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Where We Come From
The History of the Stadium Vineyard By Pastor Ed McGlasson
Strange Beginning
In 1982, little did I know that my life was about to change drastically. I met a
beautiful blonde named Jill who later became my wife. Jill was a member of the Santa
Monica Vineyard. She was one of those “ tongues speakers ” that I had been taught
about who were supposedly living outside the proper experiences of the New Testament.
Her beauty however, overwhelmed my sense of theological correctness.
I remember
my first visit to a Vineyard. It was very strange to me; people were raising their
hands and singing. At first I thought there was a robbery going on, but I knew it
must just be their particular form of worship. I was a conservative evangelical,
and in the church I came from, if we sang the fourth verse over again, it was revival
time! This Vineyard church was wild. After the worship was over, I heard this strange
sound behind me. A woman was manifesting a demon. It scared me to death. She was
cursing God and speaking in a strange language. I remember the ushers coming up
the aisle and having to forcibly carry her out. I was thinking to myself, “What
kind of a church is this?” Then the Pastor stood up and said, “Don't worry about
it. It looks like the Holy Spirit is here.” I thought, “The Holy Spirit?” This was
indeed a strange group of people. After the service was over, I stood outside the
church and symbolically shook the dust off my feet, promising myself that I was
never going to come back to this wild place again.
Nine weeks later I was married
to Jill, and off to football training camp. I recall how bothered I was as I was
leaving. Even though this Vineyard church I had visited was wild, I knew that my
wife Jill had a wonderful walk with the Lord and an intimate worship life. So, when
I returned from training camp that year Jill took me again to visit the Vineyard.
This time I went to John Wimber's church in Yorba Linda , California .
When I first
saw John, I recall thinking that he looked like a Christian Burl Ives! I walked
up to him and Jill introduced us. I was struck by the presence of the Lord that
I sensed in his life. It made me hungry for God. I wanted more of what he had. He
spoke with authority, and when he laid hands on the sick, they got healed. My wife
then took me to visit a ministry with which she was involved. After the ministry
time was over, I received prayer to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I was very nervous.
I was afraid somebody was going to slap me on my forehead or display some bizarre
behavior. I remember thinking, “If this person slaps me, I'm going to hit him back!”
At that point I believed that I was theologically correct and that these charismatics
were off the wall. The woman praying for me prayed a simple prayer, “Speak in tongues.”
It scared the “WOOOEY” out of me because suddenly I heard myself saying something
I couldn't understand. I ran outside to see if I could say it outside of the church,
wondering if just the emotion of the moment had made me participate in the prayer.
I was so hungry for God, and I wanted Him more than anything else. At the time,
I had a van with a sunroof, and I remember sticking one hand out the top and one
hand out the side window, while driving with my knees, and singing in tongues all
the way home. It was a glorious experience, but I still wanted more. I wanted to
see God's power touch someone and heal him or her. Now, that would totally convince
me!
High School Revival
A number
of months later, I flew to San Antonio , Texas to join Milton Carroll and a group
of professional athletes who were holding evangelistic meetings at the local high
schools. Milton and I went to one high school together and something happened there
that changed my life. There were 1300 attending this meeting, including teachers.
As I was getting ready to stand up and speak, I distinctly heard a voice say to
me, “Let me do it this time.” I thought Milton had spoken to me and I asked him,
“What did you say?” He had said nothing to me. Again the voice spoke in my head
and said, “ Let me do it this time. ” I thought to myself, “Lord, is that you? What
do you want to do?” I heard him say, “I want to save all of these children. ” I
was thinking to myself, “But what is my part?” All I heard from the Lord was, “Just
stand there.”
I walked up to the podium and as I started to speak I began to cry. I couldn't control
myself; I couldn't control the feeling that came over me. I know now that it was
the compassion of the Lord. Not only did I cry, I began to sob. The children were
getting restless in their seats. I had never cried in public like this before, and
the more I tried to control myself the worse it got. Then a strange thing happened;
I looked up and on the ceiling there was something that looked like a cloud. It
was like a white mist floating near the ceiling and it was glowing. I rubbed my
eyes, thinking that my tears were causing this, but I knew that it was real and
I could see it getting bigger and bigger. The cloud began to descend upon the students.
As it descended upon them, they became very quiet and began to intently focus on
me. This made me cry even more. Then the Lord said to me, “Now, ask them if they
want to be saved.” I had not even preached the Gospel yet, but obediently I said
to them, “If you've never received Jesus as your personal savior and you would like
to come forward today in front of your friends, come.” It was like a stampede. Kids
were jumping over the railing, and running forward, crying and repenting of their
sins. I knew I was in the presence of a visitation of the Lord - one like I had
never seen before. Suddenly I felt something strange on my leg. I looked down to
discover a person hugging me; it was the Principal of the high school! He began
to confess his sin to me. It was at once the strangest thing I had ever seen but
also the most Holy! Many other amazing things happened that day, but there is not
enough space here to describe all of them. I knew then that the Lord was opening
my eyes to allow me to see His presence and His power. My prayer was beginning to
be answered.
A Prophetic Word
The next day, we went to a Christian Elementary School to speak to the kids. A little
8 year old girl was standing in the crowd and the Pastor came over and said that
this little girl had a word from God for me! I had never heard of that before in
the church that I came from! I said, “You mean a word from God? A teaching from
the Bible?” She came over and looked deep into my eyes. She was a little country
girl with straight brown hair and green blue eyes. She said, “Mister, the Lord says,
‘Don't be afraid of the Holy Spirit because your ministry will be about the power
of God.'” WOW! She scared me. She spoke right into my heart. That was all I needed!
I knew that the Lord was beginning to form the desire in me to raise up a people
that preached the word of God with power - a people who would not be satisfied just
knowing the Word, but would become “doers of the Word” in the power of the Holy
Spirit!
A Word from John Wimber
I had begun to attend the Vineyard with my wife and later that year, I attended
a Vineyard conference in San Diego , California . John Wimber was speaking at this
conference, and I wanted to hear him. In the middle of one of his sessions, the
Lord spoke to me and said that John had a word for me and I was to go see him. I
thought to myself, “Ah! That probably is just my ambitious heart wanting to get
close to him.” So I prayed, “Lord, if that is true, have John run into me, and I
will know that he has a word for me.” I thought no more about it and left the session.
The conference was over and as I was getting off the elevator and rounding a corner,
John Wimber came around at the same time and literally ran into me. As he fell backwards,
he looked at me and said, “I almost went to heaven!” I laughed and said, “John,
I think this is a divine appointment. Could I come in and see you?” He said, “Call
my secretary and I'll pray about this. If I'm supposed to meet with you, I'll call
you.” I had never met anybody who prayed about who he was supposed to meet!
A week later my telephone rang; it was John's secretary. She said “John will see
you tomorrow at 3:30 .” I went to a place called The Wagner House to meet with John
and he had also invited John McClure, Pastor of the Newport Vineyard. We started
talking and John Wimber gave me a word that changed my life. He looked at me and
said, “Remember that conference in San Diego ? The Lord spoke to me about you, and
I want to tell you what He said. In the Book of Acts, when Paul started his ministry,
he didn't have much success because of his history. So Barnabas came and trained
him to be a Pastor. Ed, what I'm saying to you is that I know that the Lord has
called you as an Evangelist; but you don't love the church yet. He wants to make
you a Pastor, so that you'll lay down your life for her.”
“You see Ed, God has called us to three commitments: He has called us to Christ
personally, to His Church, and to His Cause. There are many who minister in Jesus'
name, but they don't love His bride ‘the Church'. Ed, you could spend the rest of
your life on a bus or a plane, traveling from place to place, with little or no
accountability. Or, you could build what Jesus is building, His church. Many of
those who have chosen the former have paid dearly and lost their families in the
process. If you follow me, I will teach you to be a servant. Or, you can continue
to pursue your own ministry and I will bless you in that.” His words pierced my
soul. I was so touched by his love, and how genuine he was. I knew the weight of
this decision and I knew that it would change our lives. I would never be the same
again.
Jill and I had built an evangelistic ministry. Now we felt that God had called us
to leave that ministry and to join the Vineyard Christian Fellowship and follow
John Wimber. In 1984 we joined the staff at the Newport Beach Vineyard with John
McClure, and began to learn how to pastor. John McClure was a wonderful help to
us, and through John Wimber's words, he became a “Barnabas” to Jill and me!
An Unusual Vision
In 1985, while working as an Assistant Pastor at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship
of Newport Beach, I had a vision. It happened during a prayer time at my friend
Bill Twyman's house. We were doing what Orange County Christians do best, that is,
eat and pray. This day we had come together to pray for revival in Orange County
. As we were praying, I began to see a vision. I saw the map of Orange County and
specifically where the 22 FWY, the 405 FWY and the 55 FWY intersect. If you take
an aerial view of this part of the map, you'll notice that it's shaped just like
an arrowhead. All of a sudden fire started inside the arrowhead and spread all over
the map. I knew in my heart that the Lord was trying to speak to me.
In visions, many times the message comes in the form of quick snap shots. I saw
this new church being started. It would start slowly and then spread like a fire.
I looked over at Bill Twyman who was praying intently and said, “ Bill, I really
believe that God is calling you to plant a church. You see, I'm an evangelist so
you must be the one who is going to plant this church.” He looked over at me and
said, “Get outta here! You're the Pastor, not me.'' I remember leaving there and
thinking, “Well, he must be crazy because I am an evangelist. He'll get it someday.
“
A Dream Come True
Later on that year I had a dream. It was a dream about a great church. I found myself
walking around this massive building waiting for the service to begin. People were
filling up the seats and the service was soon to start. It had three tiers and three
kinds of balconies. I walked around with my mouth open just saying, “Wow!” I'd never
seen such a building. All of a sudden I was walking around and wondering, “Who's
going to pastor this church?” I saw that it was a church that worshipped God with
all their heart; preached God's Word with power and gave the Holy Spirit freedom
to change their lives . I knew that in this church God's love would grab you, shake
you and change your heart. IT WOULD BE A PEOPLE WHO KNOW CHRIST AND MAKE HIM VISIBLE
TO THE WORLD AROUND THEM.
I thought to myself, “Boy, somebody has got a lot of work to do in order to pastor
this.” Then the Lord spoke to me in this dream and said, “You will be the pastor.”
I remember waking up and crying out, “Oh, no! Not me! Here I am, send Bill!”
I decided to ask the Lord to confirm this dream by giving my Pastor, John McClure
a dream. I had not heard him talk about having many dreams, so I thought I was safe.
I asked the Lord in prayer, “Lord speak to John about this”. I even asked to have
John directed to call me and say specifically, “Ed, I had a dream last night about
you planting a church, and that you would know where it's supposed to be.” I left
this with the Lord and continued to pastor. Three years later I got a phone call.
It was John McClure. He said, “Hey Ed, can I come over and talk to you?” He had
never come over to my house like that before. I didn't know if I was in trouble
or what? When he arrived he said, “Ed, I had a dream last night about you planting
a church. And the Lord said you would know where it was supposed to be.” Oh, no!
Here we go, Jill.
Eight weeks later on April 1, 1988 , the Stadium Vineyard Christian Fellowship was
born. We started with 11 people meeting in my living room. We began an early morning
prayer group and prayed about the church that Jesus wanted to build here. We started
our first Sunday services at the Jordan School in Garden Grove , California . After
five years we out grew that building and moved to our present location here in Anaheim
. This church was birthed out of the heart of our Heavenly Father to display the
extravagant heart of the Father towards the lost.
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