if God wants to do something."

I thought that Wimber was the sanest sounding guy I had ever heard. Before, I had always bounced between two places. One place was really emotional and not very thoughtful; the other was so thoughtful that it was really dull. Wimber used both his emotions and his knowledge and made sense while sticking his neck out and trying new things. This was in October or November.

"Why don't you just quit being part time with your Christianity?�Why don't you just go for broke and be a Christian all the time and see where that takes you?"

On Sunday, January 16,1983, during the second song of a Baptist service, I was sitting on the third row where I always sat. One minute I didn't want to pray, and the next minute I just had to go to the prayer room. I told Jan, my wife, who was standing up with a hymnal, "Hey, I've got to go to the prayer room."

Now, Jan was a very practical person. However, I am not. I'm really like a kite flying around in the sky. She said, "Well, go."

So, I excused myself, went out to the prayer room, and prayed a couple of sentences. I don't remember what I prayed, but I knew enough to quit talking. The second I quit talking, I heard a sentence come through, the strongest sentence I've ever heard, not another voice but a very strong sentence. It said, "I want you to start a church."

Out loud, I said, "I can't pastor or preach. I'm an art teacher."

"That's not what I said."

People talk about the glory of God being like a weight. (The Hebrew for glory actually means weight.) The only time I have ever had a physical experience that matched this experience was when I had my wisdom teeth out and the dentist gave me valium. At this moment in the prayer room, I had the sensation of being pushed down into the carpet. The aura was heavy, and I sat there realizing that God had just talked to me.

"What does this mean? Should I go to seminary? What do I do?"

Well, I finally went outside and walked around. I couldn't go back in and sit down. The special guest was inside speaking about how wonderful Samford is. Everybody was out of town. My pastor was out of town. My friends were out of town. There was no one there but one guy. I found him at the end of the service and told him what God had said, and he told me that he had been called to seminary. He said, "You should probably go to seminary. That's what I'm going to do." In reality, he didn't go to seminary.

Later in the spring, I wrote to John Wimber. In the meantime, I talked to my pastor and other pastors, but I was never satisfied with their answers to my questions. However, Wimber replied and told me that he was going to be in Nashville in April. He invited me to come and promised to meet with me after one of the meetings.

So, I traveled to Nashville to Music Row to a church called the Belmont Church. Now, this church had taken out all the pews where the choir had been because they had a band. As we entered the room, the band was singing a Maranatha song named "As We Gather," a really mellow praise song.

I immediately started crying. The tears just bypassed my mind. Something similar to what happened to ET went through me and said, "Home, home!"

Now, that was really weird, but what was even weirder was that this meeting was comprised of 400 Church of Christ members, non-instrumental and instrumental, wearing three-piece dark blue and gray suits. I had on my blue jeans and was with my wife and another college student we had brought with us. We and another couple from Florida sat together.

Then, this guy came up on the stage. His hair was a sandy blonde color and was beginning to turn white, and he was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and white pants and shoes something like Pat Boone would have worn.

He taught about healing for awhile and then he said, "Let's have a clinic." That wasn't too bad. Someone heard the word arthritis and maybe the number nine.�Eventually, nine people stood up and came to the stage where people began to pray for them. He told us to watch them and see if we could see what the Holy Spirit was doing to and in them. I really couldn't see anything except that maybe one guy was vibrating a little.

I'd never been around this kind of thing. I could tell that whatever was happening was important, but I had just not seen anything like this before.�

The meeting broke for supper, and then we came back for the evening session. At the end of this session, he said, "God wants to anoint some of you." (Many of the people attending the session were ministers.) He asked everyone to stand. I stood up in the aisle because I am a guy and we don't want to be trapped.

He then said that God wanted to touch many of us in a new way and that there were people there who needed to be refreshed. Then he asked God to send the Holy Spirit. "In Jesus' name, Holy Spirit, come."

He took the microphone, put it under his arm, and sat down on top of the stage. Everybody was standing, looking around at the other people standing there. Nothing much was going on.

Many churches then believed that spiritual gifts ended with the first century Christians.

Then from the back of the room, we heard a sound, something heavy hitting something else. Then the noise was to the side of us, and we realized that what we were hearing was people who couldn't stand up. They were falling backwards in the wooden pews which had no padding. This started moving from the back of the room toward the front.

When it got up even with me, the guy who was standing in the aisle across from me went nose first. Now, backwards is one thing, but a Church of Christ guy in a three-piece suit, nose first - that's impressive. That's really impressive. It was so impressive that his best friend crawled next to me trying to talk to the guy whose face was on the carpet turned toward me to find out if he was okay. Wimber got up in his best calm voice and said, "Sir, God's with him. He's okay."

Another man said, "Excuse me, but this is my best friend, and I just want to know what's happened to him." Eventually, the guy trying to talk to the downed guy went down the aisle, out a side door, and slammed the door.

Suddenly, this began happening all over the room. People were all over, and other people were praying for people. Finally, the session was dismissed.

The man who had stormed out came back in and apologized saying that he just had never seen anything like this. The other guy lying on the floor could hear him and kept saying, "I'm just fine."

I was going to leave because Wimber had disappeared, but people were still praying for people, so I went up to one of the people who was praying and told him that I was from Alabama and was supposed to meet John and Carol Wimber after the session. He told me that they were going to meet at the IHOP down the street.

That was my first encounter. I literally stayed up all night because I had just seen something and really didn't know what I had seen. I couldn't explain it.

After Nashville, we began meeting in our living room and were still attending our church. Nobody from the church felt impressed to help do what God had asked me to do. Of course, I wasn't trying to get anyone to leave the church. I was just trying to tell my friends the story.

In fact, I went to one denomination, which I won't mention, to talk to another pastor and told him about the things I had seen. He said that he could see that I probably wouldn't be happy in his church. (Many churches then believed that spiritual gifts ended with the first century Christians.) I didn't realize that he was really trying to get rid of me.

During the summer 1984, I attended my first big conference in California. Approximately, 2000 people from all over the world attended. I thought that this was normal because I really didn't have anything to gauge it by. However, later I discovered that this meeting was considered the all-time peak for meetings from about three years before to three years after. I just thought that it was normal for people to be manifesting demonic things over here and for somebody else to be healed over there and for others to be empowered over there. So, I came home expecting that to be the normal thing that happened.

We continued to meet in the living room where we would sing some songs and then invite the Holy Spirit and look at each other. We would just wait until something would happen or somebody would have an impression. Amazingly, God did at least one thing every week. By January 1985, there were about a dozen of us.

Eventually, we moved to Christian Brothers (currently the 419 building), and from there we moved around a little bit here and there. In 1990, we moved back down here and have been here ever since.