This morning, a group of Vineyard family members gathered together in front of our former church home, seeking to be a visual stir to the curiosity of those who who currently attend there on Sunday mornings. As cars pulled in to the parking lot, we saw a variety of responses: lots of smiles and waves, a few people shaking their heads, some refusing to look at us, and one who made a rude gesture.
I couldn’t help but wonder what was going through their minds as they looked at us. Do they realize that Carol Wimber Wong, who started the church with her husband John Wimber, was standing there on the sidewalk? That Bob and Penny Fulton, and several other founding members of the Anaheim Vineyard were a part of the smiling crowd gathered in front of the multi-million dollar building we had paid off with decades of tithes before Alan Scott decided it should no longer be a Vineyard? That former Board members and members of the search committee that selected him to be our pastor were out there, people he looked in the eye and told, “I’m Vineyard through and through,” before he intentionally drove out longtime members of the congregation in favor of creating a new “culture” and ultimately took the church out of the worldwide movement that had grown out of that very body?
Some of them do know. Through the windows of the cars that drove past, I recognized a few people I have known for years. I have a hard time understanding how they can stand by Alan (and Jeremy and Katie Riddle) after all that has been said and done, especially after hearing the recordings that Noah DeBolt shared last week revealing just some of what was said behind closed doors. But what about all the others? What about those who were drawn to what is now known Dwelling Place Anaheim without knowing any of the history of the Anaheim Vineyard? Do they know who those people with the signs are?
I hope they will be curious. I hope they will want to find out more about why we took the time to stand in front of “their” church on a hot Sunday morning. Vineyard Anaheim may not technically exist anymore, but those out there on the sidewalk are more than just Friends of Vineyard; we will always be family, and we will stand together, with or without a building to call our own.