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A year ago few people, Christian or secular, knew anything about the small Vineyard church located just west of Toronto's Pearson Airport. Now certain airlines offer a discount for travelers who want to fly in for the nightly, Tuesday-through-Sunday renewal meetings. "Toronto Life" magazine has even billed the Toronto Blessing as the top tourist attraction of 1994.

Toronto's Airport Vineyard Church has had to move to a new location just to handle the crowds. When the "fire" first fell a year ago, about 200 believers were gathered to hear Randy Clark, a Vineyard pastor from Saint Louis. On January 20, 1995, one year after the birth of the renewal, Clark returned to preach—only this time, to an anniversary crowd of 4,000. On a typical night, there are 500 to 1,000 people, from every corner of the globe, in the four- to five-hour worship service.

Already the Airport Vineyard phenomenon has generated four books, dozens of articles in both secular and Christian media, and significant television coverage in Canada, England, and continental Europe. Dave Collins, a Toronto pastor who recently attended the Global Consultation on World Evangelization in Seoul, said, "Virtually every time I told people where I pastored, they asked me about the Toronto Blessing."

Physical manifestations occurring in the worship services of the Airport Vineyard have been the focal point for the attention—holy laughter, shaking, animal noises, and falling down, to name a few. There have also been reports of healing miracles, including a story of angels working with dyslexic children. The most famous account claims that Sarah Lilliman, a teenager who lives northwest of Toronto, was cured of paralysis and loss of speech, memory, and eyesight after a visit to the Airport Vineyard. Others have testified that they have been healed of pain, headaches, long-term infertility, and severe emotional disorders.

Some view this Toronto-based renewal as a fresh outpouring of the Spirit, akin to the birth of modern Pentecostalism on Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1906. Pilgrims from all over the world seem to agree, as many continue to travel to Toronto believing that the Holy Spirit has indeed landed at the Airport Vineyard. John Arnott, senior pastor of the church, has said repeatedly that "we need to have more faith in God's ability to bless us than Satan's ability to deceive us." Out of this conviction, he now travels the globe to spread what some believe is the last great work of the Spirit before the return of Christ.

Support for the ongoing activities at the Airport Vineyard has come from a wide variety of sources. Dave Roberts, author of "The Toronto Blessing" (Kingsway) and editor of England's "Alpha" magazine, says he has been impressed by the servant ministry and passion for Jesus that permeate this latest Vineyard renewal. One of Canada's most influential evangelical thinkers, Clark Pinnock, answers the question "Is this a divine visitation?" in the affirmative: "I go to the meetings in order to wait on God and listen," he writes in the March 1995 issue of "The Canadian Baptist." "It is uplifting to place oneself in the company of believers so intent on encountering God."

David Mainse, the host of 100 Huntley Street, Canada's most influential Christian TV show, also embraces the Toronto Blessing. He says that while visiting Holy Trinity Brompton church in London, the launch site for the British version of the renewal, God came over him with such power that he could not move for 40 minutes. "I know that something has transformed my life and I believe I'm a better person than I was before I went to England," he states in a recent issue of the Airport Vineyard magazine "Spread the Fire."

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September 1 1995, Vol. 39, No. 10