We Are Vineyard

Carmen Imes: Bearing God’s NameShow Podcast InformationThis episode of We Are Vineyard is a continuation of our series on ordination! Jay and Caleb Maskell (Associate National Director of Theology and Education) talk to Dr. Carmen Imes about understanding how our story directly connects to the story of the Old Testament. Carmen shares about her rich experience in various expressions of Christian faith, both domestically and internationally, the aspects of the Old Testament that capture her attention, and how she gets her students to care. She illustrates how the principles in the Old Testament apply to our current context and the gift of allowing ourselves to be trained by praying through the Psalms. Dr. Carmen Imes serves as associate professor of Old Testament at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. Carmen is passionate about helping students and other laypeople engage the Old Testament and discover its relevance for Christian identity and mission. She is best known for her books Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters (IVP 2019) and Being God’s Image: Why Creation Still Matters (IVP 2023). Imes has appeared on over 100 podcasts and radio shows and releases weekly “Torah Tuesday” videos on her own YouTube channel. She writes for Christianity Today, the Politics of Scripture blog, and The Well (InterVarsity). Imes is also a frequent speaker at churches, conferences, and retreats. Before arriving at Biola in 2021, she served as professor of Old Testament at Prairie College in Alberta, Canada. Her academic journey began when Carmen and her husband served as missionaries in the Philippines with SIM International, reaching out to ethnic minorities. Imes loves introducing students to the rich insights of the global church. Show Notes:  Read Carmen’s Books Reading While Black by Esau McCaulley Lectio 365 app Socials:  Carmen’s Youtube Channel Carmen’s Facebook Carmen’s Twitter Carmen’s Blog  

Bruce Hindmarsh: Can A Movement Be More Than The Work Of One Generation?Show Podcast InformationThis episode of We Are Vineyard is the first in a series on ordination! Jay and Caleb Maskell (Associate National Director of Theology and Education) talk to Bruce Hindmarsh about what evangelical spirituality is, its context in the historic and global church, and how it’s relevant to our current world. As Vineyard USA is in a moment of grappling with questions of identity and history, Bruce helps us to understand the traditional roots of evangelicalism and offers some wisdom on remaining faithful to the founding charism of a movement.  Bruce Hindmarsh took his D.Phil. degree in theology at Oxford University in 1993. From 1995 to 1997 he was also a research fellow at Christ Church, Oxford. He has since published and spoken widely to international audiences on the history of early British evangelicalism. His articles have appeared in respected academic journals such as Church History, the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, and the Huntington Library Quarterly. The recipient of numerous teaching awards and research grants, he has also been a research fellow at the Huntington Library and recipient of the Henry Luce III Theological Fellowship. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a past-president of the American Society of Church History. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by Crandall University in 2022. He teaches the history of Christianity and spiritual theology, and speaks often to lay audiences as well as preaching in his own church and elsewhere. A former staff worker for Youth for Christ and founding director of Camp Cedarwood, he is an active lay member of an Anglican Church. He is married to Carolyn, and they have three children: Bethany, Matthew and Sam. Show Notes:  John Wesley’s Christian Library: https://scriptoriumdaily.com/so-many-good-books-wesleys-christian-library/ John Wimber’s Pastoral Letters by Derek Morphew & John Wimber: https://www.amazon.com/Wimbers-Pastoral-Letters-Derek-Morphew/dp/B085RTT7G7 Amazing Grace: The Life of John Newton and the Surprising Story Behind His Song by Bruce Hindmarsh and Craig Borlase: https://tinyurl.com/bdfhms6r Bruce’s website: https://www.brucehindmarsh.com/ Faith in the Wilderness: Words of Exhortation from the Chinese Church by Hannah Nation: https://tinyurl.com/mr2cwzu6 Fundamentalism and American Culture by George M. Marsden: https://tinyurl.com/bdemeene Christ and Culture by H. Richard Niebuhr: https://tinyurl.com/4z67pep5

Ranjo Clements: Our Faith Is Not Meant To Be HomogenousShow Podcast Information  In this episode of We Are Vineyard, Jay talks with Ranjo Clements about traveling from Bombay, India to the US with his parents at age 5, the disconnect he felt moving back as a young teenager, and his experience of re-learning how to be Indian. They discuss some cultural values and norms that are strengths, and others that require navigation in a mixed-culture environment. Ranjo shares about the life events that led him to taking diversity issues seriously, some of the challenges and benefits he has found in being a part of the Vineyard, and what he finds valuable about Vineyard USA Associations.  Ranjo joined the Vineyard in 2013. Although originally from India, he is a card-carrying “third culture kid,” having spent multiple stints in India and the US. He is passionate about equipping worship leaders, building multiethnic communities, and creating “safe spaces” where people encounter God and operate in their gifting. Ranjo served as a worship pastor in India before returning to the US in 2008 to pursue an M.Div. in worship studies at Asbury Theological Seminary (ATS). He has since served as Associate Pastor at GCF Vineyard in Wilmore, KY, and is on the core team for Vineyard USA’s AAPI association. He is also pursuing a Ph.D. in Asian American studies at ATS. His research interests include Asian American identity and theology, worship, ethnodoxology, and missiology. Ranjo and his wife, Aletha, have five beautiful daughters. They love hosting people, singing, sharing stories, laughing, and eating all kinds of ethnic food, especially spicy food.   Show Notes:  2023 VUSA National Conference “Making All Things New” Learning Our Names by Sabrina S. Chan, Linson Daniel, E. David de Leon, and La Thao Asbury University

John Kim: Hedge Funds and the Holy SpiritShow Podcast InformationIn this episode of We Are Vineyard, Jay talks with John Kim about growing up in an industrious immigrant family on Long Island, encountering the Lord through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and getting connected with the Vineyard. John shares about living a life of continuity between work and church by intentionally bringing his spiritual self to the workplace and his business mind to the church, and explains how this is an asset to both. John Kim pastors the166, a Vineyard church plant in the Hell’s Kitchen section of midtown Manhattan, along with his wife Kara. He is a principal of Karamaan Group, an investing firm that takes passive and active interests in both public and private companies. On the active side, he is a founder of Bored Room Ventures, a web3 agency and investment fund, and a strategic advisor to Wise Rock Software, a provider of intelligence amplification software. Prior to this, he was a partner at MSD Capital. He received his PhD from MIT in 1998, and his AB from Harvard in 1995. He resides in Manhattan with his wife Kara and son Samuel. He is one of the founding families of Coram Deo: A House of Worship, Prayer and Entrepreneurship located in midtown Manhattan, and serves on the board of Vineyard USA. Show Notes:  VUSA Empowered series:  https://vineyardusa.org/pentecost2023/ Use #vusaempowered when you share on social media so we can see it! 2023 VUSA National Conference “Making All Things New”:  https://conference.vineyardusa.org/ Order of the Common Life: https://www.orderofthecommonlife.org/

Becky Olmstead: The Vineyard’s Love For KidsShow Podcast InformationIn this episode of We Are Vineyard, Jay talks with Becky Olmstead about growing up in the church, her resistance towards living a life of formal ministry, and finding that God had specifically prepared her to lead a Children’s Ministry. Becky shares some advice she would give to her younger self, her unique priorities in leading a Children’s Ministry, and her approach to raising kids who would grow up to love God, the church, and each other. Becky Olmstead and her husband, Rick, started Vineyard Church of the Rockies in 1982. She has been passionately involved in ministry to kids since the beginning of their church. Having come into relationship with Jesus as a child, Becky has been a voice for kids, not just in their local church, but in the Vineyard USA and internationally. God has given Becky a passion for equipping and encouraging kids’ ministry leaders. In 1998, she started networking Vineyard kids’ ministry leaders through Kid*Net conferences. This led to the development of the Vineyard Kids Task Force. Becky and Rick have twin boys who are each happily married. They have travelled to 6 out of 7 continents. She loves bicycling, roasting her own coffee beans, eating chocolate, and reading mystery novels. She is the 4/14 Movement Global Leader and the National Kids Task Force Leader for Vineyard USA.   Show Notes:  VUSA Empowered series:  https://vineyardusa.org/pentecost2023/ Use #vusaempowered when you share on social media so we can see it! 2023 VUSA National Conference “Making All Things New”:  https://conference.vineyardusa.org/ Becky’s website: https://www.beckyolmstead.net/ Vineyard Kids: Vineyardkidsusa.com

Steve Nicholson: Being A Church That Lives Beyond Human ExplanationShow Podcast InformationIn this episode of We Are Vineyard, Jay talks with return guest Steve Nicholson about some common practices of pastors who see the Holy Spirit move in their churches, and how pastors can begin to train and lead Holy Spirit ministry. Steve also shares about moving through windows of discouragement and what he’s seeing the Holy Spirit doing right now.  Steve Nicholson began ministering as a college student through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in the early 1970s.  After graduation, he moved to the Chicago area where he and several other twenty-something leaders founded a church.  That fellowship, begun in 1976 in Evanston, Illinois, placed a high priority on contemporary worship, biblical teaching, openness to the Holy Spirit, and committed relationships as a church family. In 1981, Steve and a team from the fellowship established a new church in Humboldt Park, a neighborhood in Chicago’s inner city. Both churches joined Vineyard USA in August of 1985, and Steve transferred leadership of the Humboldt Park Vineyard to one of his team members in 1986. The Evanston Vineyard has since planted nine other congregations in the Chicago area, and another fifteen in other cities or countries.  Steve led Vineyard USA’s church planting task force for over twenty years. Steve has ministered to and trained church leaders in India, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Turkey, Lebanon, Brazil, Chile and several Central Asian countries as well as in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The Evanston Vineyard is a diverse congregation from over 50 nations of the world with no majority racial or cultural group. Since 1986 the ministry of the Holy Spirit has been a regular and ongoing strength and emphasis of the Evanston Vineyard.  Steve and his wife, Cindy, live in Chicago. They have three adult children and eight grandchildren. Show notes:  VUSA Empowered series:  https://vineyardusa.org/pentecost2023/ Use #vusaempowered when you share on social media so we can see it! 2023 VUSA National Conference “Making All Things New”:  https://conference.vineyardusa.org/ Holy Spirit ministry training resources (free but you’ll need to enter an email for access):  https://vineyarddigital.org/item/john-wimber-signs-wonders/ https://vineyarddigital.org/holy-spirit/ Hear more teaching from Steve Nicholson on Holy Spirit ministry:  Vineyard’s Legacy of The Spirit’s Power | Steve Nicholson  

Mary Anne De La Torre: A Deeper Level of Coming HomeShow Podcast InformationIn this episode of We Are Vineyard, Jay talks with Mary Anne De La Torre about being born in the Philippines during the Marcos era, her parents leaving to immigrate to the US when she was very young, and the motivation in many cultures to pursue certain degrees and career goals in order to open doors and expand opportunities. Mary Anne shares about her first experience of racism in college, and feeling like she stood out and was invisible at the same time. They talk about the adjustment of attending a Vineyard church, how she got started in ministry, and the considerations required in a multiethnic community. Finally, Mary Anne talks about how her experience of the Vineyard has changed since joining the AAPI Association, and the value in ethnically diverse people having the opportunity to be in proximity with each other. Mary Anne was born in the Philippines and immigrated to NJ when she was almost 7 years old.  After attending college in Pennsylvania, she began her teaching career but was quickly called into ministry.  Mary Anne now serves as the Senior Associate Pastor at North Jersey Vineyard.  She oversees the Children’s Ministry and also supervises some staff members and serves on the Senior Leadership Team. Mary Anne also joyfully serves with the AAPI and Women’s Associations.    Mary Anne and her husband Rich have two kids, Marcus and Noemi. She loves to travel, spend time with her family, and works part-time as a donut connoisseur. She tries to run to offset all the donuts in her spare time. Show Notes:  2023 VUSA National Conference “Making All Things New”: https://conference.vineyardusa.org/ VUSA AAPI Association: https://vineyardusa.org/associations/asian-american-pacific-islander-association/ Read more from Mary Anne: vineyardusa.org/aapimonth Listen to Mary Anne’s talk at the AAPI Summit:

In this episode of We Are Vineyard, Jay talks with return guests Josh and Candy Brown about their personal experience with physical healing and finding freedom from demonic oppression. Josh shares about how experiencing demonic activity challenged his theology, and how his intimate knowledge of brain science allowed him to assess the situation as it was happening. They also talk about traveling around the world with a healing ministry and watching miraculous things happen while not receiving their own breakthrough, some of the conclusions they’ve come to about the need for regular deliverance ministry in the church, and their goal of demystifying the whole process.  Joshua Brown (PhD, Boston University) is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University. He directs the Cognitive Control laboratory at IU, which focuses on functional brain imaging, higher cognitive function, addiction, psychopathology, transcranial electrical neurostimulation, computational neural modeling, and artificial intelligence.  He has authored over 79 peer-reviewed scientific papers in all of these areas, and his work has been featured on the Discovery Channel, NPR, the New York Times, Fox news, and numerous other national and international media. He also directs the graduate program in Neuroscience at Indiana University and serves as the Director of the Global Medical Research Institute, whose work has been featured recently in the documentary film Send Proof. Candy Gunther Brown (Ph.D. Harvard University) is Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University, and author or editor of six books, including Testing Prayer: Science and Healing and Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools: Reforming Secular Education or Reestablishing Religion? Media coverage includes The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Religion Dispatches, The Conversation, Huffington Post Live, Psychology Today, Mindful Leader, National Catholic Register, Atheist Yoga, Interfaith Voices, and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.  Show notes:  Register now for the 2023 VUSA National Conference this summer: https://conference.vineyardusa.org/ “Empowered” Pentecost series – http://vineyardusa.org/pentecost2023 Hear Josh and Candy on a previous episode of We Are Vineyard!:  New York Times Article about Josh and Candy: https://nyti.ms/3oKrH5b Christ The Healer by F.F. Bosworth: https://amzn.to/41UA8sM Pablo Bottari deliverance materials: https://globalawakeningstore.com/product/deliverance/

John and Debby Wright: National Directors for Vineyard UK and IrelandShow Podcast InformationIn this episode of We Are Vineyard, Jay talks with John and Debby Wright about growing up in Chile and the UK during times of outpouring of the Holy Spirit, finding each other in their older teen years, and how their lives came apart while at University. John and Debby remember John Wimber’s arrival at St Andrew’s, the signs and wonders that began sweeping through the area, and how it changed their lives and relationship. They describe the incredible supernatural experiences they had at their business and home, and how that led them to serve alongside John and Eleanor Mumford. Debby shares about a tragic incident that occurred and how Jesus spoke to her in the midst of her heartbreak, the providence of God in leading them to plant in Nottingham, and some ways you can be praying for Vineyard UK. John & Debby are the National Directors of the Vineyard movement in the UK & Ireland and have been serving together in pastoral ministry since 1990. John initially trained and worked for a number of years as a jeweler before studying at London Bible College. Debby lived in Chile until she was 14 and later moved to Nottingham to train as a dancer and artist.  They first got involved with the Vineyard movement in 1982 and in 1987 they spent 8 months as interns at Anaheim Vineyard (under John Wimber, the leader of the Vineyard Movement in the USA). Following their time at Anaheim, they returned to England to help John and Eleanor Mumford start the first UK Vineyard in London. They worked at South West London Vineyard for 9 years before moving back to Nottingham to set up Trent Vineyard. In January 2015 it was announced that they would take over as the National Directors of Vineyard Churches UK & Ireland from John & Eleanor Mumford, whilst continuing to lead Trent Vineyard. Their commissioning took place on Saturday, September 19, 2015. They have two sons, Zack and Jordan, two daughters-in-law, Lizzie and Sarah, and two grandsons, Jesse and Woody. Show Notes: Nicky will be a speaker via video at the 2023 VUSA National Conference this summer: Making All Things New! Register Now!  Participate in our “Empowered” Pentecost series! Vineyard UK Trent Vineyard   Social Media:  @vineyardusa

Nicky Gumbel: The Alpha Course Became Our Operating SystemShow Podcast InformationIn this episode of We Are Vineyard, Jay talks with Reverend Nicky Gumbel about his recently discovered heritage, when his atheism turned to faith, and how a decision for faith preempted his understanding of the Gospel. Nicky shares about the start of Alpha in 1977, the impact of John Wimber’s visit on his community and friends at Alpha, and how Alpha more recently exploded into the worldwide evangelism catalyst it is today. Finally, Nicky shares the advice he would want to give himself as a new Christian.  Revd Nicky Gumbel is the pioneer of Alpha, an introduction to the Christian faith running in churches of all denominations in 140 countries. He has written several best-selling books including Why Jesus?, Questions of Life, and The Jesus Lifestyle. Having initially trained as a barrister, Nicky went on to be Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton – a large central London church – for 17 years. Married to Pippa, they now work to support Alpha globally. They are also the authors of a daily Bible commentary called the ‘Bible in One Year’ which has over two million global subscribers.    Show Notes:  Nicky will be a speaker via video at the 2023 VUSA National Conference this summer: Making All Things New! Register Now!  Get involved with Alpha! Participate in our “Empowered” Pentecost series   Social Media:  @vineyardusa Twitter: @nickygumbel Insta: @nickygumbel