How I Became the Vineyard Calvinist, Part 1

I think it might be a good time to describe a little bit of my own theological journey. How did I come to be both a 5-point Calvinist and a member of a Vineyard affiliated church? Considering what you are about to learn about my church background, it is surprising indeed!

My mom and dad came out of the Charismatic movement (they met while both attending Oral Roberts University). Not a whole lot of Reformed Theology in the Charismatic Movement during the late 70s and early 80s to say the least. To this day, both my parents remain (regretably) un-reformed.

The funny thing is, when they and myself (at the time barely 1 year old) moved to Florida durning the mid-80s, we didn't continue going to charismatic churches. My family (two brothers came after moving to Florida) began going to non-denominational, seeker-friendly churches. That is the church environment I came up from.

Long story short, I was involved in a fellowship of that type by the time I was seventeen and attending this youth group that took a trip to Tennessee for Summer Camp. The Lord opened my eyes to the truth of the Gospel there and I was never the same.

I continued going to this church in the nearby Tampa suburb of Brandon for a little while longer. After a while though, it became apparent that I needed more than I was getting from the youth group that I also was not finding in the main service. My mother started trying out this other church called Calvary Chapel (talk about non-reformed, but at the time I wasn't reformed yet). I tried it out with her a couple of times and noticed they preached verse-by-verse through books of the Bible. This was my first experience with expository preaching and it changed everything. This is not to knock my previous youth group. I think topical preaching is fine and can be useful, but I remain convinced to this day that expository preaching is the best method for preaching the truths of God's Word.

I thank and praise God for what I got at my first Church (most notably the gift of salvation!), but by this time I decided that Calvary Chapel was the place where I could do the most growing in my walk with the Lord. More on that and everything that follows in my next post. Stay tuned.

-Christian