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IMPACT OF THE FALLOUT: Hunter believes the Vineyard will "lose very few churches" over the rift with Toronto, although there will be "temporary confusion" and "a great deal of sadness."

Sociologist Margaret Poloma of the University of Akron in Ohio says the split would represent a negative byproduct of renewal. "Protestantism is rife with examples of how charisma lights a fire and the institutional church, in its attempt to control it, stifles its energy and light," Poloma says. "A remnant goes off carrying the torch, but the institution set up by these believers soon becomes filled with firefighters rather than torch-bearers."

But Tom Stipe, an ex-Vineyard pastor in Denver, says, "John Wimber has helped true biblical renewal by this decision. It's unfortunate that the Airport Vineyard leaders didn't really hear his concerns."

Wimber insists that he has tried to give some freedom to local churches in a movement where he wants "the best of Pentecostalism" combined with a "conservative theology."

Copyright © 1995 Christianity Today, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY Magazine

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January 8 1996, Vol. 40, No. 1