Vineyard Bible Institute

Vineyard Bible Institute (VBI), with its world headquarters in Urbana, Illinois, is a world-wide Christian on-line school with local sites in over 20 countries.

History

VBI was birthed in Anaheim, California in the 1990s and initially ran as a tape-based, correspondence bible school.[1] Dr. Derek Morphew, Vineyard scholar and pastor located in Cape Town, South Africa, was solicited by Bob Fulton (with John Wimber’s endorsement, the founder of the association of Vineyard churches) to assume leadership in 1997. At its relaunch in May 2000, an internet-based curriculum with full-text materials replaced the older tape-based correspondence. Having the school on the internet ensured its accessibility to the Christian community worldwide and kept running costs and student fees to a minimum.[2]

In 2006, VBI took a significantly progressive step forward when Derek and Dr. Quinton Howitt, Derek's academic colleague and lecturer at South African Theological Seminary, constituted a partnership with St. Stephen's University on the East Coast of New Brunswick, Canada, whereby St. Stephen’s became VBI’s degree issuing confederate for their recently developed four year Bachelor of Christian Studies programme.[3] In 2009, Derek Morphew entrusted leadership of VBI over to Happy Leman, who functions as its current CEO. VBI is based in Urbana, Illinois, with Jim Egli (President as of May 2013 when the former President, Jeff Augustine resigned) and Dorothy Carlson overseeing the daily operations as the VBI Administrator as of May 2013.

International Involvement

VBI staff have provided theological tuition for hundreds of pastors and approximately 4,500 Christians in the US, South America, South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, the UK, Benelux, China, Australia and New Zealand.

VBI is also notably involved in third world education projects, particularly with regard to the translation of courses into Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and French; the latter two being paramount in reaching African countries with biblical education and training.[4]

Authors of Curriculum

Currently, there are 38 contributors to the VBI curriculum who hail from a wide range of evangelical backgrounds. These authors generally hold doctorates in their appropriate fields of research or are senior pastors and structural leaders within the Vineyard movement. Some of the better known authors include John Wimber, Wayne Grudem, Craig Keener, Derek Morphew, Don Williams, Peter Davids, David Pytches, Alexander Venter, Gary Best, Andy Park, J John and Bill Jackson.[5]

Theology and Academics

VBI’s distinctive contribution to the church is its emphasis on the theology of the kingdom of God in both Old[6] and New Testaments[7] and the systematic field of eschatology. Although Jesus has been known and worshiped as Lord and Saviour by countless generations, in another sense he has been rediscovered, for the first time since the first century, following the modern discovery and translation of the literature of His era. He has been rediscovered as the Jewish prophet/messiah, who came announcing and demonstrating the kingdom of God, a reality that belongs to the end of the age. It was this rediscovery of the eschatological Jesus that George E. Ladd introduced to the evangelical church.[8] It is now common in theological circles to speak of the ministry and message of Jesus as ‘inaugurated eschatology.’ However, it is not at all common to have churches and leaders believe that we should do the same today, or “enact” the message and ministry of Jesus, or make this theology the basis of their entire ministry. This was the particular step taken by John Wimber,[9] the early Vineyard leadership,[10] and it is this legacy of “enacted inaugurated eschatology” that runs through the very fibre of VBI[11] and the Vineyard’s theology and philosophy of ministry.[12]”

Notes

  1. ↑ Jackson, Bill. The Quest for the Radical Middle: A History of the Vineyard (Cape Town: Vineyard International Publishing, 1999) p. 273
  2. ↑ "What Does VBI Offer?". Vbivc.org. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  3. ↑ "VBI Wiki". Vbivc.org. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  4. ↑ "Multi-lingual". Vbivc.org. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  5. ↑ "Our Lecturers". Vbivc.org. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  6. ↑ Bartholomew, Craig G. and Michael W. Goheen. The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008 Reprint) ISBN 978-0-8010-2746-8; Bauckham, Richard. Bible and Mission: Christian Witness in a Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003) ISBN 0-8010-2771-3; Bright, John. The Kingdom of God: The Biblical Concept and Its Meaning for the Church (Nashville: Abindon Press, 1981 reprint) ISBN 0-687-20908-0; Buber, Martin. Kingship of God (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1973 Reprint) ISBN 0-06-131717-9; Eichrodt, Walther. Theology of the Old Testament, Vol. 1 (London: SCM Press, 1978 Reprint) ISBN 0-334-01632-0; Theology of the Old Testament, Vol. 2 (London: SCM Press, 1967 Reprint) ISBN 0-334-01639-8; Jackson, Bill. NothinsGonnaStopIt! The Storyline of the Bible - One God - One Story - One Plan (Moreno Valley, CA: Radical Middle Ministries, 2009); Kline, Meredith G. Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview (Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006) ISBN 1-59752-564-2; Morphew, D. J. Breakthrough - Discovering the Kingdom (Cape Town: Vineyard International Publishing, 1991) ISBN 0-620-23469-5; Waltke, Bruce K. An Old Testament Theology: An Exegetical, Canonical, and Thematic Approach (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007) ISBN 978-0-310-21897-5.
  7. ↑ Bartholomew; Bauckham; Jackson; Ladd, George E. The Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the Kingdom of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1959) ISBN 978-0-8028-1280-3; A Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1993 Revised) ISBN 0-8028-0680-5; Morphew; Ridderboss, Herman. The Coming of the Kingdom (Philadelphia: The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1962) ISBN 0-87552-408-7; Wright, N. T. The New Testament and the People of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992) ISBN 0-8006-2681-8; Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996) ISBN 0-8006-2682-6
  8. ↑ Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom; A Theology of the New Testament.
  9. ↑ Scotland, Nigel. Charismatics and the New Millennium: The Impact of Charismatic Christianity from 1960 into the New Millennium (Guildford: Eagle, 2000 reprint) ISBN 0-86347-370-9 pp. 27-28.
  10. ↑ Williams, Don. "Following Christ's Example: A Biblical View of Discipleship", in The Kingdom and the Power: Are Healing and the Spiritual Gifts Used by Jesus and the Early Church Meant for the Church Today? (Ventura: Regal Books) ISBN 0-8307-1659-9. pp. 175-196.
  11. ↑ Morphew, p. 5.
  12. ↑ "Vineyard Values". Vineyard USA. Retrieved 2010-08-20.

References

External links

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